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Monadnock Ledger-Transcript - Stories of the Year: Crotched Mountain School's crucible results in school remaining open


Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
Published: 12/23/2020 3:48:19 PM
The Crotched Mountain School in Greenfield underwent a tumultuous year in 2020: COVID-19 nearly stressed the financially struggling institution to closure, before a new organization stepped in to purchase the 650 acre mountaintop operation and keep providing services for people with disabilities.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit Crotched Mountain early, infecting three residents and 11 staff members in late March, which resulted in the death of one resident, a 46-year-old man with significant disabilities and a history of respiratory complications.
Like many other longstanding entities, the pandemic’s financial stressors proved to be too much for the institution, which had been struggling financially for many years. The Crotched Mountain Foundation’s Board of Directors announced their intent to close the campus by the end of the year in late June, prompting shock and grief from families of students, current and past staff members, and the greater community. At the time, the campus employed just over 300 people and served 79 students and 26 adults in the educational and residential programs, according to campus officials. The institution was founded in 1953, originally to support people with polio. At the height of its activity when the specialty hospital was operating on campus, it employed just over 900 staff. Crotched Mountain Foundation CEO Ned Olney said he’d been approached by out-of-state organizations providing special education or support for adults with disabilities looking to purchase the campus by the middle of July, but the future remained uncertain and students and residents continued to relocate until the end of August, when New York-based Gersh Autism announced its intent to purchase the facility and keep it open. Gersh took over all operations of the campus on Nov. 1 and resumed recruiting new students, at which point the campus population was down to just 40 students, with an unspecified number of staff layoffs due to the downsizing.

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