Pittsfield Council Reviewing School Feasibility Request

The City Council is being asked to approve $1.3 million to embark on a feasibility study of Taconic High School.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Long-awaited options for addressing the city's high school building needs may be available by next year, pending City Council approval of a partially reimbursed expenditure of $1.3 million to pursue a state-mandated design feasibility study.

The council referred the appropriation for review by the finance subcommittee on April 25.

"It's been a long process, multiple years long," School Committee member Kathy Amuso, who also chairs the School Building Needs Commission, told the council Tuesday.  "This really is an exciting prospect that we are entering into for the next phase of our high school project." 

At the end of the process, which is expected to take 10 to 12 months from its start date, Amuso said, the city will have eight options for either replacement or major renovation of its Taconic High School building, based on a recently approved educational plan for the school.

Skanska, a major national construction firm that conducted a $200,000 pre-feasibility study for the commission in the spring of 2011, will be retained to manage the project.

The state requires this design phase in order to qualify for up to 78 percent reimbursement for the total cost of the high school project from the Massachusetts State Building Authority.

"This is the next step that we have to do to get into the feasibility stage," Amuso told the council, which will examine the finer points of the phase on April 25.

The appropriation includes budgeting for $100,000 of environmental testing in researching both options of renovating the existing Taconic building or replacing it with a new one at the same site.  

The total budget is what was considered to be the maximum costs of the services necessary to complete the required phase, and the project may come in at less than the $1.3 million Mayor Daniel Bianchi has asked the council to authorize.

"This is an estimate based on other vocational high school projects," Bianchi told the council.

The MSBA determined in 2009 that the Taconic school building, though 39 years younger than Pittsfield High School, was in more dire need of complete overhaul, including redevelopment of its vocational educational programs.

This current design phase has been waiting for approval of an educational plan that was hotly debated by the Public School Committee over several months, after an initial plan put forth by the building needs commission drew fire from some local businesses who opposed the removal of the auto body and metal fabrication programs.

Pittsfield Holds Second Master Plan Workshop

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:43PM / Wednesday, April 01, 2026

Participants added notes to the sectors — such as transportation, open space and neighborhoods — being reviewed by the Master Plan Steering Committee. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass.— The city is about halfway through developing its new master plan, and held a second community workshop this past Thursday. 

"Basically, we're talking to people from Pittsfield and trying to figure out, among a broad sector of issues that affect us, what is our goal and vision for the next 10 years, where we want Pittsfield to be in 10 years, and what changes do we want to see?" Director of Community Development Justine Dodds explained to about 20 community members and city staff at Conte Community School. 

"That will be broken down into some goals and objectives and then some measurable action items that we can all take as a community to move that forward."  

The Pittsfield Master Plan is the policy guide for future physical development, covering land use, infrastructure, sustainability, and more. The plan was last updated in 2009, and Pittsfield has engaged the VHB engineering firm and CommunityScale consultants to bring it through 2036. 

There have been two public listening sessions, a Master Plan Advisory Committee guiding the work, and small focus groups for each section. On poster boards, residents were able to see and mark the draft goals and actions under six themes: economic development, housing opportunities, transportation and infrastructure, environment and open space, neighborhoods and community, and governance and collaboration. 

In November 2025, community members participated in a similar exercise at City Hall. 

Transportation and infrastructure had several notes on them. Suggestions included using infrastructure to address the urban heat island effect, a light rail system, and continuing to implement Complete Streets standards for roadway construction projects. 

"I want to ride my bike to my friend's house safely," one respondent wrote. 

Under economic development, people suggested digital business infrastructure for the downtown, food hall opportunities, and nightlife opportunities.