Letter: Jennifer Macksey for Mayor

To the Editor:

Jennifer Macksey is quite simply the best mayoral candidate for North Adams. As any of Jen's coworkers, current or former, will tell you, Jen is a strong independent woman who has been successful in every position she has held. I have personally seen her incredibly strong work ethic and she puts her whole heart into everything she does — just imagine what she will do for the city she loves.

What an incredible benefit to have our new mayor walk into City Hall with the knowledge of how city government works. She will brainstorm with all the city departments to figure out what needs to be prioritized and get to work on it. There will be no long learning curve.

I find it disturbing that the only reason I hear to not vote for Jen is that she will be our former mayor's "mouthpiece." For those of you who have made that statement, you obviously don't know Jen.

Rebecca Cellana
North Adams, Mass.

Clarksburg School Pressed to Find More Savings for Fiscal 2027

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:12PM / Tuesday, April 07, 2026

Clarksburg Town Administrator Ronald Boucher says the town's ability to levy more taxes is severely limited and he doesn't want to go to an override vote. 

CLARKSBURG, Mass. — School officials are looking at the elimination of three teaching assistants, prekindergarten for 3-year-olds and a two part-time positions to reduce the fiscal 2027 budget. 

 

Business Manager Jordan Rennell on Thursday went through the latest draft of the budget during a joint meeting of the School Committee, Select Board and Finance Committee, explaining the figures behind a projected spending plan of $3,299,206, up $213,563 or 6.92 percent over this year. 

 

"This budget reflects what has changed since March, when I showed you a 6.8 [percent]," said Rennell to a packed classroom of residents and teachers. "Unfortunately, it went to 6.9 [percent]."

 

Rennell, who's new in the position, explained before she could even begin comparing this year's and next year's budget, there was a $151,000 difference "between what we voted on and what we needed to survive."

 

The bulk of that was employee health insurance, which has become a major factor in school and municipal budgets across the state. 

 

"I took those true numbers from FY26 and I dumped them into FY27 and if we kept everything the same, every program, every teacher, every TA, the same our bottom line budget would increase 11.2 percent," she said. "Between the collaborative work between the town and the principal and Superintendent [John] Franzoni and all of the pieces of the puzzle, we were able to make some hard, gut-wrenching cuts that got us to that 6.9 percent."

 

That includes Rennell's former position as the preK 3 teacher, the three assistants, a 0.2 speech position and a 0.2 occupational therapy assistant.