AMHERST — With her family’s move from Texas to Belchertown in 2025, Corey Shindler’s children, a fifth grader and a second grader, choiced into Pelham Elementary School.
Calling it to the “best school my kids have ever been to,” Shindler said there has been support from other parents, the administration, teachers and staff.
“We are floored by the kindness, the inclusivity, the level of education and the love that my kids are feeling,” Shindler said. “I know that love doesn’t pay bills, kindness isn’t going to meet the budget. But what we are receiving from Pelham is priceless.”
Shindler was among many involved with the school offering more than 90 minutes of in-person and voice messages to the Pelham School Committee, at a joint meeting with the Amherst and Regional school committees at Town Room at Town Hall Tuesday.
This was the first opportunity for people to comment on some of the changes being considered for the school as soon as this fall, with one possibility floated of having current fifth-grade students tuition-in to Amherst’s sixth-grade program, an idea first presented at a special Pelham session on Jan. 22.
The discussion is being prompted by the likelihood that the town won’t provide a budget increase next year or support a five-year capital improvement plan for the building, which call into question the long-term survival of the school. The Pelham Finance Committee has informed all town departments, including the schools, that they are being level funded.
For most, including some of the 40 or so who packed into the meeting room, their appeal was simple: to pursue what is being called “Option A,” in which there would be an increase in use of school choice revenue to support the Pelham school budget in the 2026-2027 school year. Others sought to ensure that “Goal 3” the committees set for Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman doesn’t include succession planning for the school, but rather this goal stays limited to “conducting a focused program review for Pelham Elementary School, engaging families and community partners to develop short-term recommendations for the School Committee.”
Elisa Gomez, an Amherst resident with children in the fifth and second grades, expressed shock and dismay that her older child, who started education online during the pandemic, could be uprooted.
“The proposed change is not only heartbreaking and sad for the students, family and staff, it is also shortsighted and irresponsible,” Gomez said.
“We can do better,” Gomez said. “Please choose to use school choice funds to keep the current fifth graders in Pelham for the 2026 to 2027 school year while developing a measured long-term plan for the rest of the school that is fiscally sound, emotionally responsible, and transparently communicated in a timely manner to the entire Pelham community.”
Families first learned of the plans when Herman outlined possible changes five days earlier. In a document, Herman cited a change in her midyear goals to allow for “sustainability and succession planning.”
“While the original goal appropriately centered on a focused program review, emerging fiscal realities in the town of Pelham necessitated a broader and more responsible lens,” she wrote. “This shift was not made lightly. It reflects my belief that leadership requires the courage to adapt goals when conditions change, while still honoring the original intent: to support students, families, and the long-term health of the school community.”
Students, teachers react
A handful of students spoke at the meeting. Olive Shindler said she has made great friends in her time at the school, and is afraid of changing.
“Pelham has been so welcoming to me and I feel at home here,” Olive said. “Please don’t move us to a new school.”
“I do not like the idea of moving to a different school,” said fifth grader Graham Thomas. “I want to finish my time at this school.”
In written correspondence, fifth grader Lilly Frances Truesdell explained the importance of traditional activities in the class, such as making the Halloween haunted house, being reading buddies to younger students and acting as role models.
“This is not fair to the kids that we have to get moved around because of the budget,” Lilly Frances wrote. “The grown-ups should continue to find ways to solve the problem instead of putting it on the kids because we don’t want to leave Pelham yet.”
Second-grade teacher Kate Thurston, in her 12th year in Pelham, called it the “little school on the hill.”
“Our school is little, but it is so special,” Thurston said. “I’ve never worked in a school with so much community and connection.”
“Children really learn best and perform best where they’re in environments in which there is clear community, connection and relationship,” Thurston said.
First grade teacher Giselle Gonzalez got emotional reflecting on her tenure. “We would lose a school that is very successful in educating students and knows students on a very personal level,” Gonzalez said.
“They know to expect that every year Miss Catherine is going to dress up as a cider doughnut and Miss Carlisle is going to dress up as an apple for the yearly cider doughnut run,” Gonzalez said.
Sara Laplante, third grade teacher, is in her ninth year in Pelham. “The children at Pelham Elementary are deeply cared for, and seen and recognized as individuals,” Laplante said. “Our educators are also highly experienced and dedicated to the school.”
Other parents explained their views. Chris Meacham, a parent of a fourth grader, said a small school is good for education.
“There’s a lot of value having the option for a smaller school for kids like that who need the smaller environment, the continuity from year to year, to thrive,” Meacham said.
Wren Veatch of Amherst has children in the kindergarten and fourth grade.
“We came for the size of the school, the openness to creative gender expression and the sixth grade, which we are still hoping for,” Veatch said. “We stayed for the community. We believed a small community would be better able to meet our children’s needs, and that hope has been met.”
Julio Malonga, a parent of a kindergartener and third grader and a future student, suggested the school leaders consider bringing back preschool.
“Parents’ messages is simple: there are responsible, evidence-based strategies we can pursue,” Malonga said.
Goals and evaluation
As the committees are undertaking an evaluation of Herman and examining midyear goals, Herman said any changes to Pelham need to be part of long-term planning with municipal finance officials.
“This is talking about long-term, full-time sustainability of Pelham, which includes the instructional program, but expands beyond that,” Herman said.
Herman said the suggestions and options she and her team came up with are for the Pelham School Committee to deliberate on, but committee members needed to be apprised of the challenging situation.
Herman added that she would support the use of more school choice revenue to keep Pelham going if coupled with development of a rigorous plan.
“Be mindful of the fact that it’s also a contingency fund, be mindful of the fact that once we do that we have to have an adequate and fully sustainable plan for 2028,” Herman said.
Jenny Bradbury, a member of the of Pelham School Committee, said she would like to clarify that succession planning as a goal not be exclusive to Pelham, because of the great concerns it is causing about the school shutting down.
Fellow Pelham School Committee member Rachel Figurasmith said she was pleased that the administration is calling the concepts it unveiled “unresearched potential suggestions.” Still, she is worried that this approach has now incited fear and uncertainty in the community that will be tough to repair.
“They had a real impact on people. We saw dozens of people here crying,” Figurasmith said.