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‘How did this happen?’ Uncertainty continues amid Claremont’s school funding crisis

Claremont's new resource room is designed to reduce light and stimuli for students who are struggling. It's open to anyone who needs help with academics, mental health or behavior issues.
Sarah Gibson
/
NHPR
Claremont's new resource room is designed to reduce light and stimuli for students who are struggling. It's open to anyone who needs help with academics, mental health or behavior issues.

Students in Claremont are returning to the classroom, but it’s unclear what the school year will look like.

The Claremont School District is facing a deficit of between $1 and $5 million dollars. It eliminated 39 positions, nearly half of them new teachers and paraprofessionals, to save money. But there’s still a lot of financial uncertainty.

Patrick O’Grady, a reporter with the Valley News, has been following the school funding crisis in Claremont. He spoke with NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa about how this happened and what’s next.

Transcript

Can you tell us more about the effects of the budget cuts so far?

The assistant superintendent informed the audience at a school board meeting on Monday night that class sizes will be a little bit larger. People are going to “have to be working harder.” But I think exactly how that's going to play out at each of the district's schools, on the elementary level all the way through to the high school, it remains to be seen.

They eliminated all extracurricular activities. This is another concern that rose because essentially that's varsity sports. And they found that at the end of the meeting, it wasn't quite as bad as they thought. They were cutting a half million dollars, but the athletic director said, “We can get through the first month and a half of the season. We're going to try and fundraise.” So that's a little bit more good news because again, a week ago, sports were out and that means a lot to a lot of kids, as well as things like theater and band.

We're looking at a multi-million dollar deficit, eliminat[ed] nearly 40 positions. To put it bluntly, how did things get so bad in Claremont?

That's an excellent question and one that everybody's still asking, including the school board. If you look at the minutes, say, from going back to January, which I reviewed the other night, there's nothing to indicate that there was a problem of this magnitude growing. They talked about special education deficits, which happened in a lot of districts across the state. In May or April, they made some withdrawals of trust funds and used that money to close the special education deficit of about $1 million.

Then the big meeting came in May, when they announced the audits from 2020 and 2021 that showed deficits of a combined $2 million. The explanation given at the time by the business administrator and superintendent was that [there was] too much money in the return to the taxpayers in those years [and] the surpluses they thought were there were not there. They said, and this is a quote from the superintendent, “We found the problem. We fixed it. We're working on it.”

So the tone of these minutes show that there's concern, there's deficit problems, but there's nothing to suggest that schools are not going to open or there's going to be drastic cuts.

When the chairwoman of the school board made the announcement on Aug. 14 that they were looking at this kind of deficit, she seemed completely unaware that it was this severe, its accumulation of deficits over the last several years. I guess a lot of people are wondering why audits weren't done more timely. That's another question that's being answered.

Patrick, you've been going to some of these school board meetings. What are Claremont residents saying about this news?

One of the things they keep asking — and this is something that's going to have to be learned in the next several weeks — how much? How much? How much? How did this happen? Nobody has those answers yet because nobody has looked at the numbers

The gentleman they hired to be the comptroller and the acting business administrator has a Herculean task before him. He has promised to put together some numbers to really see how bad the deficit is in about the next 30 days, a process that he said normally would take him several months. At the same time, the auditor is getting ready to present the 2022 audit, and then he's going to immediately look at the 2023 and 2024 audit and hopefully have those later this fall.

Anything you've heard from students or staff? I imagine there's some emotion there.

Staff has been promising to pitch in. That's what we're hearing publicly, that they're willing to get in there and roll up their sleeves and do what they have to do for the kids.

There's a lot of anger, some of which was expressed the other night. But they don't really point the finger at the board, nor do they point it at the attorney or the auditor or the comptroller. The two people that they believe — and I don't want to go too far down this road, but it's interesting that the superintendent has not been in any of these meetings, and the business administrator is on paid administrative leave. So people can read into that what they will.

What have we heard from the new state education commissioner Caitlin Davis about Claremont's funding issues?

The city's attorney in this case has said that he's been meeting regularly with state officials, the commissioner, even the governor's ear. And they're kind of watching, promising to help in any way they can. But at the same time, the attorney told the audience the other night, bluntly, “You're on your own.”

What's next for the Claremont School District? What are their options moving forward to get out of this deficit?

The school board chairwoman and the comptroller said the other night that they're pretty confident they'll be able to secure a loan from a local savings bank, the Claremont Savings Bank. They said the officials at the bank are eager to help. Next Wednesday, there'll be a public hearing and likely a vote on that loan. Now, the amount of the loan hasn't been stated, but the comptroller said that that would help them get through March and then at the same time, they'll be able to look at what the deficit numbers are in the coming weeks.

And this is the other thing that the attorney was saying, that until we figure out how much money, how [much] the deficit really is, it's hard to determine what the long term recovery plan will be.

As the All Things Considered producer, my goal is to bring different voices on air, to provide new perspectives, amplify solutions, and break down complex issues so our listeners have the information they need to navigate daily life in New Hampshire. I also want to explore how communities and the state can work to—and have worked to—create solutions to the state’s housing crisis.
As the host of All Things Considered, I work to hold those in power accountable and elevate the voices of Granite Staters who are changemakers in their community, and make New Hampshire the unique state it is. What questions do you have about the people who call New Hampshire home?
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