State of the School District: Pelham, NY

Summary Perspective

Pelham Union Free School District is a small, self-contained K-12 system serving 2,838 students across six schools in 2023-24, operating as the sole public school provider for the Town of Pelham, the Village of Pelham, and the Village of Pelham Manor in Westchester County, New York. The story this district tells is one of stability and capacity management rather than transformation or crisis. The district operates a single middle school and a single high school, meaning every secondary student in the district attends the same building at each level. At the elementary level, four neighborhood-zoned schools feed into this unified secondary pipeline. No active boundary change, redistricting, closure, or consolidation process exists as of the most recent district planning documents.

The district's academic profile, as captured in the available computed data, is limited to Advanced Placement proficiency rates from 2023-24. These show passing rates of 100 percent in AP Biology and AP Chemistry for 11th graders, 85.7 percent in AP Biology for 12th graders, 66.7 percent in AP Chemistry for 12th graders, 63.6 percent in AP Calculus AB for 12th graders, 57.6 percent in AP Calculus BC for 12th graders, and 66.7 percent in AP Computer Science Principles for 10th graders. The computed data does not include standard state assessment results for grades 3-8 or Regents exam results, and no historical trend data is available within the computed series to show whether these rates are rising, falling, or stable. The most recent graduation data on file is from 2019-20, with a cohort of 219 students, but no graduation rate percentage is available in the computed data.

The single most decision-relevant contextual fact is the district's capacity picture. A September 2024 KG+D capacity study found that three of four elementary schools and the high school face projected enrollment exceeding functional capacity, with the largest gap at Pelham Memorial High School, where projected maximum enrollment of 959 exceeds functional capacity of 891. The district's response, through a 2025 capital improvement bond, is to add classrooms at Siwanoy Elementary School and science rooms and a cafeteria at the high school, rather than redraw attendance boundaries. This means the elementary zone assigned to a given address is not under formal review for change, but the physical capacity of several buildings is under strain.

Fiscally, the district relies on local property taxes for 83.6 percent of its revenue, with state aid contributing 15.2 percent and federal sources 1.3 percent, according to FY2023 Census data. The adopted budget for 2026-27 is $98,260,000, balanced in part through $1.23 million of appropriated fund balance and reserve sources. The district's own multi-year projections show increasing budget gaps from 2027-28 through 2029-30, indicating that recurring revenue is expected to fall short of recurring expenditures in those years. This report describes what is true about the district and lets families decide on fit; it does not rate, rank, or recommend.

Key takeaways for families

• The district operates a self-contained K-12 pipeline with four neighborhood-zoned elementary schools feeding into a single middle school and a single high school, meaning there is no secondary school choice within the district.
• Advanced Placement proficiency data from 2023-24 shows passing rates ranging from 57.6 percent in AP Calculus BC to 100 percent in AP Biology and AP Chemistry among 11th graders, though the computed data does not include participation rates or standard state assessment results for grades 3-8.
• The most recent graduation data on file is from 2019-20, with a cohort of 219 students, and no graduation rate percentage is available in the computed data; this data is several years old and reflects a cohort disrupted by COVID-19 school closures.
• The chronic absenteeism rate was 9.7 percent in the 2022-2023 school year, meaning approximately 9.7 percent of enrolled students missed 15 or more school days for any reason.
• A September 2024 capacity study found that three of four elementary schools and the high school face projected enrollment exceeding functional capacity, with the largest gap at Pelham Memorial High School.
• The district's response to capacity pressure is a 2025 capital improvement bond funding classroom expansions at Siwanoy Elementary School and science room and cafeteria additions at the high school, rather than redrawing attendance boundaries.
• No active boundary change, redistricting, closure, or consolidation process was found in district sources, and no grandfathering policy has been published, meaning the treatment of currently enrolled students in any future boundary change would be determined at that time.
• The district's fiscal structure relies on local property taxes for 83.6 percent of revenue, and the adopted 2026-27 budget of $98,260,000 is balanced in part through $1.23 million of appropriated fund balance and reserve sources.
• The district's own multi-year projections show increasing budget gaps from 2027-28 through 2029-30, indicating that recurring revenue is expected to fall short of recurring expenditures.
• The district serves the Town of Pelham, the Village of Pelham, and the Village of Pelham Manor, plus a small Bronx enclave of approximately 35 houses educated in Pelham since 1948 under a tuition arrangement with the New York City Department of Education.
• Municipal boundary changes and school district boundary changes are separate legal processes governed by different statutes, so a change in village or town lines would not automatically move the school district boundary.

At a glance

The table above summarizes the district's current operating state across dimensions that a family evaluating a housing decision would typically want to understand at a glance. Several cells merit brief explanation. The graduation rate row reflects 2019-20 data, the most recent available on file, and carries no percentage because the computed data includes only cohort size, not the rate itself. The headline proficiency row captures only Advanced Placement results from 2023-24, as standard state assessment results for grades 3-8 and Regents exam results are not included in the computed dataset. The per-pupil spending figure of $27,631 comes from the US Census Bureau Annual Survey of School System Finances for FY2023 and represents current spending, which excludes capital outlay and debt service. No state average figure is available in the computed data for comparison. The market level signal is not available because no housing market data is included in the computed dataset or body sections. The next scheduled decision event refers to the board of education election on May 18, 2027, as stated in the district's election information. Annual budget votes typically coincide with board elections in New York school districts, so the next budget vote would also be expected in May 2027.

How to read New York accountability

New York State's accountability system under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) classifies schools and districts into tiers that signal the level of state intervention or support. The designations, from most to least intensive, are Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI), and Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI). Districts and schools that do not trigger any of these tiers fall into the default category of Local Support and Improvement (LSI), which involves locally led monitoring and continuous improvement rather than formal state intervention. A school or district in LSI status is not identified as needing state intervention; it is the baseline designation for entities meeting minimum accountability thresholds. The NYSED accountability page provides additional detail on these tiers.

New York's growth measure is reported at the school level, not the district level, as part of the Elementary/Middle Academic Progress indicator. This indicator measures how much students progress relative to academic expectations from one year to the next. No district-level growth score is published by NYSED, which means a single number characterizing academic growth across all schools in a district is not available. This is a structural feature of New York's ESSA accountability system, not a data omission specific to any one district.

New York's tax levy limit, often referred to as the tax cap, restricts the annual growth of a school district's tax levy. A district seeking to exceed the levy limit must obtain approval from 60 percent of voters in the budget vote, rather than a simple majority. This threshold is separate from the contingency budget mechanism, which applies when a proposed budget is defeated entirely and triggers a fallback to the prior year's levy with zero increase. The contingency budget process is governed by New York Education Law Section 2023 and restricts spending to statutorily defined ordinary contingent expenses.

New York State authorizes charter schools, though the body sections do not indicate any charter schools operating within this district's boundaries. The district does not offer unrestricted open enrollment but does accept limited nonresident tuition students for grades 9 through 12, subject to conditions and available space.

For Pelham Union Free School District specifically, the district holds Local Support and Improvement status for the 2025-26 accountability year, meaning it is not identified for CSI, TSI, or ATSI. No schools within the district are listed as holding those more intensive designations. No district-level growth score is available for Pelham UFSD, consistent with the state's school-level reporting structure. The district's budget process follows the standard New York model of voter-approved annual budgets, with the contingency budget serving as the automatic fallback if a proposed budget is defeated.

What kind of district this is: governance and geography

Pelham Union Free School District is classified as a union free school district under New York Education Law Article 31, which governs the formation, continuation, and operation of this category of district. The federal National Center for Education Statistics lists it as a "Regular local school district." The district serves grades K-12 and, according to its own description, is the sole comprehensive public school provider for the Town of Pelham. Total enrollment in 2023-24 was 2,838 students across six schools, all of which are currently open: Colonial School, Hutchinson School, Prospect Hill School, and Siwanoy School at the elementary level, Pelham Middle School for grades 6-8, and Pelham Memorial High School for grades 9-12.

Taxing authority and budget approval

Under New York law, the school district itself holds the taxing authority. The board of education proposes an annual budget that, if approved by district voters, determines the school tax levy for the coming year. The Town of Pelham's Receiver of Taxes then bills and collects the school tax alongside town, county, and village taxes. In other words, the district sets the levy and the municipality handles collection; the district does not send its own tax bills.

Budget approval rests with voters in an annual vote. If the proposed budget is defeated, the board of education must adopt a contingency budget pursuant to New York Education Law Section 2023. A contingency budget carries two principal constraints. First, the tax levy may not exceed the prior year's levy, meaning a zero percent increase. Second, spending is limited to what the statute defines as "ordinary contingent expenses," a category that includes legal liabilities, employee salaries and benefits already required by law or contract, debt service, and other statutorily mandated items. Expenditures that fall outside these categories, such as certain supplies, equipment, and community-use arrangements, are restricted. The New York State School Boards Association has published a primer explaining that the contingency framework was designed to force districts to operate at or near the prior year's levy when voters reject a proposed budget, while still meeting all legal obligations. The district does not face a second vote; the contingency budget is the automatic fallback.

Board of education

The board of education consists of seven members elected at large to three-year terms. Elections are held district-wide rather than by subdistrict or ward, meaning every voter in the district votes on every seat. The district's election information page provides details on filing procedures and eligibility. The next scheduled election is May 18, 2027. The board operates under standard New York union free school district governance; there is no state takeover, receivership, mayoral control, or other non-standard arrangement in place.

Municipalities served and shared territory

The district's boundaries encompass the entirety of the Town of Pelham, the Village of Pelham, and the Village of Pelham Manor. The district also serves a small detached enclave within the Bronx, in New York City, under an incoming tuition arrangement. According to the district's tuition-paying students page, this enclave consists of approximately 35 houses and has been educated in Pelham schools since 1948, with tuition paid by the New York City Department of Education. That enclave is also nominally served by the New York City Department of Education, but the practical arrangement routes its students to Pelham. No portion of the district is tuitioned out to another district for secondary education; Pelham operates its own middle school and high school.

