West Springfield Middle School staff support renaming gym
Updated Apr 29, 2021;
Posted Apr 29, 2021
Staff at West Springfield Middle School are asking that the school’s gymnasium be renamed for former principal Thomas McNulty.
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WEST SPRINGFIELD Several teachers are asking the School Committee to turn the West Springfield Middle School gymnasium into a permanent tribute to the school’s former principal.
Thomas J. McNulty Jr., who was an assistant principal when the school opened in 1998 and was principal from 2002-15, was an exceptional administrator who set the tone for middle school education in West Springfield, proponents of the honor said in a presentation to the School Committee on Tuesday.
West Springfield quarantines 4 kindergarten classes
Updated Apr 14, 2021;
WEST SPRINGFIELD Four classes at John Ashley Kindergarten are in quarantine this week after a one pupil in each room tested positive for COVID-19.
At a public meeting on Tuesday, Mayor William Reichelt and School Committee member Kathy Alevras questioned whether it was “overkill” to send four whole classrooms home to learn remotely. School and health officials, however, said it’s hard for kindergartners to maintain social distancing during class, at recess and on the bus, and the state’s public health protocols mandate quarantines for any close contacts of an infected person.
West Springfield's School Committee will air its concerns next week about plans for full in-person learning at West Springfield’s public schools, but there’s not much they can do to stop it.
Counselors hope in-person classes will boost mental health masslive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from masslive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
West Springfield breaks ground on new Coburn School
Updated Dec 10, 2020;
WEST SPRINGFIELD State and local taxpayers will pay $69 million to build a new Philip G. Coburn Elementary School, but it’s the students and teachers who will build its community, educators said at a groundbreaking ceremony this week.
“From the moment I stepped into Coburn School, I knew it was a special place,” recalled Colleen Marcus, a West Springfield School Committee member and former principal of Coburn School, at the Wednesday event. But “it was never the building that mattered, it was the magic happening inside the building.”
She and other school officials told stories about how a true community formed around Coburn, including in the aftermath of the 2011 tornado that ripped through West Springfield’s nearby Merrick neighborhood. More than 100 people made homeless by the tornado were housed in a shelter at the school, and students’ families stepped up with donations.