Ashby Elementary School served our town for more than seventy years. In June 2025, after a closely divided vote by the North Middlesex Regional School Committee, the building closed its doors. Families across Ashby, Townsend, Pepperell, and Fitchburg suddenly found themselves looking further from home for the kind of close-knit, community-based education a small town used to provide.

But a building with seventy years of learning in its walls is not easily quieted. A group of neighbors — librarians, parents, educators, and longtime community members — began asking a simple question: what if we brought a school back?

Not the same school. Something new. Something built for how children actually learn — with time outdoors, room to play, and pacing that respects each child as an individual. Something inspired by the proven success of Finnish education, where well-being and academic excellence go hand in hand.

That question became a plan. The plan became a charter application. And the charter application is becoming Ashby Evergreen Charter School — a tuition-free public charter school, planned to open in Fall 2027, serving Ashby, Townsend, Pepperell, and Fitchburg.

We’re not looking backward at what was lost. We’re looking forward to what comes next. There is a Finnish word for that kind of forward motion in the face of setbacks: sisu. Quiet determination. The decision to keep building, together.

We invite you to build it with us.