Feeder structure

Pelham is not part of any feeder system. The district operates a self-contained K-12 pipeline: students from the four elementary schools feed into Pelham Middle School and then into Pelham Memorial High School, all within the same district. There are no tuition-out arrangements sending students to neighboring districts for any grade level. The only external arrangement is the incoming tuition from the Bronx enclave described above.

Boundary change mechanism

Changing the district's boundaries requires action under New York Education Law Article 31, specifically Sections 1507 and 1508. The district superintendent may issue an order altering boundaries in one of two ways. Under Section 1507, the superintendent may issue the order with the written consent of the boards of education of all affected districts. Under Section 1508, if any affected district refuses consent, the superintendent may still issue the order, but it takes effect no less than three months after filing and is subject to appeal to the New York Commissioner of Education. Formation of entirely new districts is governed by Section 1504, and dissolution or reformation by Section 1505.

A point that matters for homeowners: a change in the boundaries of the Village of Pelham, the Village of Pelham Manor, or the Town of Pelham would not automatically move the school district boundary. Municipal boundary changes and school district boundary changes are separate legal processes governed by different statutes. The school district boundary moves only through the Education Law Article 31 process described above, regardless of what happens to municipal lines.

Academic outcomes: the evidence base

The computed assessment data for Pelham Union Free School District encompasses 60 distinct data series structured to span from 2006 through 2025. The framework's historical years run from 2006 through 2017, after which there is a gap in available data points that includes the 2019-20, 2020-21, and subsequent school years. This gap reflects, in part, the cancellation of standard state assessment testing during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when New York State received federal waivers suspending mandatory testing. The resumption of reported data in the computed file appears in the 2023-24 school year points. The series cover Advanced Placement (AP) proficiency rates across multiple subjects and grade levels, reported through New York State's assessment system and sourced from NY state assessment data via a processed profile corpus.

What the AP proficiency data shows

The 2023-24 AP proficiency data reports the percentage of students who achieved a passing score on AP examinations in each subject. In New York's reporting framework, AP proficiency typically denotes the percentage of test-takers scoring a 3 or higher on the 5-point AP scale. The data is broken down by grade level and covers all students as a single group. The following results are reported for 2023-24:

• AP Biology: 100.0% proficiency among 11th graders and 85.7% among 12th graders.
• AP Calculus AB: 63.6% proficiency among 12th graders.
• AP Calculus BC: 57.6% proficiency among 12th graders.
• AP Chemistry: 100.0% proficiency among 11th graders and 66.7% among 12th graders.
• AP Computer Science Principles: 66.7% proficiency among 10th graders.

Several additional series exist in the data but show no reported values for 2023-24. AP Art History shows missing data across grades 10, 11, and 12. AP Chinese Language and Culture shows missing data for grades 9 and 10. Missing values in the AP context typically indicate either that no students were enrolled in the exam at that grade level or that the number of test-takers was too small to report without risking student identification under privacy thresholds. The district's high school maintains a school profile and course catalog that describe the full range of AP and college-level courses offered.

Level versus trajectory

The computed data permits a view of the current proficiency level in 2023-24 but does not support a trajectory analysis across most subjects. The historical years in the series framework, running from 2006 through 2017, do not contain populated data points in the provided series. This means there is no year-over-year comparison available within the computed data for any single AP subject. A family looking at whether AP Biology proficiency has risen or fallen over time would find that the data on file provides only the 2023-24 snapshot. The 60-series framework is structured to accommodate multi-year analysis, but the actual reported values currently available are limited to the single most recent school year. The absence of historical data points in the computed file means that questions about whether performance is improving, declining, or stable cannot be answered from this dataset alone.

What the assessment measures and what it does not

The AP proficiency rates reported here measure performance on College Board Advanced Placement examinations, which are standardized tests tied to specific college-level courses taught in high school. A proficiency rate of 100.0% in AP Biology among 11th graders means that every 11th grader who took the AP Biology exam in 2023-24 scored at or above the threshold for proficiency. The rate does not measure what percentage of all 11th graders took the exam; it measures only outcomes among those who did. A high proficiency rate in a subject with few test-takers can look different from the same rate in a subject where most of the grade participates. The computed data does not include participation rates alongside proficiency rates, so the share of students enrolled in each AP course who sat for the exam is not visible in these figures.

These AP results are distinct from New York State's standard assessments, which include English Language Arts and Mathematics tests in grades 3 through 8 and Regents examinations in high school. The computed data on file for Pelham UFSD does not include standard state assessment results for elementary or middle school grades. It also does not include Regents exam results. The AP data provides a window into advanced coursework outcomes at the high school level but does not provide a comprehensive picture of academic performance across all grades and subjects in the district. Families seeking standard state assessment results can consult the New York State Report Cards published by NYSED, or the district's NYSED profile page.

The district also offers an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme at the middle school level. IB assessment data is not included in the computed AP/IB series on file, which contains only AP subjects. The high school's AP and college-level courses page provides additional detail on advanced course offerings.

Subgroup data

The computed assessment data provides results only for the "all students" group. No subgroup breakdowns by race, ethnicity, economic status, disability status, or English learner status are available in the AP proficiency series on file. This means the data does not permit comparison of AP outcomes across demographic groups within the district. The absence of subgroup data in the computed file is a limitation of the available dataset, not a statement about whether such data exists elsewhere in state reporting. NYSED's accountability data portal may contain additional disaggregated results.

Graduation data

The most recent graduation data on file is from the 2019-20 school year, sourced from EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate) via the Urban Institute Education Data API. The cohort size for that year was 219 students. No graduation rate percentage is available in the computed data for 2019-20. This data is several years old and reflects a graduating cohort that experienced significant disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of their senior year. The 2019-20 school year was the first full academic year affected by pandemic-related school closures in New York, which began in March 2020. The district's high school profile may contain more recent graduation information self-reported by the district.

Chronic absenteeism

The chronic absenteeism rate for Pelham UFSD was 9.7% in the 2022-2023 school year, according to EDFacts Data Group 814. Chronic absenteeism is defined by the federal government as missing 15 or more school days in a school year for any reason, including excused absences, unexcused absences, and suspensions. The 9.7% rate means that approximately 9.7% of enrolled students met this threshold during that school year. This figure is reported for all students in the district and does not include subgroup breakdowns in the computed data. NYSED provides additional context on chronic absenteeism as part of its accountability framework.

Accountability status

For the 2025-26 accountability year, Pelham UFSD holds the designation of Local Support and Improvement (LSI), according to New York State Education Department accountability data. This designation means the district is not identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI), or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI). Districts in LSI status engage in locally led monitoring and continuous improvement rather than being subject to formal state intervention. The LSI designation is the default category for districts that do not trigger any of the state's more intensive support tiers. No schools within the district are listed as holding CSI, TSI, or ATSI designations for 2025-26. NYSED released final school accountability determinations for the 2025-26 cycle, and the district's ESSA accountability report is available through the state data portal.

Growth measures

NYSED does not publish a distinct district-level growth score for Pelham UFSD. Growth is reported at the school level as part of the Elementary/Middle Academic Progress indicator, which measures how much students progress relative to academic expectations from one year to the next. The absence of a district-level growth score means the computed data cannot provide a single number characterizing academic growth across all schools in the district. This is a structural feature of New York's accountability system, not a data omission specific to Pelham. The ESSA accountability system page on NYSED's website describes the indicators used at the school level.

Enrollment context

The district's enrollment was 2,838 students in the 2023-24 school year, according to NCES Common Core of Data. Race and ethnicity data for that year shows the following distribution: 1,787 white students (63.0%), 464 Hispanic students (16.3%), 175 Asian students (6.2%), 260 students of two or more races (9.2%), 150 Black students (5.3%), 1 American Indian or Alaska Native student (0.04%), and 1 Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander student (0.04%). Free and reduced-price lunch data, Individualized Education Program counts, and English learner counts are all reported as missing in the computed enrollment data. The district's active enrollment page may contain additional enrollment information self-reported by the district.

Inside the district: variation between schools

Pelham Union Free School District operates six schools, all currently open: four elementary schools (Colonial, Hutchinson, Prospect Hill, and Siwanoy), one middle school (Pelham Middle School), and one high school (Pelham Memorial High School), according to the NCES Common Core of Data. The district's total enrollment was 2,838 in the 2023-24 school year. This six-school structure shapes how variation between schools can be understood, because the district has only one middle school and one high school.

With a single middle school and a single high school, all students in the district attend the same secondary buildings. Variation in outcomes at those grade levels is not a question of which school a student attends, because there is only one option at each level. Pelham Middle School serves all district students in the middle grades, and Pelham Memorial High School serves all district students in the high school grades. Any district-level data for secondary grades reflects the entire student population at those grade levels, not a subset sorted by attendance zone. When a district operates a single secondary school at each level, the district average and the school average are the same number. There is no spread to report because there is no second school to compare against.

At the elementary level, the district maintains four schools. Colonial, Hutchinson, Prospect Hill, and Siwanoy each serve students in the elementary grades, with assignment based on geographic attendance zones within Pelham. The district maintains individual web pages for each elementary school, including Colonial, Hutchinson, Prospect Hill, and Siwanoy. However, the enrollment and demographic data available in the NCES Common Core of Data is reported at the district level, not disaggregated by individual elementary school. The computed assessment data available for this district is likewise reported at the district level, not broken down by school.

This means that the available quantitative dataset does not permit a direct comparison of academic outcomes among the four elementary schools. The district's race and ethnicity data shows a district-wide composition of 63.0 percent white, 16.3 percent Hispanic, 6.2 percent Asian, 5.3 percent Black, 9.2 percent two or more races, and less than one percent American Indian or Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, based on 2023-24 enrollment. How that composition is distributed across the four elementary attendance zones is not captured in the available data. Free and reduced-price lunch counts and rates are reported as missing, as are individualized education program counts and English learner counts, so economic disadvantage and special education enrollment cannot be compared across schools using the available dataset.

