image description — Principal Mary MacDonald as the 2019 Mount Greylock graduation ceremonies. She is moving back to a teaching post after seven years leading the middle-high school.

MacDonald to Step Down as Principal at Mount Greylock

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
02:46AM / Friday, January 31, 2020Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Mount Greylock Principal Mary MacDonald surprised many in the school community this week by announcing that she will be stepping down this summer from the post she has held since 2013.

But the move came as no surprise to her boss.

"With her being at the helm in everything we've been through — regionalization, the building project — with the hours that were put in … last year, when we had an English position open, Mary talked to me about stepping down at that point," Mount Greylock Regional School District Superintendent Kimberley Grady said this week.

But MacDonald agreed to stay in the principal's chair to help provide continuity after a period when the district went through several administrative changes.

"Another position opened up that she expressed interest in, and this year she came to me earlier and discussed it," Grady said. "I received her letter a week and a half ago, but I wanted her on her terms to be able to talk to her faculty and staff."

After notifying her colleagues, MacDonald, who has taught at Mount Greylock and in Lenox as well as in New York City, sent an email to families at the middle-high school.

"I have the greatest respect and affection for the school community, and it has been a privilege and honor to serve as principal," MacDonald wrote. "That said, returning to the classroom as a teacher in the tradition of past administrators is something I have contemplated seriously during the past year, and it is time for me to make that transition."

During her nearly 30 years as an educator, MacDonald had taught English in schools in New York and Lenox. The Connecticut native left Lenox Memorial High after seven years to become coordinator of curriculum, instruction and assessment of what was then the "Tri-School District" in 2012. She moved into the principal's post when it opened less than a year later.

Grady said the School Committee was aware of MacDonald's plans and that the principal position will be posted right away with the hope of having a replacement on board before MacDonald's last day on June 30.

"This is the ideal time to start looking for building administrators," Grady said. "That's why she gave it to me when she did. We wanted there to be a full search cycle."

Tags: MGRS, principal,

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Williamstown Preservation Panel Pulls Surcharge Hike Proposal

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Friday, February 20, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Community Preservation Committee on Tuesday voted to backtrack on a plan to ask town meeting to increase the town's Community Preservation Act surcharge on local property tax bills.

And it heard arguments that the town should be asked whether to pull out of the CPA program altogether.

Earlier this month, the panel voted 6-2 to develop an article for the May annual town meeting warrant that would have asked whether the town should increase the current 2 percent surcharge (with the first $100,000 of property value excepted) to 3 percent, the maximum allowed under the CPA.

Committee members argued that raising the local surcharge to the maximum would unlock significantly more in matching funds from the commonwealth. Hypothetically, for example, the town would have received nearly twice the state funding for CPA projects in FY24 (the most recent year available) had it charged a 3 percent surcharge instead of the current 2 percent.

After hearing two members of the town's Finance Committee, a former Select Board member and one member of the public question whether the CPA surcharge makes sense at all for the town, five members of the CPC at Tuesday's meeting voted not to put the surcharge increase warrant article to a vote at the annual town meeting.

Nate Budington, one of four members to flip their votes from the Feb. 4 meeting, joined others in saying he was on the fence on the issue in light of the ever-increasing tax burden faced by property owners to support town and school operations.

"As to the surcharge, like other people, I went back and forth. I've had a couple of conversations with people on Spring Street about the demise of the [Williamstown Theatre Festival] and what that's meant to their business," Budington said. "And I don't think that's going to get any better. If anything, it's going in the wrong direction. And that's ominous to me.

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