image description — Berkshire Money Management, staff, and BCC students join for a photo after the announcement of the donation on Monday. Bill Schmick, on the right, made the check presentation.

Berkshire Money Management Pays For BCC Nursing Exams, Licensing

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
04:16PM / Monday, March 27, 2017Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The times when Bill Schmick of Berkshire Money Management was in the hospital, it was BCC graduates who helped him.

For that he is grateful. So grateful that he's helping Berkshire Community College nursing students with their licensing and exam fees. Berkshire Money Management on Monday donated $7,740 to the 18 students currently enrolled in the college's nursing program. The money will pay for the exam and licensing costs for when the students graduate and enter the field.

"We're just happy to give back after all you've given me," said Schmick, who also write money columns that appear on iBerkshires.

One of those nursing students, Lesline Rostick, will benefit from it. She has a husband who works and she is raising a child. It's not easy to come up with the funds to get the needed licensing.

"When I heard we were getting this money, I was beside myself," Rostick said.

Rostick was joined by others in the program on Monday to accept the gift. Assistant professor Alyssa Felver said there are single mothers and parents in the program, those who would struggle to come up with the extra funds.

"It's a relief. It is a big chunk of change," Felver said. "It is tremendous that when they first start their career people are supporting them."

Schmick and his wife, Barbara, were given a tour of the newly renovated classroom spaces in Hawthorne Hall. Director of Nursing Tochi Ubani showed them the new simulators, which give students the closest experience to real-life nursing as possible, and said there is no better nursing program around. Ubani takes pride in his program, saying that if something happens to him, he will be in the care of the graduates.

"It behooves us to train them well and teach them well. They will be out and will be nurses," Ubani said.

BCC President Ellen Kennedy said she is "thrilled" with the way the program is trending and appreciated the additional support for the students.

"They work so hard and are then faced with a big check to write or a large credit card charge," Kennedy said.

Tags: BCC, Berkshire Money Management, donations, nursing education,

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Pittsfield Schools Get Additional Chapter 70 Funds

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:09AM / Tuesday, August 18, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Pittsfield schools received almost $459,000 in additional Chapter 70 funds, and officials are looking to restore some positions.

On Tuesday, the City Council accepted an additional $458,660 for the Pittsfield Public Schools fiscal year 2027 budget. Mayor Peter Marchetti confirmed that they were Chapter 70 funds, the primary source of state aid for public elementary and secondary schools in Massachusetts.

"What I can tell you is, during the budget process, [State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier] was talking about two different pots of money that she was looking to get, and so some of this came from the per pupil aid amount. That's what the increase in our funding was for,” he explained when asked about how it will be spent.

"It was her intent, and it was the intent of the superintendent, to save positions. Positions that we were cutting from the budget. But I can't give you a definitive answer because the School Committee has not engaged in the conversation of where that money will go inside the school budget," he said.

The School Committee can appropriate the funds at its discretion. Marchetti, also School Committee chair, agreed to notify councilors where those monies went in the budget, per Ward 7 Councilor Kathy Moody's request.

The Pittsfield Public Schools' original $86,855,061 budget included $68,886,061 in Chapter 70 funding. PPS faced a more than $4 million deficit during this process.

Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Bonnie Howland on Wednesday told the School Committee that they have discussed adding at least four paraprofessionals.

"We're going to try to stretch the money as far as we can," she said, explaining that they talked about maintaining the assistant principal of teaching and learning and Reid but were notified that it will be grant-funded.

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