Pittsfield Plans School Transition Activities Ahead of Restructuring
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — As the district prepares to restructure its middle schools in the fall, administrators are considering transition activities that will best meet the needs of Pittsfield students.
Last week, the School Committee saw an update on the Pittsfield Public Schools' move to an upper elementary and junior high school model in September, with Grades 5 and 6 attending Herberg Middle School and Grades 7 and 8 attending Reid Middle School.
Initial negotiation meetings were held with the Pittsfield Educational Administrators Association and the United Educators of Pittsfield, and the strategic scheduling process is underway. A scheduling consultant is reviewing enrollment, course, staffing, and policy data and plans to visit the middle schools on Feb. 10.
"It's really important for us that we are scheduling students properly into these three areas so that they can get the best out of the school day," interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips said.
Assistant Superintendent for CTE and Student Support Tammy Gage reported that they will release a "very rigorous" summer programming portfolio sometime in the spring. Pittsfield has transition plans for fifth graders entering middle school, which can be adjusted for fourth graders, and will need new programming for the grades that will attend Reid.
The former School Committee set a checkpoint in December 2025 to decide if the middle restructuring would be pushed off another year, and voted to move the project forward. It aims to provide equitable access to education and take the fifth grade out of the early elementary level.
Phillips explained that elementary students entering Herberg will have a different transition than students moving from one middle school to another.
"We want to be really intentional around creating opportunities for them to come together, and so we will offer an opportunity for staff in the school to help develop that student transition plan so that students can have opportunities before the school year ends," she said.
Gage listed current elementary-to-middle and middle-to-high school transition activities.
Elementary to middle level activities include open houses, school counselors visiting elementary schools, 6th-grade orientations, and the Step Ahead summer program. Students transitioning from middle to high school also have shadow days and programs such as the Link Crew, which is designed to help freshmen succeed.
There was a question of how this information would be shared, kept up to date, and compiled. The district used to have a stipend-paid staff member who was responsible for adding information to the website.
"It's everyone's responsibility," Gage reported. "Which is a really not great way of saying, everyone does their best."
Phillips understood that the stipend is no longer in place, and it is the building leader's responsibility to update the website.
"It is an area that needs improvement, and the budget is tied to that improvement, so I just want to acknowledge that we're aware of it. It's something we're working on," she said.
"... I think that we need to take a look at, in the meantime, how do we get critical information on transitions updated while we work on the districtwide solution for updating information on the website?"
Last year, PPS unions and administrators united to create a social media and cell phone directive to protect student/staff boundaries, maintain professional conduct, and foster a safe, respectful environment. School officials felt an urgent need to update the policy as there was an issue surrounding school-based social media accounts, stemming from the fact that some schools have social media pages for teams, classes, student organizations, and sometimes departments.
Tags: grade reconfiguration, Pittsfield Public Schools,
