ConVal Superintendent Ann Forrest will present a 2025-2026 operating budget of approximately $59 million at the district’s deliberative session Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 6 p.m. at the SAU conference room behind South Meadow School.

The gross budget, which includes state-funded programs and programs funded for sources outside the district is approximately $61.3 million. According to Budget and Property Committee Chair Jim Fredrickson, the School Board representative from Sharon, the difference of $2.37 million is offset by revenue.

The proposed operating budget is up 3.13%.

“The major increase in the budget is driven by two factors which are out of our control, which are the increase in costs of health and dental insurance, and the increase of costs in transportation,” Fredrickson said. “One million of the $1.8 million increase in the budget is benefits, and the rest is transportation costs.”

Salaries and benefits for faculty and staff make up 75% of the ConVal budget. The district has cut six teaching positions for 2025-2026, representing a cost reduction of $225, 205. If voters do not pass the budget, the default of just under $60.5 million will go into place. The default budget consists of the current budget plus contracted increases and minus one-time expenses

“If we go to the default budget, it will mean cutting more teachers, cutting more program, cutting back on maintenance,” Fredrickson said. “The increase would then be about 1.5%.”

Of the other articles that will be presented during the deliberative session, Articles 7 and 8 propose the withdrawals of Dublin and Francestown, respectively, from the ConVal School District. The ConVal School Board has stated that the withdrawals would incur additional costs for SAU 1, which has been a single district SAU since the ConVal district was created in 1969. If Francestown and Dublin withdraw, the SAU would become a three-district SAU.

Residents in Francestown and Dublin voted strongly in favor of exploring withdrawal from the ConVal district after a reconfiguration warrant article, which could have led to the closure of the district’s four smallest elementary schools, failed at the polls last March. A withdrawal article will pass if it gets a majority vote across the district as a whole, or three-fifths vote in a town seeking to withdraw and more than two-fifths approval across the district.

“Withdrawal will mean three sets of books instead of one. The costs of withdrawal are a result of two towns leaving the district, but all nine towns have to share the costs, which isn