‘Re-imagining’ the Berkshire Hills School District
Great Barrington — School officials from the Berkshire Hills Regional School District invite community members to an idea-gathering session in which three task forces will be formed, on Saturday, June 20, from 9 to 2 p.m. at Monument Valley Regional Middle School, with lunch provided. Each task force will study separate tracks of the district’s educational vision, budget and facilities. The session is an opportunity to reflect on the District’s mission and its future, school officials say.
The idea for a multi-track task force was inspired by Monument Mountain Regional High School Principal Marianne Young, whose ideas for working simultaneously on the three tracks, gave Housatonic resident Dave Long the idea to formally draft up the mechanics for such action.
The impetus for coming to a place of community involvement and cohesion about the school district was two failed attempts to secure Great Barrington voter approval to renovate the 49-year-old high school, followed by a harrowing spring budget season.
Long said that the timing of Saturday’s session is unfortunate, with school ending and vacations beginning. Regardless, he said, “we’re in it for the long run. There are a lot of people interested.”
He said that the task force formation and Saturday’s session is a way to “help coordinate the vision behind the efforts that are already ongoing,” like the work being done to open and possibly alter the district agreement and funding formula for the schools. “Having this discussion open up is positive.”
He added that there has already been some planning to create surveys and outreach “to get opinions from people who can’t go to meetings. We want to affirm that we’re listening.”
To attend, please email scbannon@gmail.com or peter.dillon@bhrsd.org. Additional information is available at www.bhrsd.org.
— H.B.
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Reception at Lauren Clark Gallery celebrates Pilcer novel
Great Barrington – The serialization of Sonia Pilcer’s novel, “The Last Hotel,” will conclude this Friday in The Berkshire Edge. To celebrate the 39-week collaboration, The Edge is hosting a reading and reception June 28 at the Lauren Clark Fire Art Gallery in Great Barrington.
More than a year ago, author Sonia Pilcer and Edge editor David Scribner started talking. Both were nostalgic for the serialization of novels. They recalled Dickens, Armistead Maupin, Stephen King. Deep in the darkest November days, the Berkshire Edge began its weekly installments. We’ve just finished serializing all 39 Suites of THE LAST HOTEL.
Here are some of the comments about this nove: “Bittersweet, funny. Human and humane. A movie surely awaits.” — Anne Roiphe
“Love this novel! Just wonderful! I have been lamenting how much more fun NYC was for me in the early 80s when I first moved here, and The Last Hotel just brought it all back.” — Caroline Leavitt
“Sonia Pilcer writes with wit and deep tenderness as she precisely evokes the vanished world of a small West Side residential hotel filled with zany eccentrics and lost souls. You will laugh and you will feel your throat catch with hurt, but you will be absorbed throughout.” — Joseph Berger
Please join us for a festive celebration and reading: Sunday, June 28, 2 to 3:30 at Lauren Clark Gallery, 25 Railroad St., Great Barrington.
— D.S.
