Westfield River Elementary School Principal Jill Phelan cuts the ribbon to the new school to applause from Mayor Michael McCabe, Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski and past and present staff and students from Franklin Ave. and Abner Gibbs Elementary School.
Reminder Publishing file photos
With 2025 nearly behind us, Reminder Publishing looks back at some of the biggest stories in Westfield, Southwick and the Hilltowns over the past 12 months. From new schools, to elections, a spying allegation and beyond, 2025 was a consequential year for Westfield and Southwick.
Overflowing crowd attends ribbon cutting for Westfield River Elementary School
Reminder Publishing file photo
Hundreds of residents, young and old, attended the ribbon cutting for the new Westfield River Elementary School on Jan. 18, which was hosted indoors in the foyer, with the ribbon on the stairs leading to the second floor.
Many of the families in the overflowing crowd waited to get in, among them second grader Mazon Cartagena, formerly of Abner Gibbs, who brought his father Jose Cartagena to see his new school. Asked how he liked Westfield River, Mazon nodded, saying, “There are bigger spaces to do stuff.” Westfield River Elementary opened for the first time on Jan. 6 to 404 students from the former Franklin Avenue and Abner Gibbs elementary schools.
Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski welcomed everyone to a celebration of the “first new school in Westfield in 25 years.”
He said the project began when George W. Bush was president in 2008. He spoke about his first visit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority with Purchasing Director Tammy Tefft, former Mayor Brian Sullivan, School Committee member Cindy Sullivan, who was present at the ceremony, and then Business Administrator Ron Rix. “We are seeing the results of that meeting,” he said.
Czaporowski said the shovels went in the ground in April 2023.
The total estimated cost of the school was $60.7 million. Legislation passed in 2023 allowed the state to increase its reimbursement for construction per square foot, and the MSBA contributed a total of $36.2 million toward the school.
Southwick Select Board member responds to spying allegation
Select Board member Russ Anderson responded to allegations made by former Select Board member Joseph Deedy that he had spied on Deedy and potentially violated state election laws during May’s Municipal Election during the board’s meeting on Aug. 11.
At a board meeting on July 28, Deedy made a number of allegations, including Anderson had spied on him while he was conducting business in Town Hall and that he was in Town Hall on the day of the annual municipal election.
He also responded to an allegation on social media made by John Cain, who ran for and lost by 20 votes the seat Anderson now holds, about potential ethical lapses regarding several members of his family being employed by the town.
Anderson responded to each of the allegations made by Deedy and Cain but also challenged the conduct of Deedy in his role as chair of the town’s Finance Committee.
Anderson he was in the process of calibrating the security system following a grant-funded update when he saw Deedy in the public lobby meeting with a contractor and later was given access to the clerk’s office by a town employee. Anderson said he reported the activity to Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker.
About Deedy’s and Cain’s allegation that he may have been watching the cameras on Election Day to possibly approach a few last-minute voters, Anderson said it was “baseless and irresponsible.”
Southwick superintendent responds to DESE report on racial bullying incidents
Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District Superintendent Jennifer Willard issued a statement in March on the findings of a report issued by the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education into the three racial bullying incidents that occurred at Southwick Regional School last year.
“We acknowledge the findings from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) who conducted a thorough investigation into how the district responded to the racial complaints during the 2023-2024 school year,” Willard wrote in an email.
Last February, the district began an internal investigation after it learned that two Black students were included as chattel in the “auction” conducted by six Southwick Regional School students between the ages of 13 and 14, including at least one girl on Snapchat beginning late Thursday, Feb. 8, and into the early hours of Friday, Feb. 9.
The mother of one of the Black students involved, Allyson Lopez, requested DESE investigate the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District’s response to three separate incidents of racial bullying involving her daughter during the school year.
The report went into specific details about the three individual incidents, two of which occurred at an unknown date in 2023, and the third — the slave auction — in February 2024.
In the 17-page report, each of the three incidents were examined by DESE to determine if administrators had followed the proper procedures in investigating and documenting the incidents.
DESE then addressed whether each of the three incidents had been handled correctly by the assistant principal.
For the first two, which involved the “n-word” being said in the presence of Lopez’s daughter, it found that because the assistant principal didn’t conduct an investigation, a bullying “determination” was not made and that the district didn’t follow Title VI rules, which is a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.
