BLOOMINGDALE — The Saranac Lake Central School District board of education is seeking community members to serve on a new committee advising the board on how to best use its buildings amid declining enrollment, and discuss the future of Bloomingdale Elementary School.

SLCSD Superintendent Diane Fox sent out a call for applicants on Tuesday afternoon.

To apply, fill out an online form at forms.gle/jHdYLKxFFaUxUK4MA, email responses to pollockgin@slcs.org or mail an application to “Gina Pollock, District Clerk / Saranac Lake Central School District / 79 Canaras Ave. / Saranac Lake, NY 12983.”

Applications are due by 4 p.m. on July 14. The board will review and discuss the applications at its July 16 meeting at 5:30 p.m. in the High School Library. It will also be livestreamed at tinyurl.com/mrtue9s8.

To ask questions, call district Clerk Gina Pollock at 518-897-1408.

SLCSD board Chair Mark Farmer said as the district sees fewer and fewer students year by year, the board needs to review how to distribute students and staff in the most effective and educationally sound way while the considering the taxpayer dollars that fund the schools.

Right now, he said they are essentially using a “Band-Aid” each year in response to the student drop. They need a long-term solution.

There are several options, he said, and the board wants a range of perspectives and experiences represented to inform the board’s decision.

The board plans to start the committee in August. This would give them time to set meeting dates before the school year.

It’s unclear how long the committee could take to make a recommendation. The application says it could be a “multi-year process.” Board members don’t want the process to drag on, but they also want to make a well-vetted decision.

Farmer has repeatedly said this will likely to be the biggest decision the board makes for the district’s future of the next decade.

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The cause

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Last summer, the educational consulting firm Alliance Education Associates looked at declining enrollment and building usage in the district and recommended closing Bloomingdale Elementary School in the 2027-28 school year, moving the students to Petrova Elementary to save on costs. At that time, Petrova’s enrollment is projected to be small enough to accommodate the additional students.

This idea has been controversial, especially among Bloomingdale residents. So the board is creating a committee of school staff and residents to digest the report and recommend possible actions.

This committee won’t make a decision itself, but it will make a recommendation to the board, which will take an eventual vote. The committee will dissect the firm’s report, paired with local information from its members, invited guests and comments from public hearings to craft a recommendation to the board.

To learn more about the details of the firm’s report, visit tinyurl.com/54ne8yh3.

The consultants say the closure would come with cost reductions estimated at $1.4 million because of less building maintenance, and a reduction in staff salaries and benefits. The district still has $1.1 million in debt on past building projects there, so the study projects a $300,000 net potential cost savings.

Bloomingdale leaders and parents have been concerned about the possible closure of the school since the first part of the report was released.

The district closed and sold its Lake Colby Elementary School in 2011, its Lake Clear School in 2009, its Broadway Elementary School on Broadway in 1974 and its River Street School in 1967.

The board was preparing to start up this committee last year, but pumped the brakes in October after their first data point was different from what was expected.

Though the student enrollment continued to decline — with 1,044 students enrolled when classes started in September, 26 fewer than the previous year — the consultant’s projections were not exactly accurate. Petrova had 21 more students than expected and Bloomingdale had four more students than expected. Petrova had 296 students and Bloomingdale had 103.

With the first data point being off from what was expected, the board postponed the committee.

Last month, Fox made the decision to relocate the third, fourth and fifth grade classrooms at Bloomingdale to Petrova. The district needed to cut one classroom amid staffing cuts, funding shrinkage and declining student enrollment. This essentially has temporarily made Bloomingdale a pre-K to second-grade school.

This change was opposed by parents with students in these grades at the school, Bloomingdale residents and leaders were concerned this would lead to the school being closed entirely.

Fox said while she made the decision on the classrooms, if the committee recommends any large change in the use of district buildings, she feels that should come to a board, since it’s a bigger change.

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Who will be on the committee?

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A total list of who from the district will be on the committee has not been finalized yet. There’s talk of board members, principals from each of the schools, teachers, buildings and grounds staff and others. But as the board does not want the committee to be too big, they say some might be on for certain conversations on their areas of expertise, but not at all meetings.

The problem the board faces is that any decision will impact a lot of people, and they want to give these people a say in the matter — but they don’t want the committee to be so big that it is ineffective. They need school officials because they work in these schools every day, but they also need community members because this is a big issue for them.

Farmer is set to serve as the subcommittee chair and Fox will be in the group as well. Board members Nancy Bernstein and Mike Martin have expressed interest in joining, though Martin offered to potentially retract his desire to be on the committee to allow more community members on.

The committee will also include building principals and district staff.

The total number of committee members has not been finalized yet. Board members have been discussing having between 12 and 15 members.

The number of community members on the committee has not been finalized yet. Board members have been discussing having between three and four community representatives.

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Public input

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The application includes questions about interested parties’ connection to the district, goals for being on the subcommittee, skills or experience they could bring to the group, time commitment, meeting availability and contact information.

If people are not able to be on the committee or are not selected to serve on it, they will still be able to voice their thoughts on the topic as the board plans to hold several public hearings and roundtable events. Dates and information for these events will be announced on the “Board of Education” section of the district website.

All the subcommittee meetings will be open to the public.