PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Mayoral candidates Peter Marchetti and John Krol weighed in on issues that face Pittsfield Public Schools during a Berkshire NAACP forum on Monday.

 

The district is in the midst of a restructuring study to determine its physical and educational future, with school consolidation and new grade alignments being possible outcomes.

 

Marchetti, the current City Council president, said that as a product of Morningside Community School, he knows the challenges of learning in an open space classroom.  This is the layout of the city's two community schools Morningside and Conte Community School, where the forum was held.

 

Upon taking office, he would immediately work with the School Building Needs Commission to address the schools if letters of intent have not yet been produced.

 

"When I say it's a shame that these buildings haven't been take care of it's not just those two schools," Marchetti said. "It's across the board, and the city needs to do a better job at infrastructure."

 

He added that part of the process would be having conversations with the community school teachers to ensure that they get the best possible classrooms that they can.

 

Krol, a former city councilor, is also against the open classroom model.

 

"The open classroom format is not working," he said. "We absolutely have to have a plan ultimately for Conte and Morningside and that has to be part of the overall infrastructure plan."

 

He claimed that Marchetti expressed interest in having one citywide high school during a forum hosted by a teacher's union the prior week.

 

"I disagree with that," Krol said. "So it looks like we need to be more clear as to what we're doing in high school education."

 

The candidate said that one of his prior petitions to look at renovations to Pittsfield High School after the $120 million renovation of Taconic High School's completion was ignored and that attention has to be brought back to the schools because the state will reimburse two-thirds of the capital investment.

 

Marchetti clarified that his comment about one high school was that it needed to be a discussion.

 

"In this campaign, we have twisted words, we have made insinuations, we're trying to get people to believe something that I've said that I didn't say," he said about his challenger. "I said we should explore one high school."

 

The candidates were asked how much they believe the city can depend on state funding for these projects and if they have a plan B for a source.

 

Marchetti said that the School Building Needs Authority has plenty of money and the city should have its projects ready, as with other citywide projects, because there are plenty of state and federal monies to receive.

Krol agreed. 

"The state does not have a shortfall of revenue so we should be aggressively going after this right now," Krol said. "Look, when you back to the 90s, we were lined up and ready to go on all of those projects and when the ship did come in and we were ready to roll, all those projects got finished."

 

He added that the city needs state funding so he will not ask for 100 percent of upgrades to come from taxpayers. He said there isn't a plan B.

 

A community member asked the candidates what they felt should be done with Pittsfield High School.  Taconic is transitioning to an all-vocational school, which has made people wonder about the fate of PHS and its need for repairs.

 

Krol said it is very clear that Pittsfield is a two-high school city because the potential to grow Taconic is so incredible that there must be a focus on vocational programs.  He would propose a new plumbing program, which would require adding on to the building, and said that the school could also use a barber program.

 

"But here's the thing, in the chapter 74 programs we get reimbursed $19,000 per student, and then if that student comes from outside of Pittsfield we get reimbursed an additional $19,000," he said. "So if you do the math there is a big potential for revenue generation and the demand is so high."

 

He added that there is great potential for a performing arts program at PHS and that the building needs some TLC.

 

Marchetti said that the city can pursue performing arts programming regardless of whether Pittsfield has one or two high schools.

 

He pointed to his opponent's promises of additional programming while cutting taxes and said he is not sure he could look a voter straight in the face and tell them he is going to add all of these extra programs and reduce the tax bill.

 

"If we get in office we have to have a conversation across the board," Marchetti said.

"The School Committee is currently looking at a consolidation plan. If that includes moving everything to one high school that is going to be a community conversation. That is not going to be something that this mayor or this School Committee does. It's a community conversation."

 

He added that the district has buildings like the Hibbard Alternative School building on Newell St. that are being used for storage regularly and if the city wants to stabilize the economy it could be given to a developer for more housing.

 

Last week, the United Educators of Pittsfield held a mayoral forum at Pittsfield High School that did not allow video recording. iBerkshires was not at the event.

 

Earlier this week, School Committee candidate William Garrity expressed that he felt one of Krol's statements during the conversation was problematic.  It was shared on social media and garnered some conversation.

 

On his blog, Garrity wrote:

 

"During his opening statement mayoral candidate John Krol made the following remarks that I feel is worth sharing:

 

"There's three different types of students in every single classroom, there are high performers, there are middle of the road, and then there are those who are on IEPs and those kids that also can be disruptions in our classrooms."

 

As a former student who was on an IEP throughout most of my time in the Pittsfield Public Schools, I find this remark highly offensive not only to me but to our students on IEPs in our district."

 

Garrity shared his own experiences as a person on the autism spectrum and his achievements socially and academically.  He ended his high school career in 2022 as Taconic's valedictorian.

 

"This remark was a slap in the face to me and to all the progress that I have achieved over the past several years and is certainly a slap in the face to our students on IEPs who have and still overcome many challenges that they face each and every day. I am highly offended that a mayoral candidate would even attempt to categorize students in such a way and to lump students on IEPs into the same category as disruptive students. I am highly offended that a mayoral candidate would even attempt to make IEP students their own category when discussing student achievement in classrooms, it implies that IEP students do not achieve as much as their non-IEP peers," he wrote. ?

 

"Students on IEPs are a very diverse group in of itself. Sure, there are some students on IEPs with behavioral issues, but there are IEP students who are on them for academic purposes and who just need some support to do the best that they can academically, and students who don't need much academic support but need more social and emotional supports. And there are the IEP students who have a physical disability and who need extra services to equitably access the same services as their other peers. The needs of IEP students differ greatly between each student and some, like me, have been known to be very high academic achievers. To paint a wide brush that these students are all the same and that that they are not high achievers or even "middle of the road" is ableist, plain and simple."

 

Over email, Krol said that he appreciates the writer's opinion but the statement he is quoting is taken "completely out of context" and that he was "by no means" associating children with IEPs with disruption.

 

"I am a Dad of five children in the public school system. I am very well aware of IEPs and their purpose. I should have chosen my words more carefully," he wrote.

 

"However, the fact of the matter is, many parents have contacted me throughout this campaign to express their concerns with regard to how their children's IEPs are not being serviced properly. This is why I raised it as an issue. I believe there is a direct correlation to lack of staffing and resources in the classrooms and the concerns parents are conveying to me. Clearly, this is a real issue and why it is imperative that we place more emphasis on providing more resources in the classrooms so that our children - all children - can be successful. I also encourage every parent to understand their rights and the rights of students with IEPs, and advocate for appropriate services."