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WEATHER TONIGHT Snow early, then clearing.
The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 83 NO. 30
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014
WHITEOUT
Woodland School renovations ahead of schedule By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – SouthwickTolland-Granville Regional Schools Superintendent John Barry updated the School Committee last night on the campus construction progress. He said Woodland Elementary School renovations are moving along rapidly and they should be completed ahead of schedule. “Woodland will mostly be done at the end of the summer,” Barry said. Work in what will be the preschool, music and guidance wing is almost done, and Owner’s Project Manager PDS wants to move the guidance department in and work in the other wing. “Abatement has been done and electrical and plumbing have been roughed in,” Barry said. “When the heating season is over, they want to move music classes in the cafeteria so they can start on the auditorium.” PDS is also considering taking down ceilings and ripping up floors in the corridors this spring while class is still in session. Barry said this would allow them to start those renovations as soon as students are out of the building for the summer. At the high school, construction is moving along. Barry noted that during February vacation, the student parking lot will be dug up for a drainage project and would not be patched until the week after students return. See Renovations, Page 3
A Southwick resident attempts to clear her driveway this morning as the snow continues. (Photo
Storm makes its way across western Mass. snow is expected to be the wet and heavy type that weighs down power lines and tree limbs. Outages were minimal midmorning. See Snowstorm, Page 3
H.S. games ppd., hockey awaits fate By Chris Putz Staff Writer WESTFIELD – All local high school sporting events have been canceled Wednesday except for the showdown between the Westfield and Agawam High boys’ varsity ice hockey teams, Westfield High athletic director Karen Gomez said early Wednesday morning. See H.S. Games, Page 3
Grant targets underage drinkers By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Members of the city’s community policing unit got a boost in their ongoing struggle to control underage drinking in the Whip City when the Westfield department was selected as one of 76 police departments across the Commonwealth to share $532,000 in grant money. Westfield’s slice of the pie provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Justice was $9,980.64, an amount determined by the size of the community and distributed by the highway safety division of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. Westfield Police Capt. Michael McCabe
said that the grant “provides much needed funding to target the problem of underage drinking” and said “whether you are underage, plan to sell to a minor, or buy alcohol for a minor” the grant funding will help the city police “diligently enforce the law.” Much of the underage alcohol enforcement is done by the community policing officers under the command of Sgt. Eric Hall who said that his unit will use the grant funds to expand on enforcement patrols in the downtown area and for stings and compliance checks in local bars, restaurants and stores. Hall explained that at least some of the city’s community policing officers are at work patrolling the downtown area every Thursday and Friday (and Saturday when possible) evening, when Westfield State
University is in session, to enforce liquor laws and said they regularly encounter students abroad with liquor in their possession. “The first weekend they were back (from semester break) we had 16 calls” he said but said that the grant money will mostly be used for other purposes. He said that the extra funds will allow for the extra officers needed to conduct a sting operation which, he said, needs many officers. He explained that, to be effective, the sting teams need to make nearly simultaneous checks at liquor establishments to ensure that employees of the first establishments checked do not have time to call around and warn their friends at other establishments. See Underage Drinkers, Page 3
WPS Literacy Leadership Team showcases progress By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Westfield School Committee Monday was brought up to speed on the overarching goal and ongoing literacy action plan of the District’s Literacy Leadership Team. The team, composed of Director of Curriculum and Instruction Susan Dargie, Language Arts Supervisor Chris Tolpa, Director of Assessment and Accountability Denise Ruszala, Administrator of Special Education and Student Support Patricia Byrnes, and North Middle School Principal Chris Rodgers, were on hand to stress a goal of 95 percent of all
Westfield Public School students in third-grade through ninthgrade reading at or above grade level by 2016. The team is seeking to accomplish this initiative through improvements in leadership, assessment, instruction, professional development, and intervention. According to their presentation, the team has already gone about writing a district literacy plan and is implementing monitoring systems for it, and is in the process of establishing individual literacy teams at schools in the district. Ruszala’s Assessment and Accountability Department has
also created a calendar of assessments and has begun implementing the Power School system. The District hoped to have articulated a “comprehensive” Pre K-12 literacy assessment plan by spring 2013, and is in the process of finalizing specific assessments, and looking into several data management systems. “I am impressed by what we have accomplished for our students in the area of literacy and the work that is ongoing,” Dargie said prior to introducing the team and their progress. She went on to add that the team’s plan was constructed within the Massachusetts state framework.
