Students in Francestown may have a new option for middle school following the town’s withdrawal from the ConVal district.
The Francestown Independent School Board signed a tuition agreement with school administrative unit (SAU) 39 in Amherst and Mont Vernon, which gives Francestown students the option of attending Amherst Middle School for grades 6-8.
The agreement would be valid for four years and is subject to voter approval in both towns at next year’s annual meetings.
Laura Mafera, speaking on behalf of the Francestown Independent School Board, or FISB, said it represents just one potential option for the town’s middle school students after the withdrawal from ConVal becomes official on July 1, 2027. The board is negotiating a similar agreement with Souhegan High School.
“The FISB is working on multiple tuition agreements so that parents have a choice for their kids’ education, and this is the first agreement we have signed,” Mafera said in a statement. “Francestown voters will have the chance to approve all agreements at the annual school district meeting in March. We are still working on an agreement with ConVal.”
Francestown Elementary School, which currently includes grades K-4, will also offer grades 5 and 6 after withdrawing from ConVal, according to a report the Francestown School Committee submitted to the district in February.
In the past ten years, Francestown Elementary has averaged fewer than 40 children a year in a school building built to hold up to 250 students, according to ConVal enrollment data.
The contract with Amherst states that Amherst will set the annual cost of tuition for Francestown students using the state Department of Education’s calculation of Amherst Middle School’s cost per pupil for the previous two years as of Oct. 1. The cost of tuition will factor in the number of Francestown students attending Amherst Middle School each year, with a percentage discount for a higher number of students.
The cost per pupil at Amherst Middle School was around $24,000 in 2024-2025, according to the Department of Education.
The agreement states that the Francestown Independent School District will be responsible for transporting students to Amherst, and that the cost of special education services will be divided between the two districts depending on the needs of individual students. Amherst Middle School and Souhegan High School are both about 18 miles from the center of Francestown.
Negotiations are underway to finalize a proposed tuition agreement with the ConVal School District for both middle and high school students, and the Francestown board is also in talks to create a tuition agreement with at least one other school district. That school district hasn’t yet been publicly identified.
Both the former Francestown School Committee, which led the town’s withdrawal efforts from ConVal, and the Francestown Independent School Board have repeatedly stated that the town values its relationship with ConVal. The withdrawal effort is not a reflection of dissatisfaction with ConVal, they said, but a result of ConVal’s failed attempt to consolidate the district’s eight elementary schools into four in 2023.
A proposed 2023 ConVal warrant article would’ve paved the way for the closure of the district’s four smallest elementary schools — in Francestown, Temple, Bennington and Dublin — and would’ve given students in those towns the option of attending elementary school in a neighboring ConVal school.