School consolidations and closures are surging because of shrinking enrollment. Communities in the Berkshires and Marlborough, Vermont have experienced this in recent years.
Read the full transcript below:
Sam Dingman:
This is WAMC's Northeast Notebook. I'm Sam Dingman.
David Holzapfel:
However much I am saddened by the fact that the school had to close, it's reality, and it was becoming an expensive reality.
Sam Dingman:
Public school closures across the country are surging. Low birth rates and lack of affordable housing options are causing buildings to shutter. Parents with limited incomes are struggling to find their kids a good education. Today, we'll examine the impacts of the closures on two public schools: one in the Berkshires, another in Marlborough, Vermont. That's coming up on Northeast Notebook.
Abigail Ayala: Mi nombre es Abigail Ayala.
Translator: My name is Abigail Ayala.
Abigail Ayala: This is my first year in this school.
Sam Dingman: On April 9, 2026, parents of students at the Morningside Community School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, lined up at the microphone to speak against the planned closure of the elementary school. Abigail Ayala spoke to the Pittsfield School Committee with the help of a translator.
Abigail Ayala: Closing the school is going to be really hard for all the students, and it's going to stop the development of each of them in the transition between schools, take away from the friends, and all these transitions is going to be really difficult a process for the kids.
Sam Dingman: Parent Charlie Gordon also spoke up during that April meeting.
Charlie Gordon: My youngest boy, he's nine years old, and he's on the autism spectrum, and I think changing him from where he's going right now would be very detrimental to him. He is terrified of getting on the bus, and you know, for us, just transfer transportation. I work all day, and I just there's I think that the schools should remain open.
Sam Dingman: Days after parents and other city residents pleaded to keep Morningside Community School open, the Pittsfield School Committee voted to close it at the end of the academic year. According to the district, the decision to close the school in one of the city's most under-resourced communities was driven by student performance, the condition of the building, and ensuring a beneficial learning environment and equitable access to resources, but it's also part of a pattern that's being seen across the Northeast as school districts face declining enrollment, aging infrastructure, and other funding challenges.
Greg Sukiennik: Here's the tale of Morningside Community School.
Sam Dingman: Greg Sukiennik is a reporter for the Berkshire Eagle, and as Greg points out, Morningside was not your typical K-5 elementary school.
Greg Sukiennik: The community school label is important. That's not just a name. The idea was that they would also provide community services such as health screenings as a central hub for for meetings and for community organizations because these are two of the more economically disadvantaged disadvantaged neighborhoods in the city of Pittsfield. So Morningside and West Side now Conti were built with an open concept, which is to say that there are not individual classrooms in a wing. Instead, there's like one wing that would hold the entire third grade, another wing that would hold the fourth grade. So yes, so it was a growing concept in the 60s and 70s, but it proved unworkable.
Sam Dingman: And as Greg puts it, in the era of student testing with an antiquated, some might say failed concept of a building layout paired with the demands and realities of a high needs neighborhood, the decision was made to close Morningside and move the students and funding to the city's other elementary schools.
I mean, if I'm hearing you right, Greg, there's a lot of really critical factors to the Morningside as an example in this story. But one of them is that on top of all the broader cultural and demographic factors that are pushing the overall energy, not just in Massachusetts but all over the country, towards closing and consolidating schools, we have this issue at Morningside of, according to the standardized testing model, low performance and underperformance, and I would imagine from a state budget standpoint that complicates the question even more of what money should be going to what schools and and what kids.
Greg Sukiennik: Well, in talking to to parents and and families and educators in Morningside. On the last day in June, some were were sad that the school was closing because they felt that you know for all of its difficulties that Morningside was a true community hub.
Morningside is one of that's the Tyler Street neighborhood. For those of you who might know Pittsfield, it is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city. It's also economically one of the most challenged neighborhoods in the city, but for all of its challenges, Morningside was proud of the fact that it was an accepting and diverse place, and that its teachers worked really hard to try to overcome the physical limitations of the building and provide the best education they could.
So some teachers were sad that they're losing this, and some community members are also sad that they're losing this hub, but others, you know, had hope that okay, if my kid's going to Allendale or Capeless or Egremont or Williams, those are schools with walls and doors, and basically there's a balance, there's kind of a trade-off here that there's a less distractible environment, but our really diverse kids are going into a more homogenous neighborhoods, and how is that going to work?
And our our kids are our kids going to feel welcomed in this new in this new situation where their friends are are scattered across three other elementary schools, and they're meeting children who, other than kids who play sports, might not know, and who are very different have very different life experiences from them. So the city schools are really focused on trying to create culture from the word go.
Sam Dingman: And now, with the new school year underway, it remains to be seen how Pittsfield Public Schools will meet new challenges and build a culture for students facing a new reality in a new school building. To get a greater understanding of how a school building closure impacts local communities, we go north across the state line into southern Vermont. Vermont governs schools differently from Massachusetts. In fact, Vermont is currently at a crossroads as it seeks to transform and consolidate its education funding system. But there are common impacts from the closure of a community hub. I spoke with David Holzapfel, a longtime resident of Marlborough, Vermont.
David Holzapfel: I was a school bus driver. I was on the school board after I retired from teaching for four years, and I've been a resident in Marlborough since 1969.
Sam Dingman: Like Morningside Community School in Pittsfield, Marlboro Elementary School also closed its doors at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. David remembers a time decades ago when things in rural Western New England were different than today.
David Holzapfel: I mean, there were people who were moving to town for the school, its reputation in the state and and elsewhere. So there was and and there were also students who were tuitioning in from other towns around. It was a vibrant educational community.
Sam Dingman: But over the years, as the town's population shrank, so too did class size. As WCAX reported in March, as residents voted to close the school, it enrolled only 52 students. Its largest class had just eight kids. Another educational center, Marlboro College, closed in 2020 amid low enrollment and financial strain, Marlboro Elementary students were given a choice to attend schools in surrounding communities. But as things change for students, David says there's also a significant effect on the community.
David Holzapfel: One of the ways in which adults in a community get to know each other is through their kids and through activities and things that happen at an elementary school, so friendships develop, connections develop, and it's really through the kids at the school, and that you know bake sales and all all the sorts of things that schools do really are the pulse of of the community.
Sam Dingman: Northeast Notebook is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. This episode was produced by our executive producer Lucas Willard. Our editor is Diane DeVore, music by Eduardo Rivera. Consider subscribing to Northeast Notebook wherever you get your podcasts, and if you like the show, take a second to rate and review. It really does help others find us. I'm your host, Sam Dingman. Thank you for listening.
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