Wealthy Couple Invests in Boston Public Schools

“You’re crazy,” friends and strangers tell Pam Trefler. Why on earth, they ask, would she give more than $6 million to Boston’s struggling public schools?

The answer comes easily for Trefler, who once dreamed of being a teacher but whose life recently took a far more lucrative turn.

Public schools need help if they are going to succeed, she says, and that places responsibility on those who can afford to assist.

“I want to help change perceptions that urban schools are a big black hole and nobody in their right mind would donate money,” she said.

Pam and Alan Trefler didn’t always have the kind of fortune that permits such largess. Each was successful in business--she in investment banking and he in his own computer software firm called Pegasystems. But when Pegasystems went public three years ago, the Boston couple became multimillionaires.

Pam Trefler is 47; Alan is 44. With no children of their own, they created a foundation to fund some of the city’s most beleaguered public schools. They have made a $1-million donation to each of three city high schools, plus several other six-figure donations.

Involvement Extends Beyond Donations

Both Treflers are products of public education, and both remain strong supporters of it. But the foundation is mostly Pam’s baby, and she does far more than write big checks.

She listens to teachers and administrators to learn what they need. She follows the money to ensure it does what’s intended. She mentors students. And she teaches as an assistant one day a week at Dorchester High School, which received the couple’s first $1-million grant one year ago.

“Active giving,” she calls it.

“I really believe Pam has given us all hope,” said John Palmieri, a social studies teacher at Dorchester High.

Pam Trefler majored in education at Iowa State University in the 1970s but dropped out to get married. That marriage didn’t last (Alan is her third husband), but her interest in education never left her.

She started working in the investment world, succeeding as a specialist in large-ticket, asset-based financing for hard-to-finance companies.

After working 15 years, she returned to college part-time for her elusive degree. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston in 1992 with an English degree, then went on to Harvard for a master’s in education. It was there that she was assigned to student-teaching at Dorchester High School.

The Treflers’ first donation, 2 1/2 years ago, was $100,000 for a small school-within-a-school at Dorchester High.

Pam Trefler liked how the school used her donation. But she hadn’t planned to do more until one year ago, when the school of 1,000 students was threatened with a loss of accreditation. In less than two weeks, the foundation devised a restructuring plan with the help of the education department at University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Her work with underfinanced companies prepared her for investing in city schools. With a confident style and take-no-prisoners attitude, she still sounds the businesswoman, peppering her sentences with words like “leverage” and “coming to the table.”

“I have a lot of experience in getting things done,” she said.

Standing in a Dorchester classroom one school day this spring, she looked the part of a teacher, though with a few upgrades. Her white blouse was Armani, her brown pants perfectly tailored, her short blond hair well-coiffed.

The $1-million grant to Dorchester worked so well that she recently decided to give more--$1 million each to the city’s Madison Park and East Boston high schools.

For all her boosterism, Trefler confides that if she had children, she wouldn’t send them to a Boston public high school, with the exception of Boston Latin, the city’s most prestigious exam school.

“I hate to say that,” she said. “My goal for the Boston public schools is to get them in a condition where I wouldn’t hesitate.”

Making Connections With Students

Trefler has made donations to students she has mentored. When one girl got into Spelman College in Atlanta last year, Trefler bought her several new dresses, a bathing suit and luggage.

This spring, she split the cost of a $175 prom dress with Beth MacDonald, the Dorchester High senior she mentored this year.

MacDonald, class valedictorian, was chosen by teachers to receive a four-year, Trefler-funded scholarship to the college of her choice.

MacDonald sees Trefler as her knight in shining armor, and not just because of the money. After Trefler took her on a college tour and encouraged her to set her sights high, she applied to Harvard, where she was put on the waiting list.

“She doesn’t act like she’s rich,” said MacDonald, 17, who plans to attend Boston College in the fall. “She’s the most down-to-earth person I know.”