Bloomingdale Elementary School (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

BLOOMINGDALE — Members of the Saranac Lake school facilities subcommittee met on Wednesday to give their thoughts on how the district should reconfigure for the future — including the potential closure of Bloomingdale Elementary.

Most said, though it’s a hard decision, and one they don’t want to make, they believe closing the school will be most beneficial for the district as a whole.

With the expected date for a vote on reconfiguring coming in less than a month on Feb. 25, pushback on the idea of closing the school also ramped up last week.

Subcommittee member and St. Armand town Supervisor Davina Thurston wrote an open letter to the subcommittee and the school board asking them to slow down the process. She believes there’s an increase in school-age children on the horizon, there’s still plenty of use for the school building to alleviate pressure on a busy Petrova and that such a big decision is being rushed.

“Unfortunately, I believe that the SLCSD Board has already decided to close Bloomingdale School,” Thurston said. “While I respect the SLCSD Board members and understand that they are making a choice that they feel is the best for our district, I disagree with them.”

Bloomingdale resident Ann Cantwell also created an online petition with several proposed uses of the building, asking the board to put the closure discussion up for a public vote, like the district did for the high school sports turf field in 2024.

The subcommittee has eight members — five from the school, one retired teacher and two members from the community who were selected by the school board from a pool of around a dozen applicants. This is an advisory committee for the board. The board makes the final decision on whether or not to accept the group’s proposal.

The committee member’s thoughts were catalogued and will be sent to the board of education. The board will discuss these committee opinions at a meeting on Wednesday. SLCSD Superintendent Diane Fox will share her thoughts on what to do at this meeting, which will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the High School library through door No. 13. It will also be streamed live at tinyurl.com/2ba9csx8.

The board then meets on Feb. 4, and Fox will share a formal recommendation of what to do.

The subcommittee will meet on Feb. 18 to evaluate the proposed reconfiguration recommendations and hold a public hearing on those. The board will attend this meeting.

Then, on Feb. 25, they are scheduled to take a vote.

The public can continue to submit written comments about the potential closure and other district configuration issues until a decision is made. Comments should be emailed to the board clerk at pollockgin@slcs.org.

The state Education Department must approve whatever reconfiguration decision the board makes. Fox said they have to tell the state of reconfiguration plans by March 1. They did not know about this deadline until recently, and it is sooner than expected.

Thurston’s letter said the committee should have more time to weigh the options and make recommendations to the school board. She said the state deadline shouldn’t make them rush to make a decision. It’s a big decision that should be thoughtfully considered, she said.

The district held public hearings on the facilities reconfiguration last week. To read about these hearings, go to tinyurl.com/27etaf6t.

School board member Nancy Bernstein said she thought people would be fighting against the potential closure more at these meetings. They were sparsely attended.

Board member Mike Martin said there was a lot of negativity in the comments of the Enterprise’s article on the hearings and allegations of the committee having an “agenda.” Martin said there’s been no back-room meetings, and that he takes those accusations personally and they irritate him.

He was frustrated that people mostly talk online, instead of talking with the board members.

Martin said everyone on the committee knows a lot about the issue, because they’ve researched it for weeks now. But the public doesn’t know most of those details, unless they’ve attended the meetings.

Bernstein felt that people may not have attended because they think the writing is on the wall about the closure, because the numbers are there.

“There’s a profound feeling in the community that the decision’s made, and it has been for years,” committee member Scott McKim said.

He said people have called their effort at transparency a “charade.”

School board Chair Mark Farmer said this offended him and that he would not be volunteering so much of his time on a sham.

The petition at c.org/tYVT4FqdjY had gathered 293 signatures by press time on Monday.

Martin said that some of the points in the petition were correct, and some were incorrect, but people who read it believe all of it.

Farmer said people talking about the committee’s decision are sometimes retreading information, misunderstanding things or sharing things that are not true and recommending the board do things they are not legally allowed to do.

