PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Candidates for the School Committee weighed in on transparency, district restructuring, and other issues during the Oct. 16 debate hosted by Pittsfield Community Television and iBerkshires. 

Nine community members are running to fill the committee's six seats: Ciara Batory, Sarah Muil, Daniel Elias, Katherine Yon, Jacob Klein, Geoffrey Buerger, Heather McNiece, Vicky Smith, and Carolyn Barry.  The debate, moderated by iBerkshires Bureau Chief Brittany Polito, was held at Berkshire Community College's Boland Theater. (See coverage of their opening statements here.)

The Pittsfield High School staffing scandal, which began to unfold at the end of 2024, was a passionate topic. There were allegations of misconduct following the arrest of a dean on drug charges; a state and a private investigation commissioned by city found the allegations could not be substantiated. 

Batory said as a parent, she was sitting on the stage because of the lack of transparency regarding the PHS report. 

"We spent $155,000 of taxpayers' money. That is the people's report, and we should have been able to read it. I get a redacted version. No student's name should be on there, but if you work in the Pittsfield Public School system, your name should have been on there, and that report belongs to the people," she said. 

"I had a state order from Massachusetts for them to release the report from me. The next day, they released a summary. I don't know how they expect us to trust them when they did a bait and switch. They wasted taxpayers' dollars. I also would like to see an itemized bill for the $155,000. I want to know how many price quotes they got, and also, the people that they did hire, did have affiliations with Pittsfield, so I feel like that was a total disservice to this community and I feel like everybody on the School Committee really lost a lot of trust and transparency, and I feel like that's a huge reason why we now are missing 180 students. I wanted to choice my kids out, but instead, I'm up here because I love this community and I'm not leaving the kids of Pittsfield behind." 

Elias said the committee was "really handcuffed," and he was looking for the state to OK the report's release. Batory chimed in, "They did say that." 

The district was ordered to release non-exempt parts of the PHS investigation report after Batory filed a public records request, and in June, the state office of public records determined that the PPS met its burden to withhold public records when a city councilor requested the investigation's final report. 

Elias said the ruling validated the School Committee's concerns, and "Certainly, we have to learn from everything that transpired here. Many things are going to have to take place for some of these things not to happen in the future." He later added that he is worried about this affecting individuals' willingness to participate if another investigation were to occur, and the possibility of minors being identified if the PHS report were released. 

"Obviously, this is a very difficult topic, and there is no blueprint for what we encountered in dealing with this. We owe it to the public, but also the individuals that were accused and to everyone involved to do it with some level of decency and complete transparency, and trying to do so," he said. 

"We were actually the first to release this type of summary. When you look at the statewide, this has not been done before. We were in uncharted waters. We, as a School Committee, were very worried about potentially being sued by a number of different people. I've been here for a long time. I've seen when we make rash decisions or bad judgments that we get in trouble for. I did not want to be in that kind of predicament. I don't like being first at anything, and we were looking to be the first to do this. We did release that summary, and we are the first to do so. My only wish is now, after the fact that we did it earlier."

Muil said the cost was "astronomical" and the process needed to be more transparent. She recognized that it was a "very difficult" situation for students and staff members right out of the gate. 

"But I also look to the students and the staff at the school to see how they're doing and to understand how they're handling it, and students really came out saying that they were in support of their school and their administrators and they wanted to just move forward and move on from that," she said. 

"And I think that we definitely need to do more in the future. We need to have more oversight. I think that was a big part of it, very large. A very large lack of oversight was happening." 

Klein, a senior at PHS, stressed the importance of listening to students. He said the situation shook them to the very core, and that concerns about safety need to be addressed. 

"If our students don't feel safe in school, then we failed as a system, and we have to listen to our students' concerns, because sometimes they're actually very serious," he said. 

"And I believe if we all listen a bit more, it will make for a better district." 

Barry was not satisfied with the results of the investigation. 

"Was it cost-effective with the students? No, I don't think we got anything out of it," she said. 

"Obviously. We were promised it was to be made public, and it wasn't, and it just brings out distrust if you're not going to be doing things like that."