DESE found the district “failed to comply with [the Civil Rights Act] in this matter because the school knew, or should have known, of a hostile environment based on race — if not the first time the Student reported another’s use of a racial epithet, then certainly by the second time,” according to the report.
The DESE investigation confirmed that the district followed all applicable laws and procedures in addressing the February 2024 incident.
A Superior Court judge approved in early October a $50,000 settlement between the district and an attorney representing Lopez and her daughter according to court records.
Of the $50,000 settlement, $6,000 was deducted to cover attorneys’ cost and fees, according to court records. The $44,000 has been deposited in an education fund for Lopez’s daughter.
Company withdraws application for BESS in Westfield
Reminder Publishing file photo
At an April 25 press conference, Mayor Michael McCabe, joined by state Sen. John Velis and Community Development Director Peter Miller announced what he said would be good news for the residents of Westfield and surrounding communities.
The Streamfield Battery Energy Storage Site proposed by Jupiter Power overlapped the Barnes Aquifer, which has a recent and costly history of PFAS contamination. The project caused an outpouring from residents in Westfield and neighboring communities, who voiced their opposition to the plan at meetings and in other public forums.
The mayor said he had received a brief statement from the company that morning that also followed a recent meeting he had with Miller, Velis (D-Westfield) and Jack Godshall, chief financial officer of Jupiter Power, that he shared at the press conference.
Former mayor voted to council, another ousted in Westfield election
Nearly 20% of 29,308 registered voters, made their voices heard in Westfield’s municipal election where there were contested races for mayor, at large City Council and Ward 2 City Council.
Mayor Michael McCabe earned a third two-year term with 4,723 votes to 1,473 cast for challenger Andrew Mullen.
The biggest upset of the night was in the at large race, where challenger and former Mayor Daniel Knapik earned one of the seven available seats. Bumped from the City Council was incumbent and former Mayor Richard Sullivan Jr.
Top vote-getter in the at large race was Dan Allie with 2,974 votes, followed by Nicholas Morganelli Jr. with 2,901, James Adams with 2,798, Brent Bean II with 2,784, Kristen Mello with 2,744, Knapik with 2,693 and Cindy Harris with 2,690 votes, all of whom were elected.
Not elected were challenger Robert Parent, who was in the eighth spot with 2,600 votes, followed by Sullivan with 2,558, Christopher McCrary with 2,111 and John Bowen with 1,842 votes.
The only contested ward race was for Ward 2 on the City Council, where incumbent Ralph Figy defeated challenger Jessica Britton by 40 votes in a close decision, with Figy receiving 337 votes to Britton’s 297.
Running unchallenged and elected for another two-year term on the City Council was Karen Fanion in Ward 1, Bridget Matthews-Kane in Ward 3, Michael Burns in Ward 4, John Beltrandi, Jr. in Ward 5 and William Onyski in Ward 6.
Incumbent Kathleen Hillman received the most votes for School Committee with 3,454 votes, followed by Kick Sullivan with 3,386 and Jeffrey Gosselin with 3,159 votes. All three were elected to fill the three open four-year terms on the committee.
Elected for two-year terms on the Municipal Light Board in uncontested races were Thomas Fanion in Ward 1, Ray Rivera in Ward 2, Dawn Renaudette in Ward 3, William Parks in Ward 4, Robert Goyette, Jr. in Ward 5 and Robert Sacco in Ward 6.
Also elected for a six-year term as a Westfield Athenaeum trustee was Kathleen Knapik.
Smidy appointed to Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
Reminder Publishing file photo
Kristen Smidy of Westfield has been appointed to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, according to an announcement from the Healey-Driscoll administration on Sept. 22.
Smidy is a former teacher, principal and superintendent with nearly 20 years of experience as an educator in Massachusetts. She is currently an associate director for Accreditation and School Improvement on the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Public Schools, a position she began recently after serving as superintendent of the Gateway Regional School District for the past four years.
During her tenure as superintendent at Gateway, Smidy was an outspoken advocate for rural school funding and the needs of school districts in the small towns of Western Massachusetts. Of the eleven members on the board, three of whom are from Newton, two from Worcester, one from Hudson and the rest from the Greater Boston area, she will be the only representative from Western Mass.