Karen Miemis, a subcommittee member, sixth-grade teacher and co-president of the Saranac Lake Teachers Association, suggested that the board reach out to Cantwell to talk about the petition.

Farmer said online petitions are low-effort to sign. He would be more impressed with a list of actual signatures.

Bernstein felt that, given the hundreds of signatures, an online petition still warrants a response.

Bernstein said Bloomingdale Elementary has 67 students currently.

This year, the district shifted Bloomingdale students in grades three, four and five to Petrova Elementary, making the Bloomingdale school a K-2 building.

Bernstein said Fox didn’t move these students to make Bloomingdale’s numbers look bad, something she’s heard alleged. She said student numbers there were already well below the 300 students recommended for an efficient school building.

“We have been below what is a sustainable level of students for Bloomingdale School for quite some time,” Bernstein said.

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Opinions

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Martin said he is in favor of closing Bloomingdale Elementary. He said, in terms of educational equity and financial responsibility, he feels it is the right thing to do. He appreciates the sentimental value the school holds, but said it is not practical for the students or the taxpayers to keep it.

He felt that having pre-K to sixth grade at Petrova and grades seven to 12 at the high school would work.

Martin said the district should keep the building and be ready to use it again if enrollment does go back up. In the meantime, he said it could be used for BOCES programs, housing, a food pantry or an addiction clinic.

He’s not a fan of the idea of using it for a bus garage.

Subcommittee member Suzanne Miller said she was surprised that the bus garage on the shore of the Saranac River floods when the river gets too high. She didn’t love the idea of moving the bus garage to Bloomingdale, but felt it should probably be moved somewhere else.

Martin said having one bus run would “tighten up” the schedules. He said only 50% of students ride the bus more than two days a week.

Miller said other districts do single bus runs successfully, and she believes SLCSD can, too.

A single bus run would be cost-effective, especially with the electric bus requirements possibly coming in a couple of years, Miemis said, but added that she would “strongly discourage” a single bus run. It is already challenging to manage two schools in one building on a staggered schedule, she said, and a single start time under the current configuration would be “insurmountable.”

Martin also said the district should make its changes in one shot, to not make several changes over the next few years.

Miemis said her opinion was not representing the union. It was her personal opinion.

She did say the union did internal polling of its 138 teacher members in December and got “mixed feedback” from the 81 who responded. She said they were split on keeping or closing Bloomingdale Elementary, as well as on how the grade levels should be divvied up between the two remaining buildings if it is closed.

Personally, Miemis said they cannot ignore the enrollment decline and financial increase the district faces.

“It is a necessary step, in my opinion, toward stabilizing our district in the face of a shrinking student population and our significant budget shortfall,” Miemis said.

She said there’s a “pervasive sense” among employees that the K-6 and 7-12 reconfiguration is already a foregone conclusion.

Personally, she feels this is a good configuration that will align teacher certifications with different buildings.

She also suggested the district office move to Petrova and that the district establish a permanent pre-K at Petrova. She suggested the district use the Bloomingdale building for community partnerships, educational leasing or the bus garage.

Miller said it breaks her heart that she cannot recommend keeping Bloomingdale Elementary open. She knows the benefits a small school environment gives. But she said the enrollment there is just not large enough to justify the expense to the taxpayer.

Miller said there’s a big age and maturity gap between grades seven and 12. But while parents are concerned, she feels students could adapt.

Cantwell’s petition opposed moving the middle school from Petrova to the high school. She said 12-year-olds are in their impressionable years and that mixing with 18-year-olds before they are intellectually or emotionally ready will have “lasting impacts.”

Farmer coached grades seven to 12 girls hockey and said he didn’t want the seventh graders hearing what the 12th graders were talking about in the locker room. He said this would require setting “conversation boundaries with the students.”

Miemis said the seventh and-eighth grades are a “vulnerable group” and suggested that if this shift is done that the district get a high school dean of students again.

