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No Hazards Identified in Air Testing at Mount Greylock School

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — School officials say no health risks have been identified at Mount Greylock Regional School. 
 
The school was closed Friday to allow engineers to check the heating and air conditioning system after a number of complaints about an odor in the new academic wing.
 
Superintendent Kimberley Grady, in an email to the school community on Friday evening, said the building was inspected by a team of licensed professionals that included the town's health inspector and the plumbing engineer for the project.  
 
"They assessed the rooftop units, venting and roof stacks for the three-floor Academic Wing in response to concerns regarding the presence of a 'sewage' smell," she wrote.
 
Eco-Genesis, an environmental engineering company contracted to complete air quality screenings, used an LEL ("lower explosive limit") device for screening methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and oxygen.  
 
Their testing revealed no traces of methane, hydrogen sulfide or carbon monoxide, Grady wrote, and the oxygen readings were within the normal limit at 20.9.  As an extra precaution, the school district requested lab-based tests to be conducted using SUMMA canisters — a type of stainless steel container for doing air sampling. Results from these tests should be available Friday, Feb. 21, before the school reopens from the February vacation week.
 
The academic wing will remain closed during the vacation week to continue testing. Other sections of the school building (specifically the gym, cafeteria and auditorium) will be opened for activities. The individual basketball contests, the Berkshire Country Classic and the Mathias J. Bartels Scholarship fundraiser will continue at the school as planned.
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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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