From the Desk of Superintendent Peter Dillon

Berkshire Hills Regional School District (BHRSD)

As we all get ready for Town Meeting, we're eager to share our budget for approval in our three towns: Great Barrington, Stockbridge and West Stockbridge. As you may know, the School Committee unanimously approved our budget and each town's Selectboard and Finance Committee endorsed it. Our budget is on our website and in each town library. We also have copies in my office. Increases are largely driven by contractual obligations, transportation contracts, and utility rates. We look forward to seeing you at Town Meeting.

We have some other great news. The Massachusetts School Building Authority voted this past Wednesday to let us proceed to the feasibility study phase for our high school project. This means that we will first hire an owner's project manager and then architects/designers to evaluate possibilities for a new or renovated high school. They will work with two tests of numbers: 485 students for a three town high school and 620 students for a potential eight town high school.

It will be great to have a building that supports our wonderful students. As college and post-secondary decisions are being finalized, we are seeing students chose some wonderful opportunities including: Cornell (3) Dartmouth (2), Tulane (2), Northeastern (2), Wesleyan, Wheaton, St. John's, UMass Amherst (12), BCC (12), HVCC, Air Force, work at Haddad's, and many others. We will be sharing our 5 year admissions report in the next month or so after seniors finalize their decisions.

As always, feel free to reach out to me with any questions — Peter.Dillon@bhrsd.org

For future updates, I'll share some details on our shifts in learning and teaching and outcomes at the 9th and 10th grade levels.

Photo: Lionel Delevingne