About

Who We Are: Your Neighbors

We are YES MONUMENT! advocates — residents/taxypayers, business owners, parents, students, teachers, alumni and community partners. Some of us are veterans of earlier school projects in our community. Some are parents of future MMRHS students.

We are:

  • Rebecca Gold and Ellen Lahr, Co-Chairs, Great Barrington

  • Aaron Baden, Treasurer, Parent

  • Leslie Schatz, Secretary, Stockbridge

  • Steve Boyd, Parent, Stockbridge

  • Jill Svrida, Parent, Lee

  • Melissa Mae, Parent & Muddy Brook Elementary PTO President, West Stockbridge

  • Richard Le, Parent, Great Barrington

How is Citizens for the Next Monument different than the MMRHS Building Committee?

The MMRHS Building Committee is an appointed subcommittee of the Berkshire Hills Regional School District, and by state law, can’t officially advocate or campaign for a new school. Their role is to collaborate with the state School Building Authority, architects, engineers and designers to design, plan, estimate and refine the project and costs.

The Building Committee maintains a robust library of project documents, design schematics, cost estimates and technical information.

On the other hand, our volunteer community group is free to promote, support, campaign and cheerlead for the new school construction option recommended by the MMRHS Building Committee. While the Building Committee informs, Citizens for the Next Monument advocates.

We support a strong learning future for thousands of Berkshire Hills Regional School District students who will benefit from a new school for generations to come, with the most responsible financial model and the least disruptive construction process for students/staff.

Below, our newer elementary (left) and middle school (right), and our current Monument Mountain Regional High School (below)

What we are doing...

We meet weekly to develop outreach efforts that will build support for a YES VOTE on 11/24/2025. We are a clearing house for accurate information about this project, and we respond to inaccurate or incomplete information whenever we can.

Where we are...

In coming months you’ll find us at school events, community gatherings, farmer’s markets, outdoor concerts, house parties — wherever we can talk with neighbors about the urgency of the YES MONUMENT
vote on 11/4/2025.

Get involved!

Join us as an ‘ambassador’ for a new Monument! Host a house party and we’ll come to answer questions. Write letters to the editor, share YES MONUMENT! on social media. And please make a donation to support our efforts, to help us get out the vote on 11/4/2025.

Dream It.

Build it.

Grow it.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.