Viewpoint: Blake Anderson— Small towns and public education

By BLAKE ANDERSON

Published: 01-28-2025 1:12 PM

 

People across the Monadnock region have focused on the future of public education and its sustainability with more attention and care during the last year than they have at any time since the great wave of regional school consolidation swept over our region in the 1960s.

There is good reason for this attention; the open and lively conversation is an overdue breath of fresh air. School enrollment is falling. Student performance data are disappointing. Education costs are rising faster than incomes. School budgets are crowding out other basic municipal services, and school funding formulas are a perennial source of conflict in Concord. Parents, grandparents, voters, elected officials and, most of all, teachers and students, are right to be deeply concerned.

The failed effort by the ConVal School Board to gain authority to close small-town elementary schools, in violation of the spirit and clear intent of the signatories of the 1967 Articles of Agreement that established the ConVal School District, raised the temperature of education policy discussions across the Monadnock region. Let’s all try to generate less heat and more light as we discuss the future of our public schools between now and March.

I’m often asked, “What do the small towns want”? The answer is, “What every family and every citizen wants from their public elementary school” – an educationally strong, highly supportive, institutionally stable local school, staffed by committed teachers and attended by happy and motivated children. We want our children to be secure and safe at school, and to feel that way.

Every one of the four towns targeted for school closure by the ConVal board, and their municipal leaders, was forced to do some civic soul-searching about what public education means to their town. I’m sure that voters in the non-targeted towns took a moment for reflection.

In Dublin, we learned from the ConVal board that there was no room for negotiation. We were told that the warrant vote scheduled for March 2024 would not be postponed to allow an exchange of views. We heard the ConVal board chair state publicly that Dublin’s best interests no longer aligned with ConVal’s best interests. It doesn’t get much clearer.

Voters across our district overwhelmingly defeated this proposed ConVal board warrant article last March. Small-town voters know that this reprieve was only temporary. The ConVal board has been clear; costs continue to spiral, but they have no “Plan B.”

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In order to protect our public school permanently, Dublin voters overwhelmingly approved consideration of withdrawal from the ConVal district. Our select board appointed an education committee to review our options for maintaining town-based elementary education in Dublin.

After months of data analysis and public outreach, the committee unanimously recommended withdrawal from ConVal. Our select board unanimously supported this recommendation.

While the ConVal board voted against putting Dublin’s (and Francestown’s) decision into the hands of the voters, where it belongs, the New Hampshire Board of Education unanimously voted to support Dublin’s detailed and carefully considered withdrawal proposal. Dublin and Francestown’s plans were unanimously voted as feasible by the state board. ConVal’s position received zero votes on that memorable November day in Concord.

ConVal’s board has consistently treated the small towns as captive donors throughout this process. Dublin and Francestown wish to work with ConVal in future as partners in education. ConVal clearly does not want to manage and fund our local elementary schools. We do. We believe that local control and strong local support will free our elementary teachers and students to do their best work. We wish to permanently remove the threat of closure or consolidation.

We wish to send our middle- and high-school students to ConVal as stronger, more-confident and mature students, better able to contribute and thrive there. Dublin expects to pay the fair cost of the ConVal middle and high school program for our students, on a per-capita basis.

Every child in the Monadnock region needs an education that lets her thrive in this connected global economy. Education has never been more important or exciting. Rural broadband has opened remarkable opportunities for our young adults; we are no longer a protected backwater. Our children will need to be able to hold their own in STEM, communication and analytical skills against their peers from across this increasingly wired globe.

What do Dublin and Francestown want?

We want to withdraw from the ConVal district, protect and strengthen our local elementary schools and enter a mutually respectful partnership with ConVal to support and improve the whole education of our middle- and upper-school students.

The Monadnock region has changed since 1967. Education needs and expectations have changed. ConVal desperately needs an administrative reset followed by thoughtful reform. Dublin, and Francestown, look forward to working with a revitalized ConVal district as partners in this rebuilding.

Blake Anderson was a member of the former Dublin Education Advisory Committee. The opinions presented are based on his experience on that committee, and do not reflect the views of the Francestown School Committee.