Boland Elementary School Kindness Week

Boland Elementary School Kindness Week

“Be kind”….we all learned that when we were little, but it’s not always easy to do. For students at Boland Elementary in Springfield, they made “being kind” a priority with the celebration of Kindness Week recently. Carolee McGrath sat down with Domenica Nooney, the...
Springfield Graduation Rates

Springfield Graduation Rates

There has been a lot of focus over the years on improving graduation rates in Massachusetts cities, including Springfield. In the last few years, Springfield has made significant improvements, decreasing the dropout rate and increasing the graduation rate over last...
Reach to Teach

Reach to Teach

Reach to Teach is a new program encouraging students in Springfield to consider a career in teaching, and to teach in their home city. Springfield Public Schools and Westfield State University are working together to provide students an opportunity to complete their...
Springfield Empowerment Zone

Springfield Empowerment Zone

Beth Gage, CEO, and Matt Matera, program director, from Springfield Empowerment Zone, discuss the program, as well as their plan to help support local middle schools in the communities and improve the academic progress of the students. Springfield Empowerment...
Up Education Springfield

Up Education Springfield

Scott Given, CEO of Boston-based Up Education Network, discusses that non-profit company’s proposal to take over one of Springfield’s troubled middle schools and operate it as a Horace Mann Charter School. Up Education Network Up Education Network on...

Gerena School Follow Up

Last season on Connecting Point, we brought you the series “Divided We Stand A Street in Our School” that focused on the Gerena School in Springfield’s North End. Recently, it was announced that the school had exited Level 4 status by successfully meeting...

Stay in School

Dora Robinson from United Way Pioneer Valley and Patricia Spradley from the Springfield School District talk about Springfield’s Stay-in-School. The city has traditionally had the highest number of drop outs or non-graduation rates in the state. The Stay-in-School...

Freedom Writers

In 1994, Erin Gruwell began teaching at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. Like many first year teachers, Erin was assigned the unmotivated, unnoticed, and “un-teachable” students. Erin strongly believed that education could overcome even the worst...

Gerena Teacher Round Table

Connecting Point’s Carolee McGrath sits down with Burt Freedman, Enrique “Henry” Figueredo and Ursula Hogan at Gerena School to talk about their memories as teachers when the school was known as New North Community School. They describe the school as being state...

Gerena Community Agencies

Community leaders share their thoughts for the Gerena School tunnel and discuss the importance of the various agencies that once occupied that space. Many of them have played a vital role in coordinating programs inside the community space and share their thoughts....

Gerena Community Voices

Since opening in 1975, the Gerena School has truly been a resource for the North End. It was designed to be a multi-purpose structure, providing not only a school for the children, but a community space for residents to enjoy. Producer Zydalis Zayas shares stories...