‘No good solution’: Kearsarge school district faces tough decisions on how to confront its costs

Second and third graders sat on a rug inside Sutton Central School, listening to their teacher read aloud from the picture book, ‘The Invisible Boy.’

They eagerly answered questions about the book, recognizing that the boy in the story was getting excluded and that, unlike the other kids, he was colored gray in the illustrations.

Down the hall, a fleet of bicycles lined the wall of the school’s cafetorium as part of the physical education class unit on bike riding.

From the inside, it is hard to tell that the school is facing closure. But outside, signs pleading “Save Kearsarge Schools” dot nearby yards as the school district considers consolidating to cut spending.

Earlier this year, projected maintenance costs sent shock waves through the school district. Concerns surrounding immediate needs and critical repairs began in 2022, leading to a district-wide facilities review. The estimated $60 million in repairs, which will inevitably impact taxpayers, now leave heavy decisions ahead on how to move forward. 

Sutton Central and Simonds schools, in particular, are at risk of closing due to new state legislation and pressure from taxpayers. Families worry for the future of their children and for their communities, while educators try to set aside the underlying uncertainty for the sake of their young learners.

In Facebook comments, school board meetings and forums, residents across the district’s seven towns remain divided as they argue over the future of the two elementary schools.

“It’s a lot,” Simonds School Principal Tim Stokes said. “We dedicate large portions of every staff meeting this year to debriefing, talking about where we’re at, what’s happening next. And just trying desperately to think about other things, but it’s been a weight on everyone.”

Lisa Scolaro, principal of Sutton Central School, echoed a similar sentiment.

“Educators show up and do the best that they can every single day while what they’re hearing around them is, ‘You’re inefficient; you’re not worth preserving,” Scolaro said. “That’s the language they’re hearing, but if you walk in our building, that’s not what you’re going to see in our classrooms.”

Administrators are planning for all possibilities — school closures due to district-wide voting as a result of House Bill 1374, long-term consolidation recommendations set by the school board and a potential tax cap because of House Bill 1300, which Superintendent Michael Bessette said “will kill the school district.”

“In 34 years of the work, I’ve never seen so many issues come to a head at exactly the same time,” Bessette said.

Emergency planning and existing preparation

On Oct. 8, the district received a petition with 67 signatures, primarily from Newbury, New London and Bradford residents, asking to close Sutton Central School.

House Bill 1374, signed into law the same day, changed who gets to vote on closing a school within a cooperative school district, like Kearsarge. The bill allows a petition with at least 20 signatures to trigger a district-wide vote for a school closure.

Opponents of the bill say the change takes away a town’s ability to make the decision for itself and goes against the district’s original charter for voting. School board members have also said closures under HB 1374 don’t allow time for equitable planning.

“As a board member, regardless of my perspective on consolidation, I would never want it to happen this way,” said Patrick McGowan, the school board’s Warner representative.

The vote to decide on Sutton Central School is scheduled for Dec. 5. If voters decide to keep the school open in December, another petition can be filed immediately after.

Proponents argue that residents should have a say regarding the schools they fund with their taxes. Scott Warde, a Newbury resident, said he doesn’t believe the school board would consider consolidation without being forced.

“The House Bill kind of untied our hands so that we could do something,” Warde said. “The old charter had our hands tied where one town or two towns were controlling the effort. And there’s five other towns that pay for this, so we should have a say.”

The board is currently undergoing emergency planning for the closures of both Sutton Central and Simonds schools, in case a petition is brought forth for Simonds as well. In the case of closures, the board will plan to consolidate fifth graders into the middle school, send Simonds School students to the elementary school in Bradford and Sutton Central students to the school in New London.

At the same time, the board is continuing its discussion about the pressing needs across the district’s seven buildings. Of the estimated $60 million in maintenance costs, $35 million was deemed critical.

On Oct. 22, the school board voted on a three-elementary school configuration which would maintain Simonds School and close Sutton Central School by 2028, moving those students into the elementary school in New London.

This decision reversed the board’s previous recommendation to close Simonds School after receiving refined estimates that were lower than the original numbers.

The board also decided against pursuing an addition to the elementary school in Bradford, because its estimated cost was more than $22 million. The addition had originally been considered in order to maintain services if Simonds closed.

Bessette said a closure forced by HB 1374 would strip the district of the ability to consolidate schools equitably. A 2028 implementation would allow the board to think through other options on how to carry out a consolidation plan.

At Simonds School, he pointed to a dedicated room for arts and music. He said forcing students into Bradford under a closure petition might turn rooms like these into classroom spaces and downsize arts and music into mobile lesson plans.

“You don’t want things on a cart,” Bessette said. “You lose quality, you lose equity when things are on a cart. Keeping your numbers in the right zone allows us to have a space in here for dedicated art and music.”

Ultimately, the board can recommend a closure, but the town vote will be binding.

Schools as a community pillar

Dozens of residents showed up to community forums in Sutton and Warner, imploring board members to consider the neighborhood impact of closing down their schools. In Warner, students can walk to the library for after-school hangouts. In Sutton, Board Member Nancy Glynn said students use the town hall for their productions. In many ways, the schools are woven into the fabric of their surrounding communities.

The school is the heartbeat of the town, Glynn said. Sutton, a rural community with about 2,000 residents, does not have a commercial business district. Without the school, Glynn worries property values will go down and families won’t want to move in.

“It’s scary, because we don’t have anything else,” Glynn said.