The Advanced Placement proficiency data in the computed dataset, while labeled at the district level, effectively reflects Pelham Memorial High School, since it is the district's only high school. For the 2023-24 school year, the data shows AP Biology proficiency rates of 100 percent for grade 11 test-takers and 85.7 percent for grade 12 test-takers. AP Chemistry proficiency was 100 percent for grade 11 and 66.7 percent for grade 12. AP Calculus AB proficiency for grade 12 was 63.6 percent, and AP Calculus BC proficiency for grade 12 was 57.6 percent. AP Computer Science Principles proficiency for grade 10 was 66.7 percent. Several AP subjects, including AP Art History and AP Chinese Language and Culture, show missing data for the relevant grade levels. Because these figures come from a single high school, they do not illustrate variation between schools but rather the range of outcomes across different subject areas within one building.

Pelham Memorial High School reports four National Merit finalists in the Class of 2025, according to the school's graduation announcement. This is a school-specific outcome, but because PMHS is the only high school in the district, it does not provide a basis for inter-school comparison.

The New York State Education Department publishes school-level report cards that could provide a basis for comparing outcomes across the elementary schools. The district's website hosts NYSED report card PDFs for Pelham Middle School and for Pelham Memorial High School. The NYSED data portal also maintains an ESSA accountability profile for the district. Families seeking school-level assessment results, chronic absenteeism rates, or other accountability indicators for individual elementary schools would need to consult those state-level resources directly, as the data in this profile is aggregated at the district level.

At the elementary level, where four schools do exist, the absence of school-level data in the available dataset means this profile cannot report whether outcomes are consistent across the four buildings or whether one school's results differ materially from another's. The district's K-5 academic program page describes curriculum and program elements that apply across the elementary grades, but it does not provide school-by-school outcome data. Families who want to understand whether the four elementary schools produce similar or different results should consult the NYSED report card system, which maintains separate entries for each school.

Advanced academics and pathway access

Pelham Union Free School District provides advanced academic opportunities through several distinct mechanisms that vary by grade level. A family navigating these pathways encounters different access points depending on whether the student is in elementary, middle, or high school. The district's approach includes universal screening for enrichment at the elementary level, an International Baccalaureate framework at the middle school, and Advanced Placement plus dual-enrollment courses at the high school.

Elementary enrichment and gifted identification

The district identifies students who may need enrichment or acceleration through universal screening. According to the district's stated model, teachers and teams use screeners to identify students who may benefit from additional academic challenge. This mechanism means the district does not rely solely on parent or teacher referral to flag candidates for enrichment. Instead, the district systematically screens its student population, which is intended to capture students who might otherwise go unidentified. The district's elementary program includes an enrichment and intervention component, though the specific screening instruments, thresholds, and frequency of administration are not detailed in the available source materials.

The US Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection for SY2021-22 includes gifted and talented data for the district across six aggregated school-level rows. The available dataset does not provide specific enrollment totals or demographic breakdowns for gifted programming, so the scope of gifted enrollment cannot be reported from this source.

IB Middle Years Programme at Pelham Middle School

Pelham Middle School offers the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) to all enrolled students. Because the MYP functions as the instructional framework for the entire middle school rather than as a selective or opt-in track, no separate application, entrance examination, or screening process governs entry. Every student who attends Pelham Middle School participates in the MYP curriculum by default. This structure removes a common gateway mechanism found in districts where advanced middle-school programs require separate admission, testing, or teacher recommendation.

The available source materials do not describe a separate honors track at the middle school level, which is consistent with the universal MYP model. The district's middle school mathematics page is published, but specific placement criteria for accelerated math sequences at the middle school are not detailed in the available materials.

Grade 8 Algebra I placement

The US Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection for SY2021-22 includes Algebra I enrollment data for the district across six aggregated school-level rows. The available dataset does not provide specific enrollment counts or demographic breakdowns for Grade 8 Algebra I. The district's mathematics curriculum pages for both the middle school and high school are published, but the specific placement criteria, prerequisite coursework, or testing thresholds that govern entry into Grade 8 Algebra I are not detailed in the available source materials. Without these details, the precise mechanism by which a family secures accelerated math placement cannot be described from the available data.

Advanced Placement at Pelham Memorial High School

Pelham Memorial High School offers Advanced Placement and college-level courses. According to the US Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection for SY2021-22, AP enrollment across the district totaled 458 students. Of those, 321 were White (157 male, 164 female), 57 were Hispanic (27 male, 30 female), 33 were Asian (14 male, 19 female), 29 were of two or more races (13 male, 16 female), and 18 were Black (7 male, 11 female). No American Indian or Alaska Native students and no Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander students were reported in AP enrollment. Among AP-enrolled students, 3 were identified as English Learners, 6 were served under IDEA, and 28 had Section 504 plans.

The district's high school course catalog for 2026-2027 and school profile are published. The specific number of AP subjects offered is not stated in the available source materials, though the district confirms that AP and college-level courses are available to students. The high school profile for 2025-26 is also published but its contents regarding specific AP course offerings are not detailed in the available research.

Dual enrollment and college-level coursework

Pelham Memorial High School provides dual-enrollment opportunities through partnerships with Syracuse University Project Advance, the State University of New York (SUNY), and Adelphi University. These partnerships allow students to earn college credit while completing high school coursework. The specific courses available through each partnership, the cost to families, and the credit-transfer policies of receiving institutions are not detailed in the available source materials. A family seeking to understand which dual-enrollment courses are available in a given year would need to consult the course catalog directly.

Science Research Program

The district offers a Science Research Program, which includes a Science Research Symposium where students present their work. The district has documented a science symposium in 2019 as part of this program. The specific entry requirements, duration, and structure of the Science Research Program are not detailed in the available source materials.

The ceiling: what the strongest student can reach

The highest-level academic opportunities available to Pelham Memorial High School students include Advanced Placement courses, dual-enrollment college courses through three university partnerships, and the Science Research Program. The available source materials describe an International Baccalaureate offering only at the middle school level through the MYP at Pelham Middle School. No International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is described for the high school in the available research. The available materials do not specify the maximum number of AP courses a student may take in a single year or over a high-school career, nor do they describe any cap on dual-enrollment credits.

Detracking or honors changes

The available source materials do not document a specific detracking proposal, honors-track elimination, or related policy change in the Pelham Union Free School District. The middle school's universal IB MYP model means that all students share a common instructional framework, but the district does not frame this as a detracking initiative in the available materials. No board minutes, petition, court filing, or public controversy regarding tracking changes appear in the available research. The district's 2024 strategic plan draft is published, but its contents regarding any potential changes to academic tracking or honors structures are not detailed in the available source materials.

Enrollment, capacity, and boundaries: how stable is what you are buying

How an address becomes a school seat

Pelham Union Free School District enrolls 2,838 students across six schools, according to 2023-24 NCES Common Core of Data. The district operates four elementary schools (Colonial, Hutchinson, Prospect Hill, and Siwanoy), one middle school (Pelham Middle School, grades 6-8), and one high school (Pelham Memorial High School, grades 9-12).

The assignment model is neighborhood-zoned at the elementary level. After a family verifies residency through the district's registration portal, a kindergarten-through-grade-5 address maps to one of four elementary attendance areas: the Colonial zone, the Hutchinson zone, the Prospect Hill zone, or the Siwanoy zone. The district does not publish a sibling preference for elementary placement; each child must be registered individually, according to district sources reviewed through 2026-07-24.

At the secondary level, the structure is districtwide rather than zoned. All four elementary zones feed into Pelham Middle School for grades 6 through 8, and all students then attend Pelham Memorial High School for grades 9 through 12. No alternate secondary feeder pattern is published. This means that the elementary zone assigned to a given address determines the K-5 building but does not create uncertainty about which middle or high school a child will attend. Every Pelham resident student in the district follows the same secondary path.

Capacity pressure by building

The district commissioned a capacity study from the architecture and planning firm KG+D, presented on September 18, 2024. That study compared each building's functional capacity, meaning the number of students the building can serve under the district's class-size targets and program model, against current enrollment and projected maximum enrollment. The findings varied substantially across buildings.

Colonial Elementary School had a current enrollment of 294 against a functional capacity of 291, with a projected maximum enrollment of 317. This places Colonial marginally over functional capacity at the time of the study, with further projected growth.

Siwanoy Elementary School had a current enrollment of 286 against a functional capacity of 280, with a projected maximum enrollment of 307. Siwanoy's current enrollment already exceeded its functional capacity in the September 2024 study. The 2025 capital improvement bond responded to this by including an eight-classroom expansion and a cafeteria addition at Siwanoy. A January 14, 2026 bond implementation update on the district's Siwanoy project page indicates that construction is proceeding on that expansion.

Prospect Hill Elementary School presented a different profile. Its projected maximum enrollment of 379 exceeded its functional capacity of 367, producing a projected 12-seat shortfall. However, this was a projected rather than a current shortfall. The September 2024 study did not identify a current waitlist at Prospect Hill.

Hutchinson Elementary School stood apart from the other three elementary buildings. The KG+D study found that Hutchinson's functional capacity materially exceeded its projected maximum enrollment, making it the one elementary building with available capacity rather than pressure.

At the secondary level, Pelham Memorial High School faced the largest projected gap. The study projected a maximum enrollment of 959 against a functional capacity of 891, using a class-size assumption of 28 students per room. The 2025 bond proposition included science room additions and renovations and a dedicated cafeteria and student commons at the high school to address this pressure. Pelham Middle School was not separately flagged in the capacity-study findings reviewed.

Active boundary or redistricting studies

No active boundary change, redistricting, closure, or consolidation process was found in district sources reviewed through 2026-07-24. The district's September 2024 KG+D capacity study explicitly recommended targeted additions and renovations rather than boundary changes as the response to enrollment pressure. The 2025 capital improvement bond, which included classroom expansions at Siwanoy and science-room and cafeteria additions at Pelham Memorial High School, represents the district's chosen mechanism for addressing capacity without redrawing attendance lines.

The sources checked for any boundary or redistricting activity included the 2023-24 Comprehensive Long Range Planning Study, the September 18, 2024 KG+D capacity study presentation, the 2025 Capital Improvement Bond pages, the January 14, 2026 Siwanoy bond implementation update, and a search of the Pelham UFSD BoardDocs portal for terms including boundary, redistricting, closure, and consolidation. None yielded an active process.

