NORTHFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Regional School District is one of three finalist districts that could serve as an anchor school for high schoolers from Winchester, New Hampshire, who will be without a district at the end of the 2026-2027 school year.

Since 2006, Winchester has paid Keene High School tuition to educate its students in grades nine through 12, but that will soon change, as the Keene School District in February 2024 opted against renewing its agreement with Winchester. The agreement expires at the end of the 2026-2027 school year, according to The Keene Sentinel.

The ending of that agreement leaves Northfield’s northerly neighbor without a high school and it has been seeking an anchor school to tie itself to, while also allowing students to choice out to other schools, which has not been an option under the existing agreement with Keene.

“Winchester is conceiving of this as, most likely, a structure in which there will be one ‘anchor school’ and the tuition agreement with that district would have some guarantee of a minimum number of students, or a minimum percentage of the eighth grade class that would go to that building,” Pioneer Superintendent Patricia Kinsella explained during Thursday night’s School Committee meeting.

Both Kinsella and Director of Finance and Operations Jordan Burns said the prospect of welcoming Winchester students into the district would be a great chance to educate more students, while also bringing in some more money to the district. An estimated tuition agreement could be around $20,000 per student, even if Pioneer isn’t the anchor district.

“They have been clear to us and the other schools in the process. … They are not looking for an exclusive agreement; they want their kids to have choice,” Kinsella said. “We know how to do this. We’ve got Warwick and we’ve got Vernon. We’re very good at this.”

Burns added that this is a rare opportunity for a school district to grow financially without putting more strain on its member towns through rising town assessments, which have been a touchy subject in recent years.

School Committee members, too, agreed by consensus that this could be a great opportunity for Pioneer to grow.

“This feels like a really exciting moment for Pioneer,” said Vice Chair Reina Dastous. “I think it would be a really nice partnership with our neighbor.”

Winchester has an average of 30 to 35 students per grade, and with grades being phased in over a period of several years, English teacher Claire Brennan said it would be manageable for the district, especially because Pioneer’s enrollment used to be much larger than it is now.

“It would be a slow roll. It’s not like we would be getting all the kids right away. I do think we can handle it,” Brennan said. “We had it before, so I don’t know why we can’t do it again.”

Any student who is a sophomore or older currently at Keene High School will graduate from Keene High School. Winchester students in ninth grade will have the choice to graduate from Keene High or transfer to another high school prior to the end of the 2027-2028 school year, according to a contract addendum between the Winchester and Keene school districts.

Winchester’s timeline

The timeline from Thursday night’s School Committee meeting is quite tight, as Winchester is looking to select a school district by its Town Meeting in March.

The Winchester High School Selection Committee has already selected Hinsdale High School as a finalist in the process and will select either Pioneer or Monadnock Regional High School as the other finalist on Jan. 13. On Jan. 14, Pioneer plans to send a team to Winchester to talk to town and school officials.

On Jan. 23, Winchester is hosting a community forum at its Town Hall to update residents. On Feb. 1, Winchester will host a deliberative session, which is a New Hampshire practice that allows residents to amend warrant articles ahead of Town Meeting.

Finally, on March 11, Winchester will go to Town Meeting to vote on which district it will move forward with. A Special Town Meeting will be held in May to vote on a tuition agreement.

Kinsella said if the Jan. 14 visit yields positive results, then Burns will work on a potential tuition agreement, which would be needed before the February deliberative session.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.