Letter: Breen Has Right Experience for North Adams Council

Letter to the Editor02:00PM / Wednesday, November 01, 2023Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

Well, I just voted, and I gave my first vote for City Council to Pete Breen. Why, you ask?

No other new candidate has the experience and devotion and has been as generous with their time. Over the past 40 years, Pete has served on many boards and commissions. He has worked for a variety of employers including MCLA, where Pete was a facilitator and instructor for technology and curriculum development and assistant registrar. Pete took that experience over into the town of Adams, where he implemented the town's entire computer system, serving as the town's technology administrator. Pete then went farther south, where he was a member of the adjunct faculty at BCC for four years.

Shifting gears into education, Pete taught computer science at Hoosac Valley for 12 years, while also serving in the district office and as the pupil transportation officer.

After retiring from compensated work, Pete set his sights on volunteering in North Adams serving on the License Board Commission and serving as the North Adams representative for the Northern Berkshire Vocational School District, and finally, Pete's current passion, serving on the Hoosic River Revival Board.

That's why I gave my first vote to Pete Breen. And I hope that you do too.

David Willette
North Adams, Mass.

Tags: election 2023,

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North Berkshire Secondary Ed Study to Be Rebid

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:31AM / Friday, February 27, 2026

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The task force looking at middle and high school regionalization is going back out to bid for a consultant after both remaining bids came in over budget.

The Northern Berkshire Regionalization Study Steering Committee opened the bids on Wednesday night, with Vaysen Studio of Syracuse, N.Y., bidding $213,400 and the joint bid of Academic Discoveries of Boylston and The Management Solution of Auburn at $172,000.

Both came in higher than the $125,000 the committee has available.

After some discussion, the committee, meeting at McCann Technial School, voted unanimously to retool the request for proposals and send it back out to bid.

"To me, it's as simple as that. The price has exceeded the available funding, and now we're going to create something that has smaller scope so that, so that it can fit," said Mount Greylock Regional Schools Superintendent Joseph Bergeron. "And then that means, hopefully, you're just deducting from the work you already got through, rather than trying to do something completely different."

The group is charged with overseeing a study of secondary education in North Berkshire and includes Mount Greylock, North Adams Public Schools, Hoosac Valley Regional School District and the five member districts of the North Berkshire School Union. The consultant will look at the educational and financial aspects, as well as such areas as special education, enrollment, transportation and long-term sustainability.

The initiative is an outgrowth of declining enrollment and rising costs. For example, Drury High and Hoosac Valley High together graduated 116 seniors last year; in 2008, Drury alone graduated 133.

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