CLAREMONT — The air was cool and the sky was clear on Thursday morning as parents Jason and Sarah Kiernan, of Croydon, dropped off their 6-year-old son, Grant, at Maple Avenue Elementary on his first day of first grade.
Grant has cerebral palsy, so the Kiernans enrolled him at Maple Avenue Elementary in Claremont, as Croydon Village School didn’t offer the necessary accommodations.
Now, as the future of Maple Avenue Elementary and other Claremont schools grows uncertain during a district-wide financial crisis, the Kiernans are scrambling to look into other options for Grant.
“I’m hoping they can figure it out,” Sarah said in an interview in the school’s parking lot.
Also on Thursday, the School District announced the SAU 6 School Board has placed Superintendent Chris Pratt on “non-disciplinary, paid administrative leave” amid the crisis. With Pratt on leave, Human Resources Director Patrick O’Hearn will serve as temporary acting superintendent, the district’s news release said.
Pratt’s leave comes after SAU 6 Business Administrator Mary Henry was placed on paid leave last week. The board appointed Claremont Comptroller Matthew Angell to serve as interim business administrator, according to an Aug. 22 news release from the district.
Earlier this month, Claremont School Board Chairwoman Heather Whitney announced that the district was facing a deficit between $1 million and $5 million for the 2024-2025 school year due to long-term mismanagement.
The deficit comes on top of shortfalls for previous school years and as additional audits are ongoing, which may worsen the district’s financial outlook.
“I’m disappointed that the members of our board have failed us,” Claremont resident Krista Wilson said in an interview on Thursday. Wilson’s daughters Stella and Eleanor McClay are students at Maple Avenue.
“It’s important that these kids get the best education possible,” she said.
Although schools were able to open their doors as planned this week, it’s unclear how long they will be able to operate, Whitney told families last Wednesday.
To help curb costs, the district canceled the contracts of 19 new hires including teachers and paraprofessionals.
While the decision eliminated roughly $1.8 million in expenses, it also has led to larger class sizes. At Maple Avenue Elementary, the ratio of students to teachers during the 2024-2025 school year was nearly 17 to one, said Mark Blount, the school’s principal, in an interview on Thursday morning.
This year, third and fifth grade classes, which are among the largest at Maple Avenue, have about 25 students to one teacher, plus special educators.
Now in his fourth year as principal at Maple Avenue, which serves about 250 students, Blount has worked in education for almost four decades. He said he’s never seen a financial crisis like the one unfolding in the Claremont district.
But despite the precarious situation, he’s “staying very positive.”
“We’re here for the kids,” he said.
Stevens High School students arriving for their first day also voiced concerns about what the state of their education could look like going forward, including whether they would have to resort to virtual classes.
“I would not want to do online learning,” said 14-year-old Aaliyah Litchfield.
Virtual classes are not currently being discussed as an option going forward, Assistant Superintendent Michael Koski said. He declined to speak to alternative plans for the schools’ future, saying the plan is to keep the schools open.
Matt Cook, a parent who lives down the street from Maple Elementary, said he worries that his daughter Olivia, who is entering fourth grade and has an Individualized Education Plan, or IEP, won’t get the support she needs given the larger class sizes and cuts to incoming staff.
“There’s so much uncertainty,” he said. “There’s school today, but will there be school tomorrow?”