“Global Learning Charter Public School (GLCPS), a tuition-free public charter school that currently services 500 students in grades 5-12, recently sponsored students Natalie Teixeira and Rosa Nieto-Hernandez at the Brown University Leadership Institute.

Both students chose to attend the Women in Leadership course which included readings, assignments, independent study and discussions.

Teixeira learned how to speak to others in a professional and respectful way while getting across her point and being her authentic self. She also learned how culture relates to becoming a leader, how to read and retain important information and the impact that women in leadership roles have on others. She is interested in pursuing a career in animation and film. “This class helped give me the strength and confidence to move forward with making changes that happen slowly,” said Teixeira.

Nieto-Hernandez enjoyed the on campus experience and meeting new friends from around the world including Thailand and London. One of her assignments was to develop an action plan to help an underserved community. Her project addressed the high illiteracy rate in her native country of El Salvador. She said the program really opened her eyes to the many facets of women in leadership and learned that it is not about being perfect but about helping others to grow. She is considering a major in psychology to help other people.

“We congratulate Natalie and Rosa on taking on the challenge of this program,” said Dr. Stephen Furtado, Executive Director of GLCPS. “Both students felt the program exceeded their expectations and introduced them to new ideas and experiences. Natalie and Rosa are thinking about their futures and how they can have an impact on the world. We are pleased to be able to offer these opportunities to our students.”

GLCPS is a tuition-free public charter school serving 500 New Bedford students in Grades 5-12. Students are enrolled through a blind lottery. Additional information is available on the school’s website, www.glcps.org. For more information, please contact the school at (508) 991-4105.”

“November’s full moon can be seen this upcoming Sunday and is known as the “Beaver Moon”.

It likely got its nickname from beavers being active as they prepare for winter by building their winter dams, stockpiling food, and putting on weight at this time of year.

Beavers play an important role in New England’s ecology. Learn about beavers, their ability to transform the landscape, and how to deal with beaver problems.

Beavers in Massachusetts
Beavers are common and abundant throughout most of Massachusetts. They are becoming increasingly common in southeastern Massachusetts, but are still absent from Cape Cod and the islands. Since European settlement, more than half of the wetlands in the lower 48 states have been lost. By damming streams and forming shallow ponds, beavers create wetlands. These wetlands provide habitat for a tremendous diversity of plants, invertebrates, and wildlife. People benefit too. Wetlands control downstream flooding by storing and slowly releasing floodwater. They also improve water quality by removing or transforming excess nutrients, trapping silt, binding and removing toxic chemicals, and filtering out sediment.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife photo.

Description
Beavers are North America’s largest native rodents, weighing between 35 and 80 pounds as adults. They can be 2–3 feet in length, with an additional 10–18 inches for the tail. Males and females are similar in size. Beavers have dark brown to reddish brown fur. Large, webbed hind feet and a flat, wide leathery tail help them to move swiftly in water. An animal often mistaken for the beaver is the much smaller muskrat, which is another aquatic rodent. However, muskrats weigh only 2–3 pounds and have a narrow, rat-like tail.

Life history
Adult beavers have few predators and may live up to 20 years or more. They stay with the same mate for life and breed during winter (January through March). The females give birth to 1–9 kits inside a lodge between April and June. These kits stay with their parents through two winters before dispersing the following spring. A single family unit is called a colony, and is typically made up of 6–8 individuals; two adults, that year’s kits, and the young from the previous year.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife photo.

Food, habits, and habitat
Beavers are strict vegetarians. They feed on a variety of aquatic plants (especially water lilies) and the shoots, twigs, leaves, roots, and bark of woody plants. The bark, particularly the inner bark of trees and shrubs, are important foods, especially in winter. Aspen, birch, alder, and willow are particularly favored foods. Beavers favor habitat containing shrubs and softwood trees, flat terrain, and perennial streams that can be dammed to create ponds. They are unique among wild mammals in that they alter their habitat to meet their needs. They do this primarily by damming up small rivers and streams to form ponds.

Tips for residents
There are five main options for resolving conflicts with beavers.

Tolerance
People who learn to tolerate a certain amount of beaver influence on their land generally find that co-existing with beavers provides far more benefits than perceived harm. Beaver create excellent wetland habitats that benefit a huge diversity of plant and animal life.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife photo.