Batory later said, as a parent, she genuinely wants Pittsfield to succeed and to be proud to send her kids to its schools.

"And at one point, as a parent, I did want to choice my kids out, and I talked to my husband about it. My kids are my everything, and not everyone comes home to love, and we need to give our kids love, and we need to give them an education, and we need to give them hope, because we don't have a lot of that right now," she said. 

"We just went through super dark times with everything that went on with PHS. Parents don't trust us, and we need to bring back transparency." 

The district is currently working on restructuring its middle schools, with the School Committee over the summer voting 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. 

Elias said the "only" solution going forward is the middle school restructuring, and recognized that it needs to be done correctly in a time frame that works. 

Muil, a member of the Middle School Restructuring Committee, feels it will help streamline professional development for educators, encourage more equitable programming for middle school students, and help to rebuild trust and family engagement in schools. 

"I think that's incredibly important, and any issues, as far as bussing goes, I'm really hopeful that those are able to be taken care of soon, so that we can have a plan, so that we are able to move forward with this," she added. 

"And as far as the educational goals and quality of offerings, I think that the ideas that were put into place will be successful because it is really looking at the interest of the children and what they're interested in doing, and the programming that will be able to be provided through professional development with the teaching staff." 

During the time for follow-up responses, McNiece cited her time teaching strategies for success courses at Taconic High School and at the middle school level in Lenox. 

"I think it's brilliant," she said, speaking about the restructuring. 

"I think that for a long time I felt like I was teaching ninth-grade students computer applications and presentation skills that they should have learned years prior, but their middle school teachers are burdened by all of the other things that they have to teach," she said, explaining that the restructuring is the perfect place to bring those kinds of classes back.

"… Also speaking on retention, I agree with what was said earlier. I think that it will be a way that we can keep our students here in Pittsfield for middle school, because I think families can get on board with this new idea. I think it's very exciting." 

Bus transportation has been a common concern with the middle school restructuring.  Barry cited how it was worked out during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding "I think that the bussing can be worked out." 

When asked if schools are performing at an acceptable level, and if the community's perception of the district matches reality, Smith said she would like to have the acceptable level defined, "And acceptable to who?"  

"We have some students who are acceptable in the class because they play the school game really well. If the school game is to be compliant, sit down, do what you're told, there are some kids that play that game really well, but boy, are they struggling inside. There's a whole lot more going on," she said. 

"… I have a parent that I'm working with right now, who loves the middle school the way it is, but I was on the middle school restructuring committee as well, and we had parents come and talk about the struggles that their kids are going through, so there's a lot of cultural things, and they see it differently. So again, we'll get those students together, we'll get those families together, we'll figure this out and say, what does that look like when kids really thrive, and how will we be able to demonstrate that?" 

Barry does not feel that schools are performing at an acceptable level. She believes it comes down to looking at what students are going through, such as discipline problems. 

"There are some students there that don't know how to read, and yet they keep getting passed and passed and passed, so I think some things really need to be looked at," she said. 

During follow-up time, she said the city is losing up to $4 million each year to school choice and reported hearing a community member say that people are voting with their feet because students and teachers are running out of the district, "And we need to work to retain that." 

"And as far as the discipline and the middle schools, if you are being bullied say, in sixth or seventh grade, and you're moving those students to a new school, if you haven't figured out what the discipline problems are, the student is still going to not want to go to school because he's got the same bully going after him," Barry said. 

It was reported at the Oct. 8 School Committee meeting that nearly half of PHS students are missing more than 10 percent of school days every year, or they are chronically absent. Yon said the district has to make sure it is counting the right absences and connecting with families. 

"We have to find out exactly what the figures are, and then we have to find out why aren't they coming to school? Maybe they're not working in something that is their passion, could be that, they're not finding what they need to find in school," she said. 

"…You have to have some kind of relationship with the family. These workers are outreach workers. They do go to homes to find out what is wrong. Is the student really ill? Maybe there's something serious here, or maybe it's psychological, but anyway, that's what you have to first, find out why they are absent and then what else can you do about it?" 

Klein said attendance is a serious concern, but as a person with health problems, the district needs to make sure that when students are sick or having health issues, the school system can support them while in recovery and catch the student up in a way that meets their needs. 

