Hiring part-time staff and contracting for services currently provided by the ConVal School District will be a consideration for Francestown and Temple if the towns decide to withdraw from the ConVal district, according to the ConVal School Board.
Francestown residents approved articles at Town Meeting May 3 supporting the town’s withdrawal from ConVal and possibly from the SAU. The town’s Select Board recently ruled that the results of that vote were valid, even though the town’s supervisors of the checklist had not met within 90 days of the meeting, because a supervisors meeting is only required for an election.
This is Francestown’s second attempt to withdraw. In March, a request to withdraw drew 81% approval in town, well above the 60% required, but only 38% across the district, short of the required 40%
In Temple, Town Meeting voted in March to approve a petition warrant article to study separation from ConVal, but after only three signatories showed up at a May 13 Select Board meeting about moving the matter forward, the board scheduled a special Town Meeting for May 27 on whether to reverse the withdrawal. However, the meeting was canceled because the Supervisors of the Checklist required more notice.
Earlier this month, Temple Select Board member Bill Ezell said the supervisors require 90 days of notice for a special meeting, and “It’ll probably be September before it gets done.” For that reason, Withdrawal Committee members said Thursday night that they would only discuss Francestown.
During the meeting, ConVal Superintendent Ann Forrest presented a list of staff currently shared by Francestown Elementary School. Full-time staff at FES who do not travel to other buildings in the district include a teaching principal, a half-time administrative assistant, and teachers for kindergarten and first grade, first and second grade and third and fourth grade. It is estimated FES will need a full-time special education teacher and a part-time paraprofessional in 2025-2026. FES currently has 42 students enrolled.
Forrest emphasized the difficulties the ConVal district is having hiring part-time staff.
“What we are finding right now is that special ed and para jobs are getting harder and harder to fill. A lot of these positions are open, and it is a challenge to find people willing to teach among multiple schools. We see a lot more turnover in those roles, because teachers would rather teach at one place, so when they get the chance to teach somewhere full time, they usually take that chance,” Forrest said. “Counselors and special ed are particularly hard.”
Staff currently shared between FES and other ConVal elementary schools and which are included in FES building budget include a 0.17 full-time-equivalent art teacher, a 0.17 FTE music teacher, 0.17 FTE library/media, half-time wellness (physical education and health), and a 0.33 FTE school counselor .
Forrest explained that the amount of time a nurse spends in each building is dependent on the medical needs of the students in each school.
“Each school has a health office delegate who is trained to administer first aid, give CPR, and has AED training, and that person is always in the building,” Forrest said.
Staff positions which are currently not included in FES building budget include a 0.1 FTE social worker, a 0.2 FTE school psychologist and an occupational therapist and a speech language pathologist whose time is based on the needs of students.
Additional staff positions which support the elementary schools but fall under the ConVal budget include the elementary special education coordinator.
“Francestown will need to think about who is going to be the FES special education coordinator. Who is going to sit in the special education meetings? Those decisions have very significant cost; you need someone who really understands special education. It is a very critical position,” Forrest said.
Although the committee only discussed Francestown, the school board has also compiled numbers for Temple in case the town does decide to withdraw. Temple Elementary School full-time staff for 2025-2026 includes a teaching principal, an administrative assistant, teachers for kindergarten and first grade and grades two through four, one special educator and two special educations paraprofessionals. Temple Elementary School currently has a total of 27 students enrolled.
TES shares a 0.17 full-time-equivalent art teacher, a 0.17 FTE music teacher, 0.17 FTE library/media, half-time wellness (physical education and health) and a 0.33 FTE school counselor with other schools.
Forrest also presented what she said was a partial list of services and products which are paid for by the district and provided to all the district schools, including multiple software platforms for human resources, assessments, grades and attendance, content filtering, academic services such as reading intervention, the food service payment system, professional development evaluation, staff absence management, a business administrator, managing data privacy, school messenger, event ticketing and budgeting.
The board also said that any new districts will have to provide transportation for all students in their towns, including any students receiving special education services outside of the elementary school and students who have become unhoused during the course of the school year.