Chester News

Airman Francis Alibozek, son of Mr. and Mrs. Chester Alibozek of 53 East Hoosac St., has been assigned to a unit of the Continental Air Command at Mitchell Air Force Base, N.Y., for training and duty as a roads and grounds specialist.

Porter and Chester Institute career program specialist in admissions Rosa M. Alves, left, talks with Choyce M. McIntosh and Brian A. Danish, both of Chicopee, at the Best Local Job Fair at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center in Holyoke on Thursday.

As some severe budget cuts are in the forecast, the Gateway Regional School District is buckling down.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education identified 14 Berkshire County schools as being in need of improvement based on the latest Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test results that were released on Wednesday.

The state Department of Education says the number of schools identified under federal standards as needing improvement is up 4 percent this year.

By MANON L. MIRABELLI BLANDFORD - The last of five public hearings on the fate of Gateway Regional School District's elementary schools was held Wednesday with parents pleading with the School Committee to not close Blandford's school.

Without a crystal ball to foresee snowstorms and flu epidemics, most Cape school districts are taking a gamble by waiting until after Labor Day to open for students.

Fat. Juicy. Sweet. Plentiful. There is one thing the summer's rain has been good for: blueberries! The rain has helped to plump Berkshire blueberries, and the recent sunshine has sweetened the fruit producing a delicious crop.

While former Adams Selectman Edward MacDonald has already weighed in on his new job as town administrator of the small Hampden County town of Chester, his new bosses have expressed their opinion of their new employee.

Just months after losing his bid for re-election as Selectman, Edward MacDonald has settled into the small Hampden County town of Chester as the new town administrator.

With education at a critical cross roads in its history, finding ways to improve and innovate it is crucial to its future, Mitchell D. Chester, Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, said Monday.

An estimated 800 teachers are expected to descend on Williams College next week for the 36th annual Massachusetts Teachers Association Summer Conference.

Of all the historic houses in Berkshire County, the only one in which I feel the presence of non-ghostly inhabitants is the Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio in Lenox.

The list released by the Patrick administration Monday of 71 construction projects across Massachusetts that will rely on civilian flaggers: DISTRICT 1 - LANESBOROUGH-PITTSFIELD: Resurfacing on a Section of Route 8. - CHESTER-HUNTINGTON: Resurfacing on a Section of Route 20.

Photo by Manon Mirabelli -- From left, Dawn S. Hoppe, 18, of Huntington; Ashley B. Parady, 17, of Russell; Natasha A. Downie, 17, of Russell; Karina E. Piispanen, 17, of Chester; Elyse A. Pommenville, 17, of Worthington, and Hilary P. Anderson, 17, of Russell.

State education officials say nearly three-quarters of the people who took the state elementary school teacher's licensing exam this year failed the new math section.

By ALEX PESHKOV apeshkov@repub.com WESTFIELD - Hill Harper, an actor and classmate of Barack Obama at Harvard Law School, urged 1,280 Westfield State College graduates Saturday to follow their own path and be open to where their interests might take them.

As white nose syndrome, the devastating illness that is killing hundreds of thousands of bats marches its way across the country, officials are trying to ensure humans aren't inadvertently spreading it.

The Gateway Regional School District's Elementary Advisory Committee meets for the first time today at 9 a.m. A 14-member elementary education parent advisory committee will be working with the district's superintendent and elementary schools principals to give input on the process of consolidation or closing Blandford, Chester and R. H. Conwell ...

A controlled brush fire got out of hand Friday afternoon and sparked a forest fire in a swath of woods north of Center Pond, forcing more than 100 firefighters from 10 towns to battle the blaze for 10 hours.