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Patrick Muraca, left, and Dr. Massimo Loda pose for photos.
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Randy Cormier, left, performed a song in honor of Friday's school shooting victims.
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Gerald Doyle, left, James Ruberto, Mayor Daniel Bianchi, Loda and Muraca.
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Loda with his plaque.
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Members of Nuclea and the Jimmy Fund.

Cancer Research Chair Named for Pittsfield's Paul Dowd

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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Patrick Muraca, CEO of Nuclea Biotechnologies, presents Dr. Massimo Loda with a plaque from the Jimmy Fund on Loda's being named the first Paul M. Dowd Chair of Molecular Oncologic Pathology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Decades of effort on behalf of children with cancer have intersected with cutting-edge medicine with the creation of the Paul M. Dowd Chair of Molecular Oncologic Pathology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Named for a founder and longtime activist with the Jimmy Fund Council of The Berkshires, the chair is designed to "strengthen the connections" between the Jimmy Fund, Dana-Farber, Boston and Pittsfield, said Nuclea President and CEO Pat Muraca.
 
"The support this community gives has been overwhelming," said Patrick Muraca, a member of the local council's Executive Board and strong financial supporter of the Jimmy Fund.
 
The establishment of the chair by Nuclea Biotechnologies of Pittsfield was announced on Sunday at a celebration at the Berkshire Museum attended local officials and representatives from the Jimmy Fund and Nuclea. Nuclea specializes in data collation and diagnostic testing, including research into molecular oncology therapeutics and diagnostics.
 
Muraca introduced the first recipient of the chair, Dr. Massimo Loda, director of the Center for Molecular Oncologic Pathology at Dana-Farber, as a "doctor's doctor" because of the pathologist's critical role in determining types of cancer for oncologists to treat.
 
"The next step for pathology was molecular pathology — to further our understanding of the disease by sophisticated molecular means, but also very expensive molecular means," said Loda. However, "the funding has not been as important or as forthcoming as it was a few years ago so Pat's intervention was instrumental in setting up this center for molecular oncology pathology."
 
Mayor Daniel Bianchi said looking for a cure to cancer "is just about the most important role we can do" and thanked Muraca for his leadership and ingenuity. 
 
"We're very appreciative of your generosity in endowing this chair and your big-heartedness in naming it after Paul Dowd."
 
An ailing Dowd himself was unable to attend; he's currently with his daughter in North Carolina. But the former city councilor's colleagues in city government and from the Jimmy Fund turned out for the event, including former Mayors James Ruberto and Gerald Doyle and former and current council Presidents Gerry Lee and Kevin Sherman. 
 
"He has a heart as big as the Grand Canyon," said James Mazzer, longtime friend and executive vice president of the Berkshire County Jimmy Fund. Suzanne Fountain, assistant vice president and director of the Jimmy Fund, also spoke.
 
Suzanne Fountain of the Jimmy Fund presents Muraca with a framed 'Thank You' picture from the children aided by the fund at Dana-Farber.
Dowd arrived in Pittsfield as a minor league player with the Red Sox in the mid-'60s and fell in love and married a city girl. He went to work for Western Massachusetts Electric Co., coached Little League, spent four terms on the City Council and was instrumental in organizing the local Jimmy Fund. 
 
Mazzer said the Berkshires council is one of the oldest in New England and well represented in Boston. Dowd may be miles away but he remains active by phone, he said.
 
"For a guy who wasn't born in Pittsfield, and who wasn't from the Berkshires originally, I can't think of anyone else that Berkshire County could be more proud of," said Mazzer, who later said Dowd, who beat cancer years ago, was overwhelmed on learning the chair was being named in his honor. 
 
The setting amongst the annual Festival of Trees displays in the Crane Room was merry but the gathering took a moment "to reflect a measure of hope and healing to our neighbors in Newtown, Conn.," said emcee Peter Larkin. 
 
Singer/songwriter Randy Cormier sang an original composition in memory of the shooting victims. State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing noted that Dec. 14 was the 20th anniversary of the shootings at Simon's Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington that killed two and injured four.
 
"We know intimately in this community the impact that a shooting — although much smaller in this case — can have on a community," said Downing. "And I know all our thoughts and prayers are with those families through those horrible times."
 
Those tragedies were senseless, and so is cancer, said Downing, leaving people feeling helpless. The representatives from the various local and medical entities gathered in the room were a reminder that working together can solve problems, and further the search for a cancer cure.
 
Loda said that was the mission: finding a cure.
 
"I dedicate this chair to the patients because we are there with a mission," said the doctor. "And the mission is to cure cancer and get rid of this disease and to help patients who do have cancer with their suffering."

Tags: cancer,   cancer research,   Jimmy Fund,   Nuclea,   

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Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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