With rising costs and in some cases single-digit class sizes, Merrimack Valley School Board member Loren Martin questioned whether the district should explore consolidating schools across the district.

“I understand all of the emotional aspects that come into wanting to keep a school in each community, but at the end of the day, when spending is going up, there needs to be places to save, and that’s one of the first places,” said Martin, who works as an assessor and represents Boscawen.

Ultimately, the Merrimack Valley School Board on Monday decided not revisit a 2021 decision to keep both the Salisbury and Webster Elementary Schools – each with less 100 students – open rather than closing one and consolidating students elsewhere.

The future of the kindergarten-through-fifth-grade schools in both communities has been the subject of a study conducted in 2021 in which a number of options were considered. The board voted then against any option that involves closing either Webster Elementary or Salisbury Elementary, citing public opinion and also the district charter that board members say requires each town to have its own elementary school.

Salisbury Elementary and Webster Elementary had 67 and 88 students, respectively, last year, according to data from the Department of Education. The other elementary schools in the district – Penacook, Loudon, and Boscawen – had 315, 274, 236 students, respectively.

Across Salisbury Elementary and Webster Elementary, two grade levels had fewer than 10 students and all had fewer than 20 last year.

Despite the potential budget advantages of consolidation, the board decided Monday that it didn’t make sense to reopen the topic so soon after they had already made a decision.

“I understand there’s benefits to closing,” said board Chairperson Tracy Bricchi. “But it was just two, three years ago and we did vote.”

And after years of declining enrollment, each school has grown slightly since the study with eight more students in Salisbury and three more students in Webster.

Martin declined to comment on the record following Monday’s meeting about whether she would individually pursue getting a consolidation warrant article on the ballot for next year’s district meeting.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com