PITTSFIELD — About 10 minutes before dismissal on Friday, Morningside Community School Principal Heather Gancarz interrupted the school's final day with a special message from paraprofessional Christian Zdon.

Guitar notes were heard over the intercom as Zdon played and sang a familiar song: “Happy Trails" — a song about fond farewells and keeping a positive outlook when life gets you down.

But Zdon had a surprise: A second verse dedicated to the school’s last-ever students, reminding them they’ll “always be Meerkats.”

At the same time, a line of current and former teachers and staff took shape outside Morningside’s front door. When the clock struck 11:45 a.m. and the doors swung open, those teachers clapped and shouted for their students and each other as they walked out the door for the last time.

Students leave Morningside Community School in Pittsfield for the last time on Friday. Principal Heather Gancarz said the staff worked hard in the weeks following the closure announcement to frame Morningside’s ending as a new beginning.

And just like that, Morningside Community School was a memory. Inside, signs of the coming change were already evident: A stack of moving boxes bound for Williams Elementary School, and a note on a whiteboard reading "Thank you for all you do every day."

After 50 years and thousands of students, Morningside rang the bell for the last time on Friday. Years of academic struggles, owed largely to an open floor plan that lacked classroom walls and doors and caused distractions for students and teachers alike, led the School Committee and the administration to retire the school. Its students and many of its teachers and staff are headed for four receiving city schools — Allendale, Capeless, Egremont and Williams.

As the school day ended, some kids connected with their parents. Some headed straight for one of two school buses waiting in the parking lot. A few shared high fives and hugs with their teachers. Most had happy faces — it was still the last day of school, after all.

Kindergarten teacher Janna Wood hugs student Kassie Patterson on Patterson’s last day of first grade outside of Morningside Community School in Pittsfield on Friday. The school's students and many of its teachers and staff are headed for four receiving city schools — Allendale, Capeless, Egremont and Williams.

Some parents said their kids are having a tough time coping with losing regular contact with classmates. But others said they're looking forward to new schools where doors and walls will provide calmer places to learn.

Nikki Brickle, of Pittsfield, said three of her children have attended Morningside, and her daughter, a current student, has had a hard time dealing with the closure.

"Not only is it sad to see it go, it's sad to see it go out of our neighborhood, because we live right down the street," she said.

Michaela Ellis, whose children will attend Capeless next year, said the closing is bittersweet. Her two children are excited about the new destination, but the oldest, a second grader, has friends she'll be missing in the fall. "I guess that's probably the hard part," she said.

Some of those Morningside friends, however, will be riding the bus to new schools together.

At an open house for Morningside students on June 15, Williams teachers and parents rolled out the red carpet. Their commitment to creating a new school community was visible in a mural on the wall and the T-shirts they wore — a Morningside Meerkat and a Williams Bee smiling and sharing a high-five. Another shirt featuring the new animal mascot friends read “new buildings, same spirit.”

A new mural at Williams Elementary School features Morningside's Meerkat mascot along with Williams' bumblebee as a sign of welcoming Morningside to children to a new school.

As students and families toured their new school, some came across stickers featuring the smiling meerkat and bee — a find entitling the bearer to a free T-shirt.

Aurora Rose Winters, who will be entering fourth grade at Williams, was thrilled to have found one of those stickers, and happy to meet her classmate Dezmend Yuknis in the hallway of their new school, too.

“I'm looking forward to new kinds of friends,” she said, “and very nice teachers.” She said her friends’ main concern is “feeling scared of making new friends and forgetting about their other friends” from Morningside.

Aurora Rose Winters, right, with her mom, Amber Augello, was thrilled to find a sticker at Williams Elementary School's open house for incoming Morningside students. The find entitled her to a free T-shirt.

The classrooms have what Morningside lacked: Walls and doors. That could be a game-changer for Dezmend, according to his mother, Tanya Stevens. “I’m excited about the closed classroom,” she said, emphasizing the word “closed.”

Noise and distractions don’t work well for Dezmend at school. “They said that they think he's going to thrive here,” Stevens said of her conversations with educators. “They have the closed classrooms, and they have more supports here for him, and he seems to like it.”

But beginnings follow endings. That's what Friday was all about at Morningside.

Breanna Sumy, a fourth-grade teacher at Morningside, was a student there in the 1990s. She remembers all her teachers as role models. She has fond memories of activities and special days, like roller skating parties.

“I think it is going to be missed by the community. I'm worried about all the kids going to new places and just feeling like they fit in,” Sumy said.

Fourth grade teacher Breanna Sumy leads her class out of Morningside Community School in Pittsfield for the last time on Friday, the final day of school. “I think it is going to be missed by the community. I'm worried about all the kids going to new places and just feeling like they fit in,” Sumy said.

Sean Smith, a teacher of deportment, said it’s been an emotional few weeks for the students and faculty.

