Superintendent Peter Dillon

Berkshire Hills Regional School District (BHRSD)

Project Connection is an umbrella term for our afterschool and summer programs. We offer free afterschool programs that focus on activity based experiential learning and support students in developing academic and social and emotional skills. We started the program 12 years ago at our elementary and middle schools when we received a competitive Federal 21st Century grant. Since then, we have renewed the grant several times, been named an exemplary program, expanded the program to the high school, and received additional support from both Berkshire United Way and The Jewish Women’s Foundation of the Berkshires.

We collaborate with over 20 local organizations who provide programming, volunteer services and financial support for Project Connection. We also provide training, certification and collaboration opportunities for community partner staff to support their professional growth and the quality of connections and services they can supply to our students.

Project Connection has worked with Spanish speaking volunteers from Volunteers in Medicine to help engage with English Language Learning students and their families for the past 5 years. Railroad Street Youth Project also recently hired two bilingual staff to focus on creating equity in program access for students. These connections have also allowed us to communicate more frequently and effectively with families, ensuring that we are meeting their needs, and that they understand the specifics of the schedule, transportation and other program components that require their support and participation, especially at the Elementary level.

We continue to offer opportunities for older students to serve as mentors to younger students. One leads a Taekwondo program and four serve as mentors. We have also seen an increase in the number of volunteers working with the program. We currently have four adult/parent volunteers leading programs including Girls Volleyball, Internet Programming, and Circuit Creations.

Classes include cooking, fitness, art, science, e-sports, ukulele, climate action, and even survival in the woods.

The program was conceived as an opportunity for innovation and experimentation where we could build different relationships with students and community partners to make learning more accessible. In many ways, the program is a laboratory for impacting our learning and teaching practices in the regular day.

As always, feel free to reach out to me with any questions — Peter.Dillon@bhrsd.org

Next issue, I’ll share some updates on the Regional School District Planning Board’s 16-6 vote to move forward with the consultant’s recommendation to merge BHRSD and Southern Berkshire Regional School District (SBRSD) and share a high school. Take a look at this recent FAQ for some new information. Many more questions to ask and lots of community dialogue ahead.