'Homage to the wood': Old Hopkins Academy gym floor offers up slices of basketball lore

HADLEY - While Hadley is looking back proudly to its founding 350 years ago, it is also looking ahead anxiously to a possible state-mandated
regionalization of its beloved school. This summer, as part of a
renovation of Hopkins Academy, the gym floor is being replaced, and the
old wood is being cut up into several hundred 3-by-12-inch mementos.

School Notes: Da Vinci Web site lands at national competition

EASTHAMPTON

Hampshire Regional High School student Else Schlerman plans to keep online "The Impatient Genius: Leonardo Da Vinci" Web site that earned her a spot at the national History Day competition a couple of weeks ago in Washington, D.C.

"I'll probably keep it up until the free trial ends," said Schlerman, who starts ninth grade in the fall.

Mural hailed for picture it paints of city

NORTHAMPTON - Hanging on the wall at the Northampton Cooperative Bank is a piece of public art that is eliciting more than the typical response from passers-by.

Smart harvests: School-based gardens take root in Valley as educators link food issues to curriculum

CHESTERFIELD - As the school year wound down at New Hingham Elementary School, students in Jenn Murphy's kindergarten class lined up eagerly to go outside, but it wasn't for extra recess. These children were heading outside to work. Their garden needed tending.

Off the Beat: $15,000 grant proves it pays to be green

NORTHAMPTON - The Northampton Education Foundation recently announced its award of $15,000 to city schools for the Green Action In Northampton Schools program, marking the third round of grants through the NEF Endowment Fund.

Granby voters nix override for school study

GRANBY - Voters Monday soundly rejected raising property taxes to pay for a feasibility study and schematic plans for expanding and renovating the town's schools.

The vote was 403 in favor of a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion and 507 against, a 56-to-44-percent margin. A total of 910 votes were cast, slightly more than 20 percent of the 4,449 registered voters in town.

Lesson Plans: A sorrowful start to summer

I hate the last day of school.

For the last week of school I had every reason to be overjoyed. The summer - and the time off it affords teachers - was in front of me. Besides that, Northampton voters approved a property tax override that directly saved my job. I am extremely thankful that I am allowed to keep teaching fifth grade at the R.K. Finn Ryan Road School.