McCandless Staying as DuBois Middle School Principal

08:01AM / Monday, January 20, 2025Print Story | Email Story

Jake McCandless previously served as superintendent in Mount Greylock, Pittsfield, and Lee.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Jake McCandless, who left his post as superintendent of Mount Greylock Regional School District last spring, will continue as a middle school principal in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District

Superintendent Peter Dillon told the School Committee on Jan. 16 that McCandless, principal of W.E.B. Du Bois Middle School, has extended his contract for an additional three years.

McCandless began his role in July 2024, succeeding Miles Wheat, who was hired as principal at Chatham (N.Y.) High School

With more than 30 years of experience in education, McCandless also previously served as superintendent in Pittsfield and Lee, where he was also a principal, as well as an assistant principal and teacher in Virginia.

Superintendent Dillon shared his praise.

"It's great to have a steady hand on the tiller," he said. "I'm so impressed with the relationships Jake has built, the time he's taken to listen, and his capacity to support sustained growth in the building. We're very lucky to have Jake as our principal and to extend his time on our team."

McCandless expressed his gratitude.

"I am very honored and very grateful for this gift of getting to serve long-term as the principal of a truly remarkable school in a truly remarkable district," he said. "Being an educator in the Berkshires for the past 22 years has been a joy, and being able to continue to serve with a focus on middle-level students and the professionals dedicated to caring for and educating them is a tremendous privilege."

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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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