Pittsfield School Building Commission to Review Its CompositionBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
06:39PM / Wednesday, February 05, 2025 | |
 Frank LaRagione, right, is elected co-chair of the School Building Needs Commission. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Does the structure of the School Building Needs Commission fit its upcoming role for a school construction project? This will be explored as deadlines for the proposed Crosby/Conte build approach.
On Tuesday, Commissioner Brendan Sheran said he has been thinking about whether the present order will support the group moving forward into a project. It will be further discussed next month.
"A couple of things sparked that in my mind over the last year and a half, one of which is that at times, we've had difficulty getting a quorum," he said. "But also this is an order, not an ordinance. The School Building Needs Commission is not in the city code or the city charter."
The district is seeking funding for a combined build of Crosby Elementary School and Silvio O. Conte Community School at 517 West St. The eligibility period invitation is for grades prekindergarten to 5 and the potential to examine the consolidation of Crosby with Conte and relocating fifth-grade students from the two elementary schools to the middle schools, serving prekindergarten to fourth grade.
The Crosby/Conte plan has the potential to house grades prekindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another, with both maintaining their own identities and administrations.
The Massachusetts School Building Authority has accepted the district's statement of interest into its queue and several boxes must be checked before the City Council votes on a feasibility study by Halloween.
Sheran wondered if the current composition, such as the number of members and who they represent, is right for the possibly upcoming project. He also pointed out that the order doesn't have a provision for a co-chair or a vice chair, clarifying, "I don't know the answer to any of these questions that I raised."
"I think a look at this will be helpful for the group as we move forward. Certainly, right now, it doesn't seem like we would end up needing to have meetings every other week or even sometimes monthly but as we progress toward a project, it's going to be a lot more," he said.
"I also wonder if it would be prudent to have a provision in here for subcommittees unless we can just do that as a practice that other council groups might do, but I think there's a variety of things we want to probably discuss and think about if a change is necessary."
The committee has 11 mayoral appointments and six appointments from the superintendent. Later in the meeting, Frank LaRagione was elected co-chair and his long tenure of involvement with school planning projects was highlighted.
"I do feel it's critically important to ensure continuity in case there's conflicts that we do have a co-chair as the project moves forward, subcommittee management, etc.," Superintendent Joseph Curtis said.
Mayor Peter Marchetti said he has no problem reaching out to his appointees to make sure they still want to serve on the commission and remind them they are responsible for showing up.
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