THE NORTHAMPTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
With the guidance and leadership of a dedicated and talented staff of teachers and administrators, working in a community that supports and values education, the Northampton Public Schools have a history of providing high quality, comprehensive educational services from early childhood to twelfth grade.
Our system's network of early education and care programs and services include an NAEYC accredited, integrated preschool, full-day kindergarten, family literacy programs, toddler home visits, and family support. Our professionals collaborate with staff and parents from the city's diverse community-based childcare, preschool, and family support programs to create a solid foundation for our youngest learners. We work hard to make young children and their families feel excited about beginning school. Our community is extremely devoted to, and closely connected with, our four elementary schools, and has supported them in many ways over many years with its time, funds, and creative ideas. Our staff is invested in continually improving their instructional practice, in ensuring that all our students meet state educational standards, and in collaborating with families and administrators so that all children succeed. Because our community values the educational, social, and emotional needs of our students, we enjoy enthusiastic parental and guardian participation. Our after-school social and academic enrichment programs are available to all.
Our middle school is dedicated to fostering high academic achievement and equal access to education within a positive learning environment. Organized on the middle school model, it focuses on the needs and characteristics of young adolescents. An instructional team system is used to provide a smaller learning environment for students, support the practice of interdisciplinary instruction, and build community within and outside of our building. An advisory program brings together students and adults three days a week in small groups, building peer and mentor relationships. A wonderful after-school program provides students with enrichment and academic support. The middle school community is proud of the work of the student Civil Rights Team, Students of Color Alliance, and Gay Straight Alliance. Our dedicated, student-focused, and creative teachers and staff are at the center of our commitment to the success of our students.
Our high school is committed to preparing versatile, well-rounded students, who will be ready to function in a global, diverse society. By engaging students in a range of high quality educational experiences and opportunities, our teachers help students to develop the skills they need to become competent, creative, empathetic, and responsible individuals. Northampton High School has just begun the NEASC process of reaccreditation, which will require the school community to engage in a comprehensive and wide-ranging self-study. Our students' success in Advanced Placement courses has helped our school to earn recognition from Newsweek magazine as one of the best public high schools in the country. Our exemplary and creative professional staff helps a diverse student body to reach their full academic potential, with more than eighty percent of the class of 2010 continuing on to post secondary schools. Our excellent art, theater, and music programs add breadth to our curriculum, while successful co-curricular and athletic programs round out the student experience at Northampton High School.
District Profile
SCHOOL DISTRICT PROFILE AND STATISTICS for 2011
Current Budget: $28,046,903
Student Enrollment: 2,701
Professional Staff: 266 Support staff: 112
School Building (Grades) Enrollment
Northampton High School (9-12) 883
John F. Kennedy Middle School (6-8) 623
Bridge Street School (PreK-5) 287
Jackson Street School (K-5) 297
Leeds Elementary School (K-5) 351
Robert K. Finn Ryan Road School (K-5) 260
Northampton Community
Northampton is a community in balance. It is a sophisticated small city, with a lively downtown packed with excellent restaurants, locally-owned shops, galleries, and performance venues. It is a green city, with kid-friendly urban parks, hundreds of acres of protected open space, community gardens, a growing network of bike and walking trails, and broad fields by the Connecticut River where farmers work some of the best soil anywhere. The hub of the Five College area, Northampton benefits from the energy and activity of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and Smith, Hampshire, Amherst, and Mount Holyoke Colleges, which draw the best young minds from all over the world to work in an incredible diversity of academic fields.
Northampton is also, as described by Pulitzer Prize winning author Tracy Kidder, a hometown, a New England town with quiet streets, good neighbors, and deep-rooted community institutions, where many families stay for generations, even as newcomers are continually welcomed.
People in Northampton are active in every sense of the word. You see them out at farmers' markets, in the park, or in a store downtown, enjoying their city. You see them working side-by-side in city
government, volunteer organizations, and neighborhood groups to make Northampton an even better place to live. Some of these citizens have been here for eighty years; some have been here for eighty days. Every part of the community is involved in helping our children get the education they deserve, including the Northampton Education Foundation, the Volunteers in Northampton Schools, the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and Smith College. The close relationship between Smith and the Northampton Public Schools provides educational opportunities for our high school students and support for the professional development of our staff.
Northampton offers its residents and those who visit many possibilities and opportunities. While our city never stops changing, what remains constant is that it is a great place to live and work. With so much to do right in the city, and the Berkshires, Boston, New York City, and Cape Cod close enough for a day trip, Northampton has received national recognition for its quality of life from the New York Times, The Boston Globe, AARP magazine, National Geographic Adventure magazine, Parenting magazine, and Outside magazine.
