The Claremont School District’s deficit crisis may force the closure of one of the city’s three underutilized elementary schools, Bluff Elementary Principal Dale Chenette told staff this week.
“The unprecedented financial crisis faced by our district has negatively impacted our Bluff community,” Chenette wrote in a message to staff Sunday night.
The proposed closure of Bluff, home to about 170 students, comes as the district struggles with a sudden $5 million deficit that has already led to the cancellation of contracts for 19 new teachers and layoffs of 20 non-teaching staffers, among other deep cuts.
Chenette told staff an emergency proposal will be presented to the Claremont School Board when it meets Wednesday.
Other steps taken by the board include a hiring freeze, which left Bluff unable to meet its special education obligations, Chenette said in his email.
“Part of the issue was created by the hiring freeze, which left vacant positions open. The problem has grown more dire due to the ripple effect of employment uncertainty and staff resignations,” he wrote.
The plan would send all of Bluff’s K-5 students and their teachers to either Maple Avenue or Disnard elementary schools. Bluff would then close.
School Board Chair Heather Whitney told NHJournal this week that the political will did not exist to consolidate Claremont’s three elementary schools before the crisis, even though that is an obvious and, ultimately, necessary move.
“Now we can tear things down and start from the beginning,” she said.
Bluff, Disnard and Maple Avenue currently enroll 563 students in grades one through five. Another 118 kindergartners are split among the three schools. Claremont attempted to reconfigure the schools in 2020 to make better use of taxpayer resources, but parents fearful of change rejected the proposal.
Under the 2020 plan, put forward by then-Superintendent Michael Tempesta, Maple Avenue would have become home to pre-K through first grade, Disnard to grades 2 and 3, and Bluff to grades 4 and 5.
Claremont now houses its 24 pre-K students in a separate facility. Instead of restructuring the three elementary schools in 2020, voters were asked to approve a $500,000 line item for building maintenance and repairs.
But the emergency is already taking its toll on students and staff, Bluff teacher Tammy Yates told the Valley News. Yates, who is also president of the Sugar River Education Association, said the rapid changes are harming morale.
“To say the rapid-fire changes and rumors have been destabilizing would be an understatement,” Yates said in a statement. “The pressure being placed on teachers and staff right now is untenable, and the demands are demoralizing and not in the best interest of Claremont’s children.”
Bluff, Maple Avenue and Disnard all currently offer kindergarten through fifth grade classes. All three schools have average class sizes well below the state limit and the state average.
According to state data from December 2024, Bluff’s average class size for first and second grade was 14.3 students. The state allows a maximum of 25 students in first and second grade, with a state average of 15.9. Bluff’s third and fourth grades average 12.3 students per class, compared with the state maximum of 30 and a state average of 17.1. Data for Claremont’s fifth grade is less clear, and the averages published may include other grades.
