Ellen Kennedy, Michael MacDonald, state Senate President Stan Rosenberg, and Sen. Benjamin Downing discuss the new turf field project at Berkshire Community College.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Community College President Ellen Kennedy watched her email with baited breath over the last few months.

Gov. Charlie Baker had put a cap on bonding levels, which put her project to renovate Hawthorn and Melville halls on the chopping block.

The state had earmarked $21 million to renovate the campus's two major classroom spaces in 2012 and Kennedy saw those on the list of projects eyed to be delayed.

 

Luckily for BCC, work had already begun and the state administration agreed to keep the funding in place.

 

But, Kennedy says many other community colleges had their funding pulled and the renovation of Hawthorne and Melville represents only 20 percent of the campus.

 

"We need to update everything," Kennedy told state Senate President Stan Rosenberg on Wednesday.

 

Kennedy asked that the Senate support bond bills to help upgrade and renovate the community college. She joined state Sen. Benjamin Downing, Mayor Daniel Bianchi, North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright, and Michael MacDonald, who is heading the college's turf field project, in showing Rosenberg around and emphasizing the importance of the college.

 

"In so many ways BCC is at the center of our regional efforts to address the issue we have," Downing said. "If we're going to make this county and region all it can be, we need to raise not only educational aspirations but also attainment."

 

Bianchi told Rosenberg that the college is an important piece to the city's economic future. He said Pittsfield wants to be the "western district" of the state's effort to be the life science capital of the world. Berkshire Community College is part of that by providing the training needed to provide companies with a work force with the right skills.

 

"We have economic challenges but we are overcoming those economic challenges," Bianchi said. 

 

Downing said educational attainment in Berkshire County is half that in areas in and around Boston so when a company is looking to move somewhere, that can be a swaying factor. He called on growing the emphasis on education to turn those numbers around. 

 

"BCC, [Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts], and our K through 12 schools are the most important economic development initiatives we have," Downing said. 

 

Rosenberg said he understands the importance of community colleges as he represents Greenfield Community College. 

 

"We cannot afford to do anything but keep those institutions as strong as possible," the Amherst Democrat said, adding that the vision of free community college in the future is "dynamic" because it wasn't long ago that it was normal for many residents to have only a sixth-grade education.

 

"Now, you can't get a living wage job without at least a year or two of education after high school," he said.

 

Below the college level, local officials emphasized the need to support K-12 schools, as well as push for universal pre-K. Downing participated in a forum with school committees from north to south who are now looking at new ways to consolidate school districts — or at lease increase shared-service agreements.

 

"There is a more sustainable framework that serves the kids and gets more dollars into the classrooms," Downing said. 

North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright discussed the importance of state funds for education with state Senate President Stan Rosenberg.

Downing urged support for those efforts but also help in funding things like rural transportation. While the Berkshires is losing population and becoming more rural, the rest of the state is becoming more urban.

But, Downing said the towns out here really need the support for transportation. Overall, support for education is too low currently, the officials said.

"The only part of my budget that's an investment is education. Everything else is just paying the bills," Alcombright said, adding that those bills increase each year and he's only got 2 percent of a budget increase to fit everything in.

 

"We do have to find a new way. We're taking a leadership role in that."

 

Budget crunches are causing the firing of 50 to 70 teachers countywide, Downing said, while each district is running its own separate administrative team. Pittsfield School Committee member Pamela Farron said the problem school committees are collaboratively trying to solve is how to redistrict and share services while still keeping the "unique personalities" of each district. 

 

"If any place can figure this out, it is Berkshire County," Rosenberg said.

 

Bianchi urged Rosenberg to support universal pre-K because many students are coming into the school districts with sub-par reading levels. He, too, supports the countywide effort to look at restructuring the school district model to better improve education.

 

Bianchi added that the Berkshire Innovation Center, slated for the William Stanley Business Park, is going to do a lot to help local small- to medium-sized companies grow and that support from the state for high-tech industries will help cap off the pipeline of education to the workplace — thus improving the economy.

 

Rosenberg's trip was to see how all the aspects work together. From the talk about education at Berkshire Community College, he then bet with planners at Berkshire Regional Planning Commission to see the demographic changes facing the county - the lose of population coupled with the lack of younger workers — and then the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce to get a better handled on the business piece.

 

Later, he toured LTI Smart Glass to get a firsthand look at the vision laid out by local officials.

 

"He has been a real champion of getting the State House out of the State House," Downing said.

 

Shortly after being chosen as Senate president, Rosenberg and senators began visiting areas across the state to hear directly from residents. He said that gave him and the other senators a "different viewpoint" about the districts each represent. 

 

"The Commonwealth Conversations didn't end with those eight days," Rosenberg said. "We are a very diverse state in many ways ... the conversation will continue."