Second Street Elects Four New Board Members

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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.
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Pittsfield Families Frustrated Over Unreleased PHS Report, Herberg Slur Incident

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Parents are expressing their frustration with hate speech, bullying, and staff misconduct, which they said happens in Pittsfield schools. 

Community members and some elected officials have consistently advocated for the release of the redacted Pittsfield High School investigation report, and a teacher being placed on leave for allegedly repeating racist and homophobic slurs sparked a community conversation about how Pittsfield Public Schools can address injustices. 

The district's human resources director detailed the investigation processes during last week's School Committee meeting.

"People are angry. They feel like when they spoke up about Morningside School, it was closed anyway. They feel like they speak up about the PHS report, and that's just kind of getting shoved under the rug," resident Brenda Coddington said during public comment.

"I mean, when do people who actually voted for all of you, by the way, when does their voice and opinion count and matter? Because you can sit up here all day long and say that it does, but your actions, or rather lack of action, speak volumes."

Last month, School Committee member Ciara Batory demanded a date for the 2025 report's release to the public.

Three administrators and two teachers, past and present, were investigated by Bulkley Richardson and Gelinas LLP for a range of allegations that surfaced or re-surfaced at the end of 2024 after Pittsfield High's former dean of students was arrested and charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office for allegedly conspiring to traffic large quantities of cocaine in Western Massachusetts.

Executive summaries were released that concluded the claims of inappropriate conduct between teachers and students were "unsupported." Ward 7 Councilor Katherine Moody countered one of the unsupported determinations, writing on Facebook last week that she knows one person can conclude with confidence and a court case that pictures of the staff member's genitalia was sent to minors. 

"During this investigation, we sought to determine the validity of allegations about PHS Administrator #2 sharing a photograph of female genitalia with PHS students on her Snapchat account," the final executive summary reads. 

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