THE BACKGROUND (for complete saga read
Part I, Part II, & Part
III)
Surry, New Hampshire (pop. 673, per 2000 census), saved to build
its little elementary school following World War II, when most
NH small towns had difficulty finding teachers. The new little
school consolidated one-room schoolhouses into a 2-room Surry Village
School. In 1960, to assure high school space for Surry students,
the town joined in to form the Monadnock Cooperative School District.
All was well for 40+ years until Surry heard that the Monadnock
School Board planned to close their little school. Residents approached
the Cooperative School Board which, in response, voted to guarantee
a year's notice should Surry School ever be closed. Then...weeks
later, the school was closed. No matter that there were no hearings
in Surry. No matter that people of Surry almost unanimously wanted
their village school to stay open. No matter that residents were
guaranteed a years notice.
The Surry Village School's doors shut and the new plan has Surry
children bussed an hour in one direction (grades 1-3) and an hour
in the other direction (grades K and 4-6). School Board leaders
defended the decision saying it was well thought out and in the
best interest of Surry children. But parents and residents were
so outraged that 200 signed a court petition. The Cooperative District
School Board has not reconsidered. As of November 2005, Surry Village
School sits empty while a small revolution is brewing over local
control of education for Surry's children.
The Saga Continues, Part IV: Surry Defends its School & Children
November 2005: Two Surry groups have formed--a group organizing
a charter school so Surry children can come back home to school
and a group just plain fed up with the School Board's disregard
for Surry and initiating withdrawal from the Monadnock Cooperative
School District. That a group outside Surry can fully disregard
the desires of a town for its own children, challenges our understanding
of local control.
A special Surry town meeting was held 10/27/05. Voters overwhelmingly
decided they wanted Surry School re-opened. The town is determined
to step in and safeguard the education of their children. A group
has formed--the SEEC (Surry Education Evaluation Committee)--to
study and evaluate withdrawal options.
One resident wrote:
"Surry is not an attractive community for families with our
local school closed. And our student numbers are dwindling, due
to families moving from Town. Busing children for long rides to
other towns is a hardship for the children, as well as parents
who have to drive those distances for accessing their children
for appointments and school activities. Being asked year after
year, to provide tax dollars without adequate voting power for
our School Board Rep is distasteful! ('Taxation without Representation'
-- I believe we fought a war about that same policy in 1775!) A
town as wonderful as Surry needs the elementary school as center
where the community lives and grows."
A second group in Surry is designing a charter school proposal
for grades K-5 or K-8. Meanwhile, one official estimates that with
the Surry School sitting vacant and the children bussed to other
towns an hour away, the Monadnock School Board saved less than
$10,000. If true, the $10,000 saved could have been raised by every
Surry resdient pitching in less than $17.00. The School Board's
refusal to work with Surry residents or provide the promised year's
notice has created such a strong reaction that this "cooperative" school
district may pull apart (uncooperatively).
One wonders if re-opening Surry School has been considered, now
that the Board can see the strength of feeling of this entire town
about its school being closed.
How will this saga end? The Surry Village School sits vacant in
Surry while children are bussed hither and yon. Will the out-of-town
Board turn over the keys to Surry's School? Will the larger cooperative
district reconsider? Will little Surry children have another rally
and scream "Honk if You Want to Save Our Surry School!?" Will
other small districts be inspired to reclaim decision-making for
educating their town's children? Will townspeople of Surry reclaim
the school they literally built with their own hands for town children?
Editor's note: Please see 2 responses we received--the 1st saying
the NHCSR info was incorrect and the 2nd saying the info distributed
by the district was incorrect.
From CL, Surry
November 17th
I live in Surry, have a child that went to Surry School, and was
on the subcommittee that studied the declining enrollment situation
in the “Northern School” towns of Surry, Sullivan and Gilsum. Here
are some actual facts:
-Some children go to Gilsum which is 15 minutes from Surry, some
children go to Sullivan, which is another 15 minutes away in the
same direction. Most parents work in Keene, which is also 15 minutes
from Sullivan or Gilsum.
-The recommendation to send Gilsum’s and Surry’s 1,2,3rd graders
to join Sullivan’s children of the same age in Sullivan and the
recommendation to send Surry’s and Sullivan’s K, 4, 5 6th graders
to join children of those ages in Gilsum was made because that
is the ONLY way to have enough children to make up classes of single
grades. Our research found that given the current federal and state
standards, single grade classrooms is the best education for students.
