The closure of Ripton’s Elementary School is a lesson learned. The takeaway is that it’s incumbent on communities to meet the minimum student threshold of pupils per grade if they want to keep their local school.

In a K-5 system, under which the Addison Central School District operates (with sixth-graders now attending the district’s middle school), that means a minimum of 30 students spread appropriately between its six grades are needed to fill the smallest of elementary schools.

Last February, the ACDS board adopted Policy D6, which called for a minimum of 10 students, and a maximum of 19 for kindergarten; a minimum of 10, and a maximum of 20 for grades 1-3: a minimum of 10, and maximum of 24 for grades 4-5. Those minimums can be met with a combination of any two grades.

When the board passed that policy, RES was projected to have just three students in its fall 2025 K-1 grades. Even so, the board and ACSD Supt. Wendy Baker allowed parents from any town in the district to transfer a child or children into the Ripton school to meet the minimum threshold. In the end, not enough interest was found and today 20 Ripton students are attending the elementary school in Salisbury.

Small towns do have a few options to help meet that threshold; the most critical is planning for affordable housing. That’s no easy obstacle to mount, but it’s not beyond the pale to imagine a community offering a property tax subsidy, along with expedited permitting, to a developer willing to build a feasible number of affordable units suitable for young families. And it’s almost a sure bet that affordable units built for that demographic would be snapped up in a hurry.

The school district has set a reasonable policy through a deliberative and respectful process. For town residents worried their student numbers are dwindling, and their school might be in jeopardy, the ball is in their court.

Angelo Lynn