During an information session Tuesday evening at Peterborough Elementary School conducted by Prismatic, the educational consulting firm hired by the ConVal School Board to address under-enrollment in the district, company founder TatiaPrieto said, “Getting the word out has been a challenge.”

“We had hoped to see more Peterborough residents here tonight,” Prieto said. “It is so important that people become educated on this issue. We’re definitely seeing differences in opinion on different issues from town to town, and it really matters that people make their thoughts known. We hope we’ll get a lot of turnout at the remaining meetings.” 

Prieto noted that so far, about 700 people in the ConVal district have filled out the online survey about possible school reconfiguration options. 

“We would like to see that number at closer to 2,500,” she said. “This issue affects every resident in the district.” 

The sessions are designed with a casual, drop-in format where residents can circulate to different stations, cast votes on various questions, respond to questions by Post-it note and submit comments anonymously. Prismatic staff, including Prieto, were present in Peterborogh Tuesday to answer questions and talk to residents. 

Myron Steere, a former ConVal School Board representative from Greenfield, said he wished people would pay more attention to the issues facing the district.

“I don’t think people realize the differential in spending per pupil,” he said. “I believe it’s up to $20,000 per student just depending on which building they’re in, just because the smaller schools cost so much to run.”

Chris McCall, whose three children all attended school in Peterborough, said she would like to see a question about whether residents in small towns would be willing to pay more to keep their elementary schools open. With 243 students as of Sept. 1, Peterborough Elementary School has the highest enrollment of the district’s eight elementary schools. Temple Elementary School has the least, with 37, followed by Francestown Elementary School with 43.

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“Because right now, essentially, the larger towns are subsidizing the smaller towns,” McCall said. “I saw services cut drastically at PES between my oldest and my youngest child, because it’s so expensive to run the smaller schools for 30 or 40 kids. Would people in those towns still want to keeping those  schools open if they had to pay the real cost?”

McCall thought the meeting format was different but effective. 

“It’s not what I expected, but it’s actually a much better format and a better way to get people’s feedback. The way it’s usually done,  the loudest voices tend to prevail, and people might have trouble speaking up. This way, everyone is heard, and everyone gets a chance for their opinion to be known and recorded, ” she said.

The meeting at PES was the fourth in the series of information sessions hosted by Prismatic, with one taking place in each ConVal town, to get feedback from residents about possible options to address low enrollment in the district.

“It really made you think,” said Don Boice, a father of four children in the district ranging in age from seventh grade to college. “This was a good process. The polling, the math, the voting – it will be interesting to see how it shakes out.”

One station gave residents tokens to rank different options regarding school configuration, while others posed open-ended questions and provided sticky notes for parents to respond or ask their own questions. The “Be a Board Member” table provided small bills representing $1 million and asked people to decide how the money would most effectively be spent in the district. 

“This has definitely been really interesting. I thought I would be hearing what people thought, like an open discussion,” said Stacey Luoma, who has three children.  “It feels funny to be deciding on how to spend $1 million. Having to choose to support one thing and then not support something else, that’s not a good feeling. But I guess that is the way it really works.”

Upcoming meetings

Francestown Elementary School, Wednesday, Sept. 27.

Temple Elementary School,  Thursday, Sept. 28.

Bennington, Monday, Oct. 2, Pierce School.

Dublin Consolidated School, Wednesday, Oct. 4.

Hancock Elementary School, Thursday, Oct. 5.

All meetings are at 7 p.m. For information about the ConVal consolidation and reconfiguration study, visit schoolboard.convalsd.net.