Dalton Officials Recommend CBRSD Hire School Resource Officer

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
01:29PM / Thursday, April 13, 2023Print Story | Email Story

DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday voted to recommend that the Central Berkshire Regional School District hire a school resource officer.

The Police Chief Deanna Strout advocated for this hire, saying it would make the school safer.

Since Sept. 1 of this year, there have been 125 calls for service involving middle and high school students, she told the Select Board.

Of those, 35 were for threats on social media, 23 for trespassing or noise disturbances, 16 for vandalism, 11 for theft, and nine school-related issues such as students walking out of school.

Other calls involving juveniles included breaking and entering, fights and bullying, underage drinking, gel-gun shooting, sex-crime and drug investigations and one call for a weapon on school property.

Although not all of these incidents happened on school property, all of them involved juveniles. A school resource officer would decrease the amount of time the police are called to schools and prevent future incidents, Strout said.

The chief said having a school resource officer helps build relationships with the students and can proactively work on preventing issues like underage drinking and fighting.

"It is my opinion that a school resource officer would be incredibly valuable and could help alleviate some of these issues proactively as well as deal with them," Strout said. "Instead of pulling our officers off the street to be dealing with juvenile issues, if we had a school resource officer available, they could be doing that."

Strout and Executive Assistant Rebecca Whitaker have been working on a grant through the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Oriented Police Services program. .

The funds would cover most of the cost of adding a resource officer to the middle and high school for the next three years. It would cover 75 percent of the cost of the officer and the remaining 25 percent would be covered by the police budget.

To improve the chances of obtaining the grant, Strout was seeking letters of support from the Select Board and school officials.

Superintendent of Schools Leslie Blake-Davis said it would have to be discussed by the Safety and Wellness subcommittee and School Committee because it would involve adding a position that will eventually affect the operating budget.

Strout said, after the meeting, that the position would not affect the school's budget because the cost will come out of the Police Department's budget.

According to Massachusetts state law, a superintendent has to request that a police department provide a school resource officer, subject to appropriation.

The district is holding a Safety and Wellness meeting this month so that the subcommittee can make a recommendation to the School Committee on April 27.

If a vote is made in favor of this position, Davis said she will write a letter of support to include with the grant application.

The grant application deadline is May 11.

Tags: CBRSD, Dalton Police,

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

Breathing Room

0% APY for 12 months balance transfer offer. Apply today! Click to learn more. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Lanesborough Looks to Dissolve Baker Hill Road District

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
06:00PM / Friday, November 13, 2026

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Select Board is looking to move forward with dissolving the Baker Hill Road District, which is hindering the Berkshire Mall sale.

On Friday, the Select Board heard from Vice Chair Juli Baker and Chair Deborah Maynard on how Tuesday negotiations went with Cypress Equities, JMJ Holdings, town counsel, the town administrator, and state Rep. John Barrett III.

Baker said that during Tuesday's meeting, everyone agreed the goal was to have a successful sale of the mall for redevelopment as it’s in the best interest of the town.

Baker said Barrett assured them the state is willing to take the Connector Road and that the state is willing to provide grants to the town to renovate the water and sewer infrastructure, with an estimated total of $4.5 million, to facilitate the property's redevelopment.

"We have received assurances from Representative Barrett that the Commonwealth will provide the monies and will take the Connector," Baker said.

While buyer Cypress Equities saw some benefit in keeping the district, it now doesn't since the state is willing to provide the funds and renovate the infrastructure, according to Baker.

Baker said that in the meeting, Cypress Equities prefers to enter into a tax increment financing (TIF) and will add to the agreement an amount of funding for public safety services, which would have come from the district. She said Cypress said it would rather enter into one agreement with the town than two agreements with the town and the district.

Mall owner JMJ Holdings is willing to pay $350,000 to the town upon closing, Baker said.

The meeting Friday was to consider moving forward with a dissolution of the district.

"But the decision that it hinges on tonight is whether to move forward to the dissolution of the Baker Hill Road District in some manner," she said.

Baker said she has worked long and hard to see if there was another alternative to this, working closely with the district which has been "very cooperative and very helpful" in making changes.

The district had agreed to make changes to its governance and taxation; agreeing to have a cap for Cypress as well as agreeing to work to have the state take over the road, sending letters of support.

"What changed this for me is that I've always said it's important to have the special district because we get the public safety funding, and it's also important for the economic district to bring the features that an economic district brings because of what we're up against with the infrastructure problems, and the change at this point is that we have a buyer who is willing to supply that public safety money and commit to it over time, along with the TIF that the town would do, which is essential," she said.

"At this point, I feel like it's in the best interest of the town and protects the town the best in terms of a future where we can develop a mall and bring that economic benefit in. You definitely need to reduce taxes, and you cannot do that without a fully developed retail operation right there. So it's been, you know, deeply difficult decision making," Baker said.

Board members Jason Breault and Jeffery Walters agreed it was the best decision to move forward.

View Full Story