A Look Back, May 4

50 Years Ago

• The Northampton City Council Saturday morning informally agreed to ask the Northampton School Committee to consider further cuts to the $6.4-million school budget proposed for the next fiscal year. City Council President Robert Patenaude said today that he believes it is the first time that the city council has asked the school committee to further consider its budget, although he recalls mayors taking the same action in past years.
• Area residents marched through the Main Street area Saturday, May Day, to protest economic and political inequality. The march was sponsored by a group called the July 4th Coalition. “People’s Proclamations,” outlining the group’s position, were left at Smith College, City Hall, and other locations during the march.

25 Years Ago

• A Jackson Street School teacher has started a petition protesting the proposed cut of the position of elementary school librarian. The cut of the librarian position, which serves all four elementary schools, comes along with 22 other proposed staff cuts, including 16 teaching positions, recommended by Superintendent of Schools Bruce Willard in response to a school department budget crunch.
• Surrounding her with symbols of her native Texas, including flags, bluebonnet flowers and cowboy hats, Smith College said goodbye Thursday to its beloved president, Ruth Simmons, in true Lone Star style — with a downhome, Texas-style barbecue featuring ribs, chili and peach cobbler for 2,300. Simmons leaves Smith at the end of the school year to become president of Brown University.

10 Years Ago

• Mayor David J. Narkewicz announced Monday that Donna LaScaleia has been appointed as the city’s new director of the Department of Public Works. LaScaleia will be the first woman to hold that position in Northampton.
• New York activist and writer Reina Gossett has been selected to speak at the Hampshire College commencement on May 14. Faculty members proposed Gossett because of her activism work at a time when students have raised issues around racism, transphobia and sexual violence, according to a statement.