Would you make a multimillion-dollar decision that would impact generations of people in your community without considering all of the factors involved? Some people right now seem to be doing just that.
Back in September, the Kearsarge Regional School Board where I live voted to “begin preparation for the closure of” two of its four elementary schools: Sutton Central in Sutton and Simonds in Warner. To scaffold the criteria for these decisions, over the summer the Board approved five key questions that it will consider when making facilities decisions about its schools, related to longevity, student outcomes, equity, tax impact and efficiency.
Notably absent from this list? The impact that closing elementary schools has on the communities they serve.
Unquestionably, closing an elementary school (let alone two!) in any school district is an immensely complicated decision. Besides the obvious factors of building maintenance and staffing costs, there are important issues to consider regarding student placement, transportation and class sizes, issues that should be carefully researched and understood to the fullest extent possible before a school board recommends closing a school.
However, while it seems obvious that a school board should of course consider these factors, it seems equally apparent that school boards should consider what happens to the greater community when a school closes — in both the town where the school is located, and the towns around it.
A research report posted on the Kearsarge School District Facilities website titled “Rural School Closures and Consolidation in New Hampshire” outlines these factors quite thoroughly, along with what we know about each one. The report of course notes that research from other towns and states will differ from Kearsarge’s situation depending on the time and location, but the patterns are quite clear, and they provide solid baselines from which to predict what would happen if Kearsarge was to close one or more of its schools:
- Property Values Go Down: The report cites examples from other states where home prices fell 6.8%, 9.9% and even as high as 25% in one Michigan study.
- Actual Cost Savings are Less Than Expected: In terms of how much people’s taxes would actually go down after a school closes, “evidence consistently shows net savings are smaller than expected,” as staff are reassigned and school districts underestimate transportation and costs for the receiving school. (The report notes that this scenario has a High fit to rural NH.)
- Jobs Are Lost: The report notes that jobs are eliminated from both school staff reductions and in surrounding businesses through a decline in local economic activity.
- Worse Outcomes for Affected Students: One Texas study cited in the report found that students whose schools closed scored lower on standardized tests and had lower high school graduation rates, lower college attendance and lower earnings as adults.
- Transportation: “Longer rides reduce homework, extracurricular, and part-time work time for rural students,” according to the report, which cites increased transportation costs per student in rural school mergers in Vermont. (As of this writing, Kearsarge has not yet determined the increased transportation costs for its school consolidation plan.)
- Loss of Community and Social Culture: Multiple studies have cited decreased community involvement due to the loss of “social infrastructure where neighbors could meet and build community” after a school closes. In short, not having a local school means fewer people participating in community activities. (The report also notes that this scenario has a high fit to rural NH.)
These factors are real, backed up by research and facts, and have sound application for rural New Hampshire communities, including Kearsarge.
Further, these impacts affect not just the towns whose schools would close, but the towns surrounding them as well. Kearsarge is a seven-town district where families in one town work, shop, maintain social connections, and even relocate to other towns in the district to keep their children in the school system. The towns of Bradford, Newbury, New London, Springfield, Sutton, Warner and Wilmot make up a regional social and economic ecosystem, and what happens in one of these towns impacts the others around it.
These community impacts are real, and are not to be dismissed as “emotional” or “speculative” as some have tried to do. Rather, school boards across New Hampshire would do well to consider the impacts cited in the Kearsarge report when considering to close schools rather than pretending they’re not real or choosing to focus only on education, staffing and taxes. Such avoidance is not only irresponsible, but sends a message that the Board either doesn’t care about these community impacts, hasn’t done its homework in researching them, or both.
Ian Rogers lives in Warner.