The absence of a boundary study is a meaningful fact for a family evaluating housing. It means that, as of the most recent district planning documents, the elementary zone assigned to a given address is not under formal review for change. However, the mechanism by which boundaries could change in the future is worth understanding. In New York State, school district attendance zones are governed by the local board of education. A board would typically commission a demographic and capacity study, review findings in public meetings, and vote on any boundary adjustment. The signals to watch for include a board agenda item referencing redistricting, boundary study, or attendance zone revision; a capacity study that recommends boundary changes rather than capital construction; or a public hearing notice on school assignment. The Pelham Board of Education posts agendas and minutes through its BoardDocs portal, which is the primary public record for such items.

Grandfathering policy

No written grandfathering rule or dated boundary-redraw precedent was located in district sources reviewed through 2026-07-24. Grandfathering, in the context of school assignment, refers to a policy that allows currently enrolled students to remain at their existing school even after a boundary change would reassign their address to a different building. The absence of a published grandfathering policy means that if a boundary change were to occur in the future, the treatment of currently enrolled students would be determined at that time by the board, without a pre-existing rule to reference. Families cannot assume that a child already enrolled in a given elementary school would be protected from reassignment.

Transfer mechanics

The district does not publish a process for requesting transfers between the four elementary attendance zones. Assignment is neighborhood-based, and no intra-district transfer application, approval criteria, or published approval rates or volumes were found in district sources. No published rule states that district transportation follows an intra-elementary transfer. Continuation at a school after a move within the district appears to be governed by Board policy rather than an open-enrollment program, but no specific policy text was located in the sources reviewed.

At the inter-district level, the district does not offer unrestricted open enrollment. It does accept limited nonresident tuition applications for grades 9 through 12, subject to conditions and available space. Families seeking nonresident tuition admission must arrange conditions with their home district and provide their own transportation. No general outgoing open-enrollment arrangement is published.

Residency verification

Registration requires standard proofs of age and identity along with multiple proofs of residency. Families initiate the process through the district's registration portal or registrar. The district's residency page outlines eligibility requirements and transportation limits for temporary residences, noting that the district is not required to provide transportation between a temporary residence outside the district and the child's school. Specific audit or investigative practices for verifying residency are not detailed publicly. No specific fines or tuition-repayment penalties for non-resident attendance are published on the residency page.

Enrollment direction

A long-run enrollment series is not available on file, so a multi-year trend line cannot be constructed from the data reviewed. The district's 2023-24 Comprehensive Long Range Planning Study anticipates near-term K-5 growth with school- and level-specific peaks, with Siwanoy projected to peak earlier than the K-5 total. These projections reflect recent demographic patterns and development assumptions, according to the study. The September 2024 KG+D capacity study operationalized those projections into building-level capacity comparisons, which are described above.

The district does not publish an analysis of destinations for departing students. No district-published outflow analysis was found in posted planning materials, which means there is no official account of how many students leave the district for private schools, charter schools, or other districts, or where they go.

Fiscal health and the tax picture

Pelham Union Free School District finances rest overwhelmingly on local property taxes. According to the US Census Bureau Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) for FY2023, the district reported total revenue of approximately $85.2 million and total expenditures of approximately $83.8 million. Current spending, which excludes capital outlay and debt service, totaled approximately $76.2 million. Against a membership of 2,758 students, current spending per pupil was $27,631 and instructional spending per pupil was $19,035. The revenue mix was 83.6 percent local, 15.2 percent state, and 1.3 percent federal. Federal revenue amounted to approximately $1.1 million, state revenue to approximately $12.9 million, and local revenue to approximately $71.2 million. This revenue structure means that the district's fiscal position is tied closely to the local property tax base and to voter decisions on annual budgets and bond measures.

Adopted budget and structural balance

The district's adopted budget for fiscal year 2026-27 totals $98,260,000, a 2.05 percent increase over the prior year, according to the district's proposed budget documentation. The district reports that this budget is formally balanced. However, the balancing mechanism relies on $1.23 million of appropriated fund balance together with reserve and other one-time sources, including the Employees' Retirement System reserve, the Teachers' Retirement System reserve, and the Debt Service Fund. The use of non-recurring resources to close the gap means that the budget is balanced in the current year but carries a structural component that will need to be resolved in future cycles. The district's own multi-year projection shows out-year budget gaps increasing across 2027-28 through 2029-30, indicating that recurring revenue is expected to fall short of recurring expenditures in those years.

Regarding federal pandemic relief funding, the district's financial postings include federal grants reporting, such as single audit documentation. No explicit narrative was located in the available materials on whether Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds supported recurring positions or how the district managed the transition after those temporary federal funds expired. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has noted nationally that the expiration of these funds could pose challenges for districts that used them for ongoing costs. The absence of district-specific documentation means the public record does not indicate whether one-time federal money was used to fund ongoing commitments that later required local replacement.

Reserves

The district's unrestricted, or unassigned, General Fund balance stood at $3,851,605 as of June 30, 2025, equal to 4.00 percent of the ensuing year's $96,290,000 budget, according to the district's NYS Property Tax Report Card. The district reports that this balance has increased over recent years, as shown in a trend table covering 2021 through 2025. No local reserve-policy floor has been published; the 4.00 percent figure is what the Property Tax Report Card discloses. Under New York State law, school districts may retain up to 4 percent of their budget as unrestricted fund balance, so the district is at the statutory ceiling.

Debt and credit

As of June 24, 2026, the district had $63,235,000 in outstanding debt. S&P Global Ratings has assigned the district a AAA credit rating with a Stable outlook, most recently through an affirmation action. A AAA rating is the highest category on the S&P scale and reflects the agency's assessment of the district's capacity to meet its financial commitments. This rating influences the interest rates the district pays when it borrows through bond issuance, which in turn affects the total debt service cost borne by taxpayers over the life of the bonds.

The district has also identified a substantial capital backlog. A building-condition survey dated January 8, 2025 estimated $95.9 million in building-condition and infrastructure needs across district facilities, according to a presentation to the Board of Education. This figure represents the total scope of identified repairs and improvements, not a single planned expenditure.

Tax levy mechanics and the household bill

In New York, a school district's property tax levy is the total dollar amount the district raises from property owners to help fund its budget. The levy is distinct from the tax rate, which is expressed per $1,000 of assessed property value. The tax rate is calculated by dividing the levy by the total taxable assessed value of all properties in the district. A household's individual tax bill equals the applicable tax rate multiplied by the assessed value of that household's property, divided by $1,000. When the levy increases but the total assessed value of the district grows at a faster pace, the tax rate can decline even as the district collects more money overall.

Pelham's tax rates are split between homestead, or residential, and non-homestead, or commercial and other non-residential, property classes. For 2025-26, the homestead rate was $15.882583 per $1,000 of assessed value and the non-homestead rate was $21.421004 per $1,000, for properties in the Pelham UFSD portion of the Town of Pelham, according to Westchester County tax tables. County tables show that the homestead rate declined from $18.190892 in 2021-22 to $15.882583 in 2025-26, and the non-homestead rate declined from $24.517857 to $21.421004 over the same period, based on prior-year county data. A declining tax rate does not necessarily mean a declining tax bill. If a property's assessed value rises, the bill can increase even as the rate falls. The rate decline may also reflect reassessments or changes in the tax base composition rather than a reduction in the total levy collected.

New York's tax levy limit, commonly called the tax cap, constrains how much a district can increase its levy year over year without triggering a higher voter approval threshold. The cap is calculated under a formula set by state law. The prior year's levy is adjusted by a growth factor reflecting changes in the taxable base, and certain expenditures, such as capital project costs, may be excluded from the cap calculation. If a district proposes a levy at or below this calculated limit, a simple majority of voters, 50 percent plus one, is sufficient to approve the budget. If a district proposes to exceed the limit, a 60 percent supermajority is required.

For 2026-27, the district calculated a 3.72 percent levy limit and adopted a 3.72 percent levy increase, placing it at but not above its limit. A simple majority threshold therefore applied, and the district did not seek an override of the cap.

Recent budget and bond measure results

Pelham voters have passed every annual school budget in recent years while delivering split decisions on capital measures. In 2022, an $84,200,000 annual budget passed by 863 votes, with 1,570 in favor and 707 opposed, according to the Pelham Examiner. A separate 2022 capital reserve authorization of $10,000,000 failed by 494 votes, with 893 in favor and 1,387 opposed. In 2026, a $98,260,000 annual budget passed by 553 votes, with 830 in favor and 277 opposed, the district announced.

In 2025, the district placed four bond propositions before voters, as described on the district's bond information page. Proposition 1, authorizing $56,200,000 for district-wide infrastructure and repairs, passed by 299 votes, with 1,309 in favor and 1,010 opposed. Proposition 2, authorizing $42,600,000 for Siwanoy Elementary School infrastructure and expansion, passed by 80 votes, with 1,198 in favor and 1,118 opposed. Proposition 3, authorizing $40,400,000 for a Pelham Memorial High School addition, failed by 39 votes, with 1,139 in favor and 1,178 opposed. Proposition 4, authorizing $4,500,000 for geothermal wells, failed by 434 votes, with 940 in favor and 1,374 opposed, the Pelham Examiner reported. The narrow margins on Propositions 2 and 3, separated by 119 votes in opposite directions, illustrate how individual facility projects can generate different levels of voter support within the same election.

The two approved bond propositions total $98,800,000 in authorized borrowing. Combined with the $63,235,000 already outstanding as of June 2026, the district's debt obligations will expand as these bonds are issued. The district's AAA credit rating will affect the borrowing costs on this new debt.

Upcoming fiscal considerations

The district's multi-year projection showing increasing out-year gaps through 2029-30, combined with the reliance on one-time sources to balance the 2026-27 budget, indicates that the district will face decisions about expenditures, revenue, or both in coming cycles. The $95.9 million capital backlog identified in January 2025 and the $98,800,000 in bonds authorized in May 2025 address overlapping but not identical scopes of work. The failed Propositions 3 and 4, totaling $44,900,000, represent portions of the identified backlog that voters declined to fund through borrowing. Whether the district revisits these projects, pursues alternative financing, or defers them will shape future budget requests and capital planning.

