In my opinion, the withdrawal of Dublin and Francestown would be a bad idea for all nine towns of the ConVal School District.
Fifty-eight years ago, our towns considered long and hard as to whether a cooperative school district would benefit each individually and all collectively. Our towns decided yes. The same reasoning of mutual protection and benefit has not changed; it has only become more important.
The term “donor town” has been thrown around quite a bit. It implies these two towns are paying more per child than other towns in our cooperative. This unfortunate term comes from 2018, when the legislature created the SWEPT tax (Statewide Education Property Tax) to address the public school funding crisis.
This tax was not kept locally, as it is now, but was collected at the state level and distributed to school districts in a more equitable manner. The wealthiest districts took the state to court and demanded they keep that tax locally as they did not want to be “donor towns.” Keeping the tax at the state level would have been a good effort at addressing the inequities in public school funding.
Francestown, and particularly Dublin, have adopted “donor town” to speak to their town’s total tax burden. However, they ignore the fact that the individuals in their town pay vastly lower education taxes than their neighboring ConVal towns.
Dublin’s total education tax rate is the lowest in the district. Francestown’s tax rate is the second lowest. In other words, if you were to take a home in Bennington and move it to Dublin, the total education tax rate would be 25% lower.
Our district’s apportionment formula, 50% average daily membership (enrollment) and 50% equalized property value balances the tax burden on the town as a whole with the burden on the individuals therein.
“Donor town” is a very narrow way of looking at equity. Likewise, it ignores the many benefits Dublin and Francestown acquire in being part of a cooperative, like economies of scale, depth of administrative services, the sharing of staff and board representation. There are many in these two towns who see the benefit of staying a part of the ConVal family and don’t wish to leave.
The original reason withdrawal was petitioned on the two town warrants was in response to the School Board’s effort to reconfigure the district. That effort was defeated, and the schools remain open. The bottom line is that should these two towns withdraw, the remaining seven towns will have to pick up the slack and see their taxes increase by 6% to 20%.
In the words of Joe Echevarria, “The best way to predict the future is to create it together.”
Janine Lesser is a Peterborough representative to the ConVal School Board. Her opinions are her own.