Mount Greylock Names Finalists for Principal Post

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
04:32PM / Saturday, May 09, 2020Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School District on Friday evening announced the two finalists for the position of principal at the middle-high school.

Current Mount Greylock Vice Principal Jake Schutz and Kristen Thompson, an assistant principal at New Mexico's West Mesa High School, were advanced as finalists by the 18-member search committee, which conducted its second round of interviews on Thursday, according to an email to the community from Superintendent Kimberley Grady.

Schutz has been at Mount Greylock for about seven years, including a year he spent on deployment in Afghanistan with the Massachusetts National Guard.

Shortly after his return in 2018, he told iBerkshires.com that his time in the service complemented his role as an administrator at the school.

"I think it gives me a perspective of the strict side," he said. "But my background is in special education, so I think I have the complete opposite perspective as well — realizing that everyone's unique. … Sometimes you do need to be strict, and other times you don't, you need to be more lenient."

Thompson hails from West Mesa High, a 9-12 senior high school with an enrollment of 1,660 in the Albuquerque Public Schools District.

"The dedicated members of this committee participated in a long process so that we can have another great leader for MGRS," Grady wrote in her email. "I want to thank the committee for their time, rich discussions and passion for MGRS. Although Zoom isn't how we have ever had to interviews, this process went smoothly and allowed us to keep moving forward."

Grady and the district's human resources specialist served on the search committee but recused themselves from the vote on the finalists.

Grady said in her email that she hoped to have an announcement about the successor to Mary MacDonald in the next two weeks.

Tags: finalists, MGRHS, principal,

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Williamstown Studying Major Overhaul for Main Street

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:14AM / Wednesday, July 29, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town is working with a Worcester civil engineering firm to redesign Main Street with an eye toward a major project sometime in the next decade.

Community Development Director Andrew Groff was before the Select Board on Monday night to talk about Town Hall's use of a $500,000 state grant to do preliminary design on major improvements to that portion of Route 2 that runs from Water Street west to the Field Park rotary, through the middle of Williams College's campus.

Groff introduced the elected officials to Amanda Bazinet of Worcester's Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, who is helping the town to develop a plan for Main Street that would align with the commonwealth's Complete Streets Program.

"Our project goals, in addition to the increased pedestrian and bicycle accommodations, is just, in general, improving the sightlines and improving the intersection geometry," Bazinet said.

"Complete Streets … has a lot of different facets to it. As Andrew had mentioned, the goal is to improve the safety for all of the roadway users — not just the motorists. We're looking at improving it for pedestrians, bicyclists, anyone using a mobility device. We want to create streets that are safe for all ages and abilities to use. So, while bicyclists will still be allowed, legally, to use the roadway, we want to look at providing a separate bicycle accommodation along the corridor, whether it's a shared use path along both sides of the streets that is a little more accessible to young children or older people with disabilities to look at all transportation options."

One goal is to encourage "active transportation." The Massachusetts Department of Transportation, who the town hopes one day might fund the construction, has a "healthy transportation policy," Bazinet said.

That MassDOT funding would come through the Transportation Improvement Program, which is managed locally by the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. The design work underway now is being done with an eye toward going after TIP funding years down the road.

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