Drury Selected as U.S. Presidential Scholar Nominee

11:15AM / Monday, January 13, 2025Print Story | Email Story

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Jacinta Felix, a senior at Drury High School, has been selected as a Massachusetts nominee for the U.S. Presidential Scholar Award, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) announced.

Acting Commissioner Russell D. Johnston praised Felix's selection, which places her among the top students in the Commonwealth. The selection process was highly competitive, with submissions evaluated by the DESE review team in October.

"We are thrilled to have Jacinta represent Massachusetts as one of our Presidential Scholar nominees," said Drury High School Principal Stephanie Kopala. "Her hard work and accomplishments reflect the excellence we strive to foster in our schools."

Felix's nomination will advance to the U.S. Department of Education's national review team, which will invite her to submit an application for further consideration for the award.

"Jacinta's outstanding academic and personal achievements demonstrate the excellence present in our students at Drury High School," said Barbara Malkas, Superintendent of North Adams Public Schools. "We thank Principal Kopala and the school team for their support as Jacinta pursues this honor."

Felix will be honored during the Drury Student Recognition event on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025, at 1:30 PM. Community members are invited to attend.

The U.S. Department of Education is expected to announce Presidential Scholar awardees later this spring.

Tags: Drury High,

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

RIBCO Supply

Check out our great lineup of Boss Plows, and spreaders. 2 Locations Clarksburg & Pittsfield!

ribcosupply.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

North Adams School Project Awards $52M Bid

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
05:10AM / Friday, February 13, 2026

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Building Committee has awarded the Greylock School project to Fontaine Bros. Inc. of Springfield.

Mayor Jennifer Macksey said she could "breathe a little better" with a bid contract that comes in nearly $2 million under budget.

The committee approved a bid of $50,498,544 on Thursday night that includes two alternates — the rebuild of the Appalachian Trail kiosk and the relocation and reconstruction of the baseball field.

"I will say, all in all, for us to have overall the number of bidders that we had interested in our project, and especially to receive the GC bids that we did, the team Colliers and TSKP certainly did a good job attracting people to us," she said. "But this project ... really shows the testament of the good work that Colliers and TSKP and all of you have been doing throughout this process."

Fontaine had the low bid between Brait Builders of Marshfield and J&J Contractors Inc. of North Billerica.

The project had been bid out at $52,250,000 with three alternates: moving the ballfield, the kiosk and vertical geothermal wells.

Committee members asked Timothy Alix of Collier's International, the owner's project manager, about his impressions of the bidders. He was most familiar with Fontaine, having worked with the company on a half-dozen school projects and noted it was the contractor on the Mountain View Elementary School in Easthampton that the Massachusetts School Building Authority has held up as an example school. He also had some of his colleagues call on projects that he had not personally worked on.

View Full Story