The ConVal Withdrawal Committee will create financial models around the possible withdrawals of both Francestown and Temple from the ConVal district, even though Temple’s withdrawal request could be reversed.
In May, the Temple Select Board asked residents who had signed a petition warrant article requesting a feasibility study for withdrawal from ConVal to attend a meeting about the requirements of the feasibility study process. After no volunteers came forward to serve on the withdrawal committee, the Select Board decided to schedule a special Town Meeting to give voters the option to rescind the petition warrant article and defer Temple’s efforts to withdraw.
The special Town Meeting scheduled for May 27 was canceled after the Select Board learned that the Supervisors of the Checklist are required to meet five weeks in advance of any special Town Meeting, which they had not.
On Tuesday, Jim Kingston, School Board representative from Temple, confirmed that Temple’s supervisors had scheduled a meeting for July 1, paving the way for a rescheduled special Town Meeting. Jim Fredrickson, School Board representative from Sharon, said that given the uncertainty, the Withdrawal Committee’s financial subcommittee would develop models using data for both Temple and Francestown.
Kingston, a member of the financial subcommittee, said the committee would need to use data representing the average cost of special education in each town.
“While it is important to identify the current special education costs, it is more important that we understand what the averages are, so that towns can plan on what funds will be put into a special education trust fund,” Kingston said. “We need to look at our entire population, and we need to understand what the costs are per student in the elementary program. This would be better than looking at a snapshot of right now; today’s number is not the number you want to use for long-term analysis.”
School Board Chair Mike Hoyt said recent state legislation, including removing income limits from Education Freedom Accounts and a proposal for open enrollment statewide, will have unknown impacts on the district’s finances.
“If these towns do withdraw, it won’t take effect until July 2027; it’s better to look at a range of numbers with different scenarios,” he said. “We don’t know how any of these new rules will affect school districts.”
Withdrawal Committee Chair Curtis Hamilton said it had been brought to the board’s attention that the Francestown Supervisors of the Checklist had not met before the Francestown special Town Meeting, which could invalidate the results of that meeting.
On May 4, Francestown special Town Meeting approved a second feasibility study for withdrawal from the ConVal district and a warrant article proposing the town start the process of withdrawing from the school administrative unit. The warrant article regarding the SAU may or may not be binding, with attorneys representing ConVal and Francestown supporting different interpretations of the law.
“I’m not trying to deny the results of the special Town Meeting, as we know the warrant had unanimous support, but there may have been a procedural error,” Hamilton said.
Charlie Pyle, chair of the Francestown Select Board, said the town was investigating whether or not the Supervisors of the Checklist were required to meet.
“According to a verbal conversation our town clerk had with the someone at the office Secretary of State, the supervisor meeting might not have been required. Our lawyer is trying to confirm this, ” Pyle said, adding that “someone in our town must have been aggrieved. If needed, we could hold a second Town Meeting to ratify the first Town Meeting.”
Hamilton said there “were definitely ways to address the issue.”