Pittsfield Council Passes $216M Budget, Cuts Schools

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council closed budget season just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday, approving a $216 million spending plan for fiscal year 2025. This includes a cut to the School Department.

Councilors approved a $215,955,210 spending plan that is a 5 percent increase from this year and includes a $200,000 reduction to the $82 million Pittsfield Public School budget. The budget passed 10-1 with Ward 2 Councilor Brittany Noto in opposition.

All conversation was related to the schools, as droves of staff members came to council chambers believing this was a direct slash to positions. It was agreed that misinformation sparked the uprising and was attributed to a "divide" between the school district and the council.

"The amount of misinformation that happened, I don't want to dig into how it happened but it is concerning," Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said.

"And when I look at the emails that I received over the last several days from parents and people who are in the School Department, it's apparent to me that there is a divide here and there are a lot of people that agree with us that something isn't working."

Councilor at Large Earl Persip III emphasized that there should be a focus on communication — noting that Superintendent Joseph Curtis has communicated more than previous holders of his title.

"I think there is something missing from what you guys have said to us and from what we hear and that's where we struggle," he said.

Curtis maintained that a staff email he sent out was purely informational and did not make unsound claims, noting that "certainly this was an incredibly complex budget season." The FY25 spending plan includes the reduction of 53 positions, some related to the sunsetting of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds.

"There was no negativity put forward," he said. "There was a recounting of what happened and some possible next steps in the process because I feel it's incredibly important for the school community to know the process."

He read a part of the June 7 communication, noting that he had communicated Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso's wish to reduce deans.

"The Pittsfield City Council meet on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, to approve the total city budget. It is important to know that a motion could be made to reduce departments' allocation by any amount desired by the council," Curtis wrote to PPS staff.

He agreed to provide councilors with the communication and any others.

"It kind of sounds like what may have happened is a little game of telephone," Ward 7 Councilor Rhonda Serre said, adding "That type of hysteria is not good for anybody."

Councilors reiterated that the $200,000 cut was aimed at the Mercer Administration Building or non-personnel line items and that they do not have line-item control over the reductions.

"I, in no way, support or suggest that any staff member loses their job because of such a minuscule budget cut, especially, especially, the critical role of deans and support staff within the schools, absolutely critical role," Serre said.

"We were very clear when this council made that cut that we did not want to take people out of the school buildings But we have a roomful of people here that heard otherwise. Where did they hear that from?"

John Moreno, a social-emotional learning coach at Taconic High School, said the decision would either cut his position or save it.

"We are often the first responders for student dysregulation," he said. "When they're hungry, we feed them, when they're walking the halls, we ask them why instead of simply barking orders."

Mayor Peter Marchetti reported that he cut the school's original proposal by $400,000. He pointed to the challenge of delivering a close-to-level funded budget based on a request made by the council during his first week in office.

"When we sit here and we say every department has struggled and every department has taken their shots, the School Department did as well …"

"This is a communication to the members of the City Council and members of the school community that are still here: I am going to continue to try to make the city one Pittsfield and when we have our public meetings, we should do our utmost job and leave the other bodies alone because we wouldn't be here tonight if there wasn't for public comments that were made at a School Committee meeting."

Persip pointed to "unprofessional" comments made at a School Committee meeting following its departmental budget deliberation at which unsuccessful motions were made to reduce the school budget by $730,000 and $250,000.

"I struggled with [the budget,] I thought about it, and then I had to hear phone calls about I should watch the meeting, I should watch the School Committee meeting," he said.

"So I watched it and I struggled even more. So again, you're right. If the comments weren't made, I probably would have just struggled and kept my mouth shut."

The council also approved:

• A five-year Capital Improvement Plan for the fiscal years 2025-2029.
• An order amending Order 56 of the Series of 2023, appropriating the amount of $851,102.34 for the FY24 Community Preservation Fund Budget.
• An order appropriating the amount of $808,547.00 from the FY24 Community Preservation Fund Budget.
• An order appropriating the amount of $602,555.00 for the FY25 Community Preservation Fund Budget.
• An order appropriating $2,500,000.00 from certified free cash to reduce the FY25 tax rate.
• An order to borrow an aggregate sum not exceeding $10,192,500.00 for General Fund capital expenditures for FY25.
• An order to borrow and aggregate sum not to exceed $7,700,000.00 for Enterprise Fund Capital Expenditures for FY25.
• An order authorizing the use and expenditure of the city's current revolving funds pursuant to MGL, Chapter 44, Section 53E ½ for FY25.
• An order appropriating $249,600.00 for parking-related expenditures pursuant to MGL, Chapter 40, Sections 21A-22C for FY25 beginning July 1, 2024.

