Pelham School Superintendent Dr. Cheryl Champ presented her mid-year report to the Board of Education on January 21, lauding the academic progress the school district has made in the past decade and providing a timeline of the construction projects that will begin this summer. She also discussed the rising costs that are impacting the school’s budget this year and are likely to continue doing so going forward.
At the start of her presentation, Champ expressed her gratitude to the town’s voters for approving $99 million in bonds to pay for upgrades to Pelham’s elementary and high schools.
“We’re just incredibly thankful to the community for passing $99 million worth of bond projects for us last May,” she said. “That was incredible. I’ve got to say, when I talk to colleagues, they’re floored at the number. Pelham supports its schools.…I’m so incredibly appreciative for that.”
Champ said that renovations at Colonial and Prospect Hill elementary schools, including the installation of air conditioning systems, will begin this summer. Construction at Siwanoy, designed to make the school ADA compliant, is scheduled for the summer of 2027. Renovations at the high school would begin in 2028.
Champ then transitioned to the topic of academic performance in the district, highlighting progress that the district has made in getting 80 percent of students between grades 3 and 8 up to proficiency levels in English and math. She said the improvement in those grades stemmed in part from earlier intervention.
“When I came to the district nine years ago, some of the biggest initial gaps that I discovered was we did not have supports for students below third grade,” she said. “Because third grade was the first year of state testing….That was a concern that very quickly came on the radar from the educators. So over the over the years since I’ve been here, that’s been an area we’ve invested..at younger levels. So we do have the ability now to provide supports for kindergartners.”
As for the 20 percent of students who don’t reach proficiency, Champ said she is working on ways to improve those results as well.
“The board is seeing and learning that in education is nothing happens quickly,” Champ said. “But what we’re seeing now, when you look at our high school outcomes, is the result of those efforts that have been put into place over the last 10 years.”
Champ highlighted the academic achievements of Pelham’s high school students in standardized tests including AP exams. “We have more students engaging in higher level, rigorous courses than ever before and they’re maintaining and excelling even higher on those outcomes,” she said. “So it’s working. It’s doing what it was supposed to do, which is exposing more students to rigorous courses and seeing them excel at that higher level.”
Turning to the financial challenges facing the district, Champ said the goal was to stay within the tax cap.
“Let’s tighten the belt, sharpen the pencil, stay within the tax cap because we are cognizant of the fact that our community did come forward and support big capital projects, and we know that the the tax increases are going to be coming on with those new costs in the coming year,” she said.
“Costs are outpacing revenues,” she said. “That’s kind of the economy that we’re in right now and in a tax cap environment that the whole point of [which] was to limit growth of of our budgets. So, many districts are feeling that, we are not unique in that regard.”
On the cost side, the most significant increases are coming from healthcare and benefits packages, bus transportation and special education. Champ pointed out that transportation costs have more than doubled, from $1 million to more than $2 million, in the past five years. Special education costs have grown from about $7 million in 2020-2021 to nearly $10 million now. Medical insurance has also grown by $3 million in the past five years, she said. Employee salaries have also increased in the past five years, from about $42.5 million to $50 million.
Champ wrapped up her presentation with an overview. “Boards over the generations in Pelham have wanted [to be in] the top, top decile of performance, the bottom decile of spending. So we want a great product, but we want…to be be efficient in how we use our budgets and how we use our funding.”
In other business, the board approved tenure for the assistant principal at Pelham Memorial High School, Dr. Kerri Titone.
