Williamstown Dispensary Hosts Donation Drive for Local Shelter

08:27AM / Saturday, September 27, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Silver Therapeutics is inviting the Williamstown community to join a fall donation drive benefiting Louison House, the local organization providing emergency, transitional, and supportive housing for Northern Berkshire County residents.

Through Oct. 31, customers and community members can drop off essential items at Silver Therapeutics' Williamstown store located at 238 Main St, Williamstown, MA 01267.

Needed donations include: twin-sized blankets, microwavable meals, bottled water or juice (16 oz or smaller), can openers, small umbrellas, deodorant, band-aids, body soap, shampoo & conditioner, razors, toothpaste & toothbrushes, and Walmart or Big Y gift cards.

As a thank-you, each donation will earn a ticket for a raffle basket, with two winners drawn, one in September and one in October.

"We are grateful and thrilled to lead another donation drive in the wonderful community of Williamstown, " said Brendan McKee, COO of Silver Therapeutics. "For 7+ years we have hosted these types of donation drives several times a year and we are always pleasantly surprised by the generosity of our customers and community members. Giving back has always been a priority for our organization and we look forward to helping those in need in and around the northern Berkshires for years to come."

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Mount Greylock School Committee OKs Updated Policy on Seclusion, Restraint

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:57AM / Tuesday, August 25, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee recently approved an updated policy on time-outs, seclusion and the physical restraint of students.

The policy is based on updated state regulations that came down last winter. Superintendent Joseph Bergeron told the panel at its August meeting that his office waited on recommendations from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees that were released in May and ran the proposed changes past the district's legal counsel.

That timing — and an expectation from the commonwealth that districts have the updated policy in place for the start of the 2026-27 academic year — led to an expedited process for the School Committee, which did not do a first read with a vote at a subsequent meeting as is its practice.

"Policy JKAA speaks to the ways the school district and our procedures shall abide by the updated state regulations," Bergeron said. "We're not going to have a lot of leeway.

"Nothing about the way we interact with our students on a day-to-day basis is being shifted by this."

For example, the commonwealth does not allow schools to use "seclusion," or, "the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area, with or without adult supervision," except some extreme cases, like when, "when student behavior poses an imminent threat of assault, or imminent serious physical harm to self or others, but only if safeguards are accounted for," the updated policy reads.

"From the state's perspective and my perspective, the idea of locking a child in a room without adult supervision is something we've never done," Bergeron said. "And it's something the state wants to make explicitly that nobody ever does."

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