Bloomingdale Elementary to possibly close permanently

SARANAC LAKE | The Saranac Lake Central School District (SLCSD) could potentially be closing Bloomingdale Elementary School. The Board of Education will officially vote on its closure on Feb. 25, following a public hearing scheduled for Feb. 4 at 5:30 p.m. in the high school library, during which taxpayers can comment. SLCSD Superintendent Diane Fox will also share a formal recommendation on how the Board of Education should proceed with this sensitive but essential decision. "Conversations around school building closures are hard in a close-knit community like ours, and I don't underestimate that. As superintendent, my responsibility is to look at the whole district and plan responsibly for the years ahead," she said in an email. "This isn't about valuing one school over another. It's about making thoughtful choices now so we can continue to offer strong educational and extracurricular opportunities for our students, while also being good stewards of taxpayer dollars over time." Discussions started back in the late 2010s due to the rising cost of operating three school buildings and the steady decline in student enrollment, which dipped below 1,000 for the first time in decades this year. The district decided this year to shift students in grades 3, 4, and 5 to Petrova Elementary, leaving Bloomingdale as a K-2 school building. If Bloomingdale Elementary School were to close, the remaining students would be moved to Petrova Elementary, which also now houses the middle school. Either the middle school could remain there, or it could be moved to the high school, making Petrova a K-6 school and the high school a 7-12 school. "We would all love to see Bloomingdale stay open; however, this is only one piece of a bigger puzzle for us," said SLCSD Board of Education President Mark Farmer. "There are a number of other factors that are going on here." For instance, the district is anticipating a 20% increase in health insurance premiums. Also, under a new state mandate that's set to go into effect in 2027, all new school buses purchased in New York must be zero-emission by 2027, and all school buses in operation must be electric by 2035. Closing Bloomingdale Elementary School would mean one fewer bus run for the district. "Saranac Lake has the largest geographic bus district in the state. With declining enrollment, we don't have the same number of kids on our buses, and electric buses don't give us that same ability to cover our geographic distance that our current buses do," Farmer said. "We've done the study. We cannot keep Bloomingdale open and only run one bus district-wide." E-buses are not only more expensive than the district's current diesel buses, but the district will also need to either update its current bus garage with chargers or open a new one. If the elementary school does close, the district plans to keep the building and use it for other purposes, such as a bus garage, a daycare facility, or temporary housing for those looking to relocate to the area for work, since there's room for solar panels. "There's no definitive answer as to what we're doing next with Bloomingdale, but what I can tell you is that the Board of Education has zero plans to sell it or let it fall into disrepair," Farmer said. "While we don't have that answer yet, we're doing all we can to be in a position to make good decisions for our students, staff, taxpayers, and community." This isn't the first time SLCSD has had to face a decision like this one either, as it has closed the Lake Colby Elementary School in 2011 and its Lake Clear School in 2009, both for the same reason — state regulations and mandates that make running a public school a very expensive endeavor, and declining student enrollment due to out-migration and high home prices. "We could choose to do nothing, but that doesn't seem very productive at this point; it won't solve the problems that we're going to see coming in the next few years," Farmer said. "This is not a statement on the quality of education that we're getting out of Bloomingdale or, in any way, a statement about how we value it; it's simply a piece of a larger reconfiguration puzzle trying to meet a lowering student population and fiscal pressures that are coming from things out of our control." For more information or updates, visit slcs.org.

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Bloomingdale Elementary to possibly close permanently

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