Pittsfield Council Passes $216M Budget, Cuts Schools

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council closed budget season just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday, approving a $216 million spending plan for fiscal year 2025. This includes a cut to the School Department.

Councilors approved a $215,955,210 spending plan that is a 5 percent increase from this year and includes a $200,000 reduction to the $82 million Pittsfield Public School budget. The budget passed 10-1 with Ward 2 Councilor Brittany Noto in opposition.

All conversation was related to the schools, as droves of staff members came to council chambers believing this was a direct slash to positions. It was agreed that misinformation sparked the uprising and was attributed to a "divide" between the school district and the council.

"The amount of misinformation that happened, I don't want to dig into how it happened but it is concerning," Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said.

"And when I look at the emails that I received over the last several days from parents and people who are in the School Department, it's apparent to me that there is a divide here and there are a lot of people that agree with us that something isn't working."

Councilor at Large Earl Persip III emphasized that there should be a focus on communication — noting that Superintendent Joseph Curtis has communicated more than previous holders of his title.

"I think there is something missing from what you guys have said to us and from what we hear and that's where we struggle," he said.

Curtis maintained that a staff email he sent out was purely informational and did not make unsound claims, noting that "certainly this was an incredibly complex budget season." The FY25 spending plan includes the reduction of 53 positions, some related to the sunsetting of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds.

"There was no negativity put forward," he said. "There was a recounting of what happened and some possible next steps in the process because I feel it's incredibly important for the school community to know the process."

He read a part of the June 7 communication, noting that he had communicated Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso's wish to reduce deans.

"The Pittsfield City Council meet on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, to approve the total city budget. It is important to know that a motion could be made to reduce departments' allocation by any amount desired by the council," Curtis wrote to PPS staff.

He agreed to provide councilors with the communication and any others.

"It kind of sounds like what may have happened is a little game of telephone," Ward 7 Councilor Rhonda Serre said, adding "That type of hysteria is not good for anybody."

Councilors reiterated that the $200,000 cut was aimed at the Mercer Administration Building or non-personnel line items and that they do not have line-item control over the reductions.

"I, in no way, support or suggest that any staff member loses their job because of such a minuscule budget cut, especially, especially, the critical role of deans and support staff within the schools, absolutely critical role," Serre said.

"We were very clear when this council made that cut that we did not want to take people out of the school buildings But we have a roomful of people here that heard otherwise. Where did they hear that from?"

John Moreno, a social-emotional learning coach at Taconic High School, said the decision would either cut his position or save it.

"We are often the first responders for student dysregulation," he said. "When they're hungry, we feed them, when they're walking the halls, we ask them why instead of simply barking orders."

Mayor Peter Marchetti reported that he cut the school's original proposal by $400,000. He pointed to the challenge of delivering a close-to-level funded budget based on a request made by the council during his first week in office.

"When we sit here and we say every department has struggled and every department has taken their shots, the School Department did as well …"

"This is a communication to the members of the City Council and members of the school community that are still here: I am going to continue to try to make the city one Pittsfield and when we have our public meetings, we should do our utmost job and leave the other bodies alone because we wouldn't be here tonight if there wasn't for public comments that were made at a School Committee meeting."

Persip pointed to "unprofessional" comments made at a School Committee meeting following its departmental budget deliberation at which unsuccessful motions were made to reduce the school budget by $730,000 and $250,000.

"I struggled with [the budget,] I thought about it, and then I had to hear phone calls about I should watch the meeting, I should watch the School Committee meeting," he said.

"So I watched it and I struggled even more. So again, you're right. If the comments weren't made, I probably would have just struggled and kept my mouth shut."

The council also approved:

• A five-year Capital Improvement Plan for the fiscal years 2025-2029.
• An order amending Order 56 of the Series of 2023, appropriating the amount of $851,102.34 for the FY24 Community Preservation Fund Budget.
• An order appropriating the amount of $808,547.00 from the FY24 Community Preservation Fund Budget.
• An order appropriating the amount of $602,555.00 for the FY25 Community Preservation Fund Budget.
• An order appropriating $2,500,000.00 from certified free cash to reduce the FY25 tax rate.
• An order to borrow an aggregate sum not exceeding $10,192,500.00 for General Fund capital expenditures for FY25.
• An order to borrow and aggregate sum not to exceed $7,700,000.00 for Enterprise Fund Capital Expenditures for FY25.
• An order authorizing the use and expenditure of the city's current revolving funds pursuant to MGL, Chapter 44, Section 53E ½ for FY25.
• An order appropriating $249,600.00 for parking-related expenditures pursuant to MGL, Chapter 40, Sections 21A-22C for FY25 beginning July 1, 2024.

