Business Briefs: Jan. 22, 2021
Employees roast and bag coffee at Dean’s Bean Organic Coffee Co. in the Orange Industrial Park in September of 2018. Thanks to a donation from Dean’s Beans, the Gill-Montague Regional School District was able to buy supplemental food for families during winter break. Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ
The Big Y supermarket in Greenfield. Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ
Published: 1/21/2021 3:19:32 PM
MassHire holding virtual job fair
GREENFIELD The MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center is holding a virtual job fair on Wednesday, Jan. 27, from 9 a.m. to noon.
According to a MassHire newsletter, recruiters are now hiring for jobs at Community Action Pioneer Valley, Deerfield Packaging, Hillside Plastics, ServiceNet, The United Arc, Yankee Candle and various other local facilities.
Gill-Montague faces potentially tight budget year
Turners Falls High School and Great Falls Middle School. Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ
Published: 1/13/2021 9:46:11 PM
MONTAGUE The Gill-Montague Regional School District’s budget for next school year will seek to make up for students’ academic and social losses this year, but will be challenged if state support slows due to the pandemic.
A preliminary budget discussed by the School Committee this week is worth over $24.1 million, which would be a 2.6 percent increase over the current year’s budget of about $23.5 million.
But, expectations of funding sources are not yet fully clear, partly due to uncertainty over whether state support for public schools may change to make up for schools’ losses related to the pandemic, said Gill-Montague Business Manager Joanne Blier.
Gill-Montague Education Fund gala canceled, after musician dies unexpectedly
Turners Falls High School and Great Falls Middle School. Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ
Modified: 12/31/2020 3:57:35 PM
TURNERS FALLS The spring gala fundraiser put on by the Gill-Montague Education Fund has been canceled for 2021, after the musical performer that had been booked for the event died unexpectedly.
The musician was Philip Bauer, whose Johnny Cash tribute show was known world-wide. Johnny Cash’s drummer, W.S. Holland, called Bauer “the best I have ever seen.” He died of colon cancer in November.
Bauer had originally been booked for the Gill-Montague Education Fund’s 2020 spring gala in April, but was rescheduled to spring 2021 after the outbreak of COVID-19.
Gill-Montague staying remote at least another two weeks
Turners Falls High School and Great Falls Middle School. Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ
Published: 12/30/2020 3:09:54 PM
MONTAGUE In-person classes won’t be considered by the Gill-Montague Regional School District until at least Jan. 15, due to ongoing high rates of COVID-19 in the area.
The district’s School Committee had previously decided that in-person classes would not be considered until at least the end of the year, after the local rates of COVID-19 spiked in early December.
This week, Superintendent Brian Beck said the district will continue to not consider in-person instruction, citing the current data from the state Department of Public Health, which was most recently updated on Dec. 24. Montague in particular is still considered a “red zone,” the Department of Public Health’s highest-risk designation.
Internship programs added at Turners Falls High School, unique in Franklin County
Two internship programs in health care and social services, and advanced manufacturing will be offered at Turners Falls High School starting in 2021, making the school one of only a few in the area with such professionally oriented programs, and the only one in Franklin County offering the state education department’s internship program. Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ
Published: 12/16/2020 2:21:09 PM
TURNERS FALLS Two internship programs in health care and social services, and advanced manufacturing will be offered at Turners Falls High School starting in 2021, making the school one of only a few in the area with such professionally oriented programs, and the only one in the county offering the state education department’s internship program.