ConVal district voters raised questions at a forum Wednesday night about how Francestown’s potential withdrawal from the district could affect the remaining eight towns.

The warrant article on the 2026 ConVal ballot represents Francestown’s second attempt to withdraw from the ConVal school district after the same article failed by just 80 votes across the district in 2025. A total of 81% of Francestown voters supported withdrawal in 2025.

In 2024, ConVal proposed a plan to consolidate the district’s eight elementary schools into four, which could have resulted in Francestown students attending school in Greenfield or Bennington. The article was defeated by voters.

Students from Sharon have attended school in Peterborough since 1920.

At Wednesday night’s forum at ConVal High School, Curtis Hamilton, school board representative from Greenfield, reiterated the district’s stance on Francestown’s proposal to withdraw.

“Francestown Elementary School is not under threat of closure. I understand that concerns about long-term stability are part of this conversation. This board and our administration remain committed to maintaining our elementary schools across the district. Two years ago, district voters affirmed that commitment clearly, and that direction remains in place,” Hamilton said. “The question before voters is about structure, whether the school operates within a shared cooperative system or as part of a stand-alone district. What is being considered is how the school is governed, supported, and funded going forward.”

In October, the Francestown School Committee presented an education plan to the ConVal Withdrawal Study Committee proposing that Francestown create an independent school district to administer Francestown Elementary. The ConVal Withdrawal Committee voted against the proposal, 8-6, but the state Department of Education upheld Francestown’s minority opinion, enabling the town to move the proposal for withdrawal to the ballot for a second time.

The ConVal School Board and the Francestown School Committee maintain differing stances on how the town’s withdrawal could impact Francestown students and the district as a whole.

ConVal has stated that if Francestown were to be the first town to leave the nine-town, 60-year-old cooperative district, it would create an increased financial burden on the remaining towns.

ConVal officials have also expressed concerns about Francestown’s ability to provide adequate services for its elementary students, including absorbing volatile costs of special education, transportation, and health insurance.

“Our cooperative district was built specifically to protect our small towns from this volatility,” Hamilton said. “It is not possible to know whether Francestown’s costs would ultimately be higher or lower than they would be within the cooperative district. Salaries and benefits depend on who is hired and where they fall on the pay scale. Transportation costs depend on contract terms and routing needs. Special education expenses are driven by student needs and can change significantly from year to year, including potential out-of-district placements.”

Francestown’s education plan cites supporting data from other small towns which have withdrawn from larger school districts, including Mason, Cornish and Hill. The plan says that fifth graders would stay in Francestown for “an additional year of support” instead of attending Great Brook Middle School, and that students in grades 6 through 12 who wish to attend public school would tuition into the ConVal district.

In the public comment section of the forum, Laura Mafera, speaking for the Francestown School Committee, which officially represents Francestown, thanked the school board and the Withdrawal Committee for their hard work during the study process, and singled out the leadership of Superintendent Ann Forrest and Business Administrator Neal Cass.

“Over the summer, they dedicated an extraordinary amount of time and effort to provide detailed analysis of the ConVal budget and what withdrawal would mean not only for Francestown and Francestown Elementary School, but for the remaining towns as well,” Mafera said. “All of that work has been thoughtful and thorough. It is that analysis, combined with the work of our own committee, that gives us the confidence that Francestown can competently manage an independent school district, and, just as importantly, we feel the data indicates that the ConVal district would not be irreparably harmed by withdrawal.”

Mafera also said the FSC hired an independent expert “to make sure they would not be placing an undue burden on our taxpayers.”

She said that the FSC’s proposal “has never been about money.”

“We are not promising tax savings,” she said. “This is about local control and educational opportunity. We want to address inequities within our school, we want to provide universal preschool to our community; we want to keep fifth graders for an additional year of support; we believe these are decisions best made locally.”

Mafera is running unopposed as Francestown’s representative to the ConVal School Board.

Hancock Select Board member Betsy Villaume, who participated in the forum online, sent a statement in support of Francestown’s proposal to withdraw.

“They have thought out their plan very well, they are prepared to take on this responsibility, and they should be allowed to withdraw,” Villaume wrote.

Open Enrollment warrant article outlines plan

ConVal School Board Chair Mike Hoyt of Bennington explained the district’s warrant article creating an open enrollment program at ConVal High School.

Following a December state Supreme Court decision requiring school districts to pay 80% of tuition for students who leave their home district for another district, New Hampshire School Administrative Units, or SAUs, have been scrambling to create proposals for open enrollment that enable them to limit the number of students leaving via the new open enrollment law.

Superintendents across the state have said the new laws could have devastating financial impacts on school districts.

According to Hoyt, many districts in New Hampshire, including all the districts surrounding ConVal, are creating open enrollment policies that set the percentage of students allowed to leave using new open enrollment rules at zero.

These districts include Harrisville, Marlborough, Nelson, Stoddard, Weare, Hillsborough-Deering, Jaffrey-Rindge, Marlborough, Mascenic, and Wilton-Lyndeborough.

“We have heard people talk about how the 0% ‘makes it so no students can leave the district,'” Hoyt said. “In fact, there are seven existing laws that already enable students to leave their home district, for hardship and different reasons. If a student goes to a CTE (Career and Technical Education) program in another district, they can stay there all day. They can also use EFAs (Education Freedom Accounts).”

ConVal has proposed an open enrollment program centered on the high school’s German program, which would accept up to 35 qualified students.

“Any of the incoming students must match the same prerequisites as the students already in the program, ” Hoyt said. “No students at ConVal will be kept out of the German program because new students are coming in from other districts. ConVal students will be given preferential treatment.”

For the complete ConVal 2026 warrant, go to schoolboard.conval.edu.