According to numbers from the ConVal School District, it would most likely cost Francestown and Dublin more to withdraw from the ConVal School District than to stay. 

The data, generated by ConVal Business Administrator Brian Cisneros, projects for one of the paths the towns could take regarding withdrawal from the school district or the SAU.

“What we are hearing from Select Board members is that the towns would like to keep their elementary schools, form independent school districts and tuition their middle-  and high-school students back into the ConVal district, so that is the scenario these numbers are based on,” said district Feasibility Committee Chair Mike Hoyt.

The estimated annual cost for Francestown to run its elementary school as an independent school district and tuition older students back into ConVal schools is approximately $4.3 million, with a per-student cost of $30,667. Francestown raised $3.7 million in local education taxes in 2023-2024. For Dublin, the annual cost of running Dublin Consolidated School, running an independent district and tuitioning students back into ConVal is estimated at approximately $4.65 million, with per-student costs of $33,957. In 2023-2024, Dublin raised $4.1 million through local education taxes. 

High-cost items for both towns would include more than $1 million for teacher and staff contracts and about $2 million per town to tuition students into the high school and middle schools. Special education costs in 2024-2025 are estimated at $402,150 for Dublin and $184,861 for Francestown. 

“If you look at these numbers, it will cost Francestown and Dublin considerably more to withdraw from the ConVal district than to stay in,” Hoyt said. “The problem with being a tiny school district is you cannot absorb costs the way a large school can, and a lot of these costs are a given. You have to have teacher contracts. You have to feed the kids. You have to pay for special education. You have to have transportation.”

Hoyt cautioned that all numbers are variable, and Jay Schechter of the Dublin Education Advisory Committee said, “We continue to ask for backup documentation on how they came up with these numbers. (Select Board member) Carole Monroe has requested this repeatedly.”

Laura Mafera of the Francestown School Committee (FSC) stated that after including state and federal education credits of approximately $4,000 per student, the total assessment would be $3.7 million, which is approximately what Francestown pays into the district. Mafera added that the cost to run the SAU for Francestown is $466,000.

“In summary, from the information we currently have, it appears that Francestown would be able to operate its own district for the same cost to the town. We believe this is the case in spite of a few conservative assumptions in place such as Francestown having no equity in the building and having to service around $227,000 of debt per year to purchase the building and Francestown having to carry the full $466,000 burden of SAU costs. With this, the Francestown School Committee will continue our study of all options as well as surveying the town residents for additional input,” Mafera stated.

Hoyt said that at Thursday night’s committee meeting, many members expressed concern that “they still don’t know what Francestown and Dublin want to to do , and there are a lot of options.”

The Feasibility Committee has invited the Dublin Education Advisory Committee and the Francestown School Committee to present information gathered from their towns at the committee’s Aug. 1 meeting. 

“The goal is for our committee to vote on whether withdrawal for the  towns is feasible by the end of August. If we vote  that is it feasible, then we have September and October to  come with the education plan,” Hoyt said.