According to her website, new at-large Amherst council member Ellisha Walker is an “advocate for racial justice, community engagement, and equitable opportunities for all Amherst residents, including BIPOC and other marginalized groups.” Walker graduated...

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...

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...

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....

It’s a sunny day on the track. PE teacher Elizabeth Haygood is in her yellow official’s jacket corralling athletes into their heats and lanes. That’s her job. But she also goes above and beyond,...

The drums are roaring and the singers are belting out a traditional Puerto Rican call and response.  Dancers in colorful flowing skirts and the occasional fedora prance down the floor in lines, and Tracy...

At the start of each English class, Mark Moriarty and his students stand and face the windows in his room, breathing quietly and practicing the opening structure of Tai Chi. “It’s about bringing everything...

Social Studies teacher Becca Leopold cannot believe she’s been teaching in the Amherst district for 24 years. While she both faces retirement and looks back on her career, she said she has many positive...

After 19 fantastic years working at ARHS, long time physics teacher Patty Blauner is ready to retire. Ms. Blauner attended high school just outside of Philadelphia. She then went on to do her undergraduate...

Anybody using Instagram this past summer during uprisings for racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death probably knows what a social justice infographic looks like.  If not, check out the site’s @soyouwanttotalkabout...

Every time I go to Big Y in Hadley, I am almost guaranteed to hear ARHS grad Miguel Cruz yelling my name to say hello from another part of the store, as he helps...

Seniors in high school all over the nation decided to apply to college in record-high numbers this fall and winter, thrilled by the potential return of in-person classes and the prospect of robust social...