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St. Mary's Team Takes 24th Annual Berkshire Robotics Challenge

Trophies for this year's Robotic Challenge.

DALTON, Mass. — The 24th annual Berkshire Robotics Challenge, hosted and sponsored by the Berkshire Innovation Center, was held Saturday, March 15, at Wahconah Regional High School.  

"This is such a great after school activity for them to get involved in. So they can learn all about science and technology and math, but also have that, you know, learn to collaborate with teammates and work with friends and problem solve as a team, said said Berkshire Innovation Center executive director, Ben Sosne.

"So all those great skills that you learn team activities, plus the science and technology stuff that you learn here."

This year's challenge, "Submerged," featured a field of 27 teams with more than 200 students from all over Berkshire County, using programmable robots to complete a variety of missions. The Submerged theme shines a spotlight on the ocean, which is home to some of the planet's most complex ecosystems and encourages students to explore the layers of the ocean and bring what they learn to the surface.

The teams competed in three rounds with the top eight point-scorers advancing to the Great Eight Playoff. After the great eight, two teams were left, the Lee RoboWildcats and the SMS Coding Crusaders of St. Mary's School in Lee.

They faced off in the finals with the SMS Coding Crusaders hitting first place with a total of 235 points.

Some of the teammates expressed how happy they were with their hard work.

"My year has been really good with this, I've had some struggles but as I went along I found out how to pick them up with some friends.” said eighth-grader Jasmine Filek. 

"It's my last year at St. Mary's right now and I was sincerely hoping that we would get into the great eight but to finish on top and it's my last year too it's just amazing because I get to go out with something I can be proud of," said eighth-grader Sophia Springstead.

We just had a group of kids that were ready to work and support each other and did what was best for the team,” said coach Christine Barry.

The awards ceremony followed the competition:

Best Research Project: Ro-BART-ics

Against All Odds Awards: WES Purple Owls

Comeback Kids: Engenuity 2B (Lenox)

Rookie Team of the Year: Roboty McRobotFace

Best Programming: Lee RoboWildcats

Most Innovative Design: Richmond Robotics

Team Spirit: Crosby Crew

Sportsmanship Award: Pine Cobble PSC Pringles

First Runner Up: Lee RoboWildcats

Challenge Champion: SMS Code Crusaders

CBRSD School Committee OKs $36M Budget

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:15AM / Tuesday, March 18, 2025

DALTON, Mass. — The Central Berkshire Regional School Committee approved a gross final budget of $36,643,001 for fiscal 2026, an increase of 2.70 percent over this year. 

 

The biggest cause of the increase is from insurances. The district's active health insurance premiums increased by 16 percent; retirees had an increase of 20 percent, and a 3 percent increase in dental, said Gregory Boino, director of finance and operations.

 

Another large increase was for special education transportation costs, which increased $135,000, "and it's just to meet the actual expenditures where we're living right now," Boino said. 

 

The district's Special Education Out of District Tuition line decreased by $214,350 because students are aging out of those out-of-district placements, he said. 

 

The Finance Committee also decreased the other post-employment benefits, or OPEB, amount by $350,000, so next year, the district will be funding it with $50,000, Boino said. 

 

The Finance Committee discussed how there is a deep need for the community to petition the state to change Chapter 70 education aid and rural aid, School Committee member Paul Farella said prior to the budget update. 

 

"The way that they work makes it extremely difficult for us to make a budget that is fair to towns when you have some that have high percentages of assessment and others with negative it can create a sticky situation," he said.