East Longmeadow High School graduate Nathan LaFlamme receives a scholarship worth about $193,000 from Army ROTC Col. Travis Wright, while Superintendent Gordon Smith looks on.
Photo credit: ELCAT
EAST LONGMEADOW — The School Committee approved the 2025-26 program of studies for East Longmeadow High School, which included a work-study program. At the June 24 meeting, Principal Frank Paige delivered an update on the program’s development.
Paige explained that the eight-credit program offers students the opportunity to experience working in the community while in school.
Students must work at least seven hours per week, but it can be scheduled to meet the employer’s and student’s needs. The student can bring an existing employer into the program, or the school can pair a student with a business. Employers provide feedback, which is incorporated into the student’s grade. In the first year, students must take an independent study block at the end of the day. After that, the block is only required if a student’s grades or attendance is not “up to par,” Paige said. So far, there are 35 students enrolled in the program.
As part of the program, School Committee member Sarah Truoiolo said that students will learn how to read a pay stub at the beginning of the school year. She asked if there would be follow-up financial literacy taught at the end of the year. “Not every student knows, when they leave high school, how to save for a 403B or a 401K,” she said, adding that she wanted to ensure the district was “setting them up to be successful.” Paige said there is an elective financial literacy course. He has been urged to make it a graduation requirement but said there is already a “pretty robust” set of requirements and not everything can be included.
Superintendent Gordon Smith said the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which initially left criteria for graduation to school districts, is taking a more pronounced role in the process. While the district already included criteria that were added for the class of 2026’s competency determination, members of the class of 2027 will need to have passed a one-year history course to graduate. The requirement was incorporated into the newest East Longmeadow High School program of studies. Smith said the topic will likely come before the School Committee again, as DESE outlines more competency requirements for future graduates.
During the meeting’s public comment period, Ava Brooks, a fourth grader at Mountain View School, addressed the School Committee. Brooks learned of the personnel cuts implemented to meet the fiscal year 2026 budget restrictions.
“Some really great teachers are not going to be back next year,” she said. She asked why fifth grade teacher Alexandra McNulty and art teacher Sophia Kajka were “being taken away.” She also lamented not being able to take robotics next year as both the teacher, Amanda Emet, and the program have been cut. “It makes me feel bad because you cut the programs because you think that we don’t care about these, but we do,” Brooks said. She was also troubled that the students had not known about the cuts until the end of the school year. She said, “You left us in the dark and nobody knew how to act. Do you care that you hurt us?”
School Committee member Aimee Dalenta told Brooks she was brave to speak to the committee and School Committee Chair Gregory Thompson thanked the 10-year-old. “We look at all these things with the same kind of eye and as personal as you do,” he said, explaining, “Unfortunately, sometimes it comes down to money and not being able to afford all the teachers.” He added, “You’re so well-spoken, clearly your family is doing something right, but also the educational system is doing something right.”
Smith took a moment to commend East Longmeadow High School graduate Nathan LaFlamme, who received a scholarship worth about $193,000 from Col. Travis Wright of the Army ROTC headquartered at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Of the roughly 25,000 students who apply for Army ROTC scholarships each year, only 2,000 are awarded.
Describing LaFlamme as an “exceptional student,” Wright told him, “You’ve earned this.”
LaFlamme is slated to attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the fall. After joining the school’s ROTC program and completing his first year, the scholarship will pay for the remaining three years at the school. Post-graduation, LaFlamme will enter the Army as a commissioned officer and serve an obligation of eight years.
