The ConVal School Board approved an operating budget of $60,730,834 for the 2026-27 school year on Tuesday night.

Business Administrator Neal Cass said the budget represents an increase of just 1.38%, or about $844,373 over last year, adding, “This is a number we should be very happy with.”

The board also approved the gross budget, which includes the cost of mandatory federal programs outside the district’s control, of $63,100,384.

Superintendent Ann Forrest said, “The district builds the budget to support the mission” of providing optimal opportunities for learning, development, skills and community service to students.

In 2025, the district’s operating budget of approximately $59 million represented a 3.13% increase over the previous year.

Cass reported that salaries and benefits for district staff make up 75% of the total budget, with 49% represented by salaries and 26.4% represented by benefits, for a total of $45,726,531.

Staff benefits came in at $538,417, lower than in 2025-2026, partly due to the introduction of a new, high-deductible plan option and unexpected decreases in health insurance costs.

Cass said the total increase in staffing costs for the coming year is $986,104.

The budget includes an increase of $648,000 in scheduled capital improvements to buildings, including a new roof on Peterborough Elementary School and new boilers for Greenfield Elementary and Hancock Elementary.

The district will see a substantial decrease in special education tuition next year, as well as a decrease in general education tuition.

The budget includes the estimated costs of the new transportation contract, which goes into effect on July 1.

“Transportation costs are going up significantly due to the cost of hiring drivers,” Cass said.

The district reported that the increase in costs for supplies and materials due to inflation was offset by a decrease in utility rates, including electricity, propane, and heating oil.

The district will spend $18,688 less on Chromebooks this year due to changes in enrollment.

The board approved a default budget of $62,324,303 should the budget fail at the polls, with most reductions in spending coming from reductions in property services.

The district is proposing four trust fund warrant articles, with the money coming from the unreserved fund balance, totaling $975,000 for 2026-27. The proposed articles include $500,000 for the building capital reserve fund, $25,000 for the energy expendable trust fund, $25,000 for the equipment expendable trust fund, and $425,000 for the building capital reserve fund.

The meeting can be viewed at ConVal youtube.com/c/ConValEvents.

More information about the ConVal budget and planning process is available at schoolboard.conval.edu/en-US/budget-82b9a4ea.

Open Enrollment warrant article draft approved

A majority of the board approved moving forward with a warrant article defining the district’s proposed open enrollment policy. Jim Kingston, representing Temple, and Bill Gurney, representative for Dublin, voted against accepting the article as proposed.

Kingston objected to language in the article that sets the percentage of students permitted to leave the district via open enrollment at 0%, calling it “hypocritical” for ConVal to allow students from other districts to pursue open enrollment at ConVal for the German program while limiting the number of students permitted to leave ConVal under the state’s open enrollment law.

School Board Chair Mike Hoyt of Bennington said that “there already six existing laws enabling students to leave ConVal for other districts.”

“It’s not like if we set the percentage at zero, everyone will be forced to stay in the district,” Hoyt said. “Students are already permitted to leave. They can still pursue hardship, there is still benefit. … That will not change.”

Forrest said that the SAU had debated the inbound and outbound aspects of open enrollment “completely separately.”

“When Dean (Eggert, attorney for ConVal) asked which of our programs might benefit from additional students through open enrollment, we picked the German program, because we felt it would benefit from additional students in order to help that program thrive. We felt it could benefit students from other districts, and it is a wonderful program which would be great to showcase,” Forrest said. “The reason we picked the zero percentage for outbound students is because that is what all of the neighboring districts are picking. That decision is coming from a financial standpoint.”

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, has spurred districts to develop open enrollment agreements.

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

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

ConVal’s proposed open enrollment warrant article proposes that the district “will 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% (35 students) 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.”