BUCKLAND — Following pushback from residents about reduced School Choice numbers, the Mohawk Trail Regional School District School Committee has brought the number of School Choice seats available at Colrain Central School for the 2026-2027 school year up to 51, while also adding some seats back at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School.
At a May School Committee meeting, Superintendent Sheryl Stanton presented a different approach to School Choice than what has been used in previous years, limiting the number of seats available to out-of-district students. Following an amendment, the School Committee, in a 9-3 vote on May 13, capped the School Choice numbers for the 2026-2027 school year at 29 students at Sanderson Academy in Ashfield, six at Colrain Central School and nine at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School.
However, at the June 10 meeting, Stanton proposed new numbers to the School Committee. At Colrain Central School, she suggested adding one seat in preschool and another in kindergarten. At Buckland-Shelburne Elementary, she proposed adding four seats in preschool and two in kindergarten. This change is meant to accommodate the siblings of current School Choice students or the children of school staff members.
With the district exploring the possibility of consolidating its schools to a single campus, Stanton explained in May that a reduced School Choice plan helps ensure that if the district needs to close an elementary school, there will be sufficient open seats for in-district students to transfer.
“It is our responsibility to strategize and plan for the changes we will face,” Stanton explained at the June 10 meeting. “We do not have a transition plan, but if consolidation starts in two to three years, we need to have space. … No current School Choice [student] will lose their place in our schools.”
Dennis DePaolo, a new member of the School Committee from Colrain, brought forward an amendment to Stanton’s newly proposed numbers, seeking to restore the number of School Choice seats requested by Colrain Central School Principal Amy Looman. Ashfield member Rachel Wang also proposed an amendment to restore the School Choice seats at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary. Wang’s amendment didn’t pass, with eight School Committee members voting against it, but DePaolo’s motion did pass, achieving a 7-6 vote.
This is the second time that School Choice seats were added at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary. John Chivers, a member from Colrain who initially made an amendment to add some seats back into Stanton’s original proposal on May 13, noted there was a reason he didn’t propose adding seats at Colrain Central School.
“I would not want to advertise that Colrain is wide open and then in two to three years [it closes],” Chivers said.
DePaolo’s amendment proposed adding 43 School Choice seats at Colrain Central School. After his amendment was approved, the School Committee voted in favor of the revised School Choice numbers for the 2026-2027 school year, bringing the totals to 51 seats at Colrain Central School, 13 at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary and 29 at Sanderson Academy. Sanderson’s seat numbers were not changed during the June meeting.
Multiple parents and district staff members signed up for public comment, with most who spoke asking the committee to reconsider the vote taken at the May 13 meeting.
“Eliminating some School Choice is the same as eliminating School Choice, just not [all] at once,” said Jennifer Martin, a resident of Shelburne and a reading interventionist at Colrain Central School, describing the messaging as “confusing.”
Martin was not alone in this sentiment, with many who took part in public comment saying that while they are not against the idea of consolidating to a single campus, the potential closure of Colrain Central School would mean that students who began their elementary school journeys in Colrain would potentially attend three different schools before they reach high school, should the consolidation plan come to pass.
“My understanding is … this is part of a plan to close Colrain Central School and move to Buckland-Shelburne Elementary,” said Boris Samarov, co-president of the Mohawk District Education Association and a fifth grade teacher at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary. “Has this plan been considered in comparison to other plans?”
Multiple residents called on their School Committee representatives to bring forward a motion to rescind the May 13 vote on School Choice numbers. Daegan Miller, a member of the Our Schools, Our Towns citizens group that formed to push back against the proposed consolidation, said this isn’t just “a Mohawk Trail or western Massachusetts issue,” but an issue being felt statewide. He argued, however, that limiting School Choice seats would further hurt the district financially, as it would lose money from out-of-district students who choice into the Mohawk Trail Regional School District.
Paul Hollings, a resident of Shelburne and a member of the Two Districts, Eight Towns Steering Committee, said that while it’s difficult to think about a school closing, that could be on the horizon and it’s something that Mohawk Trail needs to prepare for.
“It would leave us prepared should the town propose the closure of Colrain Central,” Hollings said of the limited School Choice seats. “We need to be open to these possibilities.”
School Committee Chair Martha Thurber clarified that no one has proposed closing Colrain Central School, and if it were to happen, all eight member towns would need to vote on it.
