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By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — Ralph C. Mahar Regional School could save $125,208 in the fiscal year 2026 budget by cutting two full-time positions.

By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN

TURNERS FALLS — For their positive influence on the school community, Turners Falls High School senior Khiarieliex Huertas Hernandez and special education teacher Crystal McNary have been named the 2025 recipients of the McGraw Uplift Awards.

By CHRIS LARABEE

NORTHFIELD — While other districts are currently setting their competency determinations in the wake of Question 2, the Pioneer Valley Regional School District will instead take its time.

By DOMENIC POLI

TURNERS FALLS — The Franklin County Technical School Committee unanimously approved a draft $16 million budget for fiscal year 2026 last week, which, if approved at Annual Town Meetings, would constitute a 2.8% increase from the current year.

By CHRIS LARABEE

NORTHFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Regional School District School Committee last week approved the administration’s $17.46 million budget for fiscal year 2026, thus sending the proposal along for Annual Town Meeting approval.

By MADISON SCHOFIELD

BUCKLAND — The school committees of the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional school districts are preparing to finalize the numbers for the fiscal year 2026 budget after they hear feedback from the public in the next two weeks.

By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

GREENFIELD — After Massachusetts voters opted to toss out the MCAS test as a graduation requirement during the November election, the Greenfield School Committee voted Wednesday to set its graduation requirement benchmark at a D- grade for core high school classes.

By CHRIS LARABEE

SOUTH DEERFIELD — Ahead of the March public hearing, Frontier Regional School administrators pitched their fiscal year 2026 draft budget to the full School Committee Tuesday evening.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — Over the course of two hours Monday, legislators sitting on the Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism presented numerous pro-Palestinian exhibits — resources that educators might use in their classroom — drawn from a members-only section of the Massachusetts Teachers Association website.

By CHRIS LARABEE

SOUTH DEERFIELD — After receiving numerous letters against proposed graduation requirements, the Frontier Regional School District School Committee Tuesday evening tabled a measure that would require students to still pass the MCAS or a similar standardized test to graduate.

By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

GREENFIELD — Greenfield Community College opened four new associate degree majors this academic year, allowing students to enroll in programs such as environmental conservation and human services.

By CHRIS LARABEE

NORTHFIELD — Pioneer Valley Regional School administrators said they are deepening their commitment to investing in curriculum, staff compensation and facilities in the fiscal year 2026 budget presentation last week.

By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN

TURNERS FALLS — The selectboards and finance committees of Gill and Montague met with Gill-Montague Regional School District administrators this week to review the proposed fiscal year 2026 school budget ahead of a Feb. 11 public hearing.

By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN and CHRIS LARABEE

While there have been no Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents reported at schools in the region, district administrators around the county are laying out how schools will respond if ICE agents approach them.

By SAM DRYSDALE

Any selective criteria used to admit students to vocational technical schools must be actually essential to the success of the school, per new regulations the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is drafting for their board’s review in February.

By MADISON SCHOFIELD

BUCKLAND — The 2 District, 8 Town Steering Committee, or 2D8T, is seeking community feedback as it contemplates models for possible restructuring of the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional school districts in an effort to maintain or improve the experience of students while taking into account the fiscal limitations of the districts’ small member towns.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Attorney General Andrea Campbell wants to stop students from using cellphones in schools, but education regulators seem unsure how far they should go — especially when that power lies not in the state’s hands, but with local school districts.

By DOUG SELWYN

Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka recently stated that she was hearing from senators around the state that schools within their districts were badly underfunded and so it was time to re-examine the state’s approach to funding, which is welcome news. I hope that President Spilka and her colleagues take the time to listen to and take seriously the stories that those actually working in the schools have to tell about the impact of underfunding on the children and education workers across the state. It is one thing to look at funding formulas, and quite another to realize that the numbers on the page carry a real impact on the lives of real children. That became very clear to me at a recent Zoom on educational funding.

By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN

MONTAGUE — Gill-Montague Regional School District’s $1.3 million projected budget shortfall for fiscal year 2026 has been mitigated, and a revised preliminary budget was unanimously approved by the School Committee Tuesday night.

By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN

GILL — Northfield Mount Hermon School announced Thursday that it received a $50 million bequest from the late John Mitchell, representing the largest donation received by NMH and one of the largest given to an independent school in the country.