AMHERST (WWLP) – Amherst and Pelham have rejected a proposal to regionalize their elementary schools.

The Amherst and Pelham Regional School District Planning Board announced in May that it would not regionalize the town’s elementary schools.

The final report has come out, and it found that regionalization had insufficient financial and educational benefits to Amherst and Pelham.
This means both Pelham and Amherst elementary school districts will stay separate.

Amherst and Pelham already share a middle and high school, as well as a superintendent, but not elementary schools.

Board members expressed disappointment and frustration with the state’s failure to keep its promise of reimbursing 100 percent of regional school district transportation costs.

“The main incentive for districts to regionalize here in western Massachusetts where we have smaller populations and we are looking for efficiencies is this reimbursement of transportation and it was very frustrating when we had to project what the savings would be and we couldn’t rely on that 100 percent transportation reimbursement,” Planning Board Chairman, Peter Demling said.

The board was trying to make this work since Pelham only has one elementary school, but they did not see them saving money.