Exclosures
Fencing can provide a long-term solution, while preserving the beneficial aspects of beavers. The most effective way to protect specific trees and shrubs is to construct exclosures around them. These exclosures should be constructed of heavy-gauge fencing, be a minimum of 4 feet tall, and be flush with the ground. To protect larger areas, such as orchards or nurseries, standard fencing is usually sufficient since beavers are poor climbers, rarely burrow under fences, and generally don’t chew fencing unless it is wrapped tightly around trees or shrubs.

Breaching and removing the dam*
Dam breaching is an immediate, but short-term solution to flooding problems caused by beaver. If beaver remain at a site during a dam breach, they will be cued by the sound of escaping water, and will usually rebuild the damaged dam quickly, sometimes overnight.

Water level control devices (WLCD)*
Sometime referred to as “beaver pipes,” WLCDs can regulate water at desirable levels behind dams. By successfully installing an effective WLCD, the life of a beaver wetland, and its associated benefits, can be prolonged. WLCDs require regular maintenance and may not be effective in all situations.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife photo.

Lethal removal*
Beavers are an important natural resource in Massachusetts. They are classified as a furbearer species, for which a regulated trapping season and management program have been established. Removal of problem beavers can be a quick way to alleviate beaver problems when done by an experienced trapper. Beavers can be trapped during the open season (November 1 – April 15) by a licensed trapper using permissible traps (i.e. box or cage-type traps). By removing beaver during the regulated trapping season they can be used as a natural resource. An Emergency Permit is needed to trap beavers with restricted traps (i.e. body-gripping traps, “Conibear” traps) and to trap beaver outside the regulated trapping season. It is against state law to capture and release beaver into another area.

*These options require permits or a trapping license. Learn more about how to get the right permits by reading A Citizen’s Guide to Addressing Beaver Conflicts.

If you are experiencing problems with beavers or have questions, contact your nearest Masswildlife office.”-Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife.

The following is an opinion sent to New Bedford Guide. It does not reflect the opinion of New Bedford Guide, nor is it an OP-ED. In fairness and objectivity, we share opinions from our readers whether we agree or disagree with their opinion.

Do you have a counter opinion to this opinion? Have an opinion about something else? Email us at info@newbedfordguide.com.

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“Reading articles about college students who are unable to pay for food brings to mind the tribulations of one of my dearest deceased friends. Always protective of her privacy I shall honor her without disclosing her name.

As often happens between close and caring friends she shared the details of her college days at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst, where she obtained her several degrees.She was from a Cape Verdean working class family whose mother died when she was ten years old, leaving her father to support his children on one income.

From age ten until she qualified to attend the university she worked, after school hours and during the summers, cleaning houses, cranberry bogging, tending to her younger siblings and dealing with racial bigotry.

Also from an early age she showed an incredible scholastic ability and obtained outstanding grades enabling an easy entry into the university.

Despite all adversity and lack of monetary assistance she made it through her four years, but not without difficulty nourishing herself on weekends when her school dining card didn’t cover meals. In order to eat on the weekends she would take extra boxes of cereal during the week to have something to tide her over until Monday mornings.

I now wonder how many students who can barely cover their tuition, housing and book expenses, are forced to find ways to nourish themselves sufficiently to pursue their studies and dreams.

My friend withstood so many obstacles but she ultimately, with advanced degrees and an abiding concern for struggling students, devoted her career to academia, accumulating honor, respect and most importantly appreciation from hundreds of students.

How many people who have the potential to contribute significantly to our society are denied access to higher education due to the outrageous cost of a college education? And even if the costs for their studies are covered through scholarships or loans, clearly food insecurity ultimately defeats their aspirations.”-Betty Ussach, Dartmouth.

In a video produced by New Bedford Cable Network, local historian, Arthur Motta explains the origin of New Bedford’s “City Seal”. The first seal originated in 1847 and was a crudely drawn depiction of Clarks Point lighthouse. The seal read “I am diffusing light” which was not only a reference to the lighthouse itself, but to the city of New Bedford as the whaling city which lit the world.

This 5 minute video is full of interesting historical facts and is well worth the watch!

The “New Bedford Votes Youth Empowerment Program” is not only getting the youth interested in local politics, but it is giving them paid jobs to work as poll workers during elections.

New Bedford election commissioner, Manny DeBrito and Ward 4 City Councilor Derek Baptiste took a different approach to spark interest into the youth during a poll worker training event.

Rather than going through the motions at a training session on a rainy Saturday morning that most likely none of the kids wanted to actually attend, Manny and Derek took this opportunity to deliver powerful messages to the kids about how local government changed their lives.

