Now is not the time for the Addison Central School District Board to tackle the question “How Small is Too Small?” The reasons for not changing the current town-based elementary school configuration are:

• The book banning discussion.
• The complexity of the state-mandated changes in FY26 CLA homestead and non-homestead school district property tax calculations.
• Addressing Ripton parents request to recruit students from other ACSD schools to keep all six grades in their town school during FY26.
• The challenge of passing a FY26 school district budget in March 2025.
• The upcoming school elections for the Ripton, Weybridge, and Middlebury school board seats.

The good news is that I have full confidence in Superintendent, Wendy Baker, and Business Manager Matt Corrente, Director of Operations, who functions as a Chief Financial Officer. They have the expertise and insights to resolve these issues with assistance of the ACSD school board and ACSD staff.

I was shocked when I saw the projected FY26 enrollment numbers on pages 32 and 33 in the budget presentation published with the Dec. 16 school board meeting agenda. The six rows and eight columns contain 48 values that tell stories voters need to know about projected elementary enrollments and classrooms in the Fall of 2025.

They show a projected decline in elementary school enrollments for FY26.

For the numerically challenged I would add a seventh row between Projected Enrollment and Projected Classrooms.

Here is my summary of the data showing two key forecasts for each town’s elementary school for the fall of 2025. It shows the number of K-5 students and number of classrooms:

Cornwall (86 students, 5 classrooms); Salisbury (69, 5); Shoreham (52, 3); Weybridge(47, 3), Bridport (42, 3); Ripton (29, 2), Middlebury (330, 21); All Small Schools (325, 21).

The good news is that the total ACSD K-5 enrollment remains evenly split between Mary Hogan and that Salisbury, which has the newest facilities, and Weybridge are projected to grow by 4 and 5 students respectively.

Hugh McLaughlin

Middlebury