North Berkshire School Study Starts 1st Phase [iBerkshires]
North Berkshire School Study Starts 1st Phase
By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
05:16AM / Monday, June 29, 2026
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The group studying the potential for regionalizing secondary education in North Berkshire went through next steps this week and established its leadership.
H. Jake Eberwein of Berk12, the consulting group selected to shepherd the project, laid out the three phases of the North Berkshire Educational Sustainability Study to the steering committee on Thursday.
The first phase will be a in-depth baseline study of history, facilities, enrollment, finances, staffing, etc., including community engagement and focus groups; then analyzing, presenting and modeling all the data, and finally, providing recommendations for advancing a preferred model.
The project is expected to take 10 to 12 months.
"There's no plot to create a one northern district," Eberwein said. "The answer will be developed in partnership with you all. And again, we were designing this process, and we saw it as a proposal really to explore the possibilities, which makes sense to you, all your families, your students, too, as you know better than us.
"We really have come to value the lived experiences of folks in the communities, and that is why we put such a premium on listening to the community early on in the process. It doesn't matter what solution you develop, but if people don't want to do it, it's not going to happen."