He doesn't believe that students who skip school are doing so just to cause trouble. 

"I think there's a deeper problem here. I think there's a lack of interest, and there's a foundational break in these students," he said. 

"We have to find ways to get them motivated, because if they're motivated to learn, they're just going to be learning and learning and learning, and they're going to be looking so forward to going to school, and it starts with the students, it starts with the teachers, and it starts with us all coming together." 

The School Committee has also endorsed a three-zone, long-term option for reorganizing and consolidating the district's elementary schools. In the same spirit, the district is nearing the feasibility phase for a proposed rebuild of Crosby, Conte, and possibly Stearns schools on West Street. 

Smith substituted in all of the district's schools before running for School Committee the first time, and cited the importance of equitable facilities for student success. 

She said that PPS needs to take better care of its schools because children deserve it. 

"I was so saddened and kind of a deep sense of anger that they would have a school like Crosby falling apart, designed for junior high, having these little kindergarteners going and having to go down the hall to a bathroom, and then go across town where classrooms had their own bathrooms, and everybody's bragging about their achievement there," she said. 

"There's such an inequity, so I know that that's going to be considered, that was part of the decision making with this, but is it a reflection of this community? Do we care enough about all of our kids to help them all thrive that we're not going to allow those kinds of facilities, that ones that we have that are deteriorating?" 

Buerger recognized that the attendance zone map is still in the stage of being an "amorphous blob," but the reorganization needs to happen. He said the city "absolutely" has to move forward with the Crosby/Conte project, as well as take stock of the needs of all PPS buildings. 

"So it's not just that the PHS parking lot is like the surface of the moon. It's at Pittsfield High, which has wonderful teachers and fabulous students, is dingy and institutional and desperately needs a facelift, and ever since the extension, the roof has leaked, and that every school has its own issues," he said. 

"If you looked at our budget, the school district budget has only $27,000 for the needs of the buildings, and that doesn't begin to address a single one."

He added that Taconic, completed in 2018, has deferred maintenance issues that need to be addressed right away.

McNiece likes the idea of consolidating the schools and adding new facilities to meet the needs of students and thinks it is the best plan moving forward. Though she would like to see a way for school traditions to transfer over, similar to moving your belongings when you buy a new home. 

"I was part of moving from an old school that was leaky and old and dingy into a new school that's bright and shiny, and I think a lot of things were missed between moving from the old Taconic into the new Taconic, because there was a lot of tradition in that building, there was a lot of places where people felt they belonged in that building, and there was a sense of ownership and a sense of a home away from home when you were in that building," she said. 

"And when we moved into a brand new shiny building, we lost that, and we weren't the first people to ever move into a brand new building." 

Speaking about teacher retention, Yon said one of the major problems is discipline in the classrooms. 

"If you can get good mentors to come in and really build a rapport with the teachers," she said. 

"You need to have affinity groups, too. Get the affinity groups going, that's another really good thing, I think, to do, get the similarities in the people and keep them together." 

She said the district has 101 new hires and would like to see them all stay. 

Buerger said the short answer to retention problems is that the Pittsfield Public Schools are a bad employer, pointing to several systematic hiring and furloughing practices that led him to this determination. 

"Teachers have experienced the abuse of administrative leave. When you have more than a dozen who finished the year still in limbo, that's a systemic problem that is on the district. There's been in the district a history of retaliation. We have blindsided educators at the end of the year so when a colleague receives the pink slip rather publicly two days before the end of school, that's not only unprofessional, that's cruel, and when we have a teacher whose skills may need improvement, they should be on an improvement plan and had an opportunity to address those weaknesses instead of then just simply discarded at the end, but discard we do. We treat our people as if they are disposable," he said. 

"We delay the conferring of professional status for ridiculous reasons. I'd love to go into detail about that. We had teachers who left at the end of the year in the summer because they didn't receive a letter. We intended to give them a letter, but it wasn't received in a timely fashion. They had to go somewhere else. There are no exit interviews conducted to find out why teachers leave, and the actual numbers for all of these things are suppressed."

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