With the declining birth rate, and about 1/3 of Surry’s elementary
school children being educated in private schools or at home, there
are simply not enough Surry children in each grade to have a sound
educational program. For instance, in the 2004-5 school year, there
were only 2 grade-6 students in Surry.
-There are only 2 families who moved out of Surry related to school
issues. One moved out 3-4 years ago, and one last year—both well
before the School Committee consolidated the northern schools.
They moved out because they did not want their children to go to
the overcrowded high school, and felt it was better for their children
to go to elementary school with their future high school peers.
-This year, there are 27 Surry children in K-6. With the declining
enrollment, and Surry houses being sold to retired people, it is
not reasonable to expect the number of Surry children in the public
school to increase. Having looked carefully at census data for
the last 40 years, consulted with our local regional planning commission,
and the State Office for Planning, we have concluded that there
will be a decline in the under age-17 population of 10-20% every
decade in the northern schools. That means that in 2010, we expect
to have 24-26 Surry public elementary children at most, in 2020,
21-24 children. In many districts, this would be one classroom.
Is it educationally appropriate to go back to the one-room school
house model?
-Since the 80’s, the pattern in Surry has been for more and more
children to be educated outside of the public schools because the
townspeople are affluent. So the numbers above are probably higher
than the reality will be.
-There is a Surry e-mail list which has had the postings of all
the school committee meetings when Surry School was the topic.
That is how I knew to attend the school committee meetings. At
the beginning and end of each school committee meeting, there is
an opportunity for public comment. Surry people could have come
to these meetings and voiced their objections. Surry has known
for at least 3 years that enrollment was a problem and that closing
the school was a possibility. It is the duty of the citizens to
make themselves aware of what their representatives are doing in
their name.
-The School Committee is a group of hardworking, employed full-time
people, many of whom are parents of school children in the district.
They are not the evil-doers but people who give up at least one
night a week to work for the best interests of all the children.
They are not lawyers, not educational professionals, not savvy
politicians. They are simply doing the best they can, and like
all of us, may not always do everything the best way that it could
be done. They took it to heart when the teachers in the triple
grade classrooms provided the evidence that triple grades were
not working well for the students. They felt is in the best interests
of the children to find another solution, and that solution was
consolidating into single-grade classrooms. They felt it was detrimental
to the children to continue triple grades another year in order
to give the townspeople a year for transition. You want to know
what the townspeople wanted a year of transition for? To find another
place to send their children besides the public school. Surry parents
can work on that this year, while their children are being educated
in a better way. I believe the school committee has fulfilled its
mission to meet the needs of the children, although the town seems
to want the school committee to meet the needs of the adults.
-The declining enrollment is a national trend. This past summer,
I visited the little town of Everglades City in Florida, which
looks to be smaller than Surry. A resident told me that they will
have to close their school at some point too. The closest town
they can send their children to is Naples, 30 miles away. Talk
about a bus ride!
-The Surry representative on the school committee has a habit
of walking out of meetings when the meeting is not doing his bidding—he
was on the subcommittee, and walked out then too.
We welcome your comments
Received November 20th,
from a Surry parrent asking not to be identified
Here are the real facts.
There were 9 grade 6 students in the 2004-05 school at Surry School,
not 2!!
Yes, I am sure Surry is only 15 minutes from Gilsum in some areas,
but that all depends on where you live and what part of Gilsum
you are going to. If we are talking about the students of Surry
going to Gilsum School, the writer is very mistaken, especially
now that we have to go through Keene instead of taking River Road.
There are many of families not living in the village and driving
a car directly to the school from our homes and going the speed
limit, it takes 20 to 25 minutes going over the River Road, longer
going through Keene.
I am so sick of hearing how detrimental it was to the children's
education that they were being taught in triple grade classrooms.
I have yet to see any proof that it wasn't working in Surry. My
children had the best grades yet and all of the other Surry parents
I spoke with agreed !! Perhaps it wasn't working in Gilsum or Sullivan,
but was that really the fault of triple grades????
As for Surry parents and residents being informed of all of the
meetings taking place, that was only the case for people on the
Surry email list. If parents didn't know about this list, which
included many people, how could you get an email? Many parents
attended some of the meetings, but we were reassured that we would
have a one year transition, so not everyone attended all of them.
Interesting they closed the school AFTER the school year closed
for the summer!
We shall see. We welcome your comments
The Saga of The Surry Village School, Part I: The Surprise Vote
The Saga of The Surry Village School, Part II: The Town Goes to
Court & Children Rally
The Saga of the Surry Village School, Part III: But Was There A
Vote?--The Facts
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