GREENFIELD — Wednesday marked the first day of school for Greenfield students, and administrators are excited to kick off the 2025-2026 school year with a number of new learning initiatives.
Groups of students walked side by side into the high school Wednesday morning after the bus doors opened and the school bell sounded. According to Greenfield High School Principal Michael Browning, the school saw improved first-day attendance this year, with only 12 of the school’s roughly 430 students absent on the first day.
“One of the things that we are always keeping on our minds is attendance. It’s always exciting to see kids here the first day and we’ve had great attendance today, which is huge as that’s one of our initiatives we’re working on,” Browning said. “It’s a step in the right direction, and for us to see that kids want to be here is always exciting. … We’re ready for a great year with these guys, and seeing the excitement on their faces coming in, it just gets us all excited as well.”
According to data from the 2024 Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) School Report Card, students at Greenfield High School, as well as within the Greenfield School Department as a whole, missed more school days on average than their peers across the state. The Massachusetts average for the number of days missed by a student in 2024 was 12.3 days, compared to Greenfield High School’s 19 days. In 2022 and 2023, Greenfield High School students missed an average of 22 and 15.7 school days, respectively — numbers that were also higher than the state averages for those years.
This school year also marks the launch of Greenfield High School’s four-year advanced manufacturing course, which came about through a Innovation Career Pathways designation from the Healey-Driscoll administration. These programs give students the opportunity to participate in work-based learning in high demand industries they may want to pursue, while also bolstering workforce pipelines to meet the needs of employers
in areas such as advanced manufacturing, information technology, environmental and life sciences, and health care, at no cost to the students.
Browning said the advanced manufacturing program will allow students to gain hands-on experience in the industry by their junior year and later pursue internships.
“For us, advanced manufacturing is the first area that we decided we would go with. There’s several different pathways you can choose, and we started with this because we just knew there are some good, natural connections in the community,” he said. “We can’t wait to see it grow, because you can continue to add on other pathways and things like health tech or the green industry. … We’re excited about getting this going.”
At dismissal, senior Nate Woodard, who serves on the city’s Human Rights Commission, said he noticed a positive energy in the air, that his peers seemed more engaged, and that the classrooms and hallways have a newfound vitality.
“It’s great that we have the same administrators so students are familiar with them and can interact with them more comfortably. … It really seems like the school is growing and the atmosphere is just more positive and energetic,” Woodard said. “I’m really excited to see where the year takes us.”
Sophomore Dylan Geyer, who transferred to Greenfield High School from Ralph C. Mahar Regional School in Orange, said he enjoyed his first day of school in Greenfield and that he had made a couple friends.
“This school’s a lot bigger — there’s a lot more people and a better community,” he said. “The teachers really seem to care about you.”
With more than seven staffing vacancies in the district roughly two weeks before the first day of school, interim Superintendent Roland Joyal said Tuesday evening that most of the positions had already been filled.
“We’ve had some good success with our cafeteria workers and we have hired many of our instructional assistants. There’s a few left, I think we still need two or three, but I was talking with our Special Education Department today, and I know our teachers were looking to fill a last-minute math and music vacancy,” he said Tuesday. “They were doing some interviews this morning and early afternoon today, so hopefully we can have some new teachers in place for our students within a couple days.”
Joyal echoed Browning’s remarks, saying teachers “are really excited to get back to work and see everybody,” and students “will be glad to be back in school among their peers.”