With a bowl of tacks and a stack of flyers in the center console of her car, Molly Witters spent a recent morning on a mission.
She showed up anywhere in Middlebury there might be young parents 鈥� day care centers, pediatricians鈥� offices, and at Agway, because she had to stop to pick up cat food, anyway 鈥� and posted the flyers.
鈥淩IPTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT OPPORTUNITY,鈥� the flyers read, with a date circled in yellow 鈥� March 3.
Witters, who has a fifth grader at the Ripton school, has been a leader in the yearslong movement to keep the tiny K-5 school open.
Next year, the school鈥檚 combined kindergarten and first grade class is projected to be tiny, even by Ripton standards, at just three students, falling well below the district鈥檚 10 students per-class minimum. Which means instead of going to Ripton next year, those three students will be sent to a different elementary school altogether 鈥� making it even harder for the school to justify its continued existence.
But Witters and other parents are on a mission to keep that K-1 class at Ripton, using a contingency plan the Addison Central School District Board passed earlier this month.
The policy allows the district to find seven kindergarteners or first graders from across the district who will volunteer to join the class at Ripton 鈥� and they need to find them in three weeks.
鈥淲e don't know if it will work. We don't know where people will come from,鈥� said Jamie McCallum, who is on the board鈥檚 policy committee. 鈥淏ut I think we have to try.鈥�
The revised class size policy doesn't just apply to Ripton, but the community would be the first to use it. It says , which includes Middlebury and reaches from mountainous Ripton to lakeside Bridport and Shoreham, about a half-hour drive away. In Ripton, the hope is that parents who homeschool or send their kids elsewhere might be drawn to the very factor that currently jeopardizes their school 鈥� its size.
The district says it will try to provide bussing for families who volunteer to send their kids to Ripton, though it says it can鈥檛 guarantee it. That transportation factor was one of the concerns that came up in the policy revision process. Another was that it could be an on-ramp to a larger school choice policy 鈥� which McCallum said isn鈥檛 true.
The school board passed the policy by a handful of votes at its Feb. 10 meeting. Almost immediately, Ripton parents got to work.
Meeting on a cold night in the Ripton Elementary School鈥檚 library, sitting in chairs meant for kids half their size, current and former school parents made a spreadsheet of every possible connection they had to young families. They parsed the details of the new policy, and debated what language to use on postings and posters.
After years of trying to keep the school alive, it鈥檚 been a bit of a mad dash to this point.
鈥�It's such a short time frame to get the word out,鈥� Witters said. 鈥淟ike, that's the only hiccup in this whole scenario is, like, is the word really gonna be spread enough for people to consider it and take action?鈥�
As always, it鈥檚 the adults who are sorting this out, poring over policy in boardrooms and at the Capitol, where the governor is proposing sweeping changes to Vermont鈥檚 school system that further emphasize consolidation and state-level control.
But the kids are listening, too.
Tenlyn Wetzel is in fifth grade at Ripton. The afternoon after the school鈥檚 chorus and band concert, she was wearing a knitted hat with animal ears on it, and high-top sneakers with rainbow shoelaces.
Tenlyn鈥檚 family moved to Ripton from Middlebury because of the Ripton school. The school closure conversation has been looming practically her entire time there.
鈥�It kind of feels like you're in the middle of something, and there's nothing you can really do about it, especially as a kid,鈥� Tenlyn said. 鈥淟ike you don't really have a say in things.鈥�
Tenlyn said if she did have a say in things, she鈥檇 keep the school open. She wants other kids to have the elementary school experience she did.
鈥淚 really like having a small school personally, because you kind of get to know everyone, and you're comfortable with everyone, and you've known all the people for such a long time,鈥� she said 鈥� adding that students are always so excited when someone new joins their class.
That's why, for families considering sending their kids to Ripton, she does have a word of caution.
鈥�You might get a little bit showered with attention at first," she said. "Just as a warning."
As of Tuesday, a representative from the superintendent鈥檚 office said the district has seen some interest from families in joining Ripton, but that they are waiting until after March 3 to provide a headcount.
If there are enough families who express interest by Monday, they'll have another few weeks to formally commit while Ripton tries to seal the deal.
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