School board won’t consider closing Salisbury or Webster Elementary, in advance of upcoming report

The final report hasn’t been filed yet, but the Merrimack Valley College Board has presently dominated out 3 of its 5 recommendations that contact for closing Salisbury or Webster elementary educational facilities.

A report from outside the house consultants that offers strategies for Merrimack Valley University District on how to progress with dwindling enrollment at its two smallest elementary educational facilities is owing to be released on Oct. 8. The Faculty Board made a decision Monday night time that it will not consider the report’s suggestions for the long term of Salisbury or Webster elementary faculties.

The district employed the New Hampshire School Administrators Affiliation for $10,850 in May perhaps to conduct the Little Universities Examine 2. to assess the performance of education and learning in the cities of Webster and Salisbury, which each have declining university student enrollment in their K-5 elementary colleges. On Monday night time, superintendent Mark MacLean, who go through an early draft of the approaching report, stated the report’s authors, Carl Ladd and Keith Burke, arrived up with 5 options for the district to contemplate.

The solutions are to near Salisbury Elementary, to close Webster Elementary, to close both equally schools, to combine grades throughout schools and have PreK-2 in Salisbury and grades 3-5 in Webster, or to proceed with the existing set up. The tips that require closing an elementary university, entail sending college students to one of the district’s other elementary schools.

“There are strengths and weaknesses that are discovered in the report as the board is taking into consideration these specific options,” MacLean mentioned.

Salisbury Elementary University, which has 59 college students, has noticed a 39{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} enrollment decline in the earlier decade, though Webster Elementary Faculty, which has 85 pupils, has found an enrollment drop of 29{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. The district’s other elementary schools in Boscawen and Loudon each individual have more than 200 learners and Penacook Elementary has around 300.

Sustaining small faculties with number of learners can be challenging for districts, thanks to the value of operating underutilized spaces, combined with diminishing governing administration money that are allocated on a for each-pupil foundation.

In the earlier two many years, the Merrimack Valley School District has tried to offer with the lesser class dimensions in Salisbury by combining grade levels into a multi-age classroom, a system that was “not met with aid from the people of the learners associated,” according to the Little University Study’s rationale document. The district also briefly regarded as combining grades across Salisbury and Webster, a system that was similarly unpopular with citizens.

At Monday’s meeting, the board voted 7-1 with 1 abstention to not take into account any possibility that involves closing possibly Webster Elementary or Salisbury Elementary, citing public feeling and also the district charter that board associates say calls for each and every city to have its have elementary university.

“I just come to feel it is type of weak timing,” reported board member Andrew Chalsma, who created the movement. “I do think we require to imagine about solutions going forward, we should often be thinking about methods to make all our educational facilities much better.”

Board member Tracy Bricchi abstained and Sally Hirsh-Dickinson voted no, since they explained the board need to hold out till they experienced go through the total report ahead of voting.

“Why did we talk to to have this carried out if we weren’t heading to glimpse at all the selections?” Bricchi claimed. “I do not consider we ought to be voting on a document that we have not noticed.”

Board member Lorrie Carey mentioned the motion appeases issues from Salisbury and Webster citizens, who have been vocal at public conferences about their want to retain both equally universities open up and working.

The district is holding group listening sessions Oct. 19 at the Webster City Hall and Oct. 20 at Salisbury Elementary College, to get concepts from the community on how to strengthen the district’s smallest faculties. At the occasions, board users will be searching for volunteers to provide on a committee to glance for “creative solutions” to the concerns faced by small educational facilities.

“I think the most important issue that can arrive from all of this is to engage in significant discussion heading ahead with the citizens of Salisbury and Webster about what we can do to make these educational institutions improved,” board member Seelye Longnecker said.