Serving the Amherst Regional High School community since 1914.
Principal Talib Sadiq’s first year as a high school principal was last year, during the height of a global pandemic, when our school was online from September to May. Previous to leading ARHS, he...
As the pandemic dragged on for almost two years, it has become our “new normal,” and yet it has required major adaptation for teachers and college professors who have toggled between remote learning and...
On Friday, January 14, 2022, I had the privilege of interviewing Amanda Lewis, a new English teacher at ARHS. Her story interested me because previous to this year, she was a paraeducator working in...
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, many parents have had to work extra hard to help their young children learn, grow, and live in a constantly changing world, on top of navigating virtual schooling. Teachers have...
Dylan Tunnell is a paramedic firefighter for Amherst Fire department. He deals with a variety of different sorts of emergencies, whether they’re medical or fire. If it’s a fire emergency, he jumps on the...
Before Rachel Borsen retired, she did a lot of amazing work in varied fields. She was a physician specializing in cancer and blood. Later, she was a professor of medicine at UMass, teaching so...
Cheryl Demas is a home health aide, which means she travels around to help out people in their home. On any given day she might do anything from running errands to helping a client...
The pandemic has hit many people very hard, with many complications arising in most everyone’s jobs and social lives. But just as it had differing effects on everyone, people’s opinions differ a lot as...
College freshman Jessica Wilda thought the pandemic was on its way out when she headed to school this fall after graduating from Hopkins Academy in the summer of 2021. However, like many others, she...
Robbin Suprenant is a school nurse at ARHS and the nurse manager for the ARPS district and nurse Mary O’Brien works with her side by side at ARHS. School nurses always had a busy...
Michael Ash, 52, is a UMass Professor of Economics and Public Policy, but he’s also a father of two, an avid runner, and he is great at Sudoku. His work consists of doing research...
For their final project in a senior Journalistic Writing class at ARHS, students decided to reach out to people to hear about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their goals were simple: not only...
Every weekday morning this year, Elizabeth Bull could be found on the English hallway, in room 162, teaching Literature, Writing, and Public Speaking and American Literature and Society. Before that, she also taught Creative...
While adults often look back on their high school and recall major historical moments that coincided with their education, who knew our moment would be a years-long, front seat to a global pandemic that...
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protests nationwide, many educators and activists said that schools could not go back to “business as usual,” and instead would have to rethink everything,...
On October 26, at 9:30 a.m., dozens of Amherst Regional High School students were called from their classes to take COVID tests. These students had signed up to participate in a pooled testing program...
With the new block schedule, students only carry each academic class for one semester at a time, rather than a whole year. One benefit of this is increased space for quarter-long elective offerings, with...
MCAS is a graduation requirement at every public school in Massachusetts, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed that for the senior class, who were fully excused from MCAS by the Department of Secondary and Elementary...
Juniors and seniors at ARHS remember the days when we woke up at the crack of dawn and started our school days at 7:45 a.m. and wrapped them by 2:20 p.m. Some of us...
Terry Ominksy, the long-time administrative assistant and secretary to the ARHS principal, retired to great fanfare the week before Thanksgiving break. Ominsky grew up in West Springfield, MA, and graduated from West Springfield High...
The first time Aaron Buford walked into the doors of ARHS, he was not the Restorative Justice Coordinator, a job he started this year; instead, he was a ninth-grader who had just moved from...
Hannah Caruso, an Adjustment Counselor, was recently hired by ARHS. Caruso uses she/they pronouns and goes by Hannah with students. Caruso grew up locally in Northampton. They went to Clark University in Worcester, for...
Rudy Cassidy is a new math and special education teacher here at the high school. They are currently teaching a math topics class, a geometry class, and an AB Calculus class. Cassidy grew up...
New dance teacher Remy Fernández-O’Brien is no stranger to ARHS. In fact, they are a 2008 graduate who fell in love with dance while taking courses with former dance teacher Tracy Vernon in the...
New physical education teacher Matthew Travis is thrilled to be a new teacher at ARHS. He currently teaches Health, tenth grade Physical Education and two electives: PE: Invasion Games and PE: Rec Games Travis...
Kristen Ripley is a new art teacher at ARHS who is excited to teach Drawing with Pen and Ink, Watercolor Painting, Digital Photography and Sculpture. Ripley starts her day by dropping her kids off...
Imagine going to college with a major in journalism, but when you graduate you realize journalism is not at all for you, so you become a teacher instead. Meet the new Academic skills and Financial...
Like a handful of the new teachers at ARHS, new engineering and physics teacher John Fabel actually grew up in Amherst and attended ARHS. “It was a good high school for me,” said Fabel....
Wilnelia Meléndez was welcomed into the ARHS faculty this fall, teaching Spanish 1 and Spanish 2. “I have [actually] been in the district for six years but I started teaching here just this year,”...
This year’s Theater Company has been hard at work and one of their first shows of the season, Bing Bong, made quite an impression in late October. Bing Bong was an immersive theater piece...
