Serving the Amherst Regional High School community since 1914.
On October 1, a rainy Tuesday, while sitting in English class, a group of kindergarteners burst into song. However, they were all singing in Spanish, with smiles on their faces. Fort River Elementary School...
From September 19-22, 2019, local poet Jay Ritchie ran poetry workshops in many sophomore English classes at ARHS, in conjunction with the Emily Dickinson Museum, which coordinated the event. For the past six years,...
Omi Omy, a great new Vietnamese restaurant currently in the Big Y plaza in Amherst Massachusetts, is run by ARHS grad (class of 2000) and father Chuong Son, who hails from Vietnam. Son described...
If you’ve ever paid attention to the morning announcements or stared at the wall on your way to class, you’ll have noticed that the ARHS theater department puts on multiple productions each year. These...
The new Executive Chef at Amherst College, Jamil Asad-Ubinas, has plans to help ARHS and other public schools in the area. He hopes to offer students more choices than they are accustomed to seeing...
ARHS grad Phila Son decided to come back to the high school–to work. He was hired this summer as one of the school’s new adjustment counselors. “I decided I wanted to be a school...
Chantelle Brigham-McMillan, new to ARHS last year, is an always-friendly face in the Academic Achievement Center. Brigham-McMillan, who lives in Northfield and drives an hour to work every day, is an Americorps/Dial Self employee...
This summer, Rich Ferro resigned as the ARHS and ARMS athletic director, a position he’d held since 2012, and took on his former role as a science teacher at ARMS. Luckily, ARHS, UMass Amherst,...
Myra Ross left big shoes to fill when she retired after 20 years of college counseling, but ARHS lucked out with a vibrant, experienced, and multi-talented new college and career advisor, Deidre Cuffee-Gray. Cuffee-Gray...
Evan Mahnken is enjoying his new home in Amherst. “I like it out here, I really do,” said Mahnken. “I like the idea of living where my commute to work could be ten minutes.” ...
“My students inspire me every day,” said Suzanne Bowes, a new math teacher at ARHS.“I always welcome and try to get feedback from my students, and I use that to reflect on how I...
Between finding her Intentional Living community in Shutesbury, being close to her friends and family in Boston and New York City, and landing her brand new ELL teaching job at ARHS, Alla Azrilyan gushed...
There’s a new ELL teacher at ARHS this year, Ms. Stephani Lopez. “I love being an ELL teacher at ARHS because the students in my classes come from so many different countries,” said Lopez. ...
Philip Grandin, also known as Mr. Grandin to his students, is a new math teacher at ARHS. He teaches Algebra to mostly ninth and tenth graders and geometry to a mix of 9-11 graders....
You may have seen a friendly new face outside the cafeteria or meandering through the halls of ARHS: new hall monitor Darius Collins. Collins likes a lot about his job so far, from “the...
There’s a new paraeducator on the block. Her name is Erin Hutchinson, and she grew up in Connecticut and lived and taught in South Korea. Ms. “Hutch” joined the staff of ARHS in September,...
Patricia Cefalo is the newest Latin teacher here at ARHS. Her students call her Magistra, which is the Latin word for “teacher.” Cefalo began studying Latin in high school, then added Ancient Greek to...
Kristie Morrison never thought she would be back at her own high school after graduating in 2015. As the new ARHS library paraprofessional, though, that’s exactly where is, and she describes this unlikely return...
The ARHS girls’ cross country team has dominated over the competition for a long time. The team won Western Mass for the last two years, and they are hoping for a third win this...
For the ARHS boys’ varsity soccer team, the difference between the 2018 and 2019 seasons has amounted to a complete 180 degree turn. The crowds are back, “The Naysh” is alive, and the boys...
The Amherst boys’ golf team believes they have a shot at qualifying for States and maybe even winning Western Mass this season, a goal that all current members remember seeming very far-fetched in seasons...
When Michelle Risch took over the reins of the ARHS field hockey program four years ago, she was given a small group of hard working players and a single senior who bought into her...
“We weren’t going to go from losing every game to winning every game but my goal was to inspire a new culture surrounding girls soccer at the high school,” said Casey Flueckiger, one of...
“Please, bro, just one hit.” This mantra has become standard in the bathrooms at ARHS. Every day, students cut class to feed their new habit. Teachers have reported concerns that some of their students...
“Why are your eyes glowing?” -Anu Sitaraman “ARHS makes Jack a dull boy.” -Innis Gallagher “Seconds later, the barricades fell apart.” -Schuyler Mann “The floorboards creaked. I live alone.” -Katherine Leonard “The dead man winked at...
Contracting with prisons is easy when inmates are behind bars, but are the same institutions willing to employ ex-prisoners upon their release? Many believe that employers need to begin to shift their thinking on...
On March 21, the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District and Massachusetts Correctional Industries (MassCor) inked a contract that set up prisoners at MCI-Norfolk to reupholster the 1,105 badly worn auditorium seats at Amherst Regional High...
Incoming ARHS Principal Gene Jones has “always enjoyed working with kids.” Mr. Jones was born and raised in Virginia, in a “multi-generational house.” His close-knit family emphasized supporting each other. “My great grandmother, my...
ARHS has a new face attached to its restorative justice program, Pedro Mendez, whom you might have seen greeting students at the door in the morning, along with Stephen Bechtold. Mr. Mendez was hired...
According to an article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, by Greta Jochem, the 764 confirmed measles cases this year makes it the largest outbreak nationally since 1994. Measles is a highly contagious, infectious viral...
