Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Awards Scholarships

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LUDLOW, Mass. — The Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation (BWPCC) has selected two students from the Lanesborough/Hancock area, one from the Mount Greylock Regional High School class of 2025 and one from the McCann Technical School class of 2025, to receive $1,000 scholarships. 
 
The scholarships are awarded to qualifying seniors at select schools in the Berkshires who are planning to attend either a two- or four-year college or trade school program.
 
This is the third year of the BWPCC scholarship program. The BWPCC owns and operates the Berkshire Wind Power Project, a 12-turbine, 19.6-megawatt wind farm located on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and Lanesborough. The non-profit BWPCC consists of 16 municipal utilities located in Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Hull, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston, and their joint action agency, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. 
 
This year's scholarship recipients are Malia Koffi (Mount Greylock) of Lanesborough and Dylan Turner (McCann) of Hancock.
 
Koffi will attend Berkshire Community College and major in Health Sciences. In high school, she served as captain of the Mount Greylock softball team, as a member of the Black Student Union, and was a three-time recipient of the Greylock Way Award, which recognizes students and staff who exemplify the school's core values of Accountability, Respect, Integrity, Stewardship, and Excellence in their daily lives.
 
Turner will attend the Elite Lineman Training Institute in Georgia. While at McCann, he played on the varsity baseball team, was a member of the National Honor Society, and participated in SkillsUSA, and McCann's Corporate Work Experience, where he worked for a local electrician.
 
"We are proud to support the 2025 Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation scholarship recipients, whose proactive perseverance was demonstrated throughout their successful high school journeys,” said MMWEC Chief Executive Officer Ron DeCurzio.
 
Since 1998, MMWEC has awarded $70,000 in scholarships to help students defray the cost of higher education.
 
MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities.  MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities.  It is the largest provider of asset-owned generation for municipal light departments in New England.

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Clarksburg Students Write in Support of Rural School Aid

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Mason Langenback calculated that Clarksburg would get almost $1 million if the $60 million was allocated equally.
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Eighth-graders at Clarksburg School took a lesson in civic advocacy this week, researching school funding and writing letters to Beacon Hill that call for fully funding rural school aid. 
 
The students focused on the hardships for small rural schools and their importance to the community — that they struggle with limited funding and teacher shortages, but offer safe and supportive spaces for learning and are a hub for community connections.
 
"They all address the main issue, the funding for rural schools, and how there's a gap, and there's the $4 million gap this year, and then it's about the $40 million next year, and that rural schools need that equitable funding," said social studies teacher Mark Karhan.
 
A rural schools report in 2022 found smaller school districts cost from nearly 17 percent to 23 percent more to operate, and recommended "at least" $60 million be appropriated annually for rural school aid. 
 
Gov. Maura Healey has filed for more Chapter 70 school aid, but that often is little help to small rural schools with declining or static enrollment. For fiscal 2027, she's budgeted $20 million for rural schools, up from around $13 million this year but still far below the hoped for $60 million. 
 
Karhan said the class was broken into four groups and the students were provided a submission letter from Rural Schools Advocacy. The students used the first paragraph, which laid out the funding facts, and then did research and wrote their own letters. 
 
They will submit those with a school picture to the governor. 
 
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