Up Front for DeMar Race Nov. 10

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The Up Front for DeMar 5-kilometer race and 1-mile walk is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 10, at 9 a.m.
 
The annual event honors SPC Michael R. DeMarsico, age 20, who volunteered to be "up front"', taking the lead of his battalion, protecting them and searching for dangerous IEDs. He lost his life in Afghanistan on Aug. 16, 2012. 
 
Pre-registered runners or walkers will have a $20 registration fee. Day of event registration will be available at the starting line area from 7 to 8:30 a.m. and will be $25. Organizers also ask that participants please bring an item or items for care packages to be sent to deployed service men and women. 
 
The starting line is at the Veteran's Memorial at the intersection of Route 2 and Eagle Street. Runners will continue to Eagle Street, crossing Main Street and continuing onto Ashland Street. Walkers will turn around at the North Adams Armory and runners will continue on Ashland Street to South Church Street.
 
Runners will turn into the BFAIR parking lot at 771 South Church St., continue to the back of the lot where the water table is and then back out to exit, turning left onto South Church Street. Runners and walkers will follow Ashland Street and then turn left onto American Legion Drive. The race will finish at the American Legion. The course is a primarily open course with some police presence. Please be cautious of vehicles on the course.
 
Race packet pickup will be available on Saturday, Nov. 9, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the North Adams American Legion.
 
Shirts will be available to the first 100 registrants. Additional shirts may be available for purchase.
 
Registration is available here.
 
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North Adams Schools Seeing Bright Spots on MCAS Scores

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The public schools are seeing some ups and downs in MCAS scores for 2024 but improvement overall from last year compared to state data. 
 
"One of the things that they identified statewide was that even though everybody was hoping that the scores would show up now that we're farther away from the pandemic, statewide, they saw a drop in ELA scores this past year," Timothy Callahan, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, told the School Committee on Monday. 
 
"They also showed flat results in math, other than an improvement in third grade statewide, and then science results show improvement in [Grades] 5 and 10."
 
The school system saw drops at or below the state levels on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests in English language arts in Grades 3-10, with the exception of Grade 5, which outperformed the state numbers by more than 20 points. 
 
In math results, the schools did on par or better particularly in Grades 4, 5 and 10. Students also performed at or better on the science tests, which are given in Grades 5, 8 and 10. 
 
"We had significant improvement from last year in Grade 5 [ELA]. So that's something that we looked at in our analysis," Callahan said.  "We're seeing an upward trajectory in science across the board over time, whereas the state has seen flatter scores."
 
He noted there was an "enormous, really, really sharp decline" in reading and language because of the pandemic. 
 
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