Is it inevitable that the Ripton Elementary School will close in the near future? Yes. Why? This is due to policy, maneuvering, and circumstance.

The ACSD School Board has set a policy saying that the minimum class size is ten students. This is reasonable, but results in Grades K-1 being eliminated from RES and a teacher reassigned elsewhere in the district. Recently, at the end of a Friday school day just before vacation, another classroom teacher, who has been teaching at RES for 21 years, was handed a letter notifying her that she would be reassigned elsewhere at the end of this school year. This leaves four grades in two classrooms with only one teacher. Like many schools in Vermont, RES has a declining student population due to the circumstances of an aging population and the housing crisis. The large percentage of land in Ripton owned by Middlebury College and the Green Mountain National Forest also is a contributing factor.

Make no mistake, the town community and the school community do not want the school to close. The town has always supported the school and the citizens realize that without the school the town will not be the same.

Jane Phinney

Ripton