Tim Conway, principal of South Meadow School, Great Brook School Principal Adam Caragher and ConVal Assistant Principal Richard Simoneau put forth a proposal to create a single ConVal athletic director position encompassing the Great Brook, South Meadow and ConVal athletic programs at Tuesday night’s School Board meeting.

“We have been having discussions about having one athletic director for the whole ConVal School District. The idea is that we would have one AD to cover SMS, Great Brook and ConVal, as well as adding in the support of game-day coordinators at the different sites,” Caragher said.  “The reason we want to do this is to create something that is consistent: consistent experience, consistent opportunity and consistency in the philosophy of  athletics in all the schools. We think it would boost our program and benefit all of our students, fifth grade through 12th grade. ”

The proposal presented to the School Board states that some responsibilities and administrative duties, including the health and wellness program and running the high school co-curricular program, would be removed from under the ConVal AD’s job description to allow more time for administrating middle school athletics. 

Simoneau reported that currently, the two middle school athletic directors receive stipends totaling $9,720, and that the cost of game-day coordinator positions is estimated at $10,800, adding just $1,080 to the budget. Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders said the board would consider the proposal. 

Board emails did not violate law

At the April 2 meeting, board member Jim Kingston of Temple stated that he believed recent emails among the ConVal School Board had violated RSA 91:A, the public Right-to-Know Law,  and requested the board address the issue.  Chair Dick Dunning reported at Tuesday night’s meeting that ConVal’s attorney, Dean Eggert, had determined there was no breach of the law.

“I just want to be very clear that there was no violation of the right-to-know law in these emails,” Dunning said. “Our counsel reviewed the emails in question and submitted a written opinion in the matter. The opinion states that it was evident that no decision was reached through electronic mail,  and that no quorum was reached in the emails in question.”

Special education $3 million over budget 

Rizzo Saunders reported that the ConVal district’s special education costs for 2023-2024  “are in excess of $3 million more than was budgeted for special education.” 

“What we are doing now is taking from other programming in order to manage that, and we are looking into the  fund balance to pay those costs,” Rizzo Saunders said. “I have presented the board with the DIA fund balance policy. The board has the ability to suggest what is and what does not constitute an emergency, and what we can use the fund balance for.” 

The board passed a motion to declare the unanticipated special education costs an emergency for the district. The special education costs, along with emergency roof repairs at Peterborough Elementary School, will be addressed at upcoming public hearings. The date of these hearings was not known as of Wednesday morning.