The kids were quickly engaged once the Ward 4 Councilor stood up and began speaking about his life journey. At one point he was almost brought to tears speaking on the trials and tribulations he has experienced growing up in a rough neighborhood.

The most touching part of the whole experience was when both men began speaking about former New Bedford Mayor, Fred Kalisz. They reflected on how Mayor Kalisz truly made an impact on their life and entire neighborhood from bringing busses full of kids to their first concerts and sporting events, to building basketball courts in their neighborhoods.

I felt like I had to ask them afterwards why they felt it was important to tell the kids about Mayor Kalisz.

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What could of been a quick and boring training on how to be a poll worker, turned into a deeply meaningful conversation that will leave this group of kids with a much better understanding of how important the process of an election truly is.

I also believe it is important to clarify that neither Manny DeBrito or Derek Baptiste ever even remotely hinted as to who to vote for, or which political party is superior than the other. The entire premise was speaking on how a former mayor changed their lives and how they want to do the same for the next generation.

Want to learn more about the “NB Votes Youth Empowerment Program”? Checkout the video below!

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The kids at the Boys & Girls Club of New Bedford couldn’t contain their excitement when PC Friars basketball star and projected 2nd round draft pick, Bryce Hopkins walked into the gym on Wednesday afternoon. He was accompanied with PC Friars woman’s basketball standout, Grace Efosa.

They spoke to the kids, answered a bunch of wholesome questions, and then played with them in the gym for about an hour. As I mentioned, the excitement and wholesome levels were at an all time high. Below is a video of the kids cheering for Bryce to dunk, he almost blew the roof off the gym when he threw it down!

Once all of the tee shirts were signed and most of the kids have been picked up by their parents, I asked Bryce and Grace for a quick interview. They were happy answer a few questions before they headed out to the Fall River Boys & Girls Club!

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Big shout out to Southcoast Health, The Boys & Girls Club of New Bedford, and the Providence Friars for organizing all of this for the kids! There is no doubt that this made a bunch of kids weeks, and they will most likely be talking about this experience for a long time, especially if Bryce puts together a successful career in the NBA!

Tucked west inside the busy New Bedford Harbor lies an island that began with a grim history. The land was first used as an internment camp for indigenous people during King Philip’s War in 1675-76. Most of these Individuals were later sold into slavery in the West Indies after the war.

Almost 200 years later in 1843 when New Bedford was the whaling capital of the world, it was decided the harbor needed a lighthouse to help guide the hundreds of ships passing through on a daily basis.

Palmers Island, named after one of the first settlers of Dartmouth, William Palmer was deemed prime real estate for this project. On August 30th 1849 A lighthouse was built on the northern point of the island by Charles M. Pierce who was a local mason.

Like most of the United States lighthouses at that time, the lamps were fueled by world class New Bedford whale oil.

The island was much larger back in the day, and believe it or not in the 1860’s a hotel and dance hall was built on the south side of the island. The hotel survived almost 30 years but eventually closed down due to the illegal activity that began to take place from returning whalers.

After the hotel closed in the early 1890’s an amusement park was built on the island. The park failed after only a few years and everything was burned down in a fire in 1905. The lighthouse continued operating throughout the years with various “lighthouse keepers” working to keep the light shining.

It was a flawless operation until tragedy struck in September of 1938 when a hurricane hit shore.

A gigantic wave swept the lighthouse keeper Arthur Small into the New Bedford Harbor. In a heroic attempt to save her husband, Mabel Small, an expert boatswoman lost her life to the storm. Her body was later recovered on the shore of Fairhaven.

In 1963 a massive hurricane wall was built to protect the New Bedford Harbor which essentially deemed Palmers Lighthouse useless. For the next 36 years there were few attempts to renovate the lighthouse but it continued to be vandalized and remained dark through most of the 1990’s.

In April 1999 Hillary Clinton named New Bedford an official Millennium Community of the White House Millenium Council to “Honor the past and imagine the future”. It was decided that restoring palmers island lighthouse would be New Bedford’s mission.

After a full restoration project, a large crowd gathered on August 30th, 1999 to witness the relighting of palmers island lighthouse….. 150 years to the day after its first lighting in 1849.

Mayor Fred Kalisz famously said in a proclamation “This shall be remembered by the citizens of New Bedford as the day they reaffirmed their ties to the sea, and indeed, to the world.

The video below highlights how the island and lighthouse looks current day!

