North Adams Public Schools to Host Forums on Grade Configuration

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — North Adams Public Schools will host two community forums to discuss grade configurations being considered for the district as part of the school building project. 
 
The forums will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 8 at 6:30 pm and Tuesday, Aug. 22 at 5:30 pm. Both forums will take place in the Welcome Center at Brayton Elementary School.
 
A Zoom option will be available and can be accessed by going to napsk12.org/ZoomLinkCommunityForum.
 
Forums are open to anyone interested in learning more about the options being considered for the district and will specifically highlight the recent survey results, how this decision will impact district assigned schools, and allow for participants to ask questions and provide feedback about the potential grade configurations.
 
For questions, contact the Family and Community Outreach Coordinator, Emily Schiavoni at 413-412-1106 or at eschiavoni@napsk12.org.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

North Adams' Route 2 Study Looks at 'Repair, Replace and Remove'

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Attendees make comments and use stickers to indicate their thoughts on the priorities for each design.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Nearly 70 residents attended a presentation on Saturday morning on how to stitch back together the asphalt desert created by the Central Artery project.
 
Of the three options proposed — repair, replace or restore — the favored option was to eliminating the massive overpass, redirect traffic up West Main and recreate a semblance of 1960s North Adams.
 
"How do we right size North Adams, perhaps recapture a sense of what was lost here with urban renewal, and use that as a guide as we begin to look forward?" said Chris Reed, director of Stoss Landscape Urbanism, the project's designer.
 
"What do we want to see? Active street life and place-making. This makes for good community, a mixed-use downtown with housing, with people living here ... And a district grounded in arts and culture."
 
The concepts for dealing with the crumbling bridge and the roads and parking lots around it were built from input from community sessions last year.
 
The city partnered with Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program and was the only city in Massachusetts selected. The project received $750,000 in grant funding to explore ways to reconnect what Reed described as disconnected "islands of activity" created by the infrastructure projects. 
 
"When urban renewal was first introduced, it dramatically reshaped North Adams, displacing entire neighborhoods, disrupting street networks and fracturing the sense of community that once connected us," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey. "This grant gives us the chance to begin to heal that disruption."
 
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