Williamstown Elementary Starts Vacation Early Because of Widespread Illness

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Health and school officials have decided to close Williamstown Elementary School on Thursday and Friday, April 14 and 15, in response to a flu outbreak at the school.

Families were informed of the decision on Wednesday at the regularly scheduled 1:30 dismissal. The school will be off limits to all school and non-school activities through Monday to allow the building to be cleaned allow for “any residual spores to die” according to a school-wide email.

Starting Monday, the school saw nearly 100 children and 20 staff members calling in sick.

“We called the Board of Health in earlier in the week and talked to them again today,” Superintendent Doug Dias said on Wednesday afternoon. “We haven’t seen an decrease in either the student absentee rate or the faculty absentee rate.

“Rather than putting people’s safety at risk, the Board of Health recommended closing the school for the next two days, and I completely agree.”

The school already is scheduled to be closed next week for the April vacation. Faculty and students will be returning on Monday, April 25.

A planned Elementary School Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday night was canceled and likely will be made up after the vacation week, Dias said.

The last day of school now is scheduled for Monday, June 20.

For more information on the flu, visit the CDC's website or the state Department of Health website.

Lanesborough Officials Review Schools' Budgets

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:49AM / Thursday, April 09, 2026

Mount Greylock Superintendent Joseph Bergeron, left, addresses the Lanesborough Select Board and Finance Committee as School Committee member Curtis Elfenbein looks at the projection of a slide in the district's budget presentation.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Town officials Monday appeared generally receptive to the fiscal year 2027 spending plans for the two public school districts that serve the town.

 

Superintendents from the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District (McCann Technical School) and Mount Greylock Regional School District presented their respective FY27 budgets to a joint meeting of the town's Finance Committee and Select Board.

 

Both districts are sending significantly higher assessments for approval at Lanesborough's annual town meeting in June.

 

McCann Tech, which constituted a $317,109 expenditure for the town in the current fiscal year, is seeking $463,978 for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 even though the school's operating budget is up just 3.2 percent year to year.

 

The 46 percent increase in Lanesborough's share of McCann Tech's budget is is due to two factors: a rise in enrollment of town residents at the vocational school from 20 in 2025 to 29 in this school year and a capital assessment for the first round of payments — for interest only — for a roof and window replacement project on the North Adams campus.

 

The Mount Greylock assessment, a much larger component of Lanesborough's property tax bill, is up 10.99 percent from FY26 to FY27, from $6.8 million to $7.6 million.

 

Mount Greylock Superintendent Joseph Bergeron gave a budget presentation similar to one he has delivered twice to the district's School Committee and again last month to the Williamstown Finance Committee, explaining that while the FY27 budget maintains level services to students with a net reduction of three positions, a series of factors are driving much larger assessments to Mount Greylock's two member towns.