BLOOMINGDALE — Discussion of the future of Bloomingdale Elementary School is scheduled for later this month, with two public hearings and a slate of board and committee discussions.

A tentative timeline is still being hashed out, but a recommendation on whether or not to close the school amid declining enrollment could come from an advisory subcommittee by the end of the month and a board vote on the hot-button issue could come as soon as mid-February.

The timeline for this major decision is not set in stone, according to members of the Saranac Lake Central School District Board of Education, and dates are subject to change.

Two public hearing sessions, where the community will be able to give their thoughts on the use of the Bloomingdale school to the school board, will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 12 and 13 at Bloomingdale Elementary and the Saranac Lake High School auditorium, respectively.

These dates were set by the board on Wednesday.

An advisory subcommittee of eight school officials, teachers and community members has been diving deep on school operations, looking into how to best use the district’s facilities as its enrollment continues to shrink. The most prominent of the topics they’re looking at is the future of Bloomingdale Elementary.

This is an advisory committee for the board. The board makes the final decision on whether or not to accept the group’s proposal.

SLCSD Superintendent Diane Fox said the decision about the future of the school needs to be made earlier than any other decision the subcommittee makes. Other decisions hinge on what happens here. Ideally, board members have said, this decision would be made in time for whatever outcome they land on to be taken into account when district staff prepare for the spring budget season.

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More dates

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After the public hearings, the board has a meeting on Jan. 14 where members are expected to discuss the hearings and budget implications of keeping or closing Bloomingdale Elementary.

The subcommittee will meet next on Jan. 21. At this meeting, committee members are expected to give their own input to the board.

This meeting may also be classified as a Board of Education meeting, to allow board members to attend and hear the committee member’s thoughts first-hand. These subcommittee meetings are also open to the public to attend and listen.

The board has another meeting on Jan. 28. Depending on how the timeline works, Fox has said she may share her own recommendation at this meeting, too.

The board agreed to move up the date for its first February meeting — to Feb. 4, instead of Feb. 11. This meeting is expected to include discussion of a formal recommendation on what to do with the Bloomingdale school.

Then, there will be time for the board to hear input from staff and the public. The subcommittee is set to meet again on Feb. 18.

The board could vote on what should happen with the school in the 2026-27 school year as soon as Feb. 25. But this is, again, not set in stone.

SLCSD board Chair Mark Farmer, who also chairs the subcommittee, has repeatedly said this will likely be the biggest decision the board makes for the district’s future in the next decade.

Fox said they’re trying to be as accessible as possible.

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The committee

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Last summer, the district got a report from an educational consulting firm which recommended closing Bloomingdale Elementary School in the 2027-28 school year and 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 was controversial, especially among Bloomingdale residents. The board initially planned to set up a subcommittee to digest the report and make a recommendation to the board. It held off on that committee and created this one, a broader one with a more expansive scope looking at the district’s entire operation.

Committee members have been discussing potential building closures, staffing size, distribution of students and staff, optimization of bus routes and class offerings.

They’ll make recommendations to the board on how to be more efficient with the taxpayer money they have.

The subcommittee has eight members — four from the school and four from the community, who were selected by the school board from a pool of around a dozen applicants.

To learn more about this committee, go to tinyurl.com/4x9bvvpv.

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Enrollment decline

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SLCSD student enrollment dipped below 1,000 for the first time in decades on opening day earlier this month. 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.

The district reported 984 students enrolled on opening day this year — 60 fewer than reported on opening day last year. The district has been experiencing a long, slow student decline for several decades now. In the 2014-15 school year, the district had 1,266 students. At the turn of the millennium, it had 1,743 students. Back in the 1970s, enrollment broke 2,000.

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.