Pittsfield.com

Last week, the Policy Subcommittee started a discussion on revising policy COM-31 Visitors to Schools to address non-teacher orders placed online or on the phone and delivered through apps such as DoorDash.

Superintendent Joseph Curtis proposed some reorganization of the policy for clarity and the addition of language stating that service delivery drivers are not permitted on school grounds or inside of schools to fulfill students' orders.

"My intention this evening was just to start a dialogue with the subcommittee in response to the discussion about food deliveries for

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Governor Announces MassReconnect, Workforce Development Investments

08:00AM / Sunday, March 05, 2023

CHARLESTOWN, Mass. — Governor Maura T. Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kimberley Driscoll announced that their Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) budget will include funding to create the MassReconnect program, which will cover the cost of community college for all Massachusetts resident aged 25 or older without an equivalent credential. The budget's funding, announced at Bunker Hill Community College, also includes several other investments in education and workforce development programs, such as Early College and Innovation Pathways, the Community College SUCCESS fund, the Healthcare Worker Training and AFL-CIO Workforce Development programs, Career Technical Institutes and

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BArT Annual 'Get BArT Smart Fundraiser'

05:06PM / Saturday, March 04, 2023

ADAMS, Mass. — Berkshire Arts & Technology (BArT) Charter Public School is holding its annual fundraiser, Get BART Smart, on Saturday, April 1 from 6:00 - 9:30 pm at One Commercial Street in Adams. Get BArT Smart features a trivia experience, individuals and teams of up to 6 will travel from classroom to classroom throughout the evening for trivia and team projects served up by BArT educators. "For 16 years, BArT has invited adults to participate in Get BArT Smart," said Jay White, BArT's Executive Director. "It's an exciting evening of testing your knowledge and smarts, all while eating, competing to win prizes, and having a great time

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BCC Welcomes Vice President of Institutional Advancement

04:01PM / Friday, March 03, 2023

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Community College (BCC) has named Louise Lydon as Vice President for Institutional Advancement (VPIA). "I am thrilled to be joining Berkshire Community College. As I learn more about the school and its historic connections to Berkshire County, I am struck by the depth of passion that everyone I met has for BCC," Lydon said. "Clearly, BCC is a special place." Lydon has spent more than 20 years in higher education advancement roles, working at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania; George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; and, most recently, as the Assistant Dean for Law Advancement at The Catholic

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Registration for Summer Courses at MCLA Now Available

01:47PM / Thursday, March 02, 2023

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) announced that registration for summer class sessions is now open. Registration is open to MCLA students, interested community members, high school students, those pursuing a master's degree, and Berkshires-based college students who wish to earn credits toward their degree from another institution. MCLA is offering two summer sessions, held in North Adams, Pittsfield, and online. Session A runs May 22–June 30, 2023, and Session B runs July 3–August 11, 2023. MCLA now offers more than 50 online courses, along with summer evening courses, to accommodate the schedules

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Pittsfield Schools Look to Improve Attendance

By Sabrina Damms, iBerkshires Staff
10:41AM / Wednesday, March 01, 2023

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The district has had improvement in absences this year versus last year's overall attendance rate, Deputy Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa said during last week's school committee meeting. Morningside Community and Stearns Elementary had some stability from last year as there was not much fluctuation in the numbers. Both Crosby Academy and Eagle Academy had significant gains in attendance rates from last year, said Mendonsa, crediting a work on building a greater sense of belonging and community. Crosby Academy’s attendance rate increased to 91.8 percent from 86.4 percent last year and Eagle Academy's rate

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Pittsfield School Committee Votes to Adopt Language & Literacy program

By Sabrina Damms, iBerkshires Staff
05:21PM / Friday, February 24, 2023

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee voted to pilot the "Imagine Learning: Language & Literacy" program last week. This is a supplemental computer-based English language program for multilingual students that is available in 12 languages for kindergarten through eighth grade. It was piloted at Morningside Community and Williams Elementary schools but has since been integrated into all the elementary schools and expanded into the middle schools. The program does not include the Afghan language Dari but the Curriculum Department has applied for a grant for some resources that are geared toward Dari speakers in the school

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Pittsfield School Committee Pilots New Special Ed Program

By Sabrina Damms, iBerkshires Staff
05:14AM / Wednesday, February 22, 2023

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee last week voted to pilot the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Relational Training System. For the past seven years, teachers have been looking at different programs to assist in educating children with disabilities. The program is designed to be used with students in "substantially separate" classrooms to teach basic and advanced language skills to students diagnosed with autism. Many of these students have severe cognitive needs, some of which are nonverbal, in the classroom. Teachers requested to pilot the PEAK system because they were struggling meeting the needs of these students

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Town Officials Want More Input Into Central Berkshire School Budget

By Sabrina Damms, iBerkshires Staff
05:07PM / Tuesday, February 21, 2023

DALTON, Mass. — Elected town officials encouraged the Central Berkshire Regional School District to work on reducing its budget and being more open to collaboration with the towns that fund it. "We want to get ahead of that so you're aware of what we want to have as a town," said Select Board Chair Joseph Diver at Thursday's public hearing on the fiscal 2024 budget. "And I think the other general comment is I heard over the years that the School Committee members serve students and not the residents of the town who you have been elected by. "I believe that you need to represent the towns that you're elected by and understand

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Pittsfield School Committee to Discuss Phone Policy

By Sabrina Damms, iBerkshires Staff
05:27AM / Monday, February 20, 2023

PITTSFIELD, Mass — Pittsfield students can expect a discussion on cell phone usage at a future School Committee meeting. School Committee Chair William Cameron asked it be added to a future agenda, saying cell phone usage has been a problem for many years. "I think just about any teacher in the system or any administrator would be able to speak at length about the kinds of problems that cell phones present in schools create," the retired superintendent said. Although he has heard about teachers using smart phones as a teaching tool, he wonders whether they are more a source of disruption. The school district's current

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