Puppets Teach Resilience at Lanesborough Elementary School

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:30PM / Monday, April 27, 2026

The kids learned from puppets Ollie and a hermit crab.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Vermont Family Network's Puppets in Education visited the elementary school recently to teach kids about being resilient.

Puppets in Education has been engaging with young students with interactive puppets for 45 years.  

The group partnered again with Bedard Brothers Chevrolet, which sponsored the visit. 

Classes filtered through the music class Thursday to learn about how to be resilient and kind, deal with change and anxiety, and more.

"This program is this beautiful blending of other programs we have, which is our anxiety program, our bullying prevention and friendship program, but is teaching children the power of yet and how to be able to feel empowered and strong when times are challenging and tough," said program manager Sarah Vogelsang-Card.

The kids got to engage with a "bounce back" song, move around, and listen to a hermit crab deal with the change of needing a new shell.

"A crab that is too small or too big for its shell, so trying to problem solve, having a plan A, B and C, because it's a really tough time," Vogelsang-Card said. "It's like moving, it's like divorce of parents, it's changing schools. It's things that children would be going through, even on a day to day basis, that are just things they need to be resilient, that they feel strong and they feel empowered to be able to make these choices for themselves."

The resiliency program is new and formatted little differently to each of the age groups.

"For the older kids. We age it up a bit, so we talk about harassment and bullying and even setting the scene with the beach is a little bit different kind of language, something that they feel like they can buy into," she said. "For the younger kids, it's a little bit more playful, and we don't touch about harassment. We just talk about making friends and being kind. So that's where we're learning as we're growing this program, is to find the different kinds of messaging that's appropriate for each development level."

This programming affirms themes that are already being discussed in the elementary school, said school psychologist Christy Viall. She thinks this is a fun way for the children to continue learning. 

"We have programs here at the school called community building, and that's really good. So they go through all of these strategies already," she said. "But having that repetition is really important, and finding it in a different way, like the puppets coming in and sharing it with them is a fun way that they can really connect to, I think, and it might, get in a little more deeply for them.

Vogelsang-Card said its another space for them to be safe and discuss what's going on in their life. Some children are afraid because maybe their parents are getting divorced, or they're being bullied, but with the puppets, they might open up and disclose what's bothering them because they feel safe, even in a larger crowd. 

"When we do sexual abuse awareness that program alone, over five years, we had 87 disclosures of abuse that were followed up and reported," she said. "And children feel safe with the puppets. It makes them feel valued, heard, and we hope that in our short time that we're together, that they at least leave knowing that they're not alone."

Bedard Brothers also gave the school five new puppets to use. Viall said the puppets are a great help for the students in her classroom, especially in the younger grades. 

"Every year, I've been giving the puppets to the students. And I also have a few of the puppets in my classroom, and the students use them in small groups to practice out the strategies with each other, which is really helpful," she said. "Sometimes the older students, like sixth graders, will put on a puppet show. They'll come up with a whole theme and a whole little situation, and they'll act it out with the strategies for the younger students. It's really cute, they've done it with kindergarteners, and the kids really like it."

Vogelsang-Card said there are 130 schools in Vermont that are on the waiting list for them to come in. Lanesborough Elementary has been the only Massachusetts school they have visited, thanks to Bedard Brothers. 

"These programs are so critical and life-changing for children in such a short amount of time, and we are the only program in the United States that does what we do, which is create this content in this enjoyable, fun, engaging way with oftentimes difficult subjects," she said. "Vermont is our home base, but we would love to be able to bring this to more schools, and we can't do this without the support of community, business funders or donors, and it really makes a difference for children."

The fourth-grade students were the first class to engage with the puppets and a lot of them really connected with the show.

"I learned to never give-up and if you have to move houses, be nervous, but it still helps," said William Larios.

"I learned to always add the word 'yet' at the end," said Sierra Kellogg, because even if she can't do something now, she will be able to at some point.

Samuel Casucci was struck by what one of the puppets talked about. "He said some people make fun of him if he dresses different, come from different place, brings home lunch, it doesn't matter," Samuel continued. "We're all kind of the same. We're all kind of different, like we have different hairstyles, different clothes. We're all the same because we're all human."

"I learned how to be more positive about myself and like, say, I can't do this yet, it's positive and helpful," said Liam Flaherty.

The students got to take home stickers at the end of the day with contact information of the organization.