Tri-District Search Committee Advises Interim Superintendent

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Regina DiLego updated the other members of the School Committee on the superintendent search process.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The school districts for Williamstown and Lanesborough won't have a permanent superintendent until at least July.
 
The superintendent search committee decided last week to recommend the district forgo its search for a replacement by Jan.1 for the retiring Rose Ellis.
 
The search committee was formed to sort applicants for recommendation after Ellis informed Mount Greylock Regional School District and Superintendency Union 71 she would retire at the end of the year.
 
"The pool was not as deep as we hoped," Regina DiLego, who serves on the search committee, told the Lanesborough School Committee on Wednesday. "In the interest of having the best possible candidate pool we can get, we are recommending to close it and reopen in the spring. Then look for an interim."
 
The committee hadn't received the type of applicants they had hoped and the general consensus was that asking for a Jan. 1 start date wasn't conducive to most candidates. Instead, the committee will now find an interim administrator and reopen the application process in hopes for the new superintendent to start on July 1.
 
"We need to have something in place by Jan. 1," DiLego said.
 
Superintendency Union 71, made up of the Lanesborough and Williamstown elementary school districts, will ultimately make the decision with how to proceed and DiLego expects a meeting to be called for that purpose soon. 
 
Lanesborough School Committee member Robert Barton said he wants the union to look at contracting a superintendent of another school to handle the administrative duties during the six months. 
 
"I have suggested that I would prefer that we not look for an interim without also talking to nearby school districts about sharing their superintendent," Barton said. "I would like to have this committee vote on our preference with how to move forward."
 
Jim Moriarty agreed that option should be looked at. However, DiLego said SU71 will likely decide how to proceed before the School Committee meets ago. But, being on SU71 as well, DiLego said she will convey their desires to the committee.
 
"I think it is worth looking at and seeing where we go with it," Moriarty said. "It may go somewhere. It may not."
 
In other news, Business Director Lynn Bassett reported that the elementary school's finances are running tight to the budget. The fiscal year has been compromised because two staff positions were approved by town meeting but not funded in the budget.
 
An unexpected $22,000 grant and efficiencies have accounted for that $80,000 or so deficit. But, the School Committee is now concerned with what the winter will cost in utilities. The school has about a $20,000 "cushion" in case of overruns.
 
"We're close to the wire," DiLego said.

Tags: search committee,   superintendent,   tridistrict,   

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Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation Scholarships

LUDLOW, Mass. — For the third year, Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation (BWPCC) will award scholarships to students from Lanesborough and Hancock. 
 
The scholarship is open to seniors at Mount Greylock Regional High School and Charles H. McCann Technical School. BWPCC will select two students from the class of 2024 to receive $1,000 scholarships.
 
The scholarships will be awarded to qualifying seniors who are planning to attend either a two- or four-year college or trade school program. Seniors must be from either Hancock or Lanesborough to be considered for the scholarship. Special consideration will be given to students with financial need, but all students are encouraged to apply.
 
The BWPCC owns and operates the Berkshire Wind Power Project, a 12 turbine, 19.6-megawatt wind farm located on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and Lanesborough. The non-profit BWPCC consists of 16 municipal utilities located in Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Hull, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston, and their joint action agency, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC). 
 
To be considered, students must submit all required documents including a letter of recommendation from their school counselor and a letter detailing their educational and professional goals. Application and submission details will be shared with students via their school counselors. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 19.
 
 MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities.  MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities. 
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