image description — Superintendent Aaron Dean stands with principal Erin Beaulac.

Hoosac Valley Elementary Unveils New Sign

12:37PM / Saturday, May 18, 2024Print Story | Email Story

The school community gathered Friday morning on the school's front lawn.

ADAMS, Mass. — On Friday morning the Hoosac Valley Elementary School community gathered on the school's lawn to welcome the school's first sign.

Nearly seven years ago, Cheshire Elementary School and CT Plunkett Elementary School joined together to become Hoosac Valley Elementary School. After the closing of Cheshire Elementary School, the school district voted to rename CT Plunkett as Hoosac Valley Elementary School.

"At HVES, we share the importance of identity and belonging in every classroom as part of our Responsive Classroom approach," Principal Erin Beaulac said in a statement Friday. "Every student is called by their name and everyone is a part of our community. With that being said, we felt it was very important for our school's exterior to match our school's interior. There hasn't been a sign of the school's name on the outside of the building. This morning, all of that changed."

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Community Feedback Essential During Ed Collaborative

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:29AM / Tuesday, January 06, 2026

CHESHIRE, Mass. — Ensuring everyone's voices are heard will be a constant during all stages of exploring secondary education collaborative efforts to achieve long-term sustainability in North Berkshire.

Hoosac Valley Regional School District Superintendent Aaron Dean presented an update to at the Select Board last meeting of 2025 on the collaboration to pool resources and explore the possibility of regionalizing the three high schools and the elementary districts in the North Berkshire School Union.

"I think it's something that we have to make sure we bring everybody's voice to the table and bring everybody's concerns to the table through this, so we do it the right way and we don't have a bad taste in people's mouths as we go and take those next steps," he said.

"The communities have learned from some history, unfortunately, on how things have gone. So, I think we have to be mindful of that and kind of make sure that there's a high level of engagement as we go through the process."

NBSU, Hoosac Valley, North Adams Public Schools and the Mount Greylock Regional School District are in the initial stages of the initiative that may take three to five years to complete, he said.

"It's really looking at what are some models, and maybe even what are some different models of regionalization that the communities could utilize, that might be most effective in terms of providing opportunities for kids," Dean said.

With a $100,000 state grant that Dean referred to as "seed money," the task force has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to hire a consultant. The bids are due by 4 p.m. on Jan. 20. The resulting study will guide next steps with the goal of maximizing funding and resources while reducing pressure on communities.

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