ACE-funded language lab to come
Andover High School's new high-tech language lab, originally planned to be installed over February break, has been delayed but is on track to come online mid-March, says AHS language teacher Chris Krueger.
The language lab's total price tag will come to more than $100,000, funded by the Andover Coalition for Education as well as a grant from the Horne Family Foundation, said Tina Girdwood, ACE member.
- Bethany Bray
SC shows team spirit
The School Committee rescheduled its Tuesday meeting March 9 to show support for the Andover High School girls basketball team, who played in the 2010 MIAA State Division I Semifinals that night. The March 9 School Committee meeting is rescheduled to Tuesday, March 16, at 7 p.m. in the School Administration Building.
- Bethany Bray
Hip-hop for Haiti
The Andover High School Dance Club will offer a "Dance for Haiti Benefit Performance" next Friday, March 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the school's Collins Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for children under 10. "Please come enjoy an evening of AHS student choreographed dance including hip-hop, lyrical, and Indian cultural dance. Proceeds will go to Partners in Health to support the people of Haiti," said Kim Bergey, AHS Dance Club advisor and guidance counselor.
Makeover happiness
Two Andover businesses have been involved with the makeover transformation of a single mom in Methuen.
Zena Silva received a package of free services, including items from the Coco Collection and Night & Day, both in Andover.
Silva, mom of a 9-year-old, lost over 150 pounds. The Andover businesses helped her get some much-needed new clothes and undergarments.
"I believe that it's important for local business owners to do this," said Merit Tukiainen who owns Night & Day.
Silva is getting ready to start nursing school and feeling very good about herself. "Thank you so much for making me look like a million bucks," she wrote in a thank you note to Tukiainen. The head-to-toe make-over was a package from the online magazine, Applaud.
Tukiainen, who has been active the Andover's Business Center Association, continues to help out in the local community. Today, Thursday, March 4, she is a speaker for the "Celebrate Women" event at Saints Medical Center in Lowell. Her lecture topic is "Why and how should my bras fit?"
- Judy Wakefield
Andoverite picked as Beverly superintendent
Just as Andover finishes the search for a new superintendent of the public schools, resident Marie Galinski has been hired as the new superintendent of the Beverly Public Schools on the North Shore.
Galinski, who is currently the assistant superintendent in Beverly, will take over as superintendent on July 1.
Galinski, 61, has lived in Andover for two decades with her husband, Fred, a retired Massachusetts Teachers Association office worker who also served as a civilian contractor in Iraq from 2003 to 2007. Now he works part time for the MBTA, driving trains on the Blue Line.
Galinski's daughters, Kate, 30, and Erika, 33, also live in Andover.
- Cate Lecuyer, Salem News
Launching a food fight at MC
Over 20 innovative students are designing and building catapults that can throw an egg into a frying pan up to 60 feet away for a chance to win a four-year college scholarship. Their Trebuchet-style catapults will be put to the test at Merrimack College next Saturday, March 20. The winner of the scholarship will be announced that day. The winning catapult designer will receive $15,000 per year for four years to study civil engineering at Merrimack College.
The egg catapult event is part of Merrimack College's ThinkFEST, a festival-style hands-on engineering, science, and technology event for 6-12 grade students at Sakowich Campus Center, Merrimack College, 315 Turnpike St. North Andover. For more information on ThinkFEST, call the Department of Civil Engineering at Merrimack College at 978-837-5299, or e-mail reynoldsj@merrimack.edu.
