PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The school district is approaching its progress point that will determine if the middle schools will restructure next school year. 

A Committee of the Whole meeting is planned the week after Thanksgiving so that city officials and community members are up to date when a decision is made on Dec. 10, the last School Committee meeting of the year. 

"The intent here is not to drop the program without any prior discussion on Dec. 10, but rather also to give the School Committee and the community at large more information about where the work stands at that point, and also to enable the School Committee to have any input or ask any pointed questions or general questions," Chair William Cameron explained. 

Superintendent Latifah Phillips provided an update on the restructuring process during Wednesday's School Committee meeting. 

Over the summer, the committee voted to create an upper elementary school for Grades 5-6 and a junior high school for Grades 7-8 by the 2026-2027 academic year. A stipulation was added that if goals in the Middle School Restructuring Committee's timeline are not met by the December meeting, it will be delayed one year. 

They then decided that Herberg will house Grades 5-6 and Reid will be home to Grades 7-8 when the middle schools restructure. 

Working groups have reviewed the district's elementary and middle schools and visited Reid and Herberg middle schools to see the physical spaces. They also examined self-contained, departmentalized, and interdisciplinary fifth-grade program models to get a general idea of the grade experience in Pittsfield Public Schools.  

There are two self-contained schools where one teacher handles all subjects, several schools have departmentalized programs where teachers divide the subjects, and interdisciplinary programs with one teacher for each content area are most common. 

Phillips said it was important to see the current teacher experience across the district's fifth-grade classrooms to inform recommendations for a grade 5-6 campus. 

They visited Parker Middle School (Grades 5 and 6) and McCarthy Middle School (Grades 7 and 8) in Chelmsford, and have another visit scheduled in Westfield at the end of the month. The next working group and advisory meeting will be held next week. 

"We will probably have to tier our changes, right? So we can't do everything the first year, but we need to talk about what we can do the first year, and then what we will continue to plan toward for the second, third years, and so forth," Phillips explained. 

She outlined the priorities for November, which include engagement sessions with teachers and community members. 

"We do plan to have an immediate session with families, and then in a couple of weeks, a follow-up one. Because right now we still have limited information, but it is important for us to hear from our families what their hopes are, what their anxieties are," she explained. 

"And I know that the prior committee did some of this work, but it's important for our current team to make sure that we're making a decision that's aligned with both our teachers' expectations as well as our families." 

The interim superintendent proposed a special meeting before the Dec. 10 vote, and committee members agreed. Phillips will request that the meeting be set. 

In September, the committee endorsed the examination of a three-zone, long-term option for reorganizing and consolidating the elementary level.  

The Pittsfield Public Schools are seeking funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a rebuild and consolidation of John C. Crosby Elementary and Silvio O. Conte Community School on the Crosby property. 

Stearns Elementary School was not included in Crosby/Conte planning documents sent to the MSBA, but it has become part of the conversation after it was observed that the three-zone plan absorbs the school into the new building. 

The quasi-independent government entity said the consolidation of the three schools could be considered in the feasibility study, but funding would only cover Crosby and Conte, the schools that were included in the letter of intent. 

Phillips also received proposed enrollment numbers, which took decreasing enrollment into account.  The consolidation of Conte and Crosby was approved for 435 students, and for the three schools, 595 students. 

After some research, PPS sent a counterproposal for the MSBA to consider transfer numbers. 

"One thing I've learned about Pittsfield is that we, just from my experience, have a large number of students who are transferring outside of our district through the choice transfer program and we also found that we had quite a few students transferring to other schools within our district who were enrolled for Conte or Crosby, and so for out of district enrollment, we found that 69 students were enrolled for Crosby but attending another district. We found that 32 were zoned for Conte, but attending another district, and then 27 were enrolled for Stearns, but attending another district," Phillips reported. 

"Now the MSBA shared with us that they did take that into account when they gave us the numbers I shared with you, but we also asked them to take into account that we have students choosing another school in the district outside of Conte and Crosby, and we had calculated 175 students zoned for the West Side that were attending another school in the district." 

She explained that once the district hears back from the MSBA, they will have to move quickly to accept the numbers.  The response could be a "yes" to adjusting enrollments or that they will stick with the proposed numbers. 

The hope is that Pittsfield will be approved for extra seats at the school. 

Cameron clarified that the additional cost to add Stearns to the project would be on the city, not the entire project. 

"The city is not on the hook for the whole project if we put Stearns in, but we don't have any idea what the cost would be, nor does anybody else at this point, which is why we're going to spend nine months looking into these different options," he said. 

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