The Francestown School Committee will present their plan for educating the town’s children if Francestown succeeds in withdrawing from the ConVal school district at the next meeting of the Withdrawal Committee.
The meeting will be held Sept. 11 at 6 p.m. in the SAU 1 conference room.
“We’ll be ready,” said Francestown School Committee member Laura Mafera.
Charlie Pyle, chair of the Francestown Select Board and a member of the Francestown School Committee, said ConVal “has done great job of providing more details” on the cost of running Francestown Town Elementary School independently from the ConVal district. Pyle credited Superintendent Ann Forrest and ConVal Business Administrator Neal Cass for their efforts.
ConVal is also formulating numbers for how costs would change in the future if Francestown withdraws from SAU 1.
“We are in a better position to continue toward clarity on defining exactly what costs can be reduced at the district level if Francestown were to withdraw. These costs are sometimes easy to identify, sometimes not,” Pyle said.
Representatives from the Francestown School Committee have repeatedly stated that the town’s education plan will mostly likely call for Francestown’s middle and high school students to tuition back in to the ConVal district after elementary school.
The town plans to run FES as in independent school district, similar to the model used in Mason, which left the Mascenic school district in 2009.
Pyle said that certain aspects of the plan “will be up to negotiation.”
If withdrawal is approved by voters in all nine ConVal towns, Francestown would create a new Francestown School Board, which would then negotiate the terms of the withdrawal with ConVal.
The ConVal Withdrawal Committee has scheduled to hold the vote on Francestown’s withdrawal proposal on Thursday, October 2.
“That will give everyone enough time to consider Francestown’s proposal and weigh the information presented to us,” said Curtis Hamilton, chair of the Withdrawal Committee.
After the vote, the Withdrawal Committee will present their decision to the New Hampshire State Board of Education.
If Francestown does not agree with the ConVal school board’s decision, the town can submit a minority opinion to the state Department of Education.
In 2024, the DOE granted both Francestown and Dublin the right to take the issue to ConVal voters. Both proposals failed by a narrow margin at the polls.
If Francestown’s proposal for withdrawal is approved again this year by the DOE, a warrant article for the town’s withdrawal will be on the ConVal ballot again in March.
Dublin did not request a second feasibility study in 2025.
Temple rescinds warrant article for withdrawal
On Aug. 18, the Town of Temple held a Special Town Meeting to vote on whether to rescind a 2025 petition warrant article proposing Temple request a feasibility study for withdrawal from the ConVal School District.
Voters previously approved the warrant article, but the Temple Select Board scheduled the Special Town Meeting after the petitioners of the warrant article failed to meet the state mandated requirements of the withdrawal and feasibility study, including convening a withdrawal study committee and formulating an alternative plan for educating the children of Temple.
Voters at the Special Town Meeting approved rescinding the warrant article with only one voice in opposition.
“We just need to determine if Temple’s recent vote to rescind the warrant article means we do not need to present a decision about Temple to the State Board of Education,” Hamilton said. “We will find that out.”