ConVal, Dublin and Francestown are slated to present their opinions regarding withdrawal from the ConVal School District to the state Board of Education Thursday in Concord.

The meeting, which is open to the public, will take place from 9:30 a.m. at the state Department of Education office at 25 Hall St., Concord. Mike Hoyt, chair of the ConVal Feasibility Study Committee, will represent the ConVal School Board. Charles Pyle will be representing Francestown, and Carole Monroe will represent Dublin.

On Sept. 12, the ConVal Feasibility Study Committee – made up of a Select Board member and a School Board member from each of the nine towns in the district – voted against supporting either Dublin’s or Francestown’s bids to leave the district. Six members voted in favor of Dublin withdrawing, while the remaining nine votes were against it. Seven members of the committee voted in favor of Francestown withdrawing, with eight voting against.

The Feasibility Study Committee cited concerns that the remaining seven ConVal towns would be forced to shoulder higher costs, including potential increased costs for an additional SAU to separately administrate the new districts, if Francestown and Dublin withdraw. Both Pyle and Monroe have confirmed that their towns plan to tuition middle and high school students back into ConVal’s middle schools and high school.

Francestown and Dublin both wrote minority reports in response to the decision, which they will present Thursday. Both reports state that the towns’ primary reason for wanting to withdraw from ConVal was the district’s repeated attempts in the past 20 years to consolidate ConVal’s eight elementary schools, most recently, in 2024, which could have resulted in the closures of the elementary schools in Bennington, Dublin, Francestown and Temple.

Dublin’s report states that “Dublin seeks to withdraw from the ConVal district to preserve Dublin Consolidated School while regaining local control of its education and finances of the school system while preserving the unique needs of the community.” 

Francestown’s report states that “Francestown seeks to withdraw from the ConVal district in order to preserve its in-town elementary school while regaining local control of the education and finances of the town’s school system and preserving the desires of the community.” 

The ConVal School Board has stated repeatedly that reconfiguration of the district’s 11 school buildings is necessary due to low enrollment and the high cost of sharing staff and resources among very small schools. The ConVal School District, which was created in 1969, is the only district in the state of New Hampshire to include nine towns. The next largest district, Kearsarge, has six towns. 

If the state Board of Education gives Francestown and Dublin permission to move forward with their petitions for withdrawal, the proposals would go to a vote in March. Withdrawal can pass either by majority vote in a town looking to withdraw and across the district as a whole, or by three-fifths vote in a town seeking to withdraw, unless three-fifths of voters across the district disapprove.