Pittsfield Decides Taconic Vocational Status Next Week

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
04:47PM / Friday, January 20, 2023Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Is Taconic a traditional high school or a vocational one? The School Committee will decide next week.

On Wednesday, Jan. 25, the committee will determine a proposal to start the school's transition to a solely vocational institution.

If approved, Taconic will only accept Career Technical Education (CTE) students in the fall of 2023 and, by the fall of 2027, will be all vocational.

All non-CTE students would attend Pittsfield High School regardless of the middle school they went to.

This conversation started around two years and an official recommendation was made last year. It is fueled by a growing demand for vocational education at Taconic that is outnumbering non-CTE students.

It's not unexpected -- the school had been hoping for this since the $120 million facility was unveiled in 2018.

Over the past four years, Taconic has increased its vocational enrollment by more than 300, with almost 600 CTE students and around 200 non-CTE for this school year.

Intradistrict transfers were eliminated in the last school year and enrollments soared, though it did not eliminate the space issue that led to this proposal.

Traditionally, students who went to Herberg Middle School moved on to PHS and those from Reid Middle School went to Taconic.

With one all-vocational high school, students will go to their designated middle schools and then be directed to one of the high schools based on their desired educational path.

District leaders have said that this will allow PHS students to have more scheduling choices and will free up more CTE slots at Taconic.

Preliminary conversations about the change involved debunking myths about vocational education and broadening post-high school options for students.

Administrators highlighted the value of a CTE in education, as it can provide academic knowledge and real-world skills and can easily translate into the job market.

It was reported that 100 percent of 2020 and 2021 CTE graduates entered employment, advanced training, the military, or college. These outcomes were vetted by U.S. Department of Labor wage records and higher education admissions data.

In November 2022, Superintendent Joseph Curtis said that there has not been an abundance of feedback about the possible change despite having several community outreach events, a couple of radio shows, and discussions in public meetings.

Tags: Taconic High, vocational program,

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Pittsfield Schools Schedule Morningside, Budget Hearings This Week

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:23AM / Monday, April 06, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee will hold another public hearing for the potential closure of Morningside Community School.

On Thursday, April 9, at 6 p.m., community members will have the chance to give feedback in the Reid Middle School library. Last month, the Pittsfield Public Schools announced the possible closure of Morningside, which serves elementary grades, for the 2026-2027 school year and redistribution of its students to other city schools.

In the last couple of weeks, the district has solicited input from employees and community members through meetings at the school.

Morningside Community School was built in the mid-1970s with an open classroom concept. Morningside serves about 374 students and has a 7 percent accountability score, outperformed by 93 percent of the state.

For fiscal year 2027, the district has allocated about $5.2 million for the school. The committee has also requested a version of the proposed $87.2 million district budget with Morningside closed.

Pittsfield has another open concept school, Conte Community School, that is planned to consolidate with Crosby Elementary School, and possibly Stearns Elementary School, in a new building on the Crosby site by 2030. The status of the project's owner's project manager will be discussed on Tuesday, April 7, at 5 p.m. at Taconic High School during the School Building Needs Commission meeting.

That leaves the school officials wondering if Morningside students could have better educational outcomes if resources followed them to other nearby schools. Interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips has stressed that a decision has not yet been made.

Considerations for the school’s closure include: The feasibility of the facility to provide a conducive teaching and learning environment with an open campus design, the funding allocation needed to ensure Morningside students can have equitable learning opportunities, and declining enrollment across Pittsfield elementary schools.