Letter: Jennifer Macksey for Mayor

To the Editor:

I am writing to encourage you to cast your vote for Jennifer Macksey as the next mayor of North Adams. I have worked very closely with Jennifer in matters of the Northern Berkshire School Union. Jennifer's success rate for improving our schools has been 100 percent.

I am the chairperson for the Northern Berkshire School Union's joint school committees. Jennifer was hired as business manager for NBSU with her main goal to write grants for the five town school districts. Jennifer went way above and beyond finding grant money for all of the schools. To Jennifer's position as business manager, assistant superintendent was added to her job description as she was able to receive building grants and then proceeded to oversee the projects from bids to final completion. Jennifer has done an amazing job working with all five towns in the NBSU. Jennifer is always there with answers and suggestions to improve all of the school communities.

On the business manager side of her job, Jennifer has been able to organize all of the individual budgets for each school and was able to set up an account so each of the shared employees did not have to receive five different checks from five different towns that belong to the NBSU. Jennifer's accounting skills have enabled the towns to file end of year reports for their schools. Jennifer has always met all grant deadlines and has made sure that all NBSU bills are paid in a timely fashion.

Leadership and compassion are two words that I would use to describe Jennifer. Jennifer has the ability to evaluate situations and she has incredible skills with which to make professional decisions. Jennifer has strong, effective, decision making skills. Jennifer has a passion for service.

Jennifer has been personally connected to North Adams her entire life. She has been a resident of North Adams, an employee in the City of North Adams, an employee in MCLA, vice president of Southern Vermont College and is currently the assistant superintendent/business manager of the Northern Berkshire School Union, which serves five towns and four schools. Jennifer has the best interests for the City of North Adams in her decision to be mayor of North Adams.

Judith Oleson
Florida, Mass. 

Judith Oleson is chair of the Abbott Memorial School Committee and the Northern Berkshire School Union Committee. 

Williamstown Theatre Festival Cuts Ribbon on North Adams Venue

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
06:24PM / Thursday, July 10, 2025

David Moresi, left, and Adrian White inside the theater. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Workers were busy inside The Annex on Thursday morning, getting the black-box theater ready for the summer season seven days away. 

 

Outside, officials were ready to cut the ribbon to mark the first expansion of the venerated Williamstown Theatre Festival.

 

"We purchased this center in 2020 as a strategic step in expanding our footprint and giving us more flexibility. We were intending to build a scene shop right there in the Price Chopper. But the pandemic kind of put that plan on pause," said Kit Ingui, managing director of operations and advancement. "This year, as our programming has expanded, we realized we needed a new home for some of our projects, and a new vision for this space took hold."

 

The theater festival, which calls the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance at Williams College home, is opening The Annex in space formerly occupied by a Rent-A-Center within the old Price Chopper complex. 

 

The theater will host an opera, a dance, a storytelling musical and a late-night series starting at 11 this first year.

 

Raphael Picciarelli, managing director of strategy and transformation, described it as a part of a "radical reimagining for the festival."

 

"This venue is a real leap forward. It's not just a new building, it's really a sign of the festival's growth and evolution, and it really reflects our commitment to year-round programming, to how we want to engage with the community in the future, creative risk taking that's always been at the center of this institution," he said. "For the first time ever, we are putting up eight full productions at once."