NORTHFIELD — There will be 33 School Choice seats open at Pioneer Valley Regional School for the 2023-2024 school year, but discussion will continue around the Pioneer Valley Regional School District’s two elementary schools.

The School Committee voted Thursday evening to approve the administration’s recommendation of 33 School Choice seats — five for seventh and eighth grade, 10 for ninth and 10th grades and three for 11th grade — but held off on considering the administration’s recommendation of zero School Choice seats for Northfield and Bernardston elementary schools, following a discussion focused on the new Warwick School District and sibling preference.

Superintendent Patricia Kinsella said staff at the elementary schools cited a need to focus on the current students enrolled in their schools and that School Choice kids at the elementary level often have a “greater level of academic and social support need” than students who live in the district’s member towns.

“In an elementary classroom, where the teacher is with the kids all day, it can almost feel like the need is a bit intensified because the student is in that single population all day long,” Kinsella said. “Up here [at Pioneer], given that students move around to different classes, that need might be dispersed.”

The recommendation continues a trend from last year in cutting down on School Choice seats at the district’s elementary schools. In March 2022, the School Committee cut the district’s School Choice seats from 88 to 45, with the vast majority of those cuts aimed at the elementary level due to children’s pandemic-related needs.

While the administration’s suggestion for Pioneer’s School Choice seats generated little discussion — except to talk about why only 10 seats were recommended for its small freshman class — the recommendation to have zero elementary school seats sparked a discussion about Warwick’s students and currently enrolled students’ siblings.

With Warwick set to open its own independent school district in the fall, School Committee member Nathan Swartz asked if the town’s students who are currently enrolled at Northfield Elementary School can return.

Kinsella replied that there is an ongoing conversation with the Warwick School Committee about accepting a “very small number of grade six students” at Northfield Elementary School.

“We are in conversation with the Warwick School Committee about a possible tuition agreement,” she said. “We are in the early stages and it will have to be something that’s School Committee approved.”

Warwick School Committee Chair and Pioneer School Committee member Alan Genovese emphasized that there are no guarantees that Warwick students can return to Northfield in the current moment.

“We would like that to happen … but I’m looking at this from both perspectives,” Genovese said. “I don’t want parents to feel there’s an assumption that’s going to happen for sure.”

He noted this situation is an “anomaly” and research shows that having sixth graders go from Northfield to Warwick, and then returning to Pioneer in seventh grade, could cause a bit of whiplash.

“At that grade, if you make that transfer from one school to another, kids regress,” Genovese said.

School Committee member Melissa Gerry said School Choice often brings in some “really outstanding families” and those that choose to enroll their kids in younger grades like kindergarten are making a long-term decision.

“Oftentimes, at the upper level, it’s a knee-jerk reaction. … That’s not necessarily the case in the lower grades,” Gerry said.

Gerry added this may also affect families who are looking to enroll a second student in the district, however, Kinsella said there is sibling preference and she will need to “re-research” when that process kicks in.

The School Committee agreed to table the discussion on elementary school seats, but approved the 33 School Choice slots for Pioneer. The committee has until June 1 to make a decision.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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