Steiner School Hires Grad For First-Grade Teaching Post

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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School is welcoming Veronica Horowitz as first grade teacher for the 2015-16 school year.

A GBRSS graduate, Horowitz began her teaching career as an intern at the school for the 2012-13 school year. She spent the following year as an assistant in early childhood, and joined the GBRSS Waldorf Teaching Apprenticeship Program (TAP) for the 2014-15 school year. During her teacher training this year, Horowitz interned in first and third grades, and took the current first grade full time for several months while the class teacher was absent on leave.

Horowitz continues her close relationship with first grade, in charge of the afternoon program for the class.


“This is an historic moment in the life of our school,” GBRSS Faculty Administrator Michael Junkins said. “We are thrilled to have an alumna and pioneering participant of our Waldorf Teaching Apprenticeship Program graduate to become our first grade teacher.”  

Horowitz joins the GBRSS faculty with the full support of the Council of Teachers, administration and Board of Directors.  

GBRSS is currently accepting applications for first grade for the 2015-16 school year, and will hold a “Meet the Teacher” event, with an opportunity for current and potential applicant families to meet Horowitz, in the GBRSS first grade classtoom Saturday, March 28, at 10:30 a.m. Free childcare is available. To learn more, call Admissions Director Robyn Coe at 413-528-4015 x 106 or visit gbrss.org.

 

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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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