At an educational crossroads, Pittsfield debates future of schools amid funding challenges

As Pittsfield freshman Braiden Elliot’s team suffered a blowout loss to an ascendant private school opponent away from their home court, town residents gathered in the cafeteria back home to discuss whether the students might ultimately lose their high school too.

For at least a generation, the future of Pittsfield’s schools has loomed over residents in this small town of 4,000 residents. The Elliots talk about it all the time.

The question of whether to close the high school — which was raised anew by a warrant article submitted by residents this year — is a simple one for Elliot.

He’s played sports with the same group of kids since elementary school, and feels pride in wearing “Pitt” across his chest.

“It’s really good to represent this for the small community,” he said following his team’s 72-38 loss to Concord Christian Academy.

A plaintiff in the original 1993 school funding lawsuit, Pittsfield struggles more than most communities amid the state’s property tax-based education funding model with the calculus on providing a quality education without pricing out its residents. Over the years, its high school enrollment has dwindled and students’ test scores are comparatively low.

But what to do is not obvious. Closing the high school and sending its 137 students elsewhere would likely lead to more academic opportunities for them, but it wouldn’t necessarily save the district money, a 2021 study found.

Despite how recently the district conducted that study, Devin Funk, a mother of a four-year-old and seven-year-old, said the topic is worth revisiting. She doesn’t want her daughters to go to Pittsfield schools, citing the district’s poor scores on the school rating site Niche.

“It’s not rated very highly and it’s not going to get any better because no one wants to put money into it,” said Funk, who led the effort to gather signatures for her petition warrant article. “If you don’t want to put money into the schools, then we have to look for other options.”

Funk’s eldest daughter currently attends Strong Foundations Charter School in Pembroke. She ultimately wants her children to attend high school at Coe-Brown, a public academy in Northwood with high test scores and more extracurricular activities than Pittsfield can afford to offer.

At the school deliberative session on Thursday where Funk presented her warrant article, the mood among the several dozen residents gathered around low-rise cafeteria tables was one of exhaustion and powerlessness. Though the school board proposed a budget for next year that is lower than this year’s — a move practically unheard of — some residents still tried unsuccessfully to reduce it by 10 percent.

There was a realization, too, that the financial headwinds Pittsfield faces will only get worse. As the district debates its future, state representatives prepare to vote on a universal open enrollment law that would allow students to enroll in any school in the state at their home district’s expense. In Pittsfield, which is already on the hook for over $200,000 in tuition to Prospect Mountain High School, the policy could deal a seismic blow.

“You are killing us,” Pittsfield resident Cleon Riel said of the effort by Republican lawmakers to adopt open enrollment. “And to be very honest with you, that’s the plan.”

As at many education gatherings these days, residents said the solution to Pittsfield’s challenges lay at the state level, not the local level. Pittsfield’s lone state representative who lives in the town, Clayton Wood, was not present to respond.

On Thursday, residents largely opposed the Funk-led warrant article, though they supported a more open-ended measure that would task a committee with studying the future of the district. Residents will vote on both warrants, in addition to the operating budget, in March.

Back on the gleaming Concord Christian hardwood, Elliot’s mother, Autumn, said she agrees with her son about the importance of maintaining the high school. She likes the close connection between his educational environment and the community where they live. The prospect of her son having to move schools, without knowing the teachers, administrators, the transportation situation, the school culture, was too much to fathom.

“The outcome of the property taxes that everybody’s paying is going to go up regardless,” she said. “Either way they’re going to have to pay tuition for that.”

Prior to the game, Pittsfield coach and athletic director Jay Darrah said he just wanted his team to focus on playing basketball. But as a former student, parent in the district, taxpayer and a cornerstone of Pittsfield’s operations for the past twenty years, he didn’t shy away from voicing his opinion.

“Our school is more than a building. It is where our community comes together,” he said.

Extracurricular activities, including theater and sports and everything in between make it a community gathering space that builds pride, connection and identity, he said.

He believes that if the school were to close, the students would lose the personalized education and character-building accountability that the small school can give. He also worried it could prompt young families to simply move elsewhere, leading to the loss of traditions and the erosion of community.

“Closing the high school would weaken the foundation of Pittsfield,” Darrah said.