he harder it is for him to answer the questions of common people.” — Henryk Sienkiewicz
75 cents
Funding debate may define new City Council
by Frederick Gore)
BOSTON (AP) — A storm that could drop a foot or more of snow in some places is hammering Massachusetts. The snow hit western portions of the state in the pre-dawn hours today and arrived in Boston just in time for the morning commute. Six to 12 inches of snow is expected around Boston, with 3 to 6 inches in southeastern areas before changing to sleet and rain. Higher elevations in western Massachusetts could see up to 15 inches or more. Many communities including Boston, Worcester, Springfield closed schools. Westfield schools had a planned day off for teacher inservice. Also closed today are Westfield City Hall, the Westfield Council on Aging, the Westfield Athenaeum and the Westfield Boys & Girls Club. Southwick town offices will have no meal program. The state’s utilities say they are preparing for the possibility of more power outages than in earlier storms this winter, because today’s
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After Tolpa spoke of the leadership initiatives being put in place, Ruszala stated the importance of data collection as the district moves forward in this five-year plan. “We collect individual, classroom, district and state data,” she said, adding that student achievement data “supports instructional decision-making and in making programmatic decisions.” Ruszala stated that she hopes to have the assessment and data management systems fully implemented by 2015. Regarding the instruction, professional development, and See Literacy, Page 7
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Finance Chairman Christopher Keefe anticipated heated debate Monday night as members of his committee, and other City Council members, discussed an extended agenda of appropriations and transfers. Keefe wasn’t surprised that debate did occur then, with some pushback from several council members. What surprised Keefe was the funding requests that were the focus of greatest scrutiny. In addition to Keefe, committee members Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Crean and Ward 5 Councilor Robert Paul Sr., the meeting was attended by Ward 2 Councilor Ralph Figy, as well as At-large Councilors Dan Allie, Cindy Harris and Matt VanHeynigen. The council debate of the hot topic items tomorrow night may not only define the character of the City Council, which has six new members, but also the relationship between the seven At-large members and those six representing wards. The hot button items Monday night were not the multimillion dollar sewer and water project funding, but the Domus request for $80,000 to build a home on Broad Street for homeless teens attending city high schools and for the $371,000 to complete the design and bid documents for the senior center project on Noble Street. Figy is a strong proponent of both projects which are in his ward, both of which serve groups with unique needs. Ann Lentini, executive director of Domus Inc., is seeking the $80,000 appropriation from the Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding collected as a property surtax to create low-income housing for up to 10 homeless students. That funding is the city’s “good will” See New City Council, Page 3
WSU holds ‘Celebration of Life’ By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Following the death of Nelson Mandela, the beloved former President of South Africa who served as a global symbol of freedom for so many, the Multicultural Student Association at Westfield State University shared the sentiments of the rest of the world when planning the programming for the school’s month-long celebration of Black History Month. In an event held yesterday in conjunction with the University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Owl’s Nest room in the lower level of the Ely Campus Center played host to over 30 students and faculty gathered to celebrate the start of month-long events seeking to honor the lives and contributions of both African and African-American leaders, with a speech from WSU Professor of Sociology Dr. Nomazengele Mangaliso. Mangaliso, who hails from South Africa, spoke of the influence Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King had in changing the course of their respective home nations forever, on the 101st birthday of another civil rights hero, Rosa Parks. “When you sit back and reflect on their cultural and political work, they left big shoes to fill,” she said. “MLK has been gone for almost 50 years, but his legacy lives on. And Mandela’s See Life, Page 7