The municipal and land-use context

Pelham Union Free School District (NCES LEA ID 3622680) is located in Westchester County, New York, with an official enrollment of 2,838 in the 2023-24 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The district's official website provides access to governance and financial documents. Understanding the municipal context requires distinguishing between actions that directly alter the district's governance, finances, or boundaries, and those that occur within the district's geographic footprint but operate through separate municipal channels.

Budget governance and the separation of municipal and school finances

Pelham UFSD operates under a standard New York State school district budget model. The Board of Education proposes an annual budget, and district residents vote on it each May. No village or town government sets, approves, or vetoes the school budget. This structural separation means that municipal fiscal decisions in the Village of Pelham or the Village of Pelham Manor do not flow directly into the school district's budget process. The district's budget and finance information is published on its official website, and Board of Education meeting materials are accessible through BoardDocs. In the most recent budget cycle, voters passed a $98.3 million school budget, according to Pelham Examiner reporting.

The New York State Office of the Comptroller's Fiscal Stress Monitoring System evaluates municipalities and school districts separately. For fiscal year 2025, the Village of Pelham Manor received a "No Designation" status, indicating the OSC did not assign a fiscal stress designation. Because no direct municipal-to-school funding channel exists for Pelham UFSD, this designation does not transmit into the district's financial position. The OSC's fiscal monitoring system provides context for municipal health but operates independently of school district budgeting.

Village of Pelham Affordable Housing Law (2026)

On January 27, 2026, the Village of Pelham adopted Local Law No. 2 of 2026, establishing Affordable Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) requirements. The law was codified as Chapter 25 of the Village of Pelham Code and became effective upon filing with the New York Secretary of State. The adoption agenda and meeting minutes from that date are available on the Village's website, and the full text of the local law is published as a public document. The New York Department of State maintains the filing system for local laws, and the codified code is accessible through eCode360.

The law's key provisions include set-aside requirements for residential developments. For developments of 10 or more units, the law requires affordable housing set-asides. For developments of 5 to 9 units, at least one AFFH unit is required. Affordability controls extend for at least 50 years. This is a municipal inclusionary housing law adopted under the Village's land-use authority.

The relevance of this law to Pelham UFSD is indirect. The law does not change the district's boundaries, tax base, enrollment figures, or budget approval process. Any effect on the school district would come through future residential development that produces new housing units within the Village of Pelham, which could over time alter the number of school-age children residing in the district. No quantified projection of district enrollment impact appears in the official record reviewed. The law's connection to the school district is limited to the general principle that new housing construction can, over time, change the composition of a community's housing stock and potentially its school-age population.

Pelham Manor Village Election Timing Proposition (2024)

A separate municipal matter involved the timing of village elections in Pelham Manor. Citizen petitioners sought a referendum to move Pelham Manor's village elections from March to November. Village Clerk Lindsey M. Luft, acting in her official capacity, rejected the petition. The petitioners then pursued judicial review.

In July 2024, the New York Supreme Court, Westchester County, issued an order validating the referendum petition. The court's decision addressed the legal question of whether the petition met the requirements for placement on the ballot. On September 6, 2024, the New York Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed the Supreme Court's ruling, holding that Village Law section 9-912 permitted the referendum at the November general election and that the Westchester County Board of Elections was the proper administrator of the election.

On November 5, 2024, Village of Pelham Manor voters approved the proposition to move village elections to November, as reported by the Pelham Examiner. The Village of Pelham Manor's election information page confirms that elections are now held in November and conducted by Westchester County. Additional Village documentation is available on the municipal website.

This matter is classified as having geographic context only in relation to Pelham UFSD. The proposition changes Pelham Manor's municipal election timing and administration. It does not alter Pelham UFSD's boundaries, tax base, enrollment, budget approval process, or Board of Education governance. No party in the court decisions or Village notices reviewed stated a fiscal effect on the school district. The actors involved operated entirely within the municipal election framework, which is separate from school district governance under New York State law. No party-provided municipal fiscal projection was identified in the reviewed materials.

District boundary changes, reorganization, and regionalization

A systematic search of the Pelham UFSD official website, district budget pages, district news, and BoardDocs materials found no evidence of proposed or pending boundary changes, redistricting, consolidation, annexation, deannexation, reorganization, or regionalization affecting the district. Searches of the Village of Pelham, Village of Pelham Manor, and Town of Pelham agenda and minutes for merger, consolidation, dissolution, annexation, incorporation, boundary change, and shared-services studies produced no relevant results. The New York State Education Department's school district reorganization primer, dated July 18, 2024, provides the framework under which district reorganization occurs in New York, but no such proceeding involving Pelham UFSD was identified. As of July 24, 2026, no municipal or district-level reorganization action affecting Pelham UFSD appears in the public records reviewed.

What municipal changes would affect this district

To frame the significance of the matters above, it is useful to identify the mechanisms by which municipal actions could affect Pelham UFSD. Under New York State law, school district reorganization, including consolidation, annexation, or dissolution, requires a formal process governed by the State Education Department. This process involves petitions, voter approval, and Commissioner of Education review. A municipal dissolution or incorporation does not automatically change school district boundaries; school districts in New York are separate legal entities from the municipalities they serve.

Changes to the district's tax base occur primarily through property value assessment and new construction within the district's geographic boundaries. The Village of Pelham's affordable housing law illustrates this mechanism: new residential development built under the law's set-aside requirements would add housing units to the village, which could incrementally affect the tax base and potentially the school-age population over time. However, the magnitude of any such effect depends on the scale, pace, and location of actual development, none of which is specified in the law itself.

School budget changes occur through the annual May vote, in which residents of the district approve or reject the spending plan proposed by the Board of Education. Municipal election timing changes, such as the Pelham Manor proposition, do not alter this process. The school district's fiscal relationship with its municipalities is mediated through the property tax levy, which is set by the school district budget, not by village or town boards.

Real estate and the price of admission

The computed home value index for the ZIP codes associated with Pelham Union Free School District is $1,381,564 as of April 30, 2026. This figure is a ZIP-level approximation drawn from Zillow ZHVI data across three ZIP codes (10552, 10553, and 10803), allocation-weighted to the district through the NCES-ZCTA relationship file. ZIP boundaries do not align with district boundaries, so the index reflects the broader market in these postal codes rather than a precise district-wide measure. The computed rent index for the same area is $2,962 as of April 30, 2026, based on Zillow ZORI data covering two of the district's ZIP codes. The same boundary caveat applies: the rent index captures market conditions in the associated ZIP codes, not exclusively within district lines.

The district's own long-range planning study reports that 22% of housing in the area was renter-occupied as of 2020, with a 6.3% rental-vacancy measure in the second quarter of 2023. In that same study's survey of new residents, 14 respondents cited schools as a reason for purchasing in the district, and 13 cited proximity to work or family. These figures are self-reported survey results, not statistical samples, and they describe stated motivations rather than measured market drivers.

Residential development pipeline

One residential project is under construction within the Village of Pelham: Pelham House, also referred to as Pelham Green, at 217-219 Fifth Avenue. The project comprises 127 rental units, including six homes set aside for households at 80% of area median income. Financing for the project closed in January 2025, according to published reporting. The project is a mixed-use development with ground-floor commercial space.

Zoning changes

The Village of Pelham adopted Local Law No. 1 of 2025 on February 25, 2025, amending its zoning ordinance and zoning map. The amendment modifies the Business-1 zoning district through a combined map and text change. Official records reviewed do not quantify any enrollment or school-tax-base effects resulting from this amendment.

PILOT and revenue diversion

The Westchester County Industrial Development Agency approved a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the Pelham Green project. County IDA filings define the "School District" in the agreement as Pelham Union Free School District and specify a school share of 62.42% of the PILOT payments. The PILOT follows a 20-year schedule running from 2025 through 2044. The project agreement permits assessment grievances and Article 7 judicial review. No active dispute is noted in the reviewed IDA records. Under a PILOT structure, the property owner makes fixed payments to the local taxing jurisdictions rather than paying taxes based on the full assessed value of the property. The school district receives its statutory share of those payments, which may be less than, equal to, or greater than what conventional property taxation would generate, depending on how the PILOT schedule compares to what the assessed value and tax rate would otherwise produce.

Commercial tax base

The ground-floor commercial space in the Pelham House project represents the identified commercial addition to the tax base. That space is part of the mixed-use development subject to the Pelham Green PILOT, meaning its tax treatment flows through the PILOT schedule rather than standard commercial assessment.

The district's FY2025 audited financial statements list unspecified properties in pending tax certiorari proceedings. Tax certiorari is the legal process by which property owners challenge their assessments; successful challenges can reduce taxable assessed value and, consequently, the revenue the district receives from those parcels. The audit does not name the parcels or claimants, and the financial exposure is not quantified in the records reviewed.

Transit infrastructure

Construction related to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Penn Station Access project occurred in the Village of Pelham from November 2025 through January 2026. The broader Penn Station Access program remains in progress. Reviewed records document the transit construction but do not quantify any enrollment or school-access effect for Pelham UFSD. The project is intended to connect the Metro-North New Haven Line to Penn Station via new stations in the Bronx and East Bronx.

The choice ecosystem

Pelham Union Free School District operates a traditional neighborhood-schools model with no magnet or themed-admissions system. The district comprises four neighborhood elementary schools (Siwanoy, Colonial, Prospect Hill, and Hutchinson), one middle school, and one high school, Pelham Memorial High School. Families register online through the Infinite Campus Online Registration Portal and must document district residency. Elementary placement follows geographic attendance zones rather than application or lottery.

New York charter schools are authorized at the state level by the Board of Regents and the SUNY Board of Trustees, not by local districts. Pelham UFSD lists no local authorizer role, and no charter school operates within the district's boundaries. The district therefore does not manage charter admissions, lotteries, or oversight, and no charter-related disputes or appeals involving Pelham UFSD appear in the available research.

New York has no voucher or education savings account program. No New York state ESA or voucher program is identified in major policy inventories; consequently, no Pelham-specific uptake or district fiscal impact is published.

Homeschooling is legally recognized and tracked in New York State. Parents who choose home instruction must comply with the state's regulatory framework, which requires filing an annual notice of intent with the local school district, submitting an individualized home instruction plan, providing quarterly reports to the district, and furnishing annual assessments of each child's academic progress. The district maintains a home instruction policy page on its website. The available research does not indicate any microschool activity specific to Pelham beyond the general homeschool regulatory framework.

