CLAREMONT — The good news from Monday’s School Board meeting is that Claremont schools will open Thursday and the high school sports season will get underway on schedule on Friday.
A week after the School Board left residents wondering if there will be school or sports this year and for how long because of a multi-million dollar budget deficit, Monday’s meeting brought a little more clarity to the situation, though not better financial news.
“We will open on time,” Assistant Superintendent Mike Koski said. “Students will be in the classroom. Teachers will be in the classroom and curriculum and programs will remain the same.”
Koski qualified his statements, adding that class sizes will be larger and there will be some mixing of grades. “Everybody will be working harder,” he said.
Although the board voted on Monday to make significant budget cuts in academics, athletics and the arts, the meeting ended on a slightly more encouraging note for high school athletes.
Conversation during the meeting led members of the public to believe that the district would have to raise $500,000 to start fall sports. But near the end of the two and a half hour meeting, just before the board voted on the cuts, Stevens Athletic Director Doug Beaupre painted a more optimistic picture and said teams would begin play this week as scheduled.
The board took two votes at the end of the meeting with very little discussion.
The first was a 5-1 vote, Loren Howard voted no, to eliminate 20 positions throughout the district including custodians, secretaries and other staff, though no teachers. Last week, the board voted not to ratify contracts for 20 new teachers. Combined, the cuts are projected to save about $3 million.
The second vote, 4-2 with Howard and Frank Sprague voting no, eliminated all extracurricular activities, including art, theater and music in addition to sports.
With a few residents yelling “don’t do it,” two board members said they were backed into a corner by the district’s financial crisis.
“This is the only way we can have our schools operating,” board member Arlene Hawkins said. “This is not easy for any of us.”
Initially, district officials said school sports would be contingent on fundraising.
“If people don’t come forward with money there is not going to be fall sports, winter sports or spring sports,” school district attorney James O’Shaughnessy said. “This is dire. There is not enough money right now for the district to pay its obligations.”
“I can only give a number for the entire year,” said Matt Angell, the district’s comptroller and acting business administrator. “We need about a half million dollars.”
But Beaupre said the district has enough money to start the fall season.
“We have money in our account and we certainly can start the season and get through a month, month and a half,” Beaupre said.
In order to complete the fall season and pay the “bare minimum,” such as officials’ salaries and stipends for coaches, Beaupre estimated the district needs to raise about $80,000. For the full year, he put the figure at $187,000.
“Hopefully the fundraising we are talking about will kick in and we can finish the year,” Beaupre said. “I’m optimistic we can come up with the bare minimum before the end of the fall season. There are a lot of coaches, and the community and kids who are working on this.”
Beaupre said he is also working on waiver forms that will allow parents and others to drive athletes to games, which will eliminate transportation costs.
Board member Michael Petrin, who will head up a fundraising committee, expressed a similar view.
“I do feel like we are out of options,” Petrin said before hundreds seated in the gym. “I think we are stuck without another way forward.”
Some residents speaking during the public comment period appeared confident that fundraising for sports and other activities could be successful, but they were leery of handing the money over to an administration that caused the deficit.
“We are not going to let you decide how to spend it. That is how we got into this,” Bradley Moulton said. “If you think you are getting a blank check, you are missing the point.”
A meeting on fundraising is supposed to take place Wednesday but no details were given on the time or location.
With several people asking how big the deficit is, Angell said he expects to have that number in about a month. He also said at one point the district is using money from the current fiscal year to pay bills from the previous three years.
At the start of the meeting, Angell said district officials are close to obtaining a loan from Claremont Savings Bank that will allow the district to operate at least until March. The board plans to hold a public hearing and a vote next week on the loan amount.
O’Shaughnessy laid out the steps being taken to address the deficit. The first, he said, are the cuts to make operational expenses as minimal as possible.
“That is the smartest and most prudent step to take,” O’Shaughnessy said, adding that it will help shrink the deficit.
The second step, which will have to be considered later this year, is how to eliminate the deficit and be sure it does not happen again next year.
“I want to be clear to everybody in the room,” O’Shaughnessy said. “No one is coming to save you from this problem. This is a deficit that is a taxpayer responsibility. Claremont taxpayers. It can’t be ignored. There is really no way to escape it.”
Many residents were critical of where the cuts were made and said placing the burden on students was wrong.
“These kids should not be suffering because of adults,” said Cynthia Lembke, the parent of an athlete at Stevens. “It is not fair. You are going to have so many devastated athletes, drama students and art students. Administrators should have been where the cuts were made first,” she said to loud cheers.
Resident Jason Benware, a former School Board member, urged the audience to rein in its anger and channel it toward something more productive for the students. Spending time being upset at the board is not helping the students.
“They are upset as well. We are a very strong community, a community that cares about our children,” said Benware, the parent of a Stevens senior. “I’m very confident if we work together and put our all into fundraising that we can make athletics and extracurricular activities work for our kids.”
SAU 6 Superintendent Chris Pratt was again not in attendance Monday. The SAU 6 board was scheduled to meet in a nonpublic session Tuesday evening to discuss personnel.
Board member Candace Crawford was not at Monday’s meeting. In an email Tuesday morning, Sprague said he was going to resign from the board on Wednesday, though he gave no reason for his decision.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com