After months of back and forth over whether Peterborough should force ConVal to study how the town can secede from the school district, the decision is now in voters’ hands.
They will vote May 10 on the petition article that will appear on the ballot.
Peterborough’s deliberative session Tuesday was the last opportunity to debate in a public forum about the thorny subject.
Some residents said the study would provide Peterborough and the whole district with much needed data, as the amount ConVal spends per student is too high, and the district anticipates its student population will decline more in the next decade.
“All I hear is emotion. No data” said Jennifer Stevenson, referring to previous efforts to close or combine schools. “I like this because it will give us data.”
Others saw nothing good coming out of the study.
“It will spell the end of the ConVal School District,” said Gordon Kemp, one of two members of the Budget Committee to not recommend the petition article. “One of the problems in the district now is everyone is interested in what’s in it for me – not what’s good for the district. What’s good for my town?”
The Budget Committee recommends the article 3-2.
The petition article was submitted by a group calling themselves a Committee of Concerned Citizens. They also distributed a handout Tuesday that showed their logic for drafting the article.
“This petition article looks to evaluate Peterborough’s participation in the district as it is presently organized,” the handout reads. “This petition article does not ask that any of the elementary schools be close. It does not ask for consolidation of any elementary or middle school.”
Though the petition requests the School Board perform the study, if voters in Peterborough approve the article, the board must conduct it, according to RSA 195:25. The study must be performed by a committee composed of at least one school board member and one selectman from each of the nine towns in the district.
The committee may appoint other members to it.