Francestown to submit minority opinion after withdrawal request is turned down

The ConVal Withdrawal Committee voted down Francestown’s second request to pursue   withdrawal from the ConVal School District on Thursday, Oct. 2. 

According to state law, Francestown can now submit a minority opinion to the state Department of Education advocating for the town’s desire to bring withdrawal to voters in the next ConVal election. In 2024, the Feasibility Study Committee rejected both Francestown’s and Dublin’s withdrawal plans, but both towns submitted minority opinions to the DOE in November 2024, which were approved, allowing the towns to bring the issue to ConVal voters.

The Francestown School committee has stated its intention to submit a minority opinion to the DOE and bring the issue to voters again in March 2026.

The Withdrawal Committee was split 8-6 on Thursday’s vote, with eight voting against and six in favor.

Voting against Francestown’s bid to pursue withdrawal were Bill Kennedy, Select Board member from Peterborough; Tom Burgess, School Board representative from Peterborough; Curtis Hamilton, School Board representative from Greenfield;  George Rainier,  Select Board member from Greenfield; Mike Hoyt, School Board representative from Bennington, Jim Cleary, Select Board member from Bennington;  Dan Harper, School Board representative from Hancock; and John Robertson, Select Board member from Antrim.

Voting in favor of Francestown’s request were Jim Kingston, School Board representative from Temple; Charles Pyle, Select Board member from Francestown;  Tom Kirlin,  School Board representative for Francestown; Sarah Edwards, School Board representative from Antrim, Betsy Villaume, Select Board member from Hancock, and Blake Minckler, Select Board member from Dublin. 

The town faced a nearly identical situation one year ago, when the prior year’s withdrawal committee — then called the Feasibility Study Committee — voted against Francestown’s and Dublin’s requests to bring withdrawal proposals to voters. 

Francestown’s previous attempt to withdraw from ConVal failed by just 80 votes districtwide. In March 2025, both Francestown and Dublin put forward warrant articles for withdrawal. Francestown received 81% approval from voters in town but only 38% districtwide, while Dublin’s article drew 51% support locally and 37% across the district. Under state law, for a withdrawal article to pass, it must receive at least 60% approval in the withdrawing town or 40% across the district.

Before Thursday’s vote, several committee members asked how school district tax assessment rates in other towns would be affected if Francestown withdrew from the nine-town district. ConVal business administrator Neal Cass said that overall, the school tax assessment rate would increase 3.91% across the district, or about $1.7 million in additional assessments spread across the remaining eight ConVal towns. 

Cass noted that those numbers are based on the assumption that Francestown will tuition students past grade five into ConVal for middle and high school. 

“The district has also developed a second financial model based on a scenario in which Francestown does not tuition in,” Cass said. 

Members of the Francestown School Committee, an official subcommittee of the town,   have stated repeatedly, including in the education plan recently submitted to the Withdrawal Committee,  that the town intends to send middle and high school students to ConVal schools.

Committee divided on Temple report

The committee was also split on approving the withdrawal report to be submitted to the state DOE for Temple.

In March, Temple voters approved a petition warrant article asking ConVal for a feasibility study for withdrawal, but after signers of the petition failed to organize a withdrawal committee or create an education plan following the election, voters rescinded the article at a special town meeting in September.

Jim Kingston, School Board representative from Temple, who participated in Thursday’s meeting by phone, said he took issue with the report.

“I don’t ask for much, but I asked that this report be simple and to the point, ” Kingston said. “Last year, we put in a two-page summary report, and this year, we get this litany, which goes toward embarrassment.”

Withdrawal Committee Chair Curtis Hamilton said the report was factual and necessary to provide information to the state about the withdrawal process, and that his goal was to provide as much information as possible to anyone else considering the withdrawal process in the future, including residents of Temple. 

“If I were reading this report and knew nothing about the process, I could learn a good deal about the process. With the amount of time this takes us, I was happy to spend a few more hours on this to leave a trail, so people in the future know what to do,” Hamilton said. “I wanted people to have a thorough understanding of what this entails.” 

Villaume said she agreed with Kingston, and that “everything after section 4 could be deleted.” 

School Board Chair Michael Hoyt said he “didn’t see why this is embarrassing.”

 “Reading through the whole report, it is totally based on factual information,” Hoyt said. 

Nine members of the Withdrawal Committee voted in favor of submitting the report on Temple to the DOE, with Kingston, Kirlin, Villaume, Pyle and Minckler voting against it.