Projected maintenance costs inspire sticker shock as Kearsarge Regional School District explores elementary consolidation

Spencer Wyand couldn’t believe the cost the Kearsarge Regional School District would have to shoulder for building repairs.

In Bradford, where he resides, immediate repairs to the Kearsarge Elementary School are estimated at $3 million. For Simonds Elementary School and Sutton Central Elementary School, both of which the district is considering shuttering, repairs would cost $3 million and $2 million, respectively.

These numbers stunned a full room of residents gathered for a town hall in Newbury on Wednesday, leaving many weighing consolidation and the cost to keep Simonds and Sutton Central open.

“It’s just alarming, the amount of money that’s needed for these schools,” Wyand said. “Education is an important thing, but there has to be some form of cost analysis and cost-benefit. What is the point of having schools if not a single person can afford to live in the area where the schools are?”

The forum, hosted by volunteer organization Friends of Newbury, presented figures from a 2025 analysis conducted by Lavalle Brensinger Architects.

Scott Warde is a member of the district’s Facilities B Committee, which handles long-term capital investments and oversaw the Lavalle Brensinger study. Its findings concluded that, in order to maintain the district’s seven schools for the next four years, Kearsarge Regional would need to invest $60 million.

Of that sum, an estimated $26 million would go towards critical repairs, such as leaking roofs, furnace replacements and the installation of sprinkler systems.

“The school board is working on what they think are the best options. There are other people that have other ideas of what those options should be,” Warde said. “It’s time to put our big boy pants on and talk about how we’re going to do this, because $60 million is a lot of money for small towns.”

Decades of neglect of infrastructure needs and rising property taxes in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the decisive moment the district finds itself in now, according to Warde.

The district could take on a bond to cope with these costs, which residents across the district’s seven towns would vote on at their town meetings in March. A $2 million bond related to the construction of Kearsarge Regional Middle School is expiring this year.

Tanya McIntire recently inherited a cottage in Newbury and said she’s trying to balance preserving the home with paying property taxes. With a majority of Newbury’s property taxes going towards schools, she said consolidation might be an avenue for easing the tax burden on property owners.

“I understand the small town school, but it sounds like these particular facilities are in such need of repair that maybe perhaps it is a good thing to do,” McIntire said.

District enrollment has been on the decline, and some early-elementary classes have fewer than 10 students. The closure of Simonds and Sutton Central could result in at least $9.5 million in savings, according to the study.

If the fifth grade were to move to the middle school, then empty classrooms at Bradford Elementary School and New London Elementary School could be freed up to make way for the Simonds and Sutton Central students, Warde suggested. Such a move would also increase class sizes to between 17 and 23 students.

Abigail Strauss, of Warner, wasn’t swayed by these arguments.

The mother of a soon-to-be kindergartener, Strauss said she has advocated for the two schools to stay open in order to attract young families, like hers, to move to the area. She said the plan seems “short-sighted” and would heavily impact Warner’s local economy.

“I’m not convinced that consolidation will save all seven towns any money, and I’m even more convinced of that after this presentation,” she said. “I think that if we try to consolidate, we’re going to end up paying more […] and it’s not going to fix all the problems.”

Newbury resident Bryan Ricupero, a librarian at Dartmouth College, said he was also in favor of keeping both schools. Education is crucial to him.

“I think over the course of recent history, there’s been a concerted effort to, on behalf of the public sector, convince us that our motivation needs to be to get as much as we can for ourselves. I don’t think that’s human nature,” he said. “I think that’s something we’ve been conditioned to do, and I think things like public education are really essential to mitigating that.”

The district’s school board directed Superintendent Michael Besstte to prepare for a summer 2028 implementation if consolidation were to go forward. A successful citizen petition advocating for one or both closures could also accelerate the process, allowing the schools to close as soon as the end of the coming school year.

That option was made possible by House Bill 1374, which goes into effect on Oct. 8. The new law requires that voters in all towns served by a school district vote on the closure of schools. Irrespective of the result of any such referendum, the town where that school is located can vote on a separate warrant article to keep it open.

Sen. Dan Innis, of Bradford, voted in favor of the bill.