Several private and independent schools serve families in the broader Pelham area, with published tuition for the 2026-27 school year varying widely by institution and grade level:

• Iona Preparatory (PK-12, all-boys Catholic): Published tuition for 2026-27 ranges from $13,550 for pre-kindergarten through third grade, $16,400 for fourth through fifth grade, and $18,500 for sixth through eighth grade. Upper School day tuition is noted elsewhere on the school's site as $22,400.
• The Montfort Academy (Grades 9-12, coeducational Catholic classical): Tuition for 2026-27 is $16,500, with non-refundable registration and student fees of $1,400 due in February.
• The Ursuline School (Grades 6-12, all-girls Catholic): Tuition is $24,250 for 2026-27, with no application fee. Enrollment fees apply toward tuition and are non-refundable.
• French-American School of New York (Nursery through Grade 12, bilingual international): For 2026-27, tuition ranges from $39,660 for nursery, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten to $42,030 for first grade and $46,825 for grades 9-12.
• Rye Country Day School (Pre-K through Grade 12, coeducational independent): For 2026-27, tuition is $53,210 for pre-kindergarten through grade 4, $55,540 for grades 5-8, and $59,070 for grades 9-12.
• Resurrection Grammar School (PK3 through Grade 8, Catholic): For 2026-27, tuition is $11,500 for PK3 half day, $12,250 for PK3 or PK4 full day and kindergarten, and $11,250 for grades 1-8 for the first child, with a second child at $8,750.

The district provides nonpublic transportation under state guidelines. Students in grades K-8 who live more than 2 miles and less than 15 miles from their nonpublic school, and students in grades 9-12 who live more than 3 miles and less than 15 miles, are eligible. Transportation requests must be submitted by April 1. The district may use public transit when reasonable and may participate in a transportation consortium through Southern Westchester BOCES.

Programs, logistics, and special populations

Special education

NYSED reports 368 students with disabilities in Pelham UFSD for 2024-25, representing 13% of total enrollment. The district's special education model is built on a continuum that emphasizes access to the general-education curriculum, meaning students receive supports in the least restrictive environment that meets their needs rather than being automatically placed in separate settings.

The continuum includes several program types. Consultant Teacher Services provide special education support within general education classrooms, either directly or indirectly. Resource Room offers specialized instruction in a separate setting, capped at five students per session. Integrated Co-Teaching pairs a general education teacher and a special education teacher in the same classroom. Special Class provides a more structured environment for students needing intensive support, with class sizes ranging from six to fifteen students, though most enroll twelve or fewer. The district also operates a Therapeutic Support Program and a program called Foundations of Learning. Referral and Committee on Special Education procedures are published on the district's website.

English language learners

NYSED lists 35 English Language Learners in Pelham UFSD for 2024-25, against a total enrollment of 2,827. The district offers two English as a New Language program models. Integrated ENL embeds English language instruction within content-area classes, where students receive language support alongside their grade-level subjects. Stand-Alone ENL provides dedicated English language development instruction in a separate setting focused specifically on language acquisition. No dual language program is listed in the district's published materials.

Pre-kindergarten

Pelham UFSD does not operate a district-run pre-kindergarten program. Families seeking pre-K options must rely on private providers in the surrounding area. The district's kindergarten registration process is the entry point for public school enrollment.

Academic program and career pathways

The district publishes a K-12 academic program overview on its website. At the elementary level, the district offers a Foreign Language Elementary School (FLES) program in Spanish, introducing world language instruction before secondary school. Pelham Memorial High School publishes a course catalog for 2026-27 detailing available courses and academic pathways.

Pelham UFSD does not operate its own career and technical education (CTE) center. Southern Westchester BOCES offers career and technical education programs that expand pathways for students in the region. The BOCES model centralizes specialized equipment and instruction at regional centers, with participating districts sending students for part of the school day. This arrangement allows smaller districts to offer vocational and technical programs that would not be feasible to maintain independently.

Athletics and arts

The district maintains a K-12 music program that begins with elementary general music and extends through secondary ensembles. A comprehensive visual arts program operates at both the middle and high school levels, with dedicated art department pages for each school. The district's athletics program information is published on its website. A bond proposition describes a PMHS/MS campus expansion along Ingalls Field, which would affect facilities used by athletics and arts programs. The high school also publishes a clubs and activities page listing extracurricular options.

Class size

The district publishes class size caps on its enrollment page: kindergarten is capped at a maximum of 23 students, and grades 1-5 are capped at a maximum of 28 students. These caps represent the upper limit per classroom section, though actual class sizes may be lower depending on enrollment at each building.

Transportation

Nonpublic transportation eligibility follows New York State guidelines. Students in grades K-8 who live more than 2 miles and less than 15 miles from their school are eligible, as are students in grades 9-12 who live more than 3 miles and less than 15 miles. Transportation requests for nonpublic school students must be submitted by April 1. The district may use public transit when reasonable and may participate in a transportation consortium through Southern Westchester BOCES to manage routes efficiently across multiple participating districts.

Bell times

Elementary bell times vary by building. Siwanoy's first bell rings at 8:20 a.m. with dismissal at 3:05 p.m. Colonial dismisses at 3:05 p.m. Prospect Hill's official start time is 8:20 a.m. Hutchinson opens doors at 8:15 a.m., with students expected to be in class by 8:20 a.m. At the secondary level, Pelham Memorial High School's Period 1 begins at 8:15 a.m. Pelham Middle School publishes its bell schedule on its website. The relatively close alignment of start times across buildings means families with children at multiple schools face a compressed morning window.

Before and after school care

Two providers operate before and after school care programs serving Pelham elementary students. Pelham Children's Center operates at Hutchinson, Colonial, and Prospect Hill. Playful Wonders After School Enrichment Program offers after care including coverage for Siwanoy students, filling the gap at the elementary school not served by Pelham Children's Center.

Morning sessions run Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until school opens, typically 8:20 a.m. After school sessions run from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Pelham Children's Center posts monthly rates for after school care on a sliding scale by frequency: $175 for one day per week, $325 for two days, $450 for three days, $550 for four days, and $650 for five days. Registration costs $50, with re-registration at $25. An extra day beyond the contracted schedule costs $50, and half-day care is billed at $25 per hour. The available research does not provide waitlist information for either provider, nor does it specify whether morning care is available at all four elementary buildings or only at the three sites where Pelham Children's Center operates.

Calendar

The district publishes its academic calendar on its website. Families should consult the official calendar for specific dates regarding the first and last days of school, holiday recesses, professional development days when students are not in attendance, and any scheduled early dismissal days. The calendar also governs the before and after school care schedule, as these programs typically do not operate on days when school is closed.

Safety, climate, and community

Official incident reporting

New York State Education Department collects school safety data through the School Safety and Educational Climate (SSEC) system, which covers the period from July 1 through June 30, including summer school. The SSEC framework requires that each incident be reported once, categorized by its most serious element. The system maintains separate counts for incidents, offenders, and targets, and these counts are not interchangeable with one another. The reporting categories include violent incidents (categories 1 through 3), weapons possession (category 4), material harassment, discrimination, or bullying (category 5a), material cyberbullying (category 5b), drug-related incidents (category 8), and alcohol-related incidents (category 9). The most recent SSEC report on file covers the 2024-25 school year. These figures describe what was formally reported through the state's structured collection process; they do not capture every interaction or concern that arises in a school building, and a district's counts can reflect both the frequency of underlying events and the thoroughness of its reporting practices. SSEC data is available through NYSED's School Safety and Educational Climate portal.

Federal civil rights suspension data

The U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2021-22 school year provides a separate lens on discipline through disaggregated suspension counts for students without disabilities. In that year, the district recorded 32 in-school suspensions without disabilities. Of those, 16 went to white male students, 5 to Black male students, 3 to Hispanic male students, 2 to Hispanic female students, 2 to Black female students, 2 to male students of two or more races, 1 to a white female student, and 1 to an Asian female student. For single out-of-school suspensions without disabilities, the district recorded 22 incidents: 7 to white male students, 5 to Hispanic male students, 3 to white female students, 2 each to Hispanic female and Asian female students, and 1 each to Asian male, Black male, and Black female students. The district recorded 4 multiple out-of-school suspensions without disabilities: 2 to Hispanic female students, 1 to a Black male student, and 1 to a white male student. No out-of-school suspensions were recorded for English learner students in any category. These counts reflect only students without disabilities and do not include separate data the CRDC collects on students with disabilities. The race and ethnicity breakdowns and the English learner breakdown are separate demographic dimensions, meaning a student could appear in both their race category and the English learner category.

Discipline approach and school resource officer status

The district's Code of Conduct, as drafted for 2026-27, emphasizes self-discipline, progressive discipline, and positive behavioral supports. The code directs administrators to consider a student's age, circumstances, and prior record before imposing more severe penalties. No official district source reviewed establishes that Pelham UFSD employs a school resource officer. The district's safety plan discusses law-enforcement roles and governance structures, including memoranda of understanding, but does not confirm an SRO position.

Cell phone policy and New York's statewide requirement

New York State requires K-12 districts, charter schools, and BOCES to implement distraction-free school policies that prohibit unsanctioned student use of personal internet-enabled devices throughout the school day. The state mandate specifies that districts must provide onsite storage, define exceptions, establish a family-contact method, and bar suspensions based solely on device-policy violations. Districts were to have policies in place for the 2025-26 school year. Pelham UFSD adopted Board Policy 7316 on July 2, 2024, and revised it on June 25, 2025. The policy prohibits student use of personal internet-enabled devices anywhere on school grounds during the school day, provides principal-designated storage such as lockers, and enumerates exceptions for IEP or Section 504 requirements, approved instructional use, documented healthcare needs, emergencies, translation, and approved caregiving. The policy directs families to contact students through the main office rather than through personal devices. This board policy serves as the controlling rule while any draft Code of Conduct revision is pending.

