Tax assessments for ConVal’s remaining seven towns would go up if Francestown and Dublin withdraw from the district, according to preliminary financial projections presented by the ConVal Feasibility Committee’s financial subcommittee.

At Thursday night’s meeting, Jim Frederickson, the School Board representative from Temple, used the example of Antrim in his projections, saying that Antrim’s school tax assessments could potentially rise by $500,000 a year if Francestown and Dublin withdraw from ConVal. Members of the committee noted that the numbers are all subject to change. 

Frederickson explained that the subcommittee is creating financial modeling to enable the Dublin Education Advisory Committee and the Francestown School Committee to more accurately calculate how much it will cost the two towns to run independent school districts and operate their own elementary schools, and to determine the financial impact to ConVal’s seven other towns if Francestown and Dublin withdraw. 

“We do not have all the numbers yet, and these numbers will change. There are key pieces we do not have yet, and we will be working to get those before the next meeting. But our initial projections are indicating that if Francestown and Dublin leave, it is most likely that the tax assessments on the other seven towns will go up,” Frederickson said.

Curtis Hamilton, a member of the financial subcommittee and School Board representative from Greenfield, stressed that the subcommittee is still working to get exact and accurate numbers to complete the financial model.

“The numbers we have found are higher than the numbers previously presented. There are a lot more factors to consider,” Hamilton said. “We have uncovered a lot more costs with transportation, such as fuel costs, which were not included. Day buses were not included; backup buses were not included. Not all special education transportation was included. We found staff who are not listed under individual schools even though they work in those schools, because they are shared, so those costs were not included in the operating costs of the two schools. We are digging into all these numbers to make them more accurate before the vote.” 

According to Frederickson, a large portion of increased costs to the remaining seven towns will come as a result of increasing the administrative burden of  two additional school districts to the SAU. Currently, the ConVal SAU is a single-district SAU with one set of administrative staff, but if Francestown and Dublin withdraw, the SAU would need to administer three separate districts as well as the overall administrative body. Feasibility Study Committee Chair Mike Hoyt of Bennington said previously that if the two towns withdraw, the SAU would then have “four sets of books that will all have to be separate.” 

Betsy Villaume, Select Board member from Hancock, said that in looking at the initial projections from the financial subcommittee, she could see a significant increase cost to Hancock families. 

“Just doing the math from these numbers here, if you have a $400,000 house in Hancock, your taxes will go up by $550 a year if these two towns withdraw,” Villaume said.

Janine Lesser, School Board member from Peterborough, said that Peterborough would not support having to pay more to share the costs of administrating the smaller towns. 

“I don’t know why the smaller towns think we would be willing to take on these costs. This is why the district was created in the first place – to share the costs,” Lesser said.

Robert DiGregorio, ConVal’s new business administrator,  said that the departure of the two towns would most likely raise overall costs to the district. 

“It is too early to say how much it will cost and what the numbers are. We are getting those numbers,” DiGregorio said. 

Hoyt noted that the numbers Francestown and Dublin have been using to calculate their elementary school’s operating costs “are ConVal numbers.” 

“Those numbers do no represent the actual cost the small schools will have going forward,” Hoyt said.  “Those operating costs all reflect ConVal’s ability to use economy of scale. If the schools are independent, you would be out there negotiating on your own, you will not be paying the prices ConVal paid.” 

Hoyt addressed other factors that will most likely bring increased cost to the smaller schools if they withdraw, including the challenges of finding and retaining staff.

“It is very hard for us to find teachers who will work a 0.2 or 0.5 position in these smaller schools. If you look at the personnel records, there is very high turnover, because as soon as those teachers find a full-time job, they take it and leave. High turnover is a very significant cost to the district, and it is detrimental to the education of the students,” Hoyt said. 

Interim Superintendent Ann Forrest said that having to compete with other districts is a factor in attracting staff and contributes to staffing costs. 

“Right now, we compete with Keene and other surrounding districts. If we go to three districts, we will be competing with one another for the same teachers,” Forrest said. 

Francestown and Dublin began exploring the possibility of leaving the ConVal district after a proposal to change the district’s original Articles of Agreement failed at the polls in March. The proposed changes to the articles would have paved the way to consolidating the district’s eight elementary schools into four schools, which could have meant the closure of the elementary schools in Dublin, Temple, Francestown and Bennington.