ConVal School Board members made their case against three warrant articles on this year’s ballot during a public forum Wednesday night.
Petition Article 7 calls for a cap of $29,000 per student spending in the district. Currently, ConVal spends about $31,000 per student. If the article passes, ConVal would have to cut $2,256,923 from the 2025-2026 operating budget.
“In my 51 years in the district, this is the most devastating proposal I have seen,” School Board Chair Dick Dunning of Peterborough said. “This would eliminate everything that makes ConVal, ConVal.”
According to the board, the cuts would eliminate all athletics, all technology spending, all school supplies, all extracurricular activities such as clubs and teams and all enrichment, including joint programs such as Cornucopia Project and the Harris Center for Conservation Education. Four to five administration positions, 10 to 15 teaching positions and three to four paraprofessional positions would also be eliminated.
“If we cut all of that, it still would not meet this budget,” Dunning said.
None of the signers of the petition warrant article, who are all residents of Dublin, spoke at the meeting. The budget cap warrant article is part of a statewide effort initiated by a nonprofit group called the School District Governance Association of New Hampshire, which states that is mission is “Giving voters a voice by empowering elected school district officials to reclaim control over budgets and curriculum.” The group is based in Grantham.
Board members also spoke out against Articles 8 and 9, which call for approval of the withdrawal of Francestown and Dublin from the ConVal School District. A withdrawal article can pass in one of two ways – with a majority vote across the district supporting it, or 60% support in a town looking to withdraw and 40% across the district as a whole. The two towns requested feasibility studies for withdrawal after a failed attempt by ConVal to consolidate the district’s eight elementary schools into four schools, which could have led the closure of schools in Francestown, Dublin, Bennington and Temple.
ConVal officials stated that district reconfiguration was necessary due to low enrollment and the high cost of running eleven school buildings. The district is currently running at about 40% of capacity, with some total elementary school populations dropping to fewer than 40 students. Voters soundly rejected the proposal, as 45.47% voted in favor when it needed two-thirds approval.
Curtis Hamilton, School Board representative from Greenfield, outlined the district’s case against the withdrawal of either or both towns. The board has stated repeatedly that any withdrawals will cause an increase in taxes for the seven remaining towns because of increased administration costs and decreased revenues. The board has also stated the opinion that it would cost Dublin and Francestown more to run their schools independently and not result in savings for taxpayers.
“When Francestown and Dublin calculated what it will cost to run their schools, they used ConVal’s numbers. ConVal has created strong economies of scale that these small schools will not be able to duplicate,” Hamilton said. “For example, we are able to purchase, technology, diesel, propane and electricity well below market cost. We have buying power; we have resources, and we are able to take on risk that a one-school district would not be able to do.”
Hamilton said ConVal’s special services staff, including art, music, health and physical education teachers, librarians, nurses, school counselors, school psychologists and occupational and speech therapists, travel among the district’s eight elementary schools, spending a few hours a week at each school or as needed according to a student’s IEP.
“Probably the best way to illustrate how the schools in our district are intertwined is to look at the way we share staff,” Hamilton said. “Sharing staff enables us to hire these positions on a full-time basis while ensuring our students have the same access to these vital pieces of an early childhood education.”
Hamilton also detailed the special education responsibilities of the district, which include screening every preschooler in each town for early intervention.
“One the greatest challenges of our district the rising cost and need of special education. Over $15 million, or 25% of our budget, is dedicated to serving this mandated function of our public schools,” Hamilton said. “Sharing this burden throughout our district is vital. A single student with an out-of-district placement can cost hundreds of thousand of dollars. We as a cooperative are able to share and absorb these costs.”
Jim Fredrickson, school board representative from Sharon and chair of the Budget and Property Committee, presented numbers on costs of withdrawal, which would result in three separate school districts. The district claims that increased administrative costs will add over $321,310 to taxpayers.
In New Hampshire, an SAU, or school administrative unit, is responsible for administration for any districts within the SAU, including policy-setting, budgeting, curriculum, compliance with state and federal regulations and business administration, including accounting, payroll and benefits. ConVal has been a single-district SAU since 1967, when it was created. The Francestown School Committee has stated its intention to also withdraw from the SAU in order to eliminate the burden on ConVal’s remaining towns. Staff at the new districts would no longer be part of the Conval Education Association, or union, which negotiates for salary and benefits.
Members of the Francestown School Committee presented rebuttals to the presentation, with multiple members making the case that Francestown would be able to afford and maintain its own elementary school while tuitioning older students into the ConVal middle schools and high school.
“We have done the research into what it takes to run our own district, and we believe we can do it. Mason is an excellent example of a small school that has successfully withdraw from a cooperative district,” said Kevin Pobst, a retired educator and member of the Francestown School Committee.
Carole Monroe, Select Board member from Dublin, spoke for the Dublin Education Advisory Committee, challenging ConVal’s “doom and gloom” outlook and stating that the committee feels Dublin will be able to successfully run its own school, similar to models in Harrisville and Marlborough.
Voters from ConVal’s nine towns will weigh on the warrant articles March 11.