Pittsfield School Committee Sees $78M Budget Proposal

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
12:08PM / Thursday, March 23, 2023Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The district is seeking a budget increase of more than 8 percent in fiscal year 2024, with a majority of the funding going to special education, career technical education, and contractual obligations.

The School Committee got a first look at the upcoming budget request on Wednesday. The $78,310,016 ask is an 8.17 percent — or $5,911,754 — increase from FY23's budget of $72,398,262.

"Our goal continues to be to create meaningful and most importantly, sustainable change for the children of our city," Superintendent Joseph Curtis told the committee.

"Meaningful and sustainable change takes time. We are impatient because our decisions affect children's lives every day but any rush to change is reactive and typically is not embedded systematically. Changes that do not impact our systems are prone to quickly revert back to prior practice."

There will be a public hearing for the school budget at 6 p.m. on Monday at City Hall, the committee will make recommendations on April 12, and there is an expected budget adoption on April 26.

No later than June 1, there will be a joint meeting with the City Council to discuss the proposal.

Eighty-three percent of the increase, about $4.9 million, is allocated for special education instruction and support, CTE/career pathways, and contractual obligations.

This includes a $527,000 increase for CTE, a $1.3 million increase for special education, and $3 million for pay increases to the United Educators of Pittsfield, the American Federation of Teachers, the Pittsfield Educational Administrators Association, and non-bargaining staff members.

Last year, the committee passed memoranda of agreements for its bargaining units that include "substantial increases."

The proposal includes options for students transitioning from the virtual learning academy such as an expansion of the Positive Options Program at Berkshire Community College, a new high school innovation center at Pittsfield High School, and an existing online classroom at Taconic High School.

Assistant Superintendent for College and Career Readiness Tammy Gage explained that Taconic is in the process of applying for its 14th vocational program — video and performing arts.

"If that program has been accepted, this will be our fifth application in the last six years," Gage said. "And we were approved for the last four, as you know, so we do anticipate being approved pending inspections that will happen this summer."

Elementary and middle school innovation centers with blended remote or hybrid instruction are also on the table, causing an increase of $230,000.

Nearly $900,000 in additional support positions are proposed, including a district registrar, and there is a $650,000 reduction in teachers due to enrollment changes.

The governor's budget has a Chapter 70 increase of $6,592,719 and the district is requesting $680,965 under that increase.

A variety of staff members attended the meeting to provide details about budget increases in their departments.

Mayor Linda Tyer appreciated this.

"Your expertise means a lot to me when I'm thinking about how I'm going to support this budget or recommendations for reductions that I might make," she said.

"So really appreciate that you, Mr. Curtis invited your staff to be part of this process and I know we're going to have even more opportunities to do that."

Tags: fiscal 2024, pittsfield_budget,

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BRTA Sees Highest Ridership to Date

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
01:46PM / Monday, August 10, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority has recorded its highest ridership in the history of the authority.

The BRTA recorded 731,444 for fiscal 2026 year, with fixed-route ridership at 666,000 passengers, paratransit (ADA) ridership at 65,000 passengers, and Link 413 ridership at 952 rides since it started earlier this year.

Administrator Kathleen Lambert and Operations Manager Benjamin Hansen said the higher ridership is likely thanks to the free fare. Free fare was first introduced to the BRTA in late 2024, this was the first full fiscal year and it won't be the last.

Lambert said she feels very good about the new number and while it's in part because of the fare free initiative, it's great to just be a service to the community.

"The point is, transit keeps more money in people's pockets if they're not paying for gas and transportation," she said. "I know there are improvements to be made, especially around frequency and different forms of opportunities to travel, and I want that to be the situation. But right now, we're kind of getting everything into shape, getting prepared for new service, and prepared for the next iteration of the RTA."

The high ridership also comes at a time of high route cancellations because of a lack of drivers. Lambert said the authority currently has 26 drivers with a goal of attaining 33 to 35. The new operating company, Keolis, is still looking for more hires. This past fiscal year, the BRTA saw 3,457 trips cancelled but hopes to have no cancellations by the end of September.

Hansen gave the ridership data at the July meeting, also showing off the new data that will be easily available on the website for anyone to view in an effort to be more transparent with the public.

The most affected routes were Route 1, the Pittsfield to North Adams Connector, and Route 2, the Pittsfield to Lee, which had more than 750 cancellations.

Although Route 1 had some of the most cancellations it still remained the most popular route with 176,123 riders through 9,729 trips. Route 34, the North Adams Loop, came in second with 127,147 riders also through 9,729 trips. Again, even though Route 2 had some of the most cancellations it came in third with 76,305 riders with 8,597 trips.

The Link413 service has also grown in ridership. Some on the board contested the start of the Link413 service, worried that the start of the service took drivers away and didn't see ridership high enough. The new data shows that the ridership almost doubled from the previous month from 179 in May to 313 in June.

Lambert also noted it was not possible to cut the service as it was properly approved and if they had to cut, they would have to give back their portion of the grant money, which would be impossible. She mentioned this to the group since former board member Rene Wood and others had asked to see what was possible with the service and when it was accepted and if it should still be running.

"We took the money, we ordered the vehicles. We took the vehicles. We've been running the service. To abandon the service is against the MassDOT contract. We do have a contract for the funds. We accepted all the money. If we rescind the contract, then we rescind the funds, and that means paying back a couple of million dollars, which we don't really have, and our portion would be at least one third of that, probably more because we run 50 percent of the service," Lambert said.

The Link413 service is a partnership between the BRTA and the Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA), and Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA). The most popular route is the Pittsfield to Northampton with over 60 percent of ridership.

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