McCann School Project Completion Delayed by Material Removals
New staff and faculty were introduced on Thursday: Jamie Ciepiela, Tave McGrath, Ariel Biagini and Kevin Dowling.
The project was expected to be completed before school opened last week, but Superintendent James Brosnan told the School Committee on Thursday that it ran into delays because of weather and the removal of certain materials over the summer
"That's an industry-wide issue that a lot of roofing projects had this entire summer," he said. "When you have any kind of hazardous material or assumed to be, it has to be sent to certain facilities, and those facilities stopped receiving because they were receiving too much.
"So it results in a couple of weeks delay here, shutdown of three weeks there, so we're back on track."
The school was covered in plywood over the summer as the original single-pane windows were removed for the installation of new double-pane sheets, which are expected to positively affect the comfort level in the building. The old windows often rattled during windy and stormy weather and did little to keep the cold out or the heat in.
Most of the windows are now in but supplies are still situated on the roof as that work continues.
"We've been in construction zones since the end of April, and we will continue that through our goals," said Brosnan.
The upgrades are being funded through the Massachusetts School Building Authority's Accelerated Repair Program and the Northern Berkshire Vocational School District's member towns.
Principal Justin Kratz presented the school improvement plan for the 2026-27 school year, laying out five goals that the committee approved.
"Some of the things that are in our school improvement plan this year are a lot about culture building, a lot about improving some of the things that we're doing," he said. "This is the first year where all four grades are under standards-based grading, so we've made the full conversion over now, and that's really exciting because now we can really focus on refining and improving."
The school several years ago had initiated the new grading, which looks at proficiencies rather than alphabet or numeric grading, starting with the incoming freshman and moving up a grade each year.
Kratz reminded the committee that the intention to gradually introduce the grading had been to accommodate the upper classes. Going schoolwide from the beginning may have had some benefits, he said, but "I think the drawback of that would have been our seniors, who had been going to school a certain way for three years, and then pulling the rug out from them."
At this point there will be consistency across all four high school grades "classroom to classroom and between teacher to teacher."
In other business, the committee approved end-of-the-year transfers; accepted a second two-year Career Technical Initiative grant of $686,000; and approved contracts with the McCann Faculty Association and the nonrepresentative staff.
The committee also welcomed new faculty and staff introduced by Kratz: Athletic Director Kevin Dowling, a 2015 McCann grad, Assistant Principal Michael Taber, CAD instructor Ariel Biagini, Jamie Ciepiela, secretary to postsecondary programs, and Tave McGrath, secretary to the assistant principal.
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