NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — High school seniors will be returning to classrooms full time beginning next week on May 17, following the return of Grades 7 and 8 on April 28. The Board.
Offices up for election are mayor for two years; nine City Council seats, also for two-year terms; three School Committee seats for four-year terms and one for three years; and two McCann School Committee seats for four years. This will only be the second time in 36 years that the mayoral race will not have an incumbent on the ballot and both of those elections were in the past four years. Mayor Thomas Bernard announced the day after his state of the city address in February that he would not be seeking a third term and would instead be focusing his efforts on the agenda he d been re-elected on in 2019 that had been disrupted by the novel coronavirus.
The School Committee voted to anticipate a potential rise in COVID-19 cases because of holiday gatherings and close the school buildings from Jan. 4 to Jan. 18 next year. The district will return to hybrid learning on Tuesday, Jan. 19, the day after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The vote was 5-2, with committee members Emily Daunis and Karen Bond voting against and Ian Bergeron, James Holmes, Tara Jacobs, Heather Boulger and Mayor Thomas Bernard voting in favor. Superintendent Barbara Malkas said the concern was related to the rise in COVID-19 cases in the community seen after the Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays. With a week and half break coming up and another round of holidays, there is potential for further spread from gatherings.