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By NANCY E. GROSSMAN

In the end, the dispute came down to about 15 tents and a fence loosely constructed of wooden pallets that had collectively been up for less than a day. But this small encampment was enough to trigger an ill-considered decision by first-year UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes that cost taxpayers more than half a million dollars and drove a likely permanent wedge between the administration and some of the UMass community.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — MCAS English language arts assessments showing seven in 10 Amherst Regional High School 10th graders are meeting or exceeding expectations and a more than 50% drop in behavioral referrals at Pelham Elementary School are among signs of progress being made under the district’s state-mandated Student Opportunity Act Plan.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools’ $37.08 million budget for fiscal year 2026, recommended by the Amherst Regional School Committee, won final approval Monday, with the Amherst Town Council unanimously agreeing to the town’s $19.74 million assessment.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Falling ceiling tiles, locked bathrooms with broken stalls and a class schedule that regularly drops a guided academic study and advisory period are among concerns Amherst Regional Middle School student leaders are bringing to the Regional School Committee.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Each year, in the months leading up to the development and release of the budget for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools, representatives from the four member communities gather together at the invitation of school officials to discuss school funding at one or more “four-town” meetings.

By AALIANNA MARIETTA

LEVERETT — Roughly 100 residents voted to approve Leverett’s share of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District budget, accept a 146.3-acre property gift and appropriate funds for a series of community preservation projects during Saturday’s annual Town Meeting.

By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

LEVERETT — A couple was displaced from their home at 101 Teawaddle Hill Road Tuesday night after a fire caused a partial collapse of the single-story house.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — Accepting a gift of an actively managed 146.3-acre woodlot and recommending resurfacing and possibly paving the length of Dudleyville Road are among actions to be decided by residents at annual Town Meeting Saturday.

By GENE STAMELL

I don’t know about you, but I love a well-placed semicolon; it evokes a sense of drama, an air of anticipation of things to come. Yes, the human race could survive without this punctuation mark, but at what cost? Let us pause briefly (a bit of semicolon humor) and consider the situation.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — A steep increase in what Leverett will pay into the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools’ fiscal year 2026 budget is being supported by the Select Board, even with concerns from board members about the process used to arrive at the town’s assessment.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Professional mold remediation in the music and instrument storage rooms during April vacation, along with recent roof repairs and replacement of HVAC air filters, are among steps being taken to improve air quality at the Amherst Regional Middle School.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Near annual challenges in putting together budgets for the Amherst and Amherst-Pelham Regional schools that meet the financial guidelines set by the Amherst Town Council is leading to the concept of forming a joint town and school task force, which would be responsible for examining educational needs over a five- to 10-year period.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Responding to an online petition that collected nearly 250 signatures, officials at Amherst Regional High School have reversed a recent decision to close nearly all of the school’s bathrooms for students during lunch periods out of concern with a rising level of vaping indicated by vaping detection alarms frequently going off.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — Several local Democratic Town Committees in Hampshire and Franklin counties, and Holyoke, are making an appeal to the Massachusetts congressional delegation to take stronger steps in confronting the Republican Party, the Trump administration and special government employee and billionaire Elon Musk.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — A proposed donation of a 147-acre working forest in North Leverett, which would continue to be actively managed under town ownership and open for hunting, will be decided by voters at annual Town Meeting May 3.

By CAROLYN BROWN

Leverett artist Rhoda Juels died recently, leaving behind a substantial collection of her works. Now, her daughter Dara is inviting members of the public to take the art – entirely free.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — State education officials were crystal clear with the Amherst Regional School Committee on Monday night, warning members that they are not to vary from an agreement that determines how much each of the district’s four member towns must pay each year.

By SARENA NEYMAN

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — Town officials are trying to find ways to reduce proposed spending on school and town services before bringing a total municipal budget of around $7.9 million to residents at annual Town Meeting on May 3.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — It’s back to the drawing board for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools’ proposed budget for next year, after the Town Council on Monday rejected changing the way assessments are determined for each of the district’s four member towns.

In 1975-76, I was a Fulbright scholar in Germany, teaching for a year at a German university. It was close enough in time to the Holocaust to stir feelings of fear (some professors still dressed up in SS uniforms on weekends).