In 1967, nine towns in the Contoocook Valley came together to form a cooperative school district that would raise the quality of their schools to the “…highest standards possible.” This decision was reached after a two-year study that considered numerous factors, including desirable curriculum offerings, geographic proximity, and transportation costs.
Fifty years later, the ConVal School Board still believes that the ConVal cooperative is the best model for providing the children of our nine towns with the best opportunity for a quality education.
The warrant article on Peterborough’s ballot to study withdrawal from the ConVal School District did not come from the school district or the school board; it was a petition warrant article from a group of Peterborough residents who refer to themselves as the Committee of Concerned Citizens.
If approved by Peterborough voters on May 10, state law requires that a comprehensive study and plan for Peterborough’s withdrawal must be conducted by the district and completed within 180 days. If the committee’s recommendation is to withdraw from the existing cooperative, the recommendation and plan must be submitted to the N.H. State Board of Education for approval by November 2016.
The plan must also include a schedule, as required under current state law, for Peterborough to purchase all existing district land and school buildings located in Peterborough. Preliminary estimates put this amount at tens of millions of dollars, not including materials, furniture, technology and equipment.
Existing school district contracts such as transportation would also have to be renegotiated. Once approved by the Board of Education, the article for withdrawal must be placed on the school district ballot in March of 2017. If the article is passed by district voters, the effective date of the withdrawal would be July 1, 2018, and the entire process will take two years, essentially preventing the district from moving forward with accomplishing current goals contained within the districts’ Strategic Plan.
Over the past 15 months, the school board, in concert with ConVal administration, developed a comprehensive strategic plan as a road map for the next five years. This plan was developed with input from staff, parents, students, and nearly 1,000 district residents. It includes curriculum and instructional improvements, considerations for future district configuration, capital improvements, and the expansion of community partnerships.
If the petition article to conduct a withdrawal study is passed by the Peterborough voters, major portions of the strategic plan will be delayed by at least two years, while the district completes the withdrawal study and plan.
This delay will prevent the district from accomplishing specific goals of the plan, such as a renovations to the science labs at ConVal High School, as well as other capital improvements to ConVal schools. In addition, the existing curriculum renewal/improvement cycle will be put on hold, as will the expansion of community partnerships, and considerations for future district configuration.
Given historical changes in property values, enrollment and state aid, each towns’ percent of contribution to the total funding of the school District has been relatively constant.
In the accompanying graph are the percentages that each town contributed in 1986, and this most recent fiscal year.
(To see the annual percentages for the entire period, please visit our website).
Recognizing that some action must be taken to guarantee the ConVal School District’s ability to continue to provide a high-quality education, the ConVal School Board recently defined the challenge that lays ahead:
An excellent education, as outlined in the Strategic Plan, includes providing guaranteed, viable curriculum that is equitable in terms of learning opportunities and available services. Our current organizational structure poses significant challenges to the district’s ability to provide every child with an excellent and equitable education.
We still believe that the existing membership of the ConVal School District is best for our children and we are confident that together we can rise to the challenge of creating a solution that continues to provide our children with a high-quality education.
Editor’s note: The ConVal School approved this statement at its meeting Tuesday, with two abstentions by Peterborough representatives Richard Dunning and Thomas Kelly. The other members of the board are Crista Salamy and Rich Cahoon, of Antrim; Linda Quintanilha, of Bennington; Bernd Foecking, of Dublin; Stephan Morissey, of Francestown; Chair Myron Steere, of Greenfield; Pierce Rigrod, of Hancock; Kristen Reilly and Janine Lesser, of Peterborough; Gary Backstrom, of Sharon; and David Martz, of Peterborough.