The ConVal School District was built for 3,000-plus students and has less than 2,000, with predictions for even fewer.
Provoked by a consultant’s view on closing a beloved elementary school, Dublin’s answer is to leave for grades K to five and tuition grades six to 12 to ConVal, Keene or Conant.
Dublin’s plan to not spend more doesn’t seem to work. Their public notice was in Tuesday’s Ledger-Transcript. The main points were:
— Dublin spends $4.3 million to educate 137 kids (divide $4.3 million by 137; the result is around $31,400, not the $35,000 per child I have heard discussed).
— Educate their 62 kids in grades K to five at Dublin Elementary School.
— Tuition their 75 sixth- to 12th-grade children to ConVal and in the second year move sixth-graders to Dublin.
— Spend $2.4 million to run the Dublin school (just under $39,000 per child; $2.4 million divided by 62).
— Tuition the older 75 children to ConVal for around $27,000 each or about $2 million.
— Spend about $200,000 for SAU services.
Even with optimistic projections on tuition and SAU costs, their plan totals $ 4.6 million, not the $4.3 million they say they are spending. A total of $4.6 million divided by 137 kids is around $33,500 per child.
It is critical for the School Board to convene some kind of commission to right-size the ConVal budget to its student size while exploring innovative ways to improve the school experience for our children. Nothing should be off the table, but community leaders from all ConVal towns should be at the table.
If I had kids in Dublin, I would like to know where they will be going, and the real cost of this change, before I voted yes.
David Bernstein
Peterborough