The Crotched Mountain Foundation filed a petition Tuesday asking the state help it access nearly $4 million in restricted endowment funds as the nonprofit organization winds down services and staffing at Greenfield’s Crotched Mountain School.
According to the petition, made public by the state Attorney General’s office on Friday, the Crotched Mountain Foundation needs nearly $6 million in order to successfully wind down services at the Greenfield school by Dec. 31 while maintaining safety and continuing to pay staff. The foundation was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services and has another $650,000 in unrestricted funds, leaving about $3.8 million remaining to cover.
The state is expected to answer the petition by Sept. 30.
Crotched Mountain Foundation, which has been providing services for children and adults with disabilities since 1953, announced earlier this summer that it would close the Greenfield campus by the end of the year. The petition outlines the difficulties presented to the Crotched Mountain campus by the COVID-19 pandemic. The campus saw an early COVID outbreak claim the life of one resident; as Crotched worked to institute safety procedures, the campus was hit with staff resignations, rising costs and falling revenues. Eventually, stakeholders agreed the best, safest course of action was shutting down the Crotched Mountain School and all Greenfield’s staffed residential programs with a six-month wind-down process to allow its vulnerable population time to find a safe alternative. The foundation still plans to operate its Community Care, Ready Set Connect, Accessible Sports and Adult Community-Based Services programs.
According to the petition, the Crotched Mountain Foundation met with the Director of Charitable Trusts to ask for access to Crotched’s Endowment Fund, which is an institutional fund that Crotched can only access under the restrictions of NH RSA 292:B. Crotched’s petition argues that the foundation is eligible for the $3.8 million requested from the Endowment Fund because it exhausted all other procedural and financial options before requesting the money, and because the money would go to further the original intent of the endowment.
In a press release issued Friday, Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald wrote that the public comment pe riod on the matter is now open; comments may be submitted to the Director of Charitable Trusts on or before Oct. 1, 2020, by email at charitabletrusts2@doj.nh.gov or by mail to: Director of Charitable Trusts, New Hampshire Department of Justice, 33 Capitol Street Concord, NH 03301.
At the end of August, Gersh Autism expressed interest in taking over the Crotched Mountain campus, but a final decision on that has yet to be made public.