image description — Graduates in 2012 flip their caps on the lawn of St. Joseph's Church. The nearby high school will be shuttered in June because of falling enrollment.

St. Joe High School to Close in Pittsfield

Staff Reports08:34PM / Thursday, October 13, 2016Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The county's only Catholic high school will close at the end of the school year.

In a message to parents released late Thursday, Sister Andrea Ciszewski, Springfield diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools, said the 120-year-old St. Joseph Central High School will cease operations in June 2017.

"This was a decision made with the heaviest of hearts and only after years of hard work by the school's dedicated staff and board members, trying to respond to the increasing challenges we faced by shifting demographics and limited financial resources," Ciszewski stated in the letter.

"As trends in the church and society evolved throughout the years, so have the St. Joseph Central High School realities of a steadily increasing cost of education, a declining school enrollment, greater financial assistance needs, the overwhelming price of renovations and major repairs of an aging facility, and increased annual operational costs."

Opened in 1897 as St. Joseph's Academy, the high school has been struggling for some time, the victim of a sharp decline in enrollment. It's been lifted somewhat by international students but school officials say expected enrollment this year was below estimates. It had just 68 students in four grades and "a significant operational deficit."

The Diocese of Springfield says it has provided more than $4.5 million in funding in just the last five years and that it could no longer afford to fund these deficits.

Over the past several years, the high school's graduates have numbered in the 30s and 40s, with just 34 earning diplomas this past spring. The K-8 St. Mark's School closed in 2015. St. Stanislaus School in Adams, St. Agnes' Academy in Dalton and St. Mary's School in Lee, all elementary schools, are the last of what had been a thriving Catholic school system in the Berkshires.

"It was with great sadness that this decision had to be made, but not before many years of valiant efforts by the very dedicated board, faculty and staff of St. Joseph's," said Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski in a statement. "We had hoped to turn around the enrollment decline and financial deficit, but despite the very best and exemplary efforts of so many, the task proved unattainable. My thoughts and prayers go out to all who grieve the end of this great school."

The diocese said it will continue to provide financial assistance to families who wish their children to continue at a Catholic high school. The closest are Pope Francis High School (Cathedral) in Chicopee and St. Mary High Parish School in West Springfield.

Ciszewski said a listening and updating session for parents and students only will be held in the high school gymnasium at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20.

Tags: parochial school, school closures, st joe,

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Mad Macs Shifts Location, Focus at Allendale Shopping Center

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:19PM / Wednesday, November 11, 2026

Store manager Tim wright and co-owner Scott Kirchner in the company's new space.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Apple products repair company Mad Macs has moved downstairs from its previous location in the Allendale Shopping Center.

The authorized Apple repair service was established in 1998 to provide service to Apple computers and devices and has had an ever-changing history.

"Since we started, we've grown and changed and shrunk and grown again, and we've done a lot of different things," said co-owner Scott Kirchner. "We've had multiple stores. We've grown from service into retail, and now we're on the other side of that, getting out of retail and back to our roots in service."

Kirchner and co-owner Daryl Corbett were most recently located next to Walgreens in Allendale. They have now moved downstairs into Suite 101.

And while they used to sell retail and manage information technology services for businesses, that division was separated and merged with Dalton-based Renatus Solutions to form Revolution IT. They now have gone back to their roots of only repair service.

Kirchner said the COVID-era inventory shortages made retail difficult, and they went about a year without being able to obtain a computer to sell. Meanwhile, competition from Apple, online sellers, and retailers increased, while margins were low.

"Eventually it got to the point where the amount we were making doing the retail really wasn't worth it anymore," he said. "Things had changed within Apple, things sort of changed within our business model and eventually what happened is the competition got to be too much."

Since their former space was larger than needed now that they didn't have retail, they asked the plaza owners if they could move into a smaller space as they wanted to stay in the shopping center's central location. Kirchner said they are the only Apple-authorized service within 50 miles.

"A lot of our decision to downsize was to be able to preserve to be able to continue to provide that service for the county, so people didn't have to go to Holyoke or Albany, in order to get their phones fixed and devices as well," he said.

Mad Macs is mainly run by store manager Tim Wright, who now has a more secluded space to do his repairs.

The shop's hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday; it is closed on weekends and holidays, and there is an elevator to access the lower level. More information here.

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