“A lot of kids, this is all they've ever known,” Smith said. “They are losing their classroom connections, they're losing their neighborhood connection, so it's been emotional. But you know, for the most part, these teachers are absolutely amazing. They have helped them through those challenges and helped them to regulate.”

Gancarz said the staff worked hard in the weeks following the closure announcement to frame Morningside’s ending as a new beginning. Friday was “tacky tourist” day, and at the start of the day, school counselor Amy Coole stood in front of the doors in her Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses, asking students about their next adventure.

Students and teachers hug and say their goodbyes at Morningside Community School in Pittsfield for the last time on Friday. “A lot of kids, this is all they've ever known,” teacher Sean Smith said. “They are losing their classroom connections, they're losing their neighborhood connection, so it's been emotional."

“We have been working really hard to make sure that the children and the staff leave with some really great memories,” Gancarz said. “These last few days [were] obviously filled with lots of tears, but lots of celebration, and I think you know, ultimately some excitement lies ahead for all of us.”

That includes Gancarz. She said she will be succeeding Susan Dapson, who is retiring, as principal at Egremont.

As part of the new “fair student formula” budget, the Pittsfield School Committee and Superintendent Latifah Phillips had considered pouring resources into Morningside and Silvo O. Conte Community School — both featuring open floor plans that were cutting edge concepts in the mid-1970s — to help overcome the distractions caused by the lack of classroom walls and doors. But the administration and committee then closed Morningside, and decided it was better to move its children and have the extra resources follow them.

Sumy was among Morningside teachers who wished the school had the chance to prove itself. “I wish they could have poured [resources] into here to make it the school that the kids needed,” she said.

What Sumy and other teachers and parents wanted the rest of the city to know was that this was a special place — a diverse, welcoming school where teachers cared and worked hard to overcome the hurdles posed by its open floor plan.

Students leave Morningside Community School in Pittsfield for the last time on Friday, which the staff dubbed “tacky tourist” day to make the change fun and adventurous for students, school officials said.

“That's one thing about Morningside. No matter who you are, what you look like, how you behave, you are welcomed here with open arms, and you can be your true self. That's one reason why I returned as a teacher,” she said.

“A lot of people portray this place as bad, and they wouldn't work here. But if they only met the kids and the staff that work here, that would change their mind,” Sumy said. "It's some of the most hardworking staff and the most hardworking kids who come from a lot of different backgrounds and just need a champion, and I think everyone here at Morningside provides that for them.”

Amy Jones, a special education teacher, said she has 42 students — and 42 relationships that would be changing. It had her up at 1 a.m. thinking about it all.

“It's more like family, they come back to me every year, and they just grow bigger and stronger and smarter, and that some or all of that all has to end today is a killer inside,” Jones said. “But I gave it a moment of analysis, and I said you can reach out to me whenever, and you know, hopefully we'll bump into each other in the community.”

For many Morningside teachers, the process of building new connections is already underway.

Tanya Silvestro-Dias has been at Morningside for 17 years, starting as a substitute teacher. At Williams, 3.2 street miles from Morningside, she’s getting a first-grade classroom for 2026-27.

Though she’s happy she’ll be a familiar face for Morningside students, there’s a part that still hurts a little: She would have liked the chance to improve the school’s accountability scores. The school had done so once before, under Joseph Curtis, who was Morningside's principal before becoming a district administrator and superintendent.

The opportunity was there: The initial budget proposed for fiscal 2027 would have allocated more than $5 million to both Morningside and Conte — as well as resources intended to “level the playing field” between those two buildings and the other six elementaries.

First grade teacher Lindsay Heppleston comforts a student as they leave Morningside Community School in Pittsfield for the last time on Friday, the final day of school before its permanent closure.

“We had come out of turnaround before with Mr. Curtis and I was hoping we could have [done so again],” Silvestro-Dias said. “It takes a lot … it’s dedication. You’re teaching bell to bell. I was hoping if given enough support we could stay open.”

Silvestro-Dias will be joined by Morningside teachers and staff including teacher Melissa Quirk and paraprofessionals Mya McFadden, Serenity Pagan and Anngelina Terzigni.

“The most important thing is for [students] to have faces they recognize,” Pagan said. “If they see people they know it will probably be a little easier for them to handle the change.”

“A lot of the kids are little bit overwhelmed with the whole situation,” Terzigni added. “At Morningside, we have a huge community of just different students, and a lot of them feel different ways.”

Melissa Quirk, seen in front of a Pittsfield school bus at Williams Elementary School on June 15, is a Morningside Community School teacher who has been assigned to follow her students to their new school.

“It's been bittersweet, you know. It's been sad to see a place that's been a source of safety and consistency for our kids,” Quirk said. “But … I'm really optimistic that this is going to help a lot of our students be more successful in school and have that stability that they need in order to succeed and thrive in their education.”

On Friday, after clapping for their students as they left the building for the last time, those teachers gathered in front of Morningside's front door for a photo.

When they were finished posing, someone shouted "Once a Meerkat ..."

The reply was loud and unanimous: "Always a Meerkat!"