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The proposed footprint of the BArT expansion is seen in dark green.
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Bo and Katherine Peabody and North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright, right, follow Saturday's ceremony.

BArT Honors 'Co-Founder' Bo Peabody

By Stephen DravisWilliamstown Correspondent
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Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School celebrated the contributions of Bo Peabody and the creation of a Peabody Science Lab in the school's new addition. Graduate Alexandra Perkins talks about the school's impact on her life.

ADAMS, Mass. — From day one, entrepreneur and philanthropoist Bo Peabody has been a major benefactor of the Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School.

But some of his most important contributions have not come from a checkbook.

On Saturday evening, BArT honored Bo and Katherine Peabody, and the talk was less about money than moral support.

"People who know me know I like to talk about our wonderful Board of Trustees," BArT Executive Director Julia Bowen said. "I also have my personal board of directors. My husband is the chair, but Bo is definitely on that executive committee."

Repeatedly, Saturday's narrative returned to Peabody's guidance, which helped the charter school navigate unchartered waters and overcome a rocky start to establish a strong foundation and a tradition of success in just a decade.

"We were a startup, and Bo is very in tune with what how to run a startup," Bowen said of the 1994 Williams College graduate whose first company, Tripod, was the eighth-largest site on the Internet when it was sold to Lycos in 1998 for a reported $58 million.

Today, the school that struggled to find a home in 2004 is growing in every way. Earlier this year, it received permission from the commonwealth to raise its enrollment cap from 308 to 363 students. Last week, it hired a project manager for an addition to its Commercial Street building.

And on Saturday, BArT announced the creation of the Bo and Katherine Peabody Science Lab, which will be operational on the first day of school in August.

"When we fitted out this building, we had financial constraints," said Pamela Johnson, a co-founder of BArT and chairman of its board. "We were a startup. We had to make tradeoffs, and one of those tradeoffs was not to have a science lab.

"Over the past 10 years, it's become increasingly obvious to everyone that what's known as the STEM subjects —science, technology, engineering and math — are critically important to the competitiveness of the country, to creating the high-paying jobs that are going to be worth doing and we know we want to make those available to our students as they go to college."

BArT already prides itself on its math and technology programs. In 2012, it was one of four high schools in Massachusetts at which 100 percent of the sophomore class achieved grades of proficient or advanced on the math and English MCAS test.

And even without a science lab of its own, the school has been able to provide opportunities for its students.

"We're very grateful to MCLA for sharing their science labs with us," Johnson said. "It's been a wonderful cooperation.

"But we're ready to take the next step."

BArT's mission is to prepare its students to take the next step in their education. Every BArT graduate has completed at least one college course during his or her high school career and each earns acceptance to at least one two- or four-year college or university as a graduation requirement.

It accomplishes those goals with a student body that is 60 percent from low-income homes, 20 percent classified as special education students, 10 percent from the foster care system and "a growing number of students for whom English is a second language," Bowen said.

One former "at-risk" student told her story at Saturday's event, a fundraiser that raised $50,000 for the school and drew nearly 100 attendees from throughout the community, including the mayor of North Adams, the presidents of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and Berkshire Community College, the director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and the artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Today, Alexandra Perkins is a rising junior at Rhode Island's Salve Regina University majoring in the administration of justice. When she arrived at BArT, she was the "careless, rebellious, angry" daughter of two drug-addicted parents, Perkins said.

Perkins spoke candidly about her background but teared up when talking about the impact the BArT faculty had in her life.

"Every single day I walked through that door, I was told how important I was and that I mattered," she said. "It was refreshing. ... They pushed me and pushed me.

"In my eyes, they weren't teachers. They were super humans."

William "Bo" Peabody said he was proud to be associated with success stories like Perkins'.

Although he knew about the science lab that was unveiled publicly on Saturday, Peabody said the event did hold one unexpected pleasure.

Executive Director Julia Bown 

"There was a surprise tonight for me, and that was when I got the invitation and I read in the back the little description of tonight, which at the end, in the last sentence, thanked me as a co-founder," Peabody said. "That is not a word that ever has been used by me, by Julia (Bowen), by anyone, and I deeply appreciate it."

Peabody reciprocated Bowen's praise by crediting her for building BArT.

"She's just persevered through incredible political, economic, emotional — there's been so many hurdles to getting this place to where it is," he said. "And 340 students later, it's obvious to everyone ... what's been accomplished."

Peabody, the son of two retired public school teachers, was the only person in the room downplaying his own impact on the school's success.

"[Startups] are a lot of work," he said. "For all the ones that people know about that are successful, there are a lot that aren't. And the pain and suffering and emotional and financial turmoil that goes into founding things is extraordinary. Why it's so pleasant to be a co-founder of BArT is because I found out (I was) only after the success was secured.

"I greatly prefer that," Peabody joked. "And if anyone has a successful operation that they'd like to credit me with co-founding, I'm open to it."


Tags: BArT,   fundraiser,   science,   STEM,   

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Pittsfield CPA Committee Funds Half of FY24 Requests

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A few projects are not getting funded by the Community Preservation Committee because of a tight budget.

The projects not making the cut were in the historic preservation and open space and recreation categories and though they were seen as interesting and valuable projects, the urgency was not prevalent enough for this cycle.

"It's a tough year," Chair Danielle Steinmann said.

The panel made its recommendations on Monday after several meetings of presentations from applications. They will advance to the City Council for final approval.  

Two cemetery projects were scored low by the committee and not funded: A $9,500 request from the city for fencing at the West Part Cemetery as outlined in a preservation plan created in 2021 and a $39,500 request from the St. Joseph Cemetery Commission for tombstone restorations.

"I feel personally that they could be pushed back a year," Elizabeth Herland said. "And I think they're both good projects but they don't have the urgency."

It was also decided that George B. Crane Memorial Center's $73,465 application for the creation of a recreational space would not be funded. Herland said the main reason she scored the project low was because it didn't appear to benefit the larger community as much as other projects do.

There was conversation about not funding The Christian Center's $34,100 request for heating system repairs but the committee ended up voting to give it $21,341 when monies were left over.

The total funding request was more than $1.6 million for FY24 and with a budget of $808,547, only about half could be funded. The panel allocated all of the available monies, breaking down into $107,206 for open space and recreation, $276,341 for historic preservation, and $425,000 for community housing.

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