For the kids, Glynn said friendships and connections will change.

“Folks are worried about losing the character, the charm of the town, the connections,” Glynn said.

Glynn is Sutton’s representative on the Kearsarge school board. Her son, who is now in high school, started at Sutton Central in third grade after moving from Manchester. She said the smaller class sizes were especially helpful for her son, who had an Individualized Education Program due to his hearing loss.

“He’s in high school now. He’s taking an AP (advanced placement) class. He’s doing exactly what we hoped he would do,” Glynn said.

Abby Strauss and Jason Mutschler have a preschool-aged child whom they planned to send to Simonds School.

“Principal Stokes is amazing. The community is amazing. The school is amazing,” Strauss said.

Strauss said stress surrounding the situation has spread to kids in the school as well. She said the whole model of having a regional high school is that towns get to have local elementary schools with smaller class sizes and neighborhood friends. She called Simonds School the jewel of Warner’s downtown.

“I understand where the board is coming from, because I think consolidation for them is an efficiency thing,” Strauss said. “But to me, that’s not a valid argument. The ramifications of that are much more.”

A look inside the schools

At Sutton Central School, scarecrows from a town-wide contest greet visitors in the front lawn and a small garden, penned The Garden of Eatin’, sits on the side of the building, allowing students to grow their own vegetables. 

Inside, seven kindergarteners sat on a world map rug, listening intently to their teacher for story time, on a Friday morning.

The classroom was stocked with books, cubbies, games and learning activities. The walls were decorated with crayons naming colors, labeled shapes and a sound wall full of images. However, in a classroom with over a dozen seats, such a small kindergarten class is a concern for some taxpayers in the district.

Based on Oct. 1 enrollment numbers, six kindergarteners were enrolled in Sutton Central this year. A little more than 60 students make up the school as a whole. Last year, enrollment was 77 students, based on enrollment numbers provided by the district.

Scolaro, principal of the school, said rural towns like Sutton are impacted greatly by one or two families moving in or out, making it difficult to definitively track its enrollment trends. 

“We’re looking at an artificially low enrollment right now,” Scolaro said. “We had a very low birth rate. Our kindergarten across the board was a low birth rate this year. Next year is actually a higher birth rate year; we know already we’re expecting to see more students.” 

After a facilities review, Sutton Central’s critical needs cost was lowest of all the schools and had one of the higher energy efficiency ratings. However, like all other schools, it requires maintenance.

At Simonds School, bricks painted white remind visitors of the original Simonds Free High School, established in 1871, which used to stand in the same spot, at the bottom of Mount Kearsarge. Signatures from past high school students are still preserved in what is now a custodial closet.

Although safety questions regarding a building from the 1800s were initially brought up, reports have not shown reason for concern. Since 1871, the building has been expanded, but its foundation has stayed the same. Stokes said a few grandparents in the neighborhoods went to high school at the building.

Simonds School has 124 students this year, according to its Oct. 1 enrollment numbers, remaining steady from last year. Stokes said that while the school typically has 12 classrooms, two for each grade level, it currently has nine. Grades 2-4 only have one class. The three extra classrooms are now being used as office spaces, he said.

Smaller classrooms, for many in the Simonds and Sutton communities, are an advantage. For proponents of consolidation, they’re a drawback.

“I do think smaller schools have the opportunities to make bigger impacts,” Stokes said, citing state testing scores that he said have been on the upward trajectory for years. “Here, there is a chance to make system change in a way that’s harder to do at bigger schools. And we’ve seen the impact of that in our kids’ achievement.”

Both Sutton Central and Simonds have veteran teachers who are from the community themselves.

“For a lot of the teachers who are here, they went to school here, their parents went to school here, they live in town,” Stokes said. “Just, it’s a lot of worry. A lot of worry.”

‘We’re struggling as a district’

Although Warde is for consolidation and plans to vote to close Sutton Central School in December, he said he is not against public education. Rather, he is a product of it. 

He said he and others in the community are worried about the long-term consequences of keeping the school open. In the past 10 years, Warde’s property taxes have doubled, he said.

“So now, in the next 10 years, does it more than double again?” Warde said. “And if it more than doubled again, I can tell you, three quarters of the people I know will no longer be able to live here. That’s where we’re at with this.”

In Sutton, residents also worry that people will move out if the school closes. Glynn said Sutton is an affordable town for young families and that young parents will be especially hard-hit by the closure.

Taking the school away removes the incentive for more families to come in, they argue.

“This is basically an attack on our children. That’s what is happening. And here we are advocating for the future of this district, because that’s why people move to communities most of the time,” Jason Teaster, a Sutton resident and chair of the town’s planning board. 

Bessette said the district is already struggling to pay the bills. As two instrumental votes draw near — the tax cap vote on Nov. 3 and the Sutton Central closure vote on Dec. 5 — Bessette said state legislation and decreased state funding are to blame for such a dire situation.

“We’re struggling as a district. All seven towns, every community around us, is struggling, across the state, to pay the bills. We can’t afford to pay the bills,” Bessette said.

As of now, Bessette expects the budget to increase by anywhere between $3 to $5 million to make ends meet.

“There are people right now who can’t afford to pay their property taxes today. I’m really worried that if we raise the property taxes too high, I’m going to lose people in communities all over the place,” Bessette said. “In the same breath, if I shut a local elementary school, I might lose people. So there’s no good solution to this problem.”