Mount Everett's Top Students Announced

04:58PM / Friday, June 03, 2022Print Story | Email Story

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — Mount Everett Regional School is proud to announce that Nadia Makuc has been named valedictorian and Grace Makuc has been named salutatorian of the class of 2022. They will graduate at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 4, during ceremonies at Tanglewood in Lenox.

Nadia Makuc has completed a rigorous course of study during her years at Mount Everett that included five Advanced Placement courses, 12 honors courses, and four early college courses. She has demonstrated leadership with her involvement in the following groups: Interact Club, National Honor Society, Model United Nations, Competitive Vex Robotics, and Student Council. She has received many accolades, including the President's Education Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence, Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizens Award and Scholarship Contest recipient, and the Seal of Biliteracy for her proficiency in English and Spanish. Makuc has been a member of the Mount Everett varsity volleyball and tennis teams and a longtime member of the band and chorus. She has been considered an inspiration to students and faculty at Mount Everett.

Makuc will attend Princeton University in the fall where she looks forward to exploring her passion for politics and philosophy.

Grace Makuc has also completed a rigorous course of study during her years at Mount Everett that included six AP courses, 12 honors courses, and two early college courses. She has been a leader with her involvement in the following groups: National Honor Society, Model United Nations, Interact Club, and Student Council. She is also an athlete, having participated in tennis, cross country, and gymnastics over the years. She also has demonstrated her musical talents as a longtime member of the Mount Everett band and chorus. She is a recipient of the President's Education Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence, and the Mount Everett Mathematics Department Award. She is said to have a drive and a level of determination that has served to inspire the Mount Everett community. She will attend Northeastern University in the fall to study pre-med in pursuit of a career in the medical field of orthopedics.

Principal Jesse Carpenter called the two cousins "amazing scholars."

"Nadia is a great representative of everything Mount Everett stands for. She has been a leader for many years. Her character is unparalleled. She is driven in everything she does. She cares about her peers and adults in the building. We are so proud of her accomplishments," he said. "Grace has been a strong student at Mount Everett, but she is a better person. She is kind to everyone. She is a hard worker in and out of the classroom. She embodies the values that Eagle Nation prides itself on. We are so proud of her."

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Lee Wants Bioremediation in Housatonic River Vernal Pool Study

05:24AM / Thursday, September 03, 2026

LEE, Mass. — The town has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric to include PCB bioremediation in its vernal pool study on the Housatonic River.

Lee officials are urging the EPA to require GE to add a bioremediation treatment arm to the vernal-pool study or provide the public with a clear explanation for why such testing is being excluded.

"This is exactly the kind of question EPA and GE should be asking before final remedy decisions are locked in," Select Board Chair Bob Jones said in a statement released to the press. "The town is not asking to slow the cleanup. We are asking EPA and GE to make the cleanup smarter, less destructive, and more protective over the long term."

An open house was held in Pittsfield earlier this summer for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A of the Housatonic River, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border.

EPA has required GE to conduct a Vernal Pool Pilot Study as part of the Housatonic River Rest of River remediation, comparing excavation and restoration with activated-carbon-based treatments, including a product called SediMite and powdered activated carbon, the town said.

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned of polychlorinated biphenyls in total, five with excavation and five with active carbon, and seven additional vernal pools will be monitored as controls. Construction will be complete around October, but the pools will be left to their natural processes and monitored with surveys and sampling for three years.

The Lee PCB Advisory Committee wrote a letter calling for the 21st-century approach it said could reduce long-term toxicity, avoid unnecessary destruction of sensitive habitats, and improve the effectiveness of the cleanup.

It states that Lee supports the study's purpose and agrees that EPA and GE must understand how cleanup activities affect sensitive vernal-pool ecosystems.

"The current pilot includes 10 treatment pools and seven control pools, while local officials understand that roughly 100 vernal pools may occur in the broader remediation corridor," the Aug. 27 letter reads.

"That makes the pilot study consequential: the methods tested now could shape how many sensitive wetlands are excavated, reconstructed, treated, or left with PCBs managed in place."

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