Climate survey

No published climate or belonging survey results for Pelham UFSD were identified in the sources reviewed. The absence of such data in available district communications does not indicate that no survey has been administered; it indicates that results were not located in the public sources consulted for this report.

Safety incident: swatting lockdown

On April 20, 2026, a hoax phone call that the district described as a swatting incident triggered lockdowns at Pelham Memorial High School and Pelham Middle School. The district placed the schools in lockdown at approximately 11:05 a.m. after receiving a concerning call, notified families, and lifted the lockdown when police cleared the buildings around noon. Police found no threat. The district issued a follow-up communication identifying the incident as swatting and noting an active police investigation, according to the Pelham Examiner.

Governance controversy: Julianne's Playground eminent domain

The Village of Pelham pursued ownership and easement interests at district-owned Julianne's Playground for a stormwater storage and pumping project. The district opposed the proposed structure, citing liability and future-use concerns, and favored a sale or property swap. The Board of Education authorized a legal challenge on September 25, 2024, but decided in mid-October 2024 not to appeal the eminent-domain action. The district stated at that time that compensation and New York State Education Department approvals remained unresolved. The Board noted that further litigation was unlikely to change the outcome and would consume district resources. This dispute involved two public bodies, the village and the school district, disagreeing over the use of district-owned property for municipal infrastructure. It concluded through the district's decision to accept the eminent-domain process rather than continue contesting it in court. The district maintains a public FAQ page on the matter, and the Pelham Examiner reported on the village's initiation of eminent-domain proceedings.

Leadership, governance, and labor

The superintendent of Pelham Union Free School District is Dr. Cheryl H. Champ, who has held the position since August 8, 2017. Before coming to Pelham, Dr. Champ served as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction at Sewanhaka Central High School District and previously worked as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent, according to her district biography. The Board of Education approved a one-year extension of her contract unanimously on September 11, 2024, extending the agreement through June 2027, with annual one-year renewal options thereafter. The extension set her salary at $280,510 following a 2% increase, according to reporting on the board vote. The exact June 2027 day is not specified in the available records.

Over the past decade, the district has had two superintendents, with one transition. Dr. Peter Giarrizzo preceded Dr. Champ, and his tenure ended on August 16, 2017, when he resigned. Dr. Champ began her tenure eight days earlier on August 8, 2017. The Giarrizzo resignation is reported as a single-source claim. No other superintendent transitions are identified in the available research data for this period.

The Board of Education consists of seven members. Jackie De Angelis serves as President, having been first elected in 2022 with a term expiring in 2028. Natalie Marrero serves as Vice President, also first elected in 2022 with a term expiring in 2028. The remaining trustees are Sidney Burke (first elected 2023, term expires 2029), Kathryn Cohen (first elected 2024, term expires 2027), Annemarie S. Garcia (first elected 2023, term expires 2029), Darra Gordon (first elected 2024, term expires 2027), and Will Treves (first elected 2022, term expires 2028), according to the district's board page.

Recent board elections have been contested in every year for which data is available. On May 18, 2021, 2,379 ballots were cast representing 26.1% turnout, with Ian Rowe (1,335 votes) and Michael Owen-Michaane (1,155 votes) winning two seats in a five-candidate race, as reported by the Pelham Examiner. On May 17, 2022, Will Treves (1,329), Jackie De Angelis (1,251), and Natalie Marrero (1,205) won three seats in a six-candidate race, according to the Pelham Examiner. On May 16, 2023, first-time candidates Annemarie Garcia and Sidney Burke won two seats. On May 21, 2024, Kathryn Cohen (1,138) and Darra Gordon (1,130) defeated two incumbents for the two available seats, as reported by the Pelham Examiner. On May 19, 2026, 1,107 ballots were cast, with Annemarie Garcia (708) and Sidney Burke (674) re-elected over Lisa Martino Alves (591) for two seats, according to the Pelham Examiner. No 2025 board election was identified in the available research data. Every election in the dataset was contested, and the 2024 cycle resulted in the defeat of two sitting incumbents by challengers.

The district's cabinet includes Dr. Claire Comerford as Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, Dr. Trisha Nugent Fitzgerald as Executive Director for HR and Leadership, Traci Holtz as Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Personnel Services, Jim Hricay as Assistant Superintendent for Business, and Alex Wolff as Director of Communications.

Three bargaining units represent district employees: the Pelham Teachers Association, the Pelham Administrators Association, and the Pelham Union Free School District Employees Unit, CSEA Local 1000. A current negotiation line was identified as of July 25, 2026, though this information is based on a single source. Specific contract expiry dates for the respective units are not identified in the available research data. The Pelham Teachers Association maintains a public web presence.

No work stoppage history was identified in the available research data for the district.

No current state intervention was identified. Pelham UFSD is not listed among districts with state monitors and does not appear in the Comptroller's fiscal stress designations for FY2024-25.

Two material litigation matters are pending. First, tax-certiorari proceedings were disclosed as pending in contingencies as of the June 30, 2025 fiscal year-end. Tax-certiorari proceedings in New York allow property owners to challenge their property tax assessments, and successful challenges can require the taxing jurisdiction, including school districts, to refund a portion of previously collected property taxes. Audited financial statements issued on September 24, 2025 noted undetermined potential refunds related to these proceedings. The audit stated the amount could not be determined. Adverse assessment changes could require the district to pay refunds. Second, three private-school tuition-reimbursement actions were disclosed as of the June 30, 2025 fiscal year-end. The September 24, 2025 audit reported a potential liability of $457,000, with the outcome not predictable at issuance. Both matters are officially confirmed as pending; the auditor made no prediction of outcome for either.

The district's enrollment guidance lists contractual maximums of 23 students in Kindergarten and 28 in grades 1 through 5. No legal-compliance determination has been published; these figures represent district standards rather than a statutory cap.

Risks and watch items: the forward calendar

September 1, 2026: Policy 7316 enforcement and disparity report

The district's revised digital-device policy, adopted by the Board on June 25, 2025 to align with New York's distraction-free-schools requirements, includes a requirement for an annual enforcement and demographic-disparity report to the Board. This report is due September 1, 2026. It will provide the first formal accounting of device-policy enforcement and any statistically significant disparities, with required mitigation if disparities are found. The policy imposes a full-day personal device prohibition, provides designated storage, enumerates exceptions, and bars suspension solely for a device-only violation, according to the district's policy document.

May 2027: Annual budget vote and board election

Two board seats, currently held by Kathryn Cohen and Darra Gordon, expire in 2027. The district's annual budget vote and board election are expected in May 2027, though specific dates have not yet been scheduled. The 2026-27 budget, approved by voters on May 19, 2026, totaled $98,260,000 in appropriations with a 2.05% budget increase and a 3.72% tax levy increase, the district reports, according to the Pelham Examiner.

June 2027: Superintendent contract renewal window

Dr. Champ's current contract extension runs through June 2027, with annual one-year renewal options thereafter. The Board may exercise its renewal option at or before that time, based on the terms approved unanimously on September 11, 2024. The exact June day is not specified in the available records.

Pending: Tax-certiorari proceedings

Tax-certiorari proceedings were disclosed as pending in the district's contingencies as of the June 30, 2025 fiscal year-end. Audited financial statements issued September 24, 2025 noted that potential refund amounts could not be determined. No court date or resolution timeline has been identified in the available research data. Adverse outcomes could require the district to pay refunds, the audit stated.

Pending: Private-school tuition-reimbursement actions

Three private-school tuition-reimbursement actions were disclosed as of the June 30, 2025 fiscal year-end. The September 24, 2025 audit reported a potential liability of $457,000. The auditor made no prediction of outcome. No court dates or resolution timelines have been identified in the available research data.

Ongoing: Siwanoy bond implementation

Following voter approval of infrastructure and Siwanoy improvements on May 20, 2025, the district posted a Siwanoy bond implementation update on January 14, 2026 and discussed next steps for the project. Additional implementation milestones are expected but not yet scheduled. Voters rejected Propositions 3 and 4 of the same bond referendum, which concerned a PMHS expansion and geothermal systems, as reported by the Pelham Examiner.

May 2028: Board seats expiring

Three board seats, currently held by Jackie De Angelis, Natalie Marrero, and Will Treves, expire in 2028. Elections for these seats are expected in May 2028 but are not yet scheduled.

May 2029: Board seats expiring

Two board seats, currently held by Sidney Burke and Annemarie S. Garcia, expire in 2029. Elections for these seats are expected in May 2029 but are not yet scheduled.

Spring 2027: Annual safety plan review

The District-Wide Safety and Emergency Management Plan underwent its annual update in spring 2026 following the safety team's review. The next annual review is expected in spring 2027 but is not yet scheduled. The plan outlines emergency roles, collaboration with local police, adoption steps, and required staff training.

Summer 2027: Annual Code of Conduct review

The Board held a public hearing on the 2026-27 Code of Conduct on July 2, 2026, and posted the 2026-27 Code of Conduct on its policies page. The next annual Code of Conduct review and public hearing are expected in summer 2027 but are not yet scheduled.

Surprising insights

Several findings in this report are likely to be unfamiliar even to parents who follow district affairs closely.

The Bronx enclave. The district educates students from approximately 35 houses located in the Bronx, within New York City, under an incoming tuition arrangement that has been in place since 1948. The New York City Department of Education pays tuition for these students to attend Pelham schools, according to the district's tuition-paying students page. This arrangement means the district's footprint extends beyond Westchester County into New York City, a fact that is not immediately apparent from the district's name or geographic description. The enclave is nominally served by the New York City Department of Education, but the practical arrangement routes its students to Pelham.

Hutchinson Elementary is the outlier on capacity. While Colonial and Siwanoy elementary schools were both over their functional capacity as of the September 2024 KG+D capacity study, and Prospect Hill faced a projected shortfall, Hutchinson Elementary School stood alone as the one elementary building with material excess capacity. Its functional capacity exceeded its projected maximum enrollment. This asymmetry within a four-school elementary system means that the district's capacity challenge is building-specific rather than uniform, and the district's response has been targeted construction at the over-capacity buildings rather than redrawing attendance zones to distribute enrollment more evenly.

