The tiny Ripton Elementary School will be even tinier next year, after a last-ditch effort to keep its kindergarten and first grade class failed last week.
The Addison Central School District could not find the seven families it needed to fill out Ripton鈥檚 incoming K-1 class, which is projected to have just three students this upcoming school year. Wendy Baker, the ACSD superintendent, said five parents expressed interest in joining the Ripton school, but that only two families had children who were actually eligible.
Now, instead of going to Ripton, the school's three K-1 students will go to the larger Salisbury Community School, about 15 minutes away 鈥� leaving the school with just 22 second-through-fifth grade students next year.
鈥淚t鈥檚 small, right? Twenty-two kids in a school is small,鈥� Baker said at a school board meeting Monday.
鈥淢y concern is, if we have a number of parents who are concerned about that, that may shift that dynamic in a different direction,鈥� she said.
There is currently no district policy that would allow families to move schools over concerns about size, though the superintendent can .
Baker did not say whether there were families requesting to move out of Ripton Elementary School because of its declining enrollment. But in a recent email, she asked families of Ripton students to let the district know in the next two weeks whether they were considering 鈥渃hanges that could impact enrollment further.鈥�
Since both of Ripton鈥檚 remaining classes only just clear class size minimums, it would only take a few families pulling out to further trigger class shutdowns.
鈥淚t feels like, to me, this momentum toward a spiral, where the school becomes unviable,鈥� said board member Jamie McCallum at the meeting. 鈥淎nd that is a really big deal."
Even if next year鈥檚 remaining classes stay intact, Baker warned that enrollment issues are expected to pop up again in future classes 鈥� the following 2026-2027 school year, for example, neither the kindergarten nor fifth grade class is expected to meet enrollment requirements, based on current projections.
Baker added that changes at the state level could impact the district. 鈥淎mong many other changes, proposed state legislation currently includes class size minimums of fifteen,鈥� she wrote in a recent email to parents, adding that those changes likely wouldn鈥檛 go into effect until the 2028-2029 school year.
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