Francestown will buy its elementary school from the ConVal School District for $1,004,000 when it withdraws from the cooperative school district next year.

The Francestown Independent School Board and a ConVal negotiating team are finalizing details for the transfer of Francestown Elementary School, including the building and its contents, to Francestown as of July 1, 2027.

The sale will go before voters for their approval at the next town meeting, but the price is determined by state law, said ConVal School Board Chair Mike Hoyt.

“There is no negotiation over the value of the building. It is stipulated by state law that the cost is the value of the building minus what the town has paid on the bond,” Hoyt said. “Part of why you go through the withdrawal study is so that things like this are made known.”

State law requires that the value of any capital improvements to the building be added to that amount — for example, ConVal updated the elementary school’s fire alarm system last year, Hoyt said.

The two groups have been meeting twice a month since this spring, when 77% of Francestown voters and 46% of ConVal voters approved the withdrawal.

Pat Troy, who serves on Francestown’s negotiating team, said the eight- to nine-month period before the actual withdrawal next July is a “critical phase” of the process.

“We are excited to get through the breakdown phase and into the building up phase, where we’re actually creating a district,” Troy said.

Francestown Elementary School, which serves around 37 students as of September, is one of four nearly identical elementary schools built by ConVal in 1999. Greenfield, Temple and Hancock also got new schools then, and the towns each bonded to pay for their new buildings.

Hoyt said that while the ConVal School Board and Francestown have agreed on the price of elementary school, the terms of payment have not been settled, as Francestown will have to put any proposal for allocating funds or bonding through town meeting in March 2027. 

“In most instances like this, towns have taken out bonds and directly paid the district for the school. In some cases, they have paid over time,” Hoyt said. “We have settled on price, but we have not settled on the terms.”

The two sides are also finalizing negotiations on the contents of Francestown Elementary School, including furniture, curriculum and special education materials, and technology, including Chromebooks and laptops.

“We have it just about wrapped up. We exchanged lists back and forth as far as what administrators thought we could use, and what we thought we should be made available to Francestown,” Hoyt said.

Francestown will likely present its offer for those items at the next negotiation meeting on Sept. 23.

After separating from ConVal, Francestown plans to run its elementary school independently for grades K-6, according to the new school board, and older children will have the option of tuitioning to the ConVal middle schools and ConVal High School. The Francestown Independent School Board said it’s been in touch with other school districts as possible alternatives, too.

That tuition agreement is the final piece of the negotiations, Hoyt said, and will not be made public until it goes before the voters in March.

“We have to negotiate that in non-public session until it is agreed upon; then it has to go before the town meeting,” Hoyt said. “The town would have to vote and approve the funds to pay tuition on an ongoing basis, and that number will not be public until after town meeting.”

Another sticking point in the negotiations is whether ConVal would return any portion of the district’s trust funds to Francestown. 

“The law does not state anything about districts having to give back a portion of trust funds,” Hoyt said. “That is our take on it, and Francestown disagreed, but that is all just part of the negotiations.”

According to the law, school district trust funds can be spent only for the specific purpose for which they are allocated, such as capital expenditures, equipment and energy costs. To spend money from a trust fund, ConVal would need to have a public hearing.

“We can’t just pull money out of a trust fund and write a check,” Hoyt said.

Troy, however, sees a potential opening in the law for Francestown.

“The law is very prescriptive about the building, but there is very little on the trust funds,” Troy said. “There is not usually so much money at stake with the host district, and the situation is a little bit unique to us. We think it’s worth pursuing. We’ll see how it goes.”

Francestown has said it would like to pursue withdrawal from SAU 1 as well as the ConVal district, but the town cannot initiate that process until district withdrawal is finalized. Until then, SAU 1, formerly a one-district SAU serving only the ConVal district, will function as a multi-district SAU, serving both the ConVal District and the new Francestown School District.

Negotiations are expected to wrap up before the two school districts begin drafting their budgets in December.

For more information, go to https://conval.edu/en-US/sau-1-a3dcb86d or https://www.francestownnh.org/m/directory/department?did=18.