Pittsfield School Policy Panel Amends 'Core' Values

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
03:56PM / Tuesday, November 08, 2022Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The school policy subcommittee voted to adopt a revised Mission, Vision, Core Values policy after making two amendments during its meeting on Monday afternoon.

Member William Cameron proposed amending the draft to add "Academic Excellence" as a new section in the policy.

The revised section now says the public schools commit to "supporting a community that creates and sustains an atmosphere of intellectual excitement, high student achievement, critical thinking, innovative effective instruction, strong communication, and personal responsibility and growth."

Committee member Sara Hathaway noted that this policy encompasses all forms of student achievement, not just academic.

"One of the points that was driven home to me at the conference that we just attended was that student achievement is the purpose of school committees, helping to ensure that the school system is focused on that," she said.

"They also pointed out that student achievement isn't just academic, and I think this larger mission, the set of core values addresses that."

An "extensive process" of revising the policy began in May 2022, with the District Leadership Council but was then moved to a core committee of staff, family members and community members.

When Superintendent Joseph Curtis presented the draft to the School Committee during one of the meetings, Cameron raised the concern that the draft did not include academic excellence as evident in the proposed core values, Curtis said.

"At that time, I indicated that I would go back through kind of the extensive amount of notes that we have, throughout the process, starting back with the District Leadership Council. As I did recall, a core value relating to academic excellence was in one of the versions," Curtis said.

Curtis sent out the revised draft that included the core value of academic excellence that was in a previous version to the mission and vision committee.

They provided some comments and are now at the point of looking at the proposed draft, the feedback received, possibly making any edits to bring it back to the School Committee.

Tags: Pittsfield Public Schools,

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

Greylock Youth SummerFest

Come join in on the wealth building fun! August 3-8. Click for event details. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Pittsfield Outreach Program Sees Manager

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:29AM / Monday, August 17, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass.— The Health Department's outreach program has a manager and is seeking two outreach workers.

Earlier this month, Director of Public Health Andy Cambi updated the Board of Health on the creation of a new initiative that connects individuals on the streets with needed services.

He reported that Community Health Worker Gabrielle DiMassimo was tapped as the Community Health Program Manager a couple of weeks prior after it was posted internally. DiMassimo has been reaching out to unhoused people in encampments with the Parks Department and co-responders, and other staff this summer.

"She's been with the department for a couple years, holds a bachelor's degree in public health, and has been doing a lot of this work," Cambi said.

"Even in her college years, she was doing encampments and outreach with Worcester Public Health Department, so she really fit the bill for this position."

The position oversees Pittsfield's peer outreach initiative while advancing the long-term vision for the health department to be a more proactive, community-centered public health agency, as well as the health department's evolving responsibility to address prevention, access to services, social determinants of health, and community well-being through coordinated outreach and engagement.

Last year's controversial camping ordinance was sent to the Board of Health, and they determined it is not the best approach for Pittsfield. It was officially scrapped by the City Council earlier this year and replaced with a peer outreach program that provides harm reduction support services, navigation, and relationship-building with vulnerable residents.

The program director and outreach worker positions were approved by the City Council earlier this season. The outreach worker positions were posted internally, received applicants, and will soon go external to expand the candidate pool.

Cambi reported that the encampment group has been conducting outreach with DiMassimo. Workers speak with people at the encampments, tag the equipment, give the people an opportunity to relocate, and connect them with available resources.

View Full Story