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The newly formed group will work on spreading good news about the city.

Group Formed to Foster Pittsfield Pride, Counter Naysayers

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Virginia O'Leary is looking to counter those who speak negatively about the city.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Virginia O'Leary has so many great memories growing up in Pittsfield.
 
She remembers swimming in the lake, the local stores of old, and cruising up and down North Street on a Friday night.
 
She enjoyed it so much that after leaving for college and a career, she came back. And she loves it here.
 
"There are so many good people in Pittsfield, there are so many people who care," O'Leary said.
 
This past summer, she had just watched a movie at the Little Cinema at the Berkshire Museum and went to dinner in Great Barrington.
 
Another woman overheard O'Leary and her friend talking about the movie and chimed in. She asked O'Leary where she had seen it and O'Leary told her in Pittsfield. The response was one of badmouthing her hometown. And that isn't the only time she's heard somebody local say negative things about the city.
 
"I've heard repeatedly 'oh, I can't go to Pittsfield in the evening because it is not safe, there is nothing going on in Pittsfield, are there any nice houses in Pittsfield?' All of those are quotes that I've really heard said to me. And every time it is like a gut punch," O'Leary said. 
 
O'Leary isn't going to deny the challenges in Pittsfield, she knows it isn't perfect and knows it never was perfect. But she is going to speak up and challenge the people who only focus on those negatives and counter them by telling them about the good things and reasons to love the city.
 
"I don't want to fight. I just want to counter that narrative," O'Leary said.
 
She's formed Pittsfield Prosper, an organization of like-minded people who support the city and the positive things happening here. Collectively, they're looking to "change the narrative" of how people know and talk about Pittsfield and aim to foster pride in the community. 
 
"It really meant the world to me to think that there was going to be a movement to help change the narrative of this environment, this community, which we love so much," said Ty Allan Jackson, who was skeptical at first of yet another new initiative but embraced the concept entirely after meeting with O'Leary. 
 
The group isn't a non-profit but rather an initiative headed by O'Leary. She's bankrolled the startup of the process personally and sees it as a five-year effort to change the fabric of how people view the city. The group will focus on sharing and promoting the city at every turn.
 
 
Those at the kick-off event were asked to share with others why they love the city of Pittsfield.
"It will take every segment of the community, every generation, the silent generation, the baby boomers, gen x's, millennial, etc. to change the narrative. In other words, it will take all of us. It will take more than a village to raise this community," Jackson said. 
 
O'Leary believes the big change in the perspective about the city came with the loss of General Electric.
 
But that was 35 years ago, she said, and so much has changed.
 
"We have to get out from under that," O'Leary said.
 
The former college professor published a paper in the mid-1990s on how people respond to challenges. One crux of the work was that it focused on three types of responses. First, the individual can turn to just simply surviving at the new lowest level. Or the individual can work back to the baseline and be recovered.
 
But there is a third.
 
"The third possibility is using the challenge as the impetus to go beyond where you were when it all began," O'Leary said. "My hope for Pittsfield is that thriving lies ahead."
 
She started kicking around the idea during the summer to start such an initiative and it gained traction. She said she had come up with the idea and just started talking to everyone she could about it. 
 
The group held a kickoff event on Wednesday at Proprietor's Lodge. The audience was asked to write down the things they love about the city, share that with others, and tell their own story. 
 
Deb Tart is exactly one of those people like O'Leary. She grew up here and remembers sledding at Clapp Park, going for penny candy, and lining up at the Dairy Queen, all traditional events for those growing up in the city. When all of her friends from high school left, she decided to stay. It's where she raised two children.
 
"Pittsfield is me. To not believe in Pittsfield is like not believing in myself. To be afraid of Pittsfield is to be fearful of myself. Pittsfield has always been my compass and helped me get through my path in life. It is comfortable. It is rewarding. It is not perfect but it is our home," Tart said.
 

Wynton, the group's mascot, makes his way around the tables.
She now opened her own business, Berkshire Dog, and always gets the questions about why she decided to do so in Pittsfield. Because it isn't as bad as many people think or say.
 
"There will always be the negativity from the naysayers but I really believe if we stand together and remind people of all the positive attributes Pittsfield has to offer we will become stronger as a community," Tart said.
 
O'Leary introduced the organization's mascot, her poodle Wynton, who strolled around the audience featuring a Pittsfield Prosper shirt. O'Leary has clothing for people to wear. She has stickers and pins. She envisions it as a local movement.
 
"The major goal is fostering pride in Pittsfield, sharing our positive stories, and countering naysayers," O'Leary said. 
 
Jackson said the efforts will be tracked as the organization promotes the city on every medium possible. Jackson cited the recent Berkshire Blueprint report that also calls for a change in the narrative for the Berkshires when it relates to business as a similar effort.

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Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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