Lenox High Names Valedictorian, Salutatorian for Class of 2026

10:35AM / Saturday, June 13, 2026Print Story | Email Story

LENOX, Mass. — Lenox Memorial High School has named Sai Sanjana Meesala as valedictorian and Chloe Parsenios as salutatorian for the graduating class of 2026.

Both students will speak at graduation exercises being held Sunday, June 14, at 1 p.m. at Tanglewood.

Meesala is the daughter of Muralidhar Meesala and Kalyan Madhuri Venna. During her time at Lenox Memorial, she served as president of the National Honor Society, captain and lead programmer of the robotics team, and organizer of an intergenerational book club with residents of Kimball Farms.

Outside of school, Meesala enjoys music and has taught Carnatic (Indian classical) music to children in her community. She was selected for the Western Massachusetts District Music Festival all four years of high school, and for the Massachusetts All-State Music Festival in her senior year. She also attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Beaver Works Summer Institute, where she worked on autonomous drone technology.

Meesala will attend Harvard University in the fall, where she plans to study neuroscience and explore its applications in neurotechnology.

Parsenios lives in Lenox with her parents, Nicholas and Leslie. She has attended the Lenox Public Schools since kindergarten. She has received various academic awards, including the Cornell University Book Award, and is a member of the National Honor Society, the National Art Honor Society, and several other clubs.

She was a varsity player and co-captain of both the soccer and basketball teams and actively helped coach in the towns youth sports programs.

Parsenios will attend the University of Connecticut's honors program to study political science.

Tags: graduation 2026, Lenox Memorial, val & sal,

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15 People Displaced in Pittsfield Home Fires

Staff Reports11:35AM / Sunday, October 11, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Fifteen people were displaced after 2-alarm home fires this weekend on Springside Avenue and Elaine Drive.

On Friday evening, the Fire Department responded to a structure fire at 209 Springside Ave., which took a four-hour battle to extinguish and resulted in a partial roof collapse. The next day, on Saturday evening, crews knocked down a fire at 121 Elaine Drive in about an hour.

The garage and part of the single-family home on Elaine Drive were gutted to the frame, along with a vehicle parked in the driveway. On Springside Avenue, the top level and porch of the multifamily were burned through.

A GoFundMe has been started for the family of the Elaine Drive home, which includes several young children. The fundraiser, with a $5,500 goal, explains they lost their home and all of their belongings. (iBerkshires.com does not confirm or endorse fundraisers; they are provided as information only.)

There were no civilian or firefighter injuries, and both incidents are under investigation. One dog was rescued on Springside Avenue.

On Oct. 10, around 6:15 p.m., PFD responded to the Springside Avenue home for a reported structure fire and saw a 2 1/2-story wood frame multifamily with a heavy blaze showing from the second-floor front porch, extending out.

The building suffered a partial roof collapse, which prolonged extinguishment. The fire was brought under control after about four hours.

“An aggressive offensive attack was mounted by first arriving crews stretching hose lines into the building as well as primary searches that proved negative. Ladders were placed around the structure to provide access as well as escape if needed. An off-duty Fire Captain had also been on scene early in the incident to help evacuate the structure and rescue a dog,” PFD wrote in a press release.

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