The parties know that this cleanup could be better, but they have balanced the waste reduction improvement, the monetary compensation and expeditious start of cleanup against the risks of continued litigation.
At last Thursday’s school committee meeting, Rich Dohoney of Great Barrington proposed that Berkshire Hills issue a written request to its member towns, along with the Southern Berkshire Regional School District and its own member towns, to form a planning board "for the purpose of either forming, or consolidating into, a regional high school district to serve grades 9-12."
Based in New York City, Nancy Lorenz incorporates techniques from traditional Asian crafts, drawing on her years spent living in Japan and a 35-year career as a contemporary abstract painter.
The driving force behind regional school reform is enrollments, which are dropping at an alarming pace. Berkshire County school districts saw enrollment losses of 22 percent between 2000 and 2015.
"As soon as it was announced, we had people on the ground. We started speaking with people and urging them to share their stories about how this affects them." --Jeff Lowenstein, Berkshire Interfaith Organizing
At its regular meeting Thursday night, the Southern Berkshire Regional School Committee voted to form a subcommittee whose title would be "The Future of Education in Southern Berkshire County."
State Rep. William ‘Smitty’ Pignatelli also urged the task force to increase the breadth of its representation: "We don't need retired school superintendents making decisions about schools and towns ... It's time for new faces, and we need to engage everyone."
"The real question is whether thoughtful creative educators are thinking creatively about the consolidation and how to make the most of this [potential] change."
-- Susan Engel, director of the Program in Teaching at Williams College, and a former member ot the Southern Berkshire Regional School Committee
"Once we started doing our work, a clear consensus evolved that the one-district option presented the best opportunities for education and improved financial sustainability for the school districts." --John Hockridge, chair of the Berkshire County Education Task Force