The budget is balanced, but not structurally. The district's adopted budget for 2026-27 totals $98,260,000 and is formally balanced, according to the district's proposed budget documentation. However, the balancing mechanism relies on $1.23 million of appropriated fund balance together with reserve and other one-time sources. The district's own multi-year projection shows out-year budget gaps increasing across 2027-28 through 2029-30, indicating that recurring revenue is expected to fall short of recurring expenditures. A parent reading that the budget passed might not realize that the district is using non-recurring resources to close a gap that is projected to widen.

The middle school IB program is universal, not selective. Pelham Middle School offers the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme to all enrolled students. There is no separate application, entrance examination, or screening process. Every student who attends the middle school participates in the MYP curriculum by default. In many districts, IB programs at the middle school level function as honors tracks with admission gates. Here, the MYP is the instructional framework for the entire school, which removes a common mechanism by which students are sorted into different academic tiers.

Municipal and school district boundaries move independently. A change in the boundaries of the Village of Pelham, the Village of Pelham Manor, or the Town of Pelham would not automatically move the school district boundary. Municipal boundary changes and school district boundary changes are separate legal processes governed by different statutes. The school district boundary moves only through the Education Law Article 31 process, regardless of what happens to municipal lines. This means that a homeowner cannot assume that a municipal annexation or boundary adjustment would change which school district serves their address.

Best fit: who this district serves well

This section describes the educational and logistical needs the district's structure addresses, as well as needs it does not currently meet. It does not characterize who any family is.

A family seeking a self-contained K-12 pipeline. Pelham Union Free School District operates a complete kindergarten-through-grade-12 system within a single district. Students attend one of four elementary schools, then move together to Pelham Middle School for grades 6-8, and then to Pelham Memorial High School for grades 9-12. No portion of the district is tuitioned out to another district for any grade level. This means a family can expect all of their children to progress through the same secondary buildings without the disruption of transitioning to an external district for middle school or high school. The only external arrangement is the incoming tuition from a small Bronx enclave, which does not affect resident students' assignments.

A family valuing small secondary scale. With a single middle school and a single high school, the district's secondary enrollment is concentrated in two buildings. Pelham Memorial High School's projected maximum enrollment is 959 students, according to the September 2024 KG+D capacity study. This scale means that all district students in grades 9-12 attend the same building, and all district students in grades 6-8 attend the same building. A family for whom a smaller secondary environment is a priority would find that the district's structure inherently provides this, because there is no larger comprehensive high school and no smaller alternative within the district.

A student seeking advanced coursework at the high school level. Pelham Memorial High School offers Advanced Placement and college-level courses through dual-enrollment partnerships with Syracuse University Project Advance, the State University of New York, and Adelphi University. The district also offers a Science Research Program. AP proficiency data for 2023-24 shows reported results in AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, and AP Computer Science Principles. A student ready to pursue college-level work during high school has multiple pathways available, including AP exams and dual-enrollment credit.

A family seeking a universal IB framework at the middle school level. The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme at Pelham Middle School is the instructional framework for all enrolled students, not a selective track. A family that values the IB approach to middle school education would find that it is applied universally rather than gated by testing or application. No separate honors track is described at the middle school level in the available materials.

A family needing predictable secondary assignment. Because all four elementary attendance zones feed into the same middle school and the same high school, a family's choice of elementary zone does not create uncertainty about secondary placement. Every Pelham resident student follows the same secondary path regardless of which elementary school they attended.

What the district does not currently offer. The available source materials describe an International Baccalaureate offering only at the middle school level through the MYP. No International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is described for the high school. The district does not publish an intra-district transfer process for elementary schools, meaning families cannot request assignment to a different elementary building outside their geographic zone. The district does not offer unrestricted open enrollment at the elementary level. Free and reduced-price lunch data, Individualized Education Program counts, and English learner counts are all reported as missing in the available computed data, which means the scope of programming for students with disabilities, English learners, and economically disadvantaged students cannot be assessed from the public datasets reviewed. The district does not publish an analysis of destinations for departing students, so there is no official account of how many students leave for private schools, charter schools, or other districts. No long-run enrollment trend series is available on file, which means multi-year enrollment direction cannot be assessed from the data reviewed. Specific placement criteria for Grade 8 Algebra I are not detailed in available materials, and the screening instruments and thresholds used for elementary enrichment identification are not published in the sources reviewed.

Questions parents should ask

1. What is the projected construction timeline for the Siwanoy classroom expansion, and will it disrupt current students during the school day? Siwanoy was over functional capacity as of September 2024 and construction is underway. Ask the Siwanoy building principal or consult the district's bond project page.

2. How will the high school address its projected 68-seat shortfall before the bond-funded science room additions and cafeteria are complete? The KG+D study projected a maximum enrollment of 959 against a functional capacity of 891. Ask the superintendent or board of education.

3. What are the specific placement criteria for Grade 8 Algebra I, including any prerequisite coursework, testing thresholds, or teacher recommendation requirements? The available materials do not detail these criteria. Ask the Pelham Middle School math department chair or principal.

4. What is the district's plan for closing the projected out-year budget gaps in 2027-28 through 2029-30, and could those gaps affect class sizes or program offerings? The 2026-27 budget is balanced using $1.23 million in one-time sources. Ask the assistant superintendent for business or the board of education.

5. Has the board considered redistricting elementary attendance zones to redistribute enrollment from over-capacity buildings to Hutchinson, which has available capacity? The KG+D study recommended construction rather than boundary changes, but the asymmetry persists. Ask a board of education member at a public meeting.

6. What screening instruments and thresholds does the district use for elementary enrichment and gifted identification, and how frequently are they administered? These details are not published in available materials. Ask the director of teaching and learning or your child's elementary principal.

7. What are the per-course costs and credit-transfer policies for dual-enrollment courses through Syracuse University Project Advance, SUNY, and Adelphi University? These details are not published in available materials. Ask the Pelham Memorial High School guidance department.

8. If a family moves within the district to a different elementary attendance zone, can currently enrolled children remain at their current school? No written grandfathering policy was located in district sources. Ask the district registrar or assistant superintendent.

9. Does the district plan to offer an International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme at the high school level? Only the MYP is described for the middle school. Ask the high school principal or director of teaching and learning.

10. What is the maximum number of AP courses a student may take in a single year, and are there any caps on dual-enrollment credits? The available materials do not specify these limits. Ask the high school guidance department.

11. What is the current status of each 2025 capital improvement bond project, and are there any projected delays or cost overruns? The bond includes classroom expansions at Siwanoy and science-room and cafeteria additions at the high school. Ask the district's facilities committee or consult the bond page.

12. How does the district define and report its special education service continuum, and what specific programs are available at each building? IEP counts are missing from the computed data. Ask the director of special education or consult the district's special education programs page.

Scope, method, and sourcing notes

This report draws on multiple federal, state, and district-level data sources. Each source carries a specific vintage, and several categories of data are not available. This section names what is covered, what is not, and where the limitations lie.

Enrollment data comes from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) for the 2023-24 school year. The district's total enrollment was 2,838 students. Race and ethnicity data for that year is reported at the district level with counts and percentages for seven categories. Free and reduced-price lunch counts and rates are reported as missing. Individualized Education Program counts and English learner counts are also reported as missing. No long-run enrollment series is available on file, so a multi-year enrollment trend cannot be constructed from the data reviewed.

Financial data comes from the US Census Bureau Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) for FY2023. This source reports total revenue, total expenditures, current spending, current per-pupil spending, instructional per-pupil spending, and revenue mix by source. The district's adopted budget for 2026-27 and reserve information come from district-published budget documentation and the NYS Property Tax Report Card, which are self-reported by the district.

Graduation data on file is from the 2019-20 school year, sourced from EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate) via the Urban Institute Education Data API. The cohort size was 219 students. No graduation rate percentage is available in the computed data. This data is several years old and reflects a cohort that experienced pandemic-related disruption in the spring of their senior year. More recent graduation information may be available in the district's self-published high school profile, but it is not in the computed dataset.

Chronic absenteeism data comes from EDFacts Data Group 814 for the 2022-2023 school year. The chronic absenteeism rate was 9.7 percent for all students in the district. No subgroup breakdowns are available in the computed data. NYSED provides additional context on chronic absenteeism as part of its accountability framework.

Assessment data consists of 60 series structured to span from 2006 through 2025, sourced from NY state assessment data via a processed profile corpus. The historical years in the framework run from 2006 through 2017, but these years do not contain populated data points in the provided series. The only reported values available are for the 2023-24 school year, covering AP proficiency rates across multiple subjects and grade levels. No standard state assessment results for grades 3-8 (ELA and Mathematics) are included in the computed data. No Regents exam results are included. No subgroup breakdowns are available in the AP proficiency series. No participation rates are reported alongside proficiency rates.

Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) data comes from the US Department of Education for SY2021-22. This includes AP enrollment totals by race and sex, Algebra I enrollment data, suspension data, and gifted and talented data, aggregated across six school-level rows. Specific enrollment counts for Grade 8 Algebra I and detailed gifted programming enrollment are not provided in the available dataset.

School-level data is not available in the computed dataset. Enrollment, demographic, and assessment data are reported at the district level, not disaggregated by individual school. This means direct comparison of outcomes among the four elementary schools is not possible from the data on file. NYSED publishes school-level report cards through its report card system that could provide this comparison, but they are not incorporated into the computed data. The district's NYSED profile page and ESSA accountability report are available through the state data portal.

Data not available in any computed block includes: free and reduced-price lunch counts and rates, IEP counts and rates, English learner counts and rates, standard state assessment results for grades 3-8, Regents exam results, district-level growth scores, long-run enrollment series, child poverty data, and market or real estate figures at the district level. The district does not publish an analysis of destinations for departing students. Specific placement criteria for Grade 8 Algebra I, screening instruments for elementary enrichment, and cost and credit-transfer policies for dual-enrollment courses are not detailed in the available source materials.

District-published sources reviewed include budget documents, capacity studies, school profiles, course catalogs, board policies, and various web pages. These sources are self-reported by the district and are labeled as such where cited. The September 2024 KG+D capacity study and the 2023-24 Comprehensive Long Range Planning Study are district-commissioned documents. The 2025 capital improvement bond information comes from district-published pages.

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