Second Street Elects Four New Board Members

Print Story | Email Story
Charlie Catacalos, Becky Crane, Daniel Lowenstein and Roberta McCulloch-Dews.
PITTSFIELD, Mass — Second Street Second Chances has elected four new members to its Board of Directors: Charlie Catacalos, Becky Crane, Daniel Lowenstein and Roberta McCulloch-Dews. 
 
Charlie Catacalos, a newcomer to the Berkshires, grew up in Maryland near Washington, D.C. After attending Temple University in Philadelphia, they spent half a year working in cultural institutions in the Adirondacks. They eventually found their way to North Adams, where they have resided for the past two years. Catacalos is the Exhibitions Research and Content Editor at the Berkshire Museum and enjoys their job of learning new things and sharing with others. They also serve on the board of Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition, the oldest LGBTQ+ nonprofit organization in the Berkshires. In their free time, Catacalos writes music, makes ceramics and spends time with their 16-year-old cat, Percy.
 
 Becky Crane, LICSW, has been a resident of Berkshire County since 1983 and has worked in downtown Pittsfield in various roles since 2006. She has worked for the Child & Adolescent Services division of the Brien Center in several capacities and was a substance abuse educator for middle and high schools from 2006-2008. Crane earned her social work degree in 2010 and returned to the Brien Center, where she worked with youths and their families as a psychotherapist and spent a year and a half in the Child and Adolescent Crisis Stabilization Unit. From 2014-2020, she worked as a psychotherapist at Williams College. Crane currently serves First and South Church and Cathedral of the Beloved as an independently licensed clinical social worker. She and her husband of 40 years, Doug, have three children and two young grandchildren, with another on the way.
 
 Daniel Lowenstein is a lifelong Berkshire resident and a local business owner. He graduated from Monument Mountain Regional High School in 2009 and attended Bates College and UMass Amherst with a major in sociology. After several years of employment in various managerial positions, Lowenstein opened a retail storefront with his brother in 2019, where he manages the business full time. His hobbies include painting, photography, blacksmithing, metal sculpture, hiking and fiction writing. As someone who has personally experienced drug addiction and incarceration, Lowenstein says it is both an honor and an exciting opportunity to be part of an organization that offers aid and guidance to the formerly incarcerated.
 
Roberta McCulloch-Dews is the Vice President of Marketing at Greylock Federal Credit Union. She previously served as Director of Administrative Services and Public Information Officer in the Mayor's Office for the City of Pittsfield. A communications professional with more than 20 years of experience, McCulloch-Dews began her career as a newspaper journalist in 2000 and later transitioned to marketing communications and public relations. She serves as a trustee on the board for the Norman Rockwell Museum and is also a board member of the Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts, the Samuel Harrison Society and the Berkshire Immigrant Center. She is a youth mentor with Rites of Passage Empowerment (R.O.P.E.) and a founding member of the Equity and Diversity Committee for the Central Berkshire Regional School District. McCulloch-Dews is a former commissioner on the Berkshire County Commission on the Status of Women. In 2015, she was selected as a finalist for the Berkshire Trendsetters Changemaker Under 40 award, and in 2016, she was part of the inaugural class of Berkshire Community College's 40 Under Forty winners. She is the host of the award-winning podcast, “Backstory – Let's Hear It.” She graduated from New York University with a bachelor's degree in print journalism and, in 2019, earned a master's degree in social and public policy from SUNY Empire. McCulloch-Dews and her husband, Warren Dews, Jr., have three children, Warren III, West and Kennedy.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Pittsfield School Committee Sees Budget Calendar, Chapter 70 Concerns

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Pittsfield Public Schools kicked off its fiscal year 2027 budget calendar, and are again facing uncertainties with state Chapter 70 funding. 

During the first meeting of the new term on Wednesday, the School Committee OK'd an FY27 budget calendar that plans the committee's vote in mid-April. Interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips stressed the importance of equity in this process. 

"It's really important for us through these next couple of months to look at our different schools, our different needs, different student demographics, and really understand, are we just assigning resources equally, or are we really assigning them based on what different groups of students need?" she said. 

The district could lose up to $5 million in Chapter 70 funding from declining enrollment, specifically of low-income students. This is a similar issue that PPS saw in 2024, when the discovery of 11 students meeting those income guidelines put the district in the higher funding category and added $2.4 million to the school budget. 

"We are in a funding category, Group 11, for a district with a large percentage of low-income students, and that number could fluctuate depending on who exited the district," Phillips explained. 

"So we're going to do our best to understand that, but ultimately, these numbers will impact the budget that is proposed to us by the governor." 

According to the budget calendar, a draft budget will be presented in March, followed by a hearing in early April, and the School Committee is set to vote on the budget in mid-April. The City Charter requires it to be adopted before May 1, and a meeting with the City Council must occur no later than May 31. 

Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Bonnie Howland provided an overview of the Chapter 70 funding and budget process. The budget calendar, she said, is designed to really support transparency, coordination, and legal compliance. 

View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories