Claremont Crisis 2.0: Teacher Shortage Threatens Middle School Opening; SAU 6 Has 68 Vacancies

By Damien Fisher, NH Journal

Just one year after a $5 million financial disaster nearly prevented Claremont schools from opening, the dysfunctional district is facing a new threat: a severe staffing shortage that could prevent its middle school from opening.

New Superintendent Tim Broadrick, who will be paid $182,500 in the first year of his contract, has informed parents and community members that the shortage of teachers in SAU 6 is dire.

“I am of the genuine concern that there may not be enough full-time educators at Claremont Middle School (CMS) to safely open the school this fall,” Broadrick said in an email last week announcing a new hire. “In a public meeting during May or June, I implored anyone in the community who was willing to work at the middle school, and who might be eligible to become certified in any way, to please reach out to talk about the possibility of working at CMS.”

CMS, which is expected to have 330 students this coming school year, is still advertising 10 teaching openings. As of Monday, the Claremont School District was advertising a total of 68 vacancies, 30 of them teaching positions.

Broadrick began as superintendent July 1 under what is essentially a two-year turnaround contract. He will receive $182,500 in his first year and $187,500 in his second, along with a $2,250 monthly housing stipend in exchange for declining the district’s health insurance.

Broadrick previously led the Alton, Barnstead, and Prospect Mountain school districts. He told Claremont officials that his team had dealt with a previous financial crisis in Barnstead involving embezzlement, an unqualified auditor, and a forensic review.

He did not respond to NHJournal’s request for comment Monday.

The Claremont district canceled contracts for 19 newly hired teachers last year and laid off another 20 staffers as it grappled with a multimillion-dollar deficit caused by years of poor record-keeping, apparent administrative incompetence, and little oversight from the elected school board.

The district had recorded and spent federal grant money it either failed to request for reimbursement or could not document. It also overstated revenue, failed to record some liabilities, and allowed annual audits to fall years behind schedule.

The financial mismanagement forced the district to close Bluff Elementary School, one of its three elementary schools, during the last school year as another cost-cutting measure.

A forensic audit covering the district’s finances from 2019 through 2025 is underway.

The staffing crisis began last year when teachers responded to the financial fiasco and emergency cuts by taking jobs in other districts. Broadrick is now looking for people to fill the vacancies, and he is not limiting his options to certified teachers.

Broadrick is open to hiring people without teaching credentials and helping them obtain certification while working. He told the school board last month that he is also open to creative staffing arrangements to get the middle school open.

Broadrick pitched what he called a “mathematical approach” that focuses on the ratio of students to teachers rather than whether every teacher is certified in the subject being taught.

“The mathematical approach ignores teachers’ areas of certification,” Broadrick wrote in his report to the board. “If the Board were to insist on only certified math teachers teaching math standards, for example, then we might need 28-32 teachers to create a traditional, subject-based schedule.”

Critics note the irony of a school district abandoning math certification standards after incompetent calculations and years of delinquent fiscal audits helped produce its current crisis.

Claremont also needs a new financial leader to continue sorting out its books. Matthew Angell, the financial expert brought in last year to salvage the district, worked to reduce the estimated $5 million deficit to approximately $1 million by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

But Angell will not be finishing the reclamation project. Soon after Broadrick took the reins, Angell abruptly resigned.

“Mr. Angell has decided that he wishes for us to find a permanent business administrator sooner rather than later, and he is ending his interim engagement with Claremont,” Broadrick told the community in a July 23 statement.

Angell did not respond to a request for comment Monday. He had signed on for another year as the SAU 6 comptroller, but unexpectedly took a leave of absence while Broadrick was away on a scheduled vacation. Angell then ended his employment with the district effective immediately.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.