The ConVal School Board voted to approve moving the proposed budget forward to a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m.

The snow date for the hearing is Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 6:30 p.m.

All members of the ConVal community are encouraged to attend the public hearing with any questions or concerns about the budget.

ConVal Business Administrator Neal Cass presented an operating budget of $60,730,834 and a gross budget, which includes the cost of mandatory federal programs outside the district’s control, of $63,100,384 for the 2026-27 school year.

“This represents an increase of 1.38% over last year, which is a very good place to be at,” Cass said.

The proposed budget includes a $220,000 for a newly negotiated bus contract with Student Transport of America. STA was the only bus vendor which responded to a request for new transportation proposals with the district.

Capital improvements budgeted for next year include replacing the boilers at the elementary schools in Greenfield and Hancock and a new roof at Peterborough Elementary.

The proposed budget also includes an increase of $806,369 in salaries for staff.

“This the second year of the new negotiated contract” with the ConVal Education Association, Cass said.

The board approved using $975,000 to fund the district’s trust funds, as recommended by the board’s Budget and Property Subcommittee. Trust funds are used for unexpected expenses or unanticipated budget increases.

The draft of the budget included critical shortage stipends for unfilled staff positions, which were approved at the board’s last meeting.

The board also voted to return $666,227.90 in legal fees to ConVal voters after the state reimbursed the district for legal fees in the ConVal School Funding lawsuit in October.

“Voters will see this impact their bills next December,” Cass said.

All 18 plaintiffs in the lawsuit were reimbursed for their legal fees in the ConVal lawsuit.

State pushes open enrollment warrant article

A recent decision by the state Supreme Court requiring school districts to pay 80% of tuition for students to attend school in another district, even if the home school district has not adopted open enrollment, is spurring districts to develop open enrollment agreements.

“This forces us to become open enrollment,” said Tom Burgess, School Board representative from Peterborough. “The only way to limit it is to become an open enrollment school and then place limitations on it.”

School districts wishing to become open enrollment schools are required by state law to draft an open enrollment warrant article by Jan. 26.

Forrest said the financial impact of open enrollment will impact school budgets “in ways that can’t be anticipated.”

“If we were to lose .10% of the student body, or two students, to another district, that would be a loss of $42,284.94 in revenue, which would be very difficult to offset,” Forrest said.

Forrest said because every district has a different per-pupil cost, bringing the same number of students into ConVal would not provide the same amount of funds coming in.

“If we had a student coming in from Mascenic, it would be over a $10,000 difference in what the sending district would pay and what it would cost ConVal,” Forrest said.

Board chair Mike Hoyt spoke about the proposed draft of ConVal’s open enrollment warrant article, which would designate the school’s German language program as an open enrollment program.

“German would be a conduit to bring students to ConVal,” Hoyt said. “We selected the German program because it has space in the classrooms and it is not available at any surrounding districts.”

The draft warrant article proposes that the district “designate the German Program at ConVal High School an Open Enrollment Program pursuant to N.H. RSA-D, with an enrollment limitation continuing to allow all (100%) of its eligible resident students to attend ConVal Regional High School and to allow admitted nonresident students to make up no more than 2% of the total enrollment of the district, and further to limit the number of resident students who may attend open enrollment schools located outside of the district.”

The board will continue to revise the proposed warrant article at its next meeting on Jan. 6.