image description — CTE students decorate downtown Pittsfield Monday, Nov. 28.

Taconic CTE Students Decorate Downtown Pittsfield

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
06:00PM / Monday, November 28, 2022Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Taconic High School Career Technical Education (CTE) program has partnered with the City of Pittsfield and a variety of nonprofits to help students engage in the community and build their skills.

"It's important that they know they can make a difference, and they are active participants in making our community better through their actions and their participation," Assistant Superintendent Tammy Gage said. "So letting them know they have a voice and their contributions are just as meaningful as the adults allows our students to feel more accepted."

The most recent initiative that the electrical students undertook was decorating the city with Christmas lights on Monday, Nov. 28.

"This allows them to work on ladder safety - just being aware of your surroundings with all the vehicles and the people around. And also, just to be involved in community and try to help in any way possible. Every little bit helps when it comes to community. So just take the first step of being involved," Electrical Teacher Bill DeMarco said. "Everywhere has problems\ but maybe this will help showcase some of the good and change that perspective a little."

City Councilor Patrick Kavey said this is something the city had wanted to do but struggled to find the staff to accomplish the feat.

This opportunity gives the students real-world experiences and allows them to learn skills like teamwork, electrical student Zachary Farina said.

"It’s satisfying to kind of just be out here and just working outside with my friends, and it's fun to be out here," he said. "I hope they just like the lights brighten up North Street and just brighten up the city and make it look better."

The group of students has taken on a plethora of projects around the city including building a new garage for the Highway Department.

The city originally had a garage on West Housatonic Street but it burnt down. Since then they have not replaced it.

The project would give carpentry and electrical CTE students the opportunity to work with local contractors and other professionals training them.

This project is still in process, and the city is looking for grant funding and determining the scope of the project, Kavey said.

"I think it's extremely important to provide these opportunities to our students because they are the future of our city," Kavey said. "So in order for our city to thrive, we have to give our young people the tools that they need to get into our workforce and be successful."

Until then, the students are working with the city to complete little projects including rebuilding the highway department's ramp that is in need of repair.

In addition to working with the city, the CTE program is working with local nonprofits.

The electrical program students installed doorbells for Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity's new builds.

In addition to that, the carpentry students rebuilt the National Guard sign on Valentine Road, and the horticulture students beautified Veterans Park for Veterans Day.

The idea to work with the community to improve access to jobs after graduation started when Kavey and Commissioner of Public Utilities Ricardo Morales proposed a new Business Technology Program to the school.

During the discussions with Taconic, Morales and Kavey said there were some shops that did not have a co-op partner making it more difficult for students not continuing on to secondary education to find jobs.

These co-op partners help students network with surrounding businesses.

The CTE program also provides students with a well-rounded education that prepares them for any path they choose to take whether it be continuing to secondary education, trade schools, or apprenticeships, Gage said.

Gage said the relationships students build with the city and nonprofits are integral to their success

She added that students' ability to see themselves in a future workforce and immerse themselves in the interest is one of the things that makes the program a success. She added that It is important for students and parents to see that the skills learned through the program have an effect on the community.

"I think it's a way to showcase that our students are doing meaningful work. That they're capable of so much more. That they are a part of our community solution to make things better and make things stronger in our community," she said.

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PCTV Turns 40, Anniversary Celebration This Friday

By Breanna SteeleiBekshires Staff
03:30PM / Monday, September 14, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Pittsfield Community Television is turning 40 this week, and it's celebrating with its viewers and listeners.

This Friday, Sept. 18, PCTV will celebrate at the Berkshire Hills Country Club. Ryan Peterson, WTEN News10 ABC anchor and Pittsfield High School graduate, will give the keynote address.

Executive Director Shawn Serre, who has been with the station for over 32 years, said it's their chance to celebrate all they have been able to bring to the community.

"It's a chance to reflect on everything that the organization has done over those years, all the people that have been involved. From board members to volunteers to producers to crew people to staff members, and all the different programs that we've produced," he said. "Everything from public programming to education, sports, graduations, parades, government meetings and forums, and election night coverage, and all kinds of other things that just year upon year of history that we've been able to create and document here for the Pittsfield community over those years."

Serre took over as executive director about nine years ago. Originally a volunteer fresh out of college.

The original board included former mayor Edward Reilly, Dan Dillon, Diane Morgenstern, Bernard Avalle, and John Fukes of the Berkshire Athenaeum. The operation was all-volunteer until PCTV hired the first executive director in January 1989.

PCTV has operated out of its station on Federico Drive since 1999. But originally they worked out of a basement.

"The first location that we ever had, we had all of our equipment stored in cardboard boxes in the basement of the Berkshire Athenaeum, because the Berkshire Athenaeum at the time was very gracious and allowed us to have some space while we sort of got our feet on the ground and sort of got things organized," he said. "But we had no location. We had no studio. We just had this equipment that was ordered with the money that we had from the original cable franchise grant."

"So that lasted a couple of years, and then we signed and got a lease over in our first studio location, which was over on Fourth Street in Pittsfield," Serre continued. "That was around the time that I first got involved, just before we moved to Fourth Street. So I was there in the basement of the library, opening those boxes up and seeing what we had for equipment. So we stayed there at Fourth Street for about 10 years, and then this building that we're currently in now, over on Federico Drive, was constructed in 1998. It was built kind of custom-made for the cable company and for us and for one other company."

Serre said one of their proudest moments was saving the radio station WTBR-FM back in 2018. PCTV made space for them so they could continue operation.

"We carved out some space here in our facility for that, and we've been operating that radio station ever since. So those are some of the big milestones of growth of the organization over the years, and the things that we've done," he said.

They have also invested in advanced technology to keep their programming accessible to all.

"Technologically, there's another whole series of things that we've gone through," he said. "We've started out with a single cable TV channel. We grew to three cable TV channels. We started out as standard definition on videotape, and we grew to digital, and then to high definition, and then everything went to the internet. So we're able to offer video on demand and live streams and video on social media. And then with the radio station, we also have a live stream there and podcasting. So we've seen a lot of technological change and tried to roll with that over the years."

Serre said that PCTV strives to keep people informed while also allowing space for people to create their own media.

"The whole idea behind PEG [Public Education and Government Access]...the whole idea behind that back in the 70s and 80s was that people could be left behind with the technology that's available to the big corporations," he said. "So, if you had a cable system at the time, ordinary people maybe they had camcorders at home, but they didn't have access to a TV studio; they didn't have access to the kind of technology that we had to allow them to create programs and share it with the community. So we filled that gap, and that was one of the main things that we did. And then also to be able to create programming for viewers and for the city, so that the municipal meetings can be shown, and so school committee meetings can be shown, and it really brings people in and involved."

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