Clarksburg Boards Discuss School Renovation Needs

CLARKSBURG, Mass. — In a joint meeting with the Select Board and the Americans with Disabilities Act Commission, the School Committee discussed building renovation needs. 

The most significant upcoming renovation is the installation of a chair lift, for ADA compliance. The lift will allow access from the main floor to the lower level of the split-level school, including the cafeteria, gymnasium and playground. 

"We haven't sat down all together. So, before we go and spend this money, let's make sure we're all in agreement and it sounds like we all are, so that's great," said Superintendent John Franzoni. "Thank you very much, because that was a big problem for the school." 

Town Administrator Carl McKinney said there is already funding available, via American Rescue Plan Act funds, to almost entirely pay for the lift project. He said he is working on a draft request for proposals and will do whatever is needed to work around summer programs. 

"The company that does make [the lift] will install it. And they would like to come and see it, but ultimately, I need to know what your time window is going to be," he said. The project, he explained, is expected to cost about $110,000. "Financially, we're good with that. We're using ARPA funds for the fact that the money's in the bank, we already have it. So if you have the time, we got the money." 

McKinney also suggested possibly putting solar panels on the roof of the school. He said the payments from a lease for the roof space could help finance a more significant roof renovation. 

"We do understand it's rather vital," McKinney said of the school's roof. "If we were to do a request for proposals to lease the space on the roof for a solar panel company, you're looking probably about a quarter to a third of an acre of land on the roof and get a 20-year lease agreement where the lease payments would pay for the roof." 

The group also discussed the end-of-year report required by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Franzoni said communication has been better recently. 

"I think the fact that we're talking face to face, and we're talking on the phone, that's the only way this is gonna get solved and move forward so that we can get all the funding that we need for our school and get all the grants everything else that we need to keep the school going," he said. "We need to do that, we need to work together. Otherwise, it's not going to work."  

Newly installed committee member Mary Giron said creating a schedule of important events would be helpful for communication between the school and the town. 

"If we had a schedule, I would think that everyone would know the schedule. The Select Board would know the schedule, the School Committee would know the schedule," she said. "... We can check in to make sure things are being followed, and we would just have a clear approach for all of us. And I think it would be helpful." 

In other business: 

• Giron was recognized as the committee's newest member after her appointment at the last meeting. 

Giron is the third member on the board, replacing former member Eric Denette, who stepped down recently after moving out of Clarksburg. Denette had declined to run for a second term last spring but accepted after winning through write-in votes.

2024 Year in Review: North Adams' Year of New Life to Old Institutions

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:42AM / Thursday, January 02, 2025

President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz poses in one of the new patient rooms on 2 North at North Adams Regional Hospital.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — On March 28, 2014, the last of the 500 employees at North Adams Regional Hospital walked out the doors with little hope it would reopen. 

 

But in 2024, exactly 10 years to the day, North Adams Regional was revived through the efforts of local officials, BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz, and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who was able to get the U.S. Health and Human Services to tweak regulations that had prevented NARH from gaining "rural critical access" status.

 

It was something of a miracle for North Adams and the North Berkshire region.

 

Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and abruptly closed in 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 

 

BMC had renovated the building and added in other services, including an emergency satellite facility, over the decade. But it took one small revision to allow the hospital — and its name — to be restored: the federal government's new definition of a connecting highway made Route 7 a "secondary road" and dropped the distance maximum between hospitals for "mountainous" roads to 15 miles. 

 

"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years," Rodowicz said. "It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated countywide system of care." 

 

The public got to tour the fully refurbished 2 North, which had been sectioned off for nearly a decade in hopes of restoring patient beds; the official critical hospital designation came in August.