Farmer said Petrova is still a small school, relatively speaking, compared to most school buildings in most districts in the state.

Bernstein said children are adaptable. It’s the adults who have sentiment. Even though she personally has an attachment to Bloomingdale and said there’s a real sense of culture there — her son, who attended the school, still hangs out with his Bloomingdale pals — she felt the students affected will not lose anything. From what she’s heard, the kids who moved to Petrova last year have been fine.

Thurston was not at the meeting but wrote an open letter to the subcommittee and the school board, asking them to slow down

“I respectfully urge the Saranac Lake Central School District Board to slow down this process; take the time that is needed to determine the best path forward,” Thurston wrote.

The study was performed by Alliance Educational Associates LLC. Thurston questions AEA’s ability to do the study, since they are a newer company that specializes in transportation, adding that the study bases its conclusion on 15 assumptions.

Thurston mentioned several housing projects that are set to add dozens of new units to the area and said she believes it’s “short-sighted” to close the school. The 2019-20 year saw a 26% increase in kindergarten enrollment. She said this could happen again, and Bloomingdale, being the district’s newest building, would be perfect.

“I personally do not agree with the decision to close Bloomingdale School, nor do I believe that this will be in the best interest of all of our students,” Thurston wrote. “I am predicting that within the next 10 years, the property owners in the SLCSD will be taxed to fund an addition to Petrova Elementary School.”

At the meeting, Fox said the state will not pay for an addition at a school if the district already owns space elsewhere.

Thurston said when the subcommittee toured Petrova, she was shocked at how cramped many of the classrooms were. She said some students have breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and then lunch at 10:30 a.m. because of their schedule, which she felt wasn’t fair to them. Thurston said there’s “plenty of space” at Bloomingdale School for them.

Cantwell’s petition tells the school board to be proactive instead of reactive.

“To place greater weight on the opinion of an out-of-town consulting firm over the district residents that elected you is irresponsible,” she wrote.

Cantwell suggests the district restructure Bloomingdale Elementary as a district-wide universal pre-K and kindergarten building, saying it provides a “family-like” education environment.

“We have neglected our pre-K program for far too long. The lack of stability of our programs drives families to look at other options.

“We do not know from year-to-year what facilities will house pre-K, nor how many classes will be offered,” Cantwell said. “Will there be three classes at one daycare, two classes at a public school, one class at a catholic school or a combination of all three?”

She suggested the district use land it owns on Edgewood Road, Neil Street or at the 40-acre Black Fly softball field site in Ray Brook for housing to help address the affordable housing shortage.

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Fuel and stats

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Facilities Director Vernon P. James said the district burns around 97,000 gallons of heating fuel every year.

James said, on average, the Bloomingdale school uses 14,000 gallons per year. Petrova uses an average of 48,000 and the high school uses an average of 35,000 gallons.

The fuel for the two Saranac Lake buildings costs $2.45 per gallon. Bloomingdale has a smaller tank and a slightly higher rate of $2.76 per gallon.

At Bloomingdale, when the outside temperature is in the teens, they burn around 85 gallons per day. If it drops below zero, that increases to around 110 gallons per day.

At Petrova, these temperatures bring fuel use to between 315 and 450 gallons per day. At the high school, it’s 200 to 350 gallons per day.

SLCSD student enrollment dipped below 1,000 for the first time in decades this year. Meanwhile, the cost of running schools continues to rise each year as things get more expensive and schools need to do more to meet modern education requirements.

Farmer said if they ignore this, they’ll run into a cliff that will hurt a lot more.

Back in the 1970s, the district had twice as many students and enrollment broke 2,000. A majority of this enrollment drop has happened in the past quarter-century. At the turn of the millennium, the district had 1,743 students. In the 2014-15 school year, the district had 1,266 students. The district reported 984 students enrolled on opening day this year — 60 fewer than reported on opening day last year.

The district closed and sold its Lake Colby Elementary School in 2011 and its Lake Clear School in 2009.