CLAREMONT — Bluff Elementary School will close next month and its students and staff will be divided between the city’s two other elementary schools under a plan the School Board approved Wednesday.
Each class in grades K-5 will remain intact along with their teacher and paraprofessionals as they make the move to either the Maple Avenue or Disnard schools.
The logistics for moving and setting up transportation routes are still being worked out, but parents will be informed by Oct. 10, school officials said. The first day of the new configuration is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 20.
The plan’s approval is another step in the district’s efforts to address a financial crisis that is coupled with severe staffing shortages. There have already been 12 resignations at elementary level for the current fiscal year and more budget cuts are expected.
No Bluff position, including the principal, will be cut in the school closing and all staff will be reassigned under the plan, proposed by the district’s elementary school principals and approved in a 4-1 vote. Loren Howard, who preferred a proposal that kept Bluff open, was the lone dissenter. Chairwoman Heather Whitney was absent.
Many in the audience at Wednesday’s meeting at Stevens High School seemed to support an alternative plan back by Howard that also was presented by the principals. It would have kept Bluff open while addressing the need for special education staffing.
Howard’s motion to approve that proposal did not receive a second from another board member.
Just weeks before school started in August, school officials acknowledged publicly a district deficit of as much as $5 million — the precise amount still hasn’t been announced — along with a cash flow crisis.
The fallout led to significant budget cuts, including 40 positions of which 19 were new teachers, and concerns about whether schools could open on time. Business Administrator Mary Henry and Superintendent of Schools Chris Pratt were also placed on administrative leave. Pratt resigned last week.
Ultimately, schools opened as scheduled, but the district is still struggling to straighten out its finances and ensure sufficient staff.
Teachers ask to keep school open
A couple of weeks ago, Bluff Principal Dale Chenette proposed to close the school. With just one special education teacher for 46 students, it could not provide services as required by law.
An initial plan presented last week by the SAU 6 administration recommended a school consolidation of the K-5 system with grades K-2 at Disnard and 3-5 at Maple Avenue. It lacked support by residents. At the same meeting, the community learned about the “principals’ plan,” called a “softer approach.” Board members gave the principals another week to develop the plan.
The resignation of three employees in the district’s transportation department led school officials to conclude that the broader K-5 consolidation plan presented last week was not viable at this time, said Disnard Principal Melissa Lewis, who led a presentation on Wednesday.
Many in attendance at the meeting spoke in support of the plan that would have kept Bluff open while providing special education services with a combination of staff from Bluff, Disnard and Maple Avenue or through contracted services.
Moving the children at this time, proponents said, will be upsetting and detrimental to them and difficult teachers so they asked that it be delayed.
Bluff teacher Tammy Yates, president of the union that represents the district’s teachers, described students as “scared.”
“They are afraid of the uncertainty that has been created,” Yates said.
Bluff teacher Jean Allen said she wants to do the best she can for her students, but relocating asks a lot of teachers and kids.
“It is just untenable,” said Allen. “Let’s just keep the school open for the year so we can be the very best we can be for one last year and give it everything we got, and plan for a proper reconfiguration.”
Concerns about ‘operational issues’
Others in attendance, including Matt Angell, the district’s comptroller and acting business administrator, said closing Bluff now was the best option to ensure schools remain open all year.
“I can see a path forward financially,” said Angell, who was hired by the district last month to help get the finances in order.
On Wednesday, Angell said he expects to have a final deficit figure early next week.
“The only problem I see is a path going forward operationally,” he said. “What (board members and principals) are trying to do is address the operational issues.”
For example, Angell said, administrators likely will run into problems keeping schools staffed when flu season and winter weather arrive. “That is what I mean by operational issues.”
The majority of the board agreed with Angell and argued closing Bluff was the best way to ensure schools stay open and the district provides all the special education services required by law.
Board member Arlene Hawkins noted that with Bluff closed, there will be more available staff present to cover classes if a teacher or teachers are out.
“When an adult is sick and no one is there, that is extremely unsettling for children,” Hawkins said. “In a just different geographic location there will be adults who can help cover classes, who can continue teaching for those children because they are somewhat available, more so than they are right now.”
Hawkins also said she had heard that teachers are “stressed” and uncertain about their jobs. She believes the plan to close Bluff will give teachers more certainty going forward about their jobs and class sizes.
“Come winter they will be OK, and our kids will be OK,” said Hawkins, who was joined by Mike Petrin, Candace Crawford and William Madden in voting to close Bluff.
The path forward
Under the approved plan, which was posted to the SAU 6 website, Bluff students in grades K-3 would move to Maple Avenue and grades 4 and 5 would go to Disnard.
The two Bluff kindergarten classes would be combined into one with 20 students and two teachers. The two, third grade classes would also be combined with a class size of 27. The other grades have one class.
All Bluff students will be moving to open classrooms in the other two schools.
Lewis stressed that all Bluff teachers, students and paraprofessionals would remain together.
“It is important to us that the Bluff students stay with the people they are currently working with and have gotten to know,” Lewis said.
Though there was a difference of opinion among residents of the best plan, there was nothing but praise for the principals for the comprehensive proposal that addressed many of the questions last week’s proposal failed to consider.
“These people have done their work and shown their work,” resident Ray Menard said to the board and administration. “I suggest you go with what they have done.”