PITTSFIELD, Mass.— The finance subcommittee unanimously supported borrowing up to $2 million for the Crosby feasibility study. 

It will go to the full council for final approval, and is expected to take up to a year.  This would gauge the possibility of rebuilding Silvio O. Conte Community School and John C. Crosby Elementary on the West Street site with shared facilities.

"It's a very involved process. We went to several meetings. The City Council went to several meetings, including we toured the facilities. This is the next step in the process. If I recall we haven't built a new elementary school since 1970-something," Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren said at the Monday meeting. 

"…So long and short of it is those who are coming in late, it may look like a lot of money, and I guarantee you, there will be people who have alternatives that the city should have looked at, which actually they already did. So I think we've got to move Pittsfield forward. I think we need new buildings." 

When the project was proposed last year, officials and community members toured the approximately 69,000-square-foot schools that are more than 50 years old. Crosby, built as a middle school, boasts cracked windows that were repaired with duct tape, and Conte is an open-concept school that doesn't align with modern safety and educational needs. 

The study, estimated to cost about $1.5 million, is a part of the 80 percent reimbursable costs from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which accepted the project into its queue late last year.

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.  Running parallel to the effort is the proposed middle school restructuring, which would create an upper elementary school for grades 5-6 and a junior high school for grades 7-8 by the 2026-2027 academic year.

Recognizing that "We've done a lot of planning," Warren asked if this step is the no-turn-back point. 

"I guess to phrase it the way that you did, yes. This is one step in the process spelled out by the [MSBA] assistance program," Finance Director Matthew Kerwood explained. 

"As you indicated, we were invited into the program. The discussion has been around the future of the Crosby campus. We were invited by the state to participate. We made an application that came before the City Council, and you approved it. It was submitted. We've been providing them with information that's required, demographic information, student information, building permit information, a whole bunch of information relative to the demographics and community profile. This is the next step, which is appropriating the funds required for the feasibility study that allows you to go more in depth to actually get to the point where you're talking about the physical infrastructure that would be located on the site." 

Warren pointed out that the district has been told that once in the system, if it doesn't go forward with the project, it would not be looked on favorably for future ones. 

"This is a process that every community has to go through that's looking to construct, renovate a new school using the state's assistance," Kerwood added. 

"Because ultimately, when we get to the end of this, it's about  receiving grant money from the state to assist us in the construction of whatever the campus would look like." 

Approving the feasibility study provides the city with a mechanism to start the roughly yearlong process, judging from the timeframe of the Taconic High School study. 

Several community members voiced concerns around transportation and the well-being of students. 

"I'm worried that after reviewing even the feedback from the last meeting that we had, that the cons still are outweighing the pros of the restructuring. The logistics of the bussing is still a huge issue.  I haven't seen anything about what the plan is going forward," resident Amy Randio said. 

"…I just kind of feel like it's being rushed. The 26-27 school year is just right around the corner, and I feel like that's a really big plan that you have to come up with in order to make this happen. I understand that you need to have Crosby Elementary rebuilt, and that this is the proposal that you came up with, but I feel like you should also have come up with another alternative to compare it with, so that way, maybe there was something else that we could do instead of forcing this." 

She also has concerns for the foundation of staffing, as the Pittsfield Public Schools will have a new interim superintendent and assistant superintendent. 

Michele Rivers-Murphy, a former middle school administrator, voiced concerns about the number of building transitions this model includes. 

"This new configuration will require students to transition a total of three times within six years. In fact, multiple studies associate school transition with negative impacts to our students," she said. 

"Decreased academic achievement, harmful student social-emotional outcomes, an increase in negative student behavior, bullying, discipline interactions, suspensions, expulsions, fewer positive student teacher relationships, which are so critical in our times, it only takes one adult to be a support system to a student and change the trajectory of their experience, and of course, instruction. The continuity of instruction, collaboration, and communication among more grade levels will be lost. There's also unnecessary cultural challenges, such as school families being broken up and loss of parent support." 

Heather Ogle, who has two small children in the district, said, "The things that we are navigating with our children are unlike other generations." 

"Our children have navigated COVID and there are so many repercussions for what they are socially experiencing at the ages that my children are at, and the transitions of learning how to be friends and students and what is right and what is wrong in the public system that we have now with parents who are overloaded in a community that is very broken apart amidst a lot of unrest within the Pittsfield public school system," she said. 

"We're overwhelmed. I appreciate and I'm open to new ideas, but this is not enough time for the parents and the children to have to navigate a lot of change on top of a lot of change that they have already navigated. It's been very difficult." 

Middle School Restructuring Committee member Sarah Muil appreciated the feedback, "But I feel like, having been part of the restructuring committee, people don't respect the amount of time and effort that we put into this whole thing." 

"We did consider all of the things that people are bringing up, and that there are plans that are being made in the moment right now for bussing, for all of the concerns that are being brought up, and I think as far as bringing CTE into the middle schools, that's also part of the curriculum that we discussed in our restructuring committee meetings," she said. 

"So I just want people to maybe step back and look at those minutes and read through the things that we've already been working through as a group of people. There were 20 of us, maybe more, that worked on the restructuring committee, and we really dedicated our free time to doing this and I want people to respect the fact that we took the time to think of all of these things, and that's why we have these open forums for people to come and talk about their concerns." 

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