Northern Berkshire Family Practice Joining NBH

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Northern Berkshire Family Practice will become part of the Northern Berkshire Healthcare family of care providers, NBH officials announced Wednesday.

Dr. William Kober will remain at the practice as medical director and is joined by Dr. Linda Hill, who most recently has practiced with Williamstown Medical Associates. Also joining the practice is Elizabeth Toomajian of North Adams, a family nurse practitioner. The medical practice is accepting new patients for primary care. The number is 413-664-4088.

NBH will purchase the building at 820 State Road.

"We're excited to welcome Drs. Kober and Hill, and Liz Toomajian to the NBH family, as we work to maintain and expand primary care services in the community," said Richard Palmisano, president and CEO of Northern Berkshire Healthcare. "It's no secret that there are immense pressures on primary care doctors across the state and especially here in Berkshire County, and it's important to do all we can to strengthen the provision of those services here."

Palmisano added that NBH continues to devote resources to physician recruitment, including recruitment in the areas of primary care, obstetrics and gynecology, surgery and other specialties.


Kober, a board-certified family practice physician, has practiced in North Berkshire since 1994, when Northern Berkshire Family Practice was established. He earned his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and served his internship and residency at University of Connecticut Affiliated Hospitals at St. Francis' Medical Center in Hartford.

Hill earned her medical degree from the Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery, and served a rotating internship at Brighton Medical Center in Portland, Maine. She also is a board-certified family practice physician. She came to North Berkshire from the Veterans Administration Primary Care Clinic in Glens Falls, N.Y., and has practiced in communities in Maine, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Toomajian completed her family nurse practitioner certificate program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She also holds a master of science in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin. Toomajian most recently has worked for the Neighborhood Health Center in Pittsfield, and for Southwestern Vermont Medical Center's department of employee and occupational health. She has also worked in North Adams Regional Hospital's psychiatric unit and, from 1995 to 1998, for Northern Berkshire Family Medicine.

Northern Berkshire Healthcare's family of care providers includes NARH, the Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice of Northern Berkshire, Reach Community Health Foundation and Sweet Brook Transitional Care and Living Centers and Sweetwood Continuing Care Retirement Community in Williamstown. Information: 413-664-5000 or www.nbhealth.org.
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Pittsfield Schools May See Tighter Cell Phone Policy

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Superintendent Joseph Curtis would like to see the district's cell phone policy tightened up after more than 6,000 violations were accrued during the last school year.

"I think that we do need to do a hard examination of that," he told the School Committee on Monday. "I think that we are in our first year making every attempt to give every student the benefit of the doubt, and family."

This could mean locked cell phone cases — Yondr cases — for middle and high school students or increased regulations.  

A three-tiered response plan was approved about a year ago though the superintendent feels that it might be time to review it and lessen the number of warnings students are given "because we are clear about the expectation that cell phones not be used during instruction."

Having regulations that, in some cases, allow a student 10 attempts at using phones during prohibited times is not only sending the wrong message to students and families but is hard to keep track of, Curtis said.

Because of this, he wants to have a discussion with school leaders about reviewing and tightening the regulations. It has been referred to the subcommittee on social and emotional learning.

Data collected over the 2023-2024 school year showed a total of 6,358 districtwide referrals entered into the office discipline system. Reid Middle School had the highest number of violations, more than 2,200, Pittsfield High School had over 1,800, and Taconic High School had over 1,200.

Herberg Middle School had just more than 900 violations entered into the system.

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