“President James Benson and Vice Principal for Academics Dan Dias of Bishop Stang High School announced today that William Kippe has been named a Commended Students in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program. A Letter of Commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) has been presented to one of our scholastically talented seniors.

About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Commended Students were selected after placing among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2024 competition by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®).

“Those being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success,” commented a spokesperson for NMSC. “These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success.”

A member of the championship-caliber Golf team at Stang, William hopes to pursue a business degree in college and continue on to law school. “Everyone is so proud of William for his outstanding presence at Bishop Stang… Academically, athletically, and above all personally, he is a strong member of our community.”

Bishop Stand photo.

Tackling learning loss & achievement gaps are the focus of district plans.

“The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released the 2022–2023 statewide accountability results that include achievement and growth scores from both ACCESS and MCAS testing. The accountability results also measure progress in the areas of attendance, graduation and dropout rates, and advanced coursework.

For New Bedford Public Schools, accountability measures set a new baseline compared to 2019, the last time a full accountability report was issued. District results summarize scores seen across New Bedford schools with some schools landing above the state average and some below.

Interim Superintendent Andrew O’Leary noted, “MCAS offers a consistent measure of student achievement and compared to 2019 most of our schools have either maintained or seen a decreased number of students meeting or exceeding expectations. This very clearly demands a focused plan for recovery. We’ve got work to do.”

When compared to the pre-pandemic rate of English Language Arts (ELA) achievement for students in Grades 3-8, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations has dropped from 34 to 24 percent.

Mathematics achievement has experienced a similar 10 percent drop, from 32 to 22 percent, for students taking the MCAS in Grades 3-8.

However, 10th Grade ELA performance has improved slightly during that same period, from 24 to 25 percent of students meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations. High school mathematics is down from 20 to 16 percent.

NBPS is building goals and targets starting from these accountability results, recognizing that learning loss and achievement gaps must be overcome.

Specific district actions underway this year include:

• A dedicated Academic Achievement Subcommittee to monitor academic progress
• Strategic professional development for all staff in culturally and linguistically sustaining teaching practices
• Prioritization of specific student groups who may need more support to meet and exceed grade-level standards
• Internal accountability systems overseen by a District Instructional Leadership Team
• Progress monitoring in partnership with MADESE’s Office of the Statewide System of Support
• Strategic support and monitoring of individual School Improvement Plans.

Although New Bedford Public Schools exceeded DESE’s targets set for improvement of chronic absenteeism, the DESE targets still represent a rate of chronic absenteeism that will make recovery from learning loss difficult to improve. “We need students in school every day for the 180 days of the school year. Even when a child has perfect attendance, they are in school less days than they are out of school during the 365 days of the year,” urges Interim Deputy Superintendent, Darcie Aungst. “Attendance matters.” “Our students are amazing and they can achieve at grade-level and beyond and good attendance is the first step in doing so.”

Families will be receiving their child’s individual state report cards in October and the Interim Deputy Superintendent, Darcie Aungst encourages families to partner with their child’s teacher and schools to ensure that all New Bedford students achieve at grade-level and beyond.

MCAS, as well as all other accountability measures for NBPS and for all of Massachusetts school districts, are published on the DESE website.”

According to reporting from the Boston Globe, Massachusetts education leaders are creating a new pipeline to develop and open more charter schools across the state. In a recently released article titled “Massachusetts education leaders hope to jump start a new era of charter school growth” they noted,

“The expansion will focus on districts with room to add new charter schools under state law, which limits the amount of school spending that can go towards charter school tuition. Those districts include Brockton, Lowell, New Bedford, Pittsfield, and Worcester.”

In 2016 there was a ballot question named the “Massachusetts Charter School Expansion Initiative”. This aimed to give the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education the “authority to lift the cap and allow up to 12 new charter schools or to expand existing charter schools each year”.

Over 2 million voters (60%) voted against this initiative in the 2016 election and it did not pass.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association was strongly campaigning against the idea of more charter schools in Massachusetts. After the landmark vote, MTA President Barbara Madeloni was extremely vocal,

“Our victory in Massachusetts sends a signal across the nation that public education is not for sale and that we can beat back the assault on our schools, colleges and universities.”

In the Boston Globe article they claim that “state education leaders and many policy experts have long considered charter schools a critical ingredient in helping academically struggling students”.

It is also known that Massachusetts has among the highest-performing charter schools nationwide. So the question is, should New Bedford and other Massachusetts cities look to add more charter schools to their community, or focus more on the public schools we already have in place?