2025 Year in Review: Pittsfield Schools
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Pittsfield Public Schools began 2025 with a controversy over alleged staff misconduct, but were able to push forward with large projects that set the district up for the future.
The school system also saw new leadership in 2025, as interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips stepped into the position vacated by Joseph Curtis, who retired from the district after more than 30 years with the district. Additionally, the city has elected a new School Committee, which will be sworn in on Jan. 5.
"I want you to know that I understand the importance of this role for the community. I don't take it lightly, and I would not have applied to come to this district if I didn't feel that one, I could be an asset, and two, that I could also continue to learn and grow in a community that I feel shares values that I also hold," Phillips said during her interview in May.
"Education is more than just a job to me; it is a passion. It is mission work."
Phillip's employment contract was recently extended through June 30, 2027.
The district launched a more than $150,000 investigation at the end of 2024 after a Pittsfield High dean of students, Lavante Wiggins, was arrested and charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office for allegedly conspiring to traffic large quantities of cocaine in Western Massachusetts.
Allegations of staff misconduct soon surfaced on social media, and three PHS administrators and two teachers, past and present, were investigated by Bulkley Richardson and Gelinas LLP at the request of the School Committee.
The public was provided information on the case through five executive summaries that largely found the allegations unsupported. The final executive summary released in May was unable to conclude that an administrator shared a nude image with students on social media.
Both Curtis and PHS Principal Maggie Harrington-Esko retired at the end of the school year; Wiggins' case is currently in U.S. District Court.
A few months later, in the 2025 municipal election, nine candidates ran to fill the six-seat committee. Ciara Batory, Sarah Muil, Daniel Elias, Katherine Yon, Heather McNeice, and Carolyn Barry were elected for two-year terms.
During a debate held by Pittsfield Community Television and iBerkshires, the PHS investigation was a passionate topic.
Batory said, as a parent, she was sitting on the stage because of the lack of transparency regarding the report. The district was ordered to release non-exempt parts of the PHS investigation report after Batory filed a public records request, and in June, the state office of public records determined that the PPS met its burden to withhold public records when a city councilor requested the investigation's final report.
The district in 2025 also made major milestones on projects such as the middle school restructuring and the proposed Crosby/Conte build on West Street.
The School Committee has voted to advance the middle grade restructuring next year to give all students equitable access to education and take fifth grade out of the early elementary level. Grades 5-6 will go to Herberg Middle School, and Grades 7-8 will attend Reid Middle School.
In the summer of 2024, the committee approved an "aggressive" timeline to devise a plan, and the Middle School Restructuring Committee was formed. Since then, there have been public information sessions, community outreach, and deliberations in council chambers about how to move this forward.
The Dec. 10 meeting was set at the checkpoint to determine if Pittsfield will restructure its middle schools in the fall of 2026 or push it off another year. The School Committee voted to realign the middle levels next school year, though Mayor Peter Marchetti wanted to extend the decision to February or March.
"I don't support waiting until March to make another decision about this, because then we're just kicking the can down the road, and everyone's in a pool of uncertainty for whether this is going to happen or not," member William Garrity said.
"I'm in the firm belief we should just go ahead and do this, or, if the committee so chooses, to postpone one year."
PPS also made waves in its plans for a rebuild and consolidation of John C. Crosby Elementary and Silvio O. Conte Community School on Crosby’s West Street property. At the end of November, the City Council unanimously authorized the mayor to enter into a contract with the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a $2 million feasibility study.
The city is seeking reimbursement funds through the MSBA, a quasi-independent government entity that helps fund the construction of school buildings, and the MSBA has approved Pittsfield's move to formal planning. The feasibility study will investigate potential options for the merging of the outdated schools and rebuilding, as well as a cost estimate and schedule.
School officials in 2024 toured the 69,500-square-foot Conte that opened in 1974 and the 69,800-square-foot Crosby that opened in 1962. At Conte, they saw an open concept community school that is not conducive to modern-day needs, and at Crosby, they saw a facility that was built as a middle school and in need of significant repair.
The School Committee also endorsed the district and MSBA's examination of a three-zone, long-term option for reorganizing and consolidating the elementary level. When reviewing a map that roughly estimates the attendance zones, concern arose when it was observed that Stearns Elementary, on Lebanon Avenue, is an outlier and would be absorbed into the new building.
It was then clarified with MSBA that Stearns isn't included in the plans, but that could be explored. While enrollments submitted in the original statement of interest included the school's population, it wasn't included in the originally submitted narrative.
At the end of Curtis' tenure in June, he thanked the council’s support of the project, as it had authorized a $2 million borrowing for the study.
"As you well know, I began my career at Conte Community School, and to end my career with the possibility that the children on the West Side of our city will have an outstanding new school facility that will also serve as a model for our city is quite an honor," he said.
"… Certainly in times of what could be fiscal issues down the road, it would be easy to vote to not pass this, but the City Council did with the mayor's leadership and encouragement, so I'm very grateful, and I look forward to seeing that school hopefully open in 2028 or 2029."
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