In anticipation of May 10 ballot voting in Peterborough, Antrim is looking at what its options might be for schooling, should Peterborough voters decide to take the first steps in a withdrawal process from the ConVal School District.
ConVal School Board Representatives Rich Cahoon and Crista Salamy, both from Antrim, say they are in very preliminary discussions with three school districts: Hillsborough-Deering, John Stark in Henniker, and Hopkinton. The two are scheduled to meet with the John Stark School Board, which meets monthly at the John Stark Regional High School Library, on May 18 at 6 p.m.
“I can’t imagine Antrim would ever want to voluntarily leave the ConVal School District,” said Cahoon on Friday, but Antrim is taking the petition warrant article calling for the study seriously. “It’s a process Mason went through that resulted in them divorcing Mascenic.”
On the Peterborough ballot is a petition warrant article that would oblige ConVal to study the impact of Peterborough’s withdrawal. The article was submitted by a group called Committee of Concerned Citizens. It’s the first step in a formal process that could lead to the town leaving ConVal. Another article asks for $20,000 to hire a consultant for Peterborough in order to review the school district’s study.
Antrim representatives to the school board say they are being proactive in looking at what their own town’s options are in the event that Peterborough initiates the study.
Salamy, chair of ConVal School Board’s Education Committee, said she’s not sure everyone in Peterborough realizes what the vote on the petition article really means. It’s not just another study, she said.
“We have to be thinking about what our constituents in the north end [of the district] would do,” Salamy said, noting the Antrim Board of Selectmen has OK’d them researching options for the town. “We’re not doing this because we want to.”
The preliminary discussions with Hillsborough-Deering, John Stark and Hopkinton involve building capacity and whether the districts, if they do have capacity, would be interested in adding more, possibly on a tuition basis, Cahoon explained.
“This conversation was ‘only if Peterborough withdrew,’” he said. “We would rather continue to be partners.”
Cahoon and Salamy are not alone in that sentiment. Linda Quintanilha, who represents Bennington on the ConVal School Board, said the breakup of ConVal is the last thing she wants to see.
“It’s been heartbreaking,” she said, personally, to see the petition in Peterborough come forward. Her children attend ConVal schools, and they’ve been thriving. “I hate to see it.”
At the moment, though, Bennginton selectmen are not ready to begin looking at options just yet, Quintanilha said.
“Bennington is not participating in these conversations at this time,” she said. “We’re waiting to see what happens.”
Declining enrollment was one of the reasons Peterborough petition signers cited for pursuing the study. Quintanilha said she is disappointed to see the issue pulling the district apart, rather than bringing it together over creative solutions.
Bernd Foecking, a Dublin representative to the school board, said Dublin has yet to begin talking options, but anticipates the issue will be discussed at the next meeting of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the SAU offices.
“Obviously everybody is anticipating the vote, and a lot depends on it,” he said.