Students Show Effects of Climate Change in Art Show

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:46PM / Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Students from 10 area high schools are showing works that reflect on climate change at the Clark Art this week. The exhibit will move to Pittsfield and Sheffield later. 

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Students got to showcase their art at the Clark Art Institute depicting their relationship with the Earth in the time of climate change.

"How Shall We Live," a juried art exhibit, was on display Saturday in the Clark's Hunter Studio at Stone Hill. Students from 10 high schools participated.

Climate educational organization Cooler Communities has hosted this show for the past couple of years at different venues across the Berkshires. This year, it was approached by the Clark to host the show and is co-organizing with Living the Change Berkshires.

This was the first year Cooler Communities, a program of the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation, changed its prompt to make it more personal for the students in hopes to start a conversation in the classrooms on climate change.

"In our work with Cooler Communities, we want to really make conversations about climate change normal, so it doesn't just happen in high school science or in activist circles, but for everyone to feel like they have a role to play, and for everyone to explore what it means for them," said Executive Director Uli Nagel.

"And so that's why the work of classrooms rather than after-school programs, but actually have it in the classroom and then bring it to the community and connect it to solutions. That's why the community is here, and so we always try to actually make it real, but also give kids the opportunity to explore their own emotions and interior experiences through art."

The Clark wanted to expand on its Sensing Nature Program and give students a higher impact experience instead of just the program tour that could help fit the criteria for the students’ portrait of a graduate.

The show had 74 displays as well as an iPad that showed other students’ art that was not showcased in the show, which was around 180 submissions.

Students were asked to respond to one or more elements in the following prompt:

• What does nature provide?
• What are the Earth's needs?
• What matters most?
• What is resilience?
• Where do you find guidance and inspiration?

Pittsfield High student Stella Carnevale, 16, made her artwork out of newspaper, Mod Podge, chalk, and watercolors. She drew three sardines showing the effect polluted water had on them and wrote in her artist's note that she wants people to pause and feel empathy while also recognizing their role in protecting the natural world.

"Fish are vital to our world. They balance ecosystems, feed communities, and remind us how deeply connected life on Earth is. When our waters are polluted, fish are often the first to suffer, and their disappearance signals a greater loss that affects us all," she wrote. "Pollution doesn't just damage rivers and oceans; it threatens food sources, cultures, and the health of the planet itself. I make art to bring attention to what is quietly being taken away."

She said it was really cool to see her art hanging in the Clark and never thought it would happen.

Wahconah Regional High student, Alexandra Rougeau, 18, painted a jellyfish in acrylics.

"I started off making a different painting that was very depressing, obviously, because it's climate change, and I got really annoyed because everything was so negative," she said. "And although climate change is a really negative part of the world right now, I want to try to show that there is some hope in it. And that we do have some hope in saving our environment. So the jellyfish is meant to depict fire, global warming, but it's in the ocean and it's rising up, and there is some hope, hopefully at the top, in the surface."

Rougeau said it is an honor to be chosen to have her art here and to see all the other depictions from other students.

Monument Mountain High sophomore Siddy Culbreth painted a landscape in oil pastels and said he was inspired by his grandfather who is a landscaper and wanted to depict "what we should save."

"I was picturing this as a quintessential, it's kind of like epitome of what a nice landscape should be like," he said. "And so in terms of climate change, like how that is kind of shifting, or what our idea of like the world is shifting. And I feel like it's really important to preserve what, like, almost not a perfect world, but, what the world should be like."

Some students from Pittsfield High in Colleen Quinn's ceramics class created a microscopic look of what they thought PCBs looked like and wanted to depict how the polychlorinated biphenyls might have affected them at Allendale Elementary, near disposal site Hill 37. 

Quinn said she is very proud of all her students. 

The show is at the Clark until April 26 and is free and open to the public. It will be moved to Pittsfield City Hall to run from May 1 through June 8, and then to Sheffield's Dewey Hall from June 12 through 21.

It is made possible with support from the Feigenbaum Foundation, Lee Bank, and Greylock Federal Credit Union.