After nearly two hours of deliberation, the ConVal School Board voted Tuesday to put forth a warrant article recommending the closure of the district’s four smallest elementary schools: Francestown Elementary School, Dublin Consolidated School, Pierce School in Bennington and Temple Elementary School. 

Prismatic Consulting, the company hired by the school district to study under-enrollment across the district and make a recommendation on possible reconfiguration, had recommended the closures. The reconfiguration would take place in three phases, with the 2024-2025 school year dedicated to planning, analysis and providing for contingencies. The schools would be closed in the 2025-2026 school year, the second phase. The third phase, in the 2026-2027 school year, would allow for monitoring and adjustment of reconfiguration as needed. 

Residents of ConVal’s nine towns will vote on the proposal March 12, 2024, and under the district’s Articles of Agreement, reducing the number of schools would require a two-thirds vote across the district.

Two members of the board, Bill Bryk of Antrim and Tom Kirlin of Francestown, voted against the warrant article. 

“This will eviscerate these towns,” Bryk said. 

Kirlin said the majority of his constituents were against the recommendation. 

The discussion and vote on reconfiguration came after board members discussed the 2024-2025 operating budget, which is proposed to increase by 7.5% to nearly $60 million, according to School Board chair Dick Dunning of Peterborough. The proposed budget includes the addition of four teaching positions, including a reading specialist, special education teachers,  and a full-time technology teacher at Great Brook School. 

In expressing her support for reconfiguration, School Board member Katherine Heck of Greenfield noted that the technology position at Great Brook had been brought forth three years in a row.

“Every year since I have been on this board, we have had to keep cutting programs, we’ve had to keep cutting stipends, and we’ve had to keep cutting after-school activities at the middle schools and at the high school in order to make our budget affordable,” Heck said. “We need to add services and programs back into the budget so we can meet the educational goals in our master plan and meet the needs of students. The $2.4 million we can save in reconfiguration will enable us to provide the services and  resources we need back into the high school and the middle schools. We need to prepare our students for high school. We need to prepare them for the workforce and higher education. I’m tired of only making budget cuts for the middle and the high school in order to afford our overall budget.”

Several other board members agreed, saying that in order to support the budget each year, they have to cut the middle school and high school budgets in order to fund all 11 schools in the district.

“I’m not surprised people are against this,” said School Board member Janine Lesser of Peterborough, of reconfiguration. “This is why we drop it (reconfiguration) every time. It’s too hard, it’s too uncomfortable. But as you can hear as we deliberate over this budget, trying to get resources for the middle school and the high school, we really don’t have any choice at this point. The Prismatic report was nothing we didn’t know. We need to move forward.” 

Mike Hoyt, a School Board representative from Bennington, also spoke in favor of reconfiguration, said he had been through a similar process when he taught in Franklin and one elementary school was closed.

“Going through our budget just now, I can tell you, this is very similar to what we went though at my other school. If we don’t change things right now, we will end up in the same situation as Franklin. We’ll will end up in a fiscal crisis. We need to do this,” Hoyt said. 

Jay Schechter, a Dublin resident in favor of reconfiguration, said during the public comment portion of the meeting that the ConVal district tax rate “is 36% higher than the state average, and the district has double the classrooms it needs.” 

The board also passed a motion to create a second warrant article proposing to amend the 1967 ConVal Articles of Agreement, which currently states that the district will maintain eight elementary schools. The proposed warrant article would amend the articles to specify that the district will maintain elementary schools in Antrim, Greenfield, Hancock and Peterborough.

More information on the ConVal reconfiguration study can be found at schoolboard.convalsd.net/conval-consolidation-reconfiguration.