Mount Everett's Top Students Announced for 2024

04:45PM / Monday, June 03, 2024Print Story | Email Story

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — Mount Everett Regional School announces that Allison Steuernagle has been named valedictorian, and Emily Steuernagle has been named salutatorian of the class of 2024.

Allison Steuernagle has completed a rigorous course of study during her years at Mount Everett which includes three AP courses, 10 honors courses, and four early college courses. She has been an active participant in the life of Mount Everett Regional School and her community. A three-sport athlete, she played on Mount Everett's varsity soccer, basketball and softball teams. She has served as treasurer for the National Honor Society, Mount Everett Student Government, and the Rotary Interact Club. Allison was the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Bold Eagle, bringing her vision and imagination to the resurrected periodical. She was also a member of the District Attorney's Youth Advisory Board. Her quiet leadership and humility have endeared her to students and faculty alike.

In the fall, Allison will attend Florida Gulf Coast University, where she intends to study political

science.

Emily Steuernagle also completed a rigorous course of study and concluded her four years in high school with four AP courses, 10 honors courses, and three early college courses. Emily, a leader in her own right, has demonstrated that as captain of the varsity soccer, basketball, and softball teams. Her leadership was not only in the athletic milieu, but also in political and community affairs, as she served as vice president for both the Mount Everett Student Government and the Rotary Interact Club. Emily is a National Honor Society member and the editor of design for The Bold Eagle. During her junior year, she was awarded the Clarkson University Leadership Award. Emily has been a positive presence during her years at Mount Everett with her humor and affability.

She also will attend Florida Gulf Coast University, where she will major in marketing.

"Allison has been an outstanding student in her years at Mount Everett. She has been a three-sport athlete, has taken on leadership roles in many extra-curricular activities, and excelled in the classroom. Her commitment to her studies and her participation in activities here has been outstanding," said Principal Jesse Carpenter. "Emily has had a pretty remarkable career at Mount Everett. Between her dedication to her schoolwork, her commitment to her athletic teams, and her involvement in extracurricular activities, she has been a leader amongst her peers."

Please join the Southern Berkshire Regional School District in congratulating these sister scholars on their achievements.

Allison and Emily will graduate on Saturday, June 1, during the school's ceremonies to be held at Tanglewood in Lenox.

Tags: graduation 2024, Mount Everett, val & sal,

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Lee Wants Bioremediation in Housatonic River Vernal Pool Study

05:24AM / Thursday, September 03, 2026

LEE, Mass. — The town has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric to include PCB bioremediation in its vernal pool study on the Housatonic River.

Lee officials are urging the EPA to require GE to add a bioremediation treatment arm to the vernal-pool study or provide the public with a clear explanation for why such testing is being excluded.

"This is exactly the kind of question EPA and GE should be asking before final remedy decisions are locked in," Select Board Chair Bob Jones said in a statement released to the press. "The town is not asking to slow the cleanup. We are asking EPA and GE to make the cleanup smarter, less destructive, and more protective over the long term."

An open house was held in Pittsfield earlier this summer for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A of the Housatonic River, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border.

EPA has required GE to conduct a Vernal Pool Pilot Study as part of the Housatonic River Rest of River remediation, comparing excavation and restoration with activated-carbon-based treatments, including a product called SediMite and powdered activated carbon, the town said.

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned of polychlorinated biphenyls in total, five with excavation and five with active carbon, and seven additional vernal pools will be monitored as controls. Construction will be complete around October, but the pools will be left to their natural processes and monitored with surveys and sampling for three years.

The Lee PCB Advisory Committee wrote a letter calling for the 21st-century approach it said could reduce long-term toxicity, avoid unnecessary destruction of sensitive habitats, and improve the effectiveness of the cleanup.

It states that Lee supports the study's purpose and agrees that EPA and GE must understand how cleanup activities affect sensitive vernal-pool ecosystems.

"The current pilot includes 10 treatment pools and seven control pools, while local officials understand that roughly 100 vernal pools may occur in the broader remediation corridor," the Aug. 27 letter reads.

"That makes the pilot study consequential: the methods tested now could shape how many sensitive wetlands are excavated, reconstructed, treated, or left with PCBs managed in place."

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