About 10 Francestown residents turned out for a public hearing on a ConVal district  budget cap petition warrant article Thursday night at FES. 

The petition warrant article, which was signed by 34 residents of Dublin, calls for the district to cap the budget at $29,000 per student. Currently, ConVal spends about $31,000 per student. If the article passes, ConVal would have to cut $2,256,923 from the 2025-2026 operating budget. 

“The effects of this petition warrant article would be devastating to our community and especially to our children,” said Curtis Hamilton, school board representative from Greenfield. “This is not a budget cap; it is a budget cut, of mammoth proportions, and putting it into affect would amount to negligence.” 

Hamilton noted that New Hampshire is last in the country for education funding. 

According to the ConVal School Board, the cuts would eliminate all athletics, all technology spending,  all school supplies, all extracurricular activities such as bands, choirs, clubs and other teams, and all curriculum enrichment, including joint programs such as Cornucopia Project and the Harris Center for Conservation Education. 

Jim Fredrickson, chair of the Budget and Property Committee, said the article had “problematic language, and was poorly written.”

“This is not the right thing to do at this time,” he said.

None of the 34 signers of the warrant article attended the hearing to speak on behalf of the proposal.

Laura Mafera, a Francestown parent and a member of the Francestown School Committee, spoke against the article.

“This is not the way to do it. Everyone is frustrated about taxes, but taking it out on your local school board and and trying to punish them is not the way to fix this. This problem needs to change at the state level, and the state needs to fund education adequately, which they are not doing. Anyone with concerns about their property taxes should contact their state legislators,” Mafera said.

Francestown Select Board member Charles Pyle III said he is personally opposed to budget caps for municipal budgets. 

“You just never know what is going to happen next year,” he said. 

The budget cap warrant article is part of a statewide effort initiated by a nonprofit group called the School District Governance Association of New Hampshire.  The group is based in Grantham.