Clarksburg Officials Debate Need for School Repairs, RenovationsBy Tammy Daniels , iBerkshires Staff
05:46PM / Thursday, January 16, 2025 | |
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — School officials acknowledged that Clarksburg School is need of renovation or rebuild but declined to commit at this point to plan of action. "We can't say that because it hasn't even been put out to the town," said School Committee member Cynthia Brule. "So I mean, we could say, 'yeah, I want a new school,' but it means nothing." The comments had come during a joint meeting of the Select Board and School Committee last week over what to do with the leaking roof. "We're dealing with a pretty leaky roof that's affecting several classrooms," said Superintendent John Franzoni. >> Read More |
Drury Selected as U.S. Presidential Scholar Nominee| 11:15AM / Monday, January 13, 2025 | |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Jacinta Felix, a senior at Drury High School, has been selected as a Massachusetts nominee for the U.S. Presidential Scholar Award, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) announced. Acting Commissioner Russell D. Johnston praised Felix's selection, which places her among the top students in the Commonwealth. The selection process was highly competitive, with submissions evaluated by the DESE review team in October. "We are thrilled to have Jacinta represent Massachusetts as one of our Presidential Scholar nominees," said Drury High School Principal Stephanie Kopala. "Her hard work and >> Read More |
Teacher of the Month: Kimberly Rougeau By Sabrina Damms, iBerkshires Staff
05:04PM / Sunday, January 12, 2025 | |
Kim Rougeau of Clarksburg School is January's Teacher of the Month. CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Clarksburg Elementary School third-grade teacher Kimberly Rougeau has been selected as the January Teacher of the Month. The Teacher of the Month series, in collaboration with Berkshire Community College, will run for the next five months and will feature distinguished teachers nominated by community members. You can nominate a teacher here. Rougeau attended Clarksburg School from kindergarten through eighth grade and fell in love with its small school feel and strong support system. Since then, she has returned to her alma mater to provide her students >> Read More |
MCLA's Essential Needs Center Ensures Student Don't Go WithoutBy Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
04:40PM / Saturday, January 11, 2025 | |
The center offers canned and refrigerated foods as well as meals-to-go and kitchen implements. NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — College can be busy and stressful with classes, sports, studying and activities — with little time in between to attend to basic needs. Especially for students who are far from support at home. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is ensuring that students have resources when they're running low on necessities like food and care items. That's how first-year student Isabella Fuller ended up working at the Essential Needs Center, or ENC, in the Amsler Campus Center. "I actually reached out to >> Read More |
North Adams Schools Prep for Budget, Review GrantsBy Tammy Daniels , iBerkshires Staff
05:45AM / Friday, January 10, 2025 | |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Committee was presented the timeline for the fiscal 2026 budget on Tuesday. "The cabinet and members of the district leadership team have been very, very busy with starting to kind of proactively prepare for FY 26 budget cycle," said Superintendent Barbara Malkas. "We're still in the area of some unknowns, not having yet received the governor's budget or, you know, an understanding of where Chapter 70 [state education aid] may land." Gov. Maura Healey is set to release her budget proposal on Jan. 22; the administration will meet with principals and department heads in February to develop a draft spending >> Read More |
Worldwide PowerSchool Breach Reaches Pittsfield, North Berkshire SchoolsBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
05:22PM / Thursday, January 09, 2025 | |
 PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Pittsfield Public Schools students and teachers had their personal information accessed as part of a worldwide PowerSchool breach. Mount Greylock Regional School District and Northern Berkshire School Union also reported some data was accessed. "This is not unique to the city of Pittsfield," Superintendent Joseph Curtis told the School Committee on Wednesday. "Every one of the 18,000 PowerSchool customers has experienced a data breach. We were informed yesterday with a very brief notice from PowerSchool and our technology department began to dig into the impact near immediately." The breach reportedly took place >> Read More |
North Adams School Committee OKs Search Panel, Ad for SuperintendentBy Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
12:39PM / Wednesday, January 08, 2025 | |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Committee on Tuesday approved a superintendent search committee and a brochure advertisement for the post. Superintendent Barbara Malkas will retire at the end of the fiscal year after nine years in the post. The committee had agreed last month to have two of its members on the search panel in addition to Mayor Jennifer Macksey, who will be chair. But members held off on deciding who will represent them when it became apparent more than two were interested. On Tuesday, Macksey pulled the names of David Sookey and Cody Chamberlain out of a bag. They had both shown strong interest last >> Read More |
NBSU OKs Administrator ContractsBy Tammy Daniels , iBerkshires Staff
05:30AM / Monday, December 23, 2024 | |
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The Northern Berkshire School Union Committee approved three-year contracts for two administrators and made plans for the departure of a third. The committee at its Thursday meeting, held virtually, voted the contracts for Assistant Superintendent Tara Barnes and Director of Information Technology Josh Arico. Business Administrator Lisa Blackmer gave her 90-day notice two weeks ago with final date of March 14. Her two-year contract was approved in December 2023. Both Arico and Barnes were applauded for their work and given everything they requested. Barnes will receive a 3 percent raise in each of the next three years, >> Read More |
Brayton Elementary and Berkshire Museum Bring Mobile Museum Units to Second Grade| 12:41PM / Sunday, December 22, 2024 | |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — North Adams Public Schools, in partnership with Berkshire Museum, announced a residency project beginning December 2024. This initiative will engage second-grade students at Brayton Elementary School with seven Mobile Museum Units (MoMUs), incorporating museum objects focused on science and social studies into their visual arts curriculum. "We are delighted that our second-grade students will have deep engagement with the new MoMU exhibits each month," said Danielle Bowe, visual art teacher at Brayton Elementary School. "It is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with Berkshire Museum to enrich our art curriculum with >> Read More |
Geothermal Tests Warm Greylock School Building PanelBy Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
05:27PM / Saturday, December 21, 2024 | |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Greylock School site has produced positive results for the planned geothermal system for the new school. Jesse Saylor of TSKP Studio, the school project designer, said the conductivity of the soils were comparable or better than three recent school completed in Connecticut. "We were able to create a geothermal test well, and we were able to find the conductivity of the soils," he told the School Building Committee on Tuesday. "What matters is that you can see the conductivity at the Greylock site is actually pretty good." The soil conductivity — it's ability to transfer heat — plays a role in >> Read More |
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