By By Nate Harrington,Nate Harrington — The Berkshire Eagle,The Berkshire Eagle

Copyright berkshireeagle

PITTSFIELD — There were 16 community agencies and partners on hand. There was a bicycle repair stand where riders could get chains oiled and tired inflated. There was free pizza.

This was not your typical school open house.

But Eagle Educational Academy is no typical school. As attendees flowed in and out, they learned how the school’s partners help achieve its mission and how its students — middle and high schoolers needing an alternative to a traditional classroom setting — also serve their community.

The event “came about as an idea last spring,” said Ryan Fuller, the principal at Eagle Educational Academy, which is housed in the historic Eagle Building.

Fuller’s goal was showing Eagle Educational Academy families the work students do with community partners, he said.

But as more and more partners signed up, Fuller realized he was building a different event. “When we started reaching out to people and inviting them, everyone just kept saying, yes,” he said. He thought “this could be something that could be really beneficial for us, for [parents], for, hopefully, Pittsfield in general.”

The school’s students, parents and the Pittsfield community were invited to the event, in the Eagle Building’s cafeteria. Eagle Educational Academy serves students on individual education plans who have behavioral and/or social and emotional needs and have had difficulty in a traditional education setting. State data shows its enrollment was 24 students in 2024-25.

“I just heard about the school,” said Lindsey Siegal, a teacher. “I got to come up and check it out.”

Some community partners had a history of working with the academy, like the YMCA and Shakespeare and Co. Others, like South East Kettle Bell and Affordable Bike Repair at The Funky Phoenix, were local organizations aiding in the goal of community outreach.

Becky Ringer was representing the Adult Learning Center. The organization is part of the Pittsfield Public Schools and works with students who are not able to succeed in whatever situation they’re in.

“We’re just here for support for when there are students who are struggling in the traditional pathway to see what we can offer; what another pathway might look like for some students,” said Ringer, an adult basic education advisor and teacher for the organization.

Although the Adult Learning Center is one of the many community partners that work with the academy, Ringer and the organization were reaching out to more than the school’s students.

She said they wanted to reach the students’ “parents and their families.”

“They may need English classes, they may need classes for their GED or HiSET or connections to college and things like that,” Ringer said. “That relationship out in the community is really important to us.”

One of the more popular areas of the open house was Gary Cardot’s bike tune-up station, something Fuller specifically requested.

Fuller “just walked into my shop,” inviting Cardot, who owns Affordable Bike Repair at The Funky Phoenix, to come and help fix local’s bikes.

He was inundated by requests to oil chains and fill tires from the get-go.

“I keep kids riding, man,” he said. “It’s the most important thing.”

On top of the tune-ups, Eagle Educational Academy also received bike donations, which they were able to give away during the event.

For both the attendees and the academy’s staff it was a success.

“I’ve talked to a couple of people and I’m kind of fascinated,” Siegal said. “There seems to be some really good programs and some really good educators here, so I’m really intrigued by this whole operation.”

“It’s just a lot bigger than I was expecting,” Fuller said.

Fuller hopes to turn the first-time event into a recurring one.

“If everything goes well,” he said. “I would love to do this every year.”