WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee last week accepted a couple of financial gifts to the district and heard that a project eight years in the making should be ready for use this spring.

 

Interim Superintendent Joseph Bergeron told the committee that the district's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Advisory Committee is taking shape and will within the next couple of months develop a request for proposals to find a consultant for the district.

 

The school district, which previously received a commitment from the town of Williamstown for up to $66,000 of the town's American Rescue Plan Act funds to pay for that consultant, also received an offer of $28,000 from Williams College toward the same goal.

 

On Aug. 22, the committee voted, 6-0, with Steven Miller absent, to accept the Williams gift.

 

"The community feedback we've received around the DEIB work was instrumental, I think, in signifying to the college that this work was important for the wider community and also for the college community — the faculty and staff and folks who attend the college as well," School Committee member Carolyn Greene said. "This work is critical to supporting those folks."

 

Bergeron said his hope is that the consultant's charge will be developed by the advisory committee, which might be able to bring the consultant on board by January.

 

"Hopefully, they will do their work over the course of January-February-March-April, hopefully feeding into the budget cycle for next year," Bergeron said. "They'll be concluding work for this committee before the end of the school year. The conclusion will be a detailed action plan that my office, as well as the School Committee, can endorse and put into play operationally and financially for a variety of concrete improvements I think will be apparent from this work."

 

One improvement the Mount Greylock Regional School campus will see when it opens its doors this week is the creation of a locker stocked with personal care items in the middle/high school's Student Support Center.

 

Greene, who serves on the board of Williamstown non-profit Remedy Hall, told her colleagues that the agency worked with Mount Greylock Assistant Principal Samantha Rutz to create a "satellite" location of Remedy Hall on the Mount Greylock campus.

 

"We have stocked that … with supplies that are relevant to middle/high school students: hygiene, personal care and clothing," Greene said. "The guidance office supplies some things, the nurse's office supplies some things. And we're working with both to make sure we're not competing with those offices. Families may not always have the money to buy toothpaste or deodorant or other items that are a necessity in a given month."

 

Mount Greylock this fall also will address food insecurity among its student body after receiving a donation to kickstart the Mount Greylock Eats program, which will enable students in need to access healthy snacks.

 

Residents James and Wendy Martin offered the district a gift of $2,700 to found the program, and the School Committee voted, 6-0, on Thursday to accept the donation.

 

"Many students, who will have been identified by the Student Support Team, the SST at Mount Greylock, will be able to utilize their student ID, their school account, in the same way any student with money loaded onto their regular school lunch account, will be able to walk up in the cafeteria during the early morning snack time and and acquire snacks at no charge to them and their household," Bergeron said. "That mode of operation avoids any stigma. It allows it to run in a way where we can ensure an increasing number of students have access to healthy snacks as they navigate the day."

 

Going forward, Bergeron estimated the program would cost about $9,000 to operate on an annual basis. He called the gift from the Martins, "a big push forward," but said the district would have to talk about fund-raising to continue to meet the growing need among the district's households.

 

While Mount Greylock Eats will be available on the first day of school this week, the students will have to wait a little while longer to utilize the new eight-lane running track being installed on the campus.

 

But the school was poised for a big milestone in the first week of classes, when installers planned to apply the rubber top coat to the track, Bergeron told the committee.

 

"Over the next two months, all the finishing touches will be put in place — coatings and markings on the track," he said. "As soon as that is done and we can have water spraying everywhere — not while the track is going down — the topsoil and sod will be put down [in the infield]. Then we'll put a fairly extensive watering regimen in place."

 

The installer then will finish up the exterior areas around the track, including the accessible walkway from the parking area, and the whole project will look complete by the end of the fall, Bergeron said. The track and field team should be able to use the track and throwing areas this spring, and, "depending on how the weather treats the sod," the school could be able to play lacrosse on the new field in the spring as well.

 

If it is determined another growing season is needed to establish the multi-sport field, the first varsity competition on the infield will be soccer in the fall of 2025.

 

In other business, the School Committee:

 

• Did a first read of several proposed district policies related to technology: "District Website and Social Media," "Student Use of Technology in Schools," "Internet Publication" and "Empowered Digital Use." All the proposed policies, which could be approved in a second reading in September, are available for view in the Aug. 22 meeting documents folder on the district's website.

 

• Approved an outline of topics that will be covered at School Committee meetings during the 2024-25 academic year, including a March 13, 2025 public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget.

 

• Heard from Bergeron that the district is fully staffed heading into the academic year.

 

• Approved an increase in substitute teacher pay rates proposed by the administration. Starting this year, the single day rate for subs with no college degree will go from $100 to $120. The rate for subs with a college degree will go from $150 to $180. The rate for certified or retired teachers will move from $175 to $210 per day. And the "long-term" rate (for 10 or more days in place of a single faculty member) will be $260, up from $250 per day. Bergeron told the committee that the district needs to keep its rates competitive with both other districts and the for-profit sector. The new rates will fit within the FY25 budget because they will help the district avoid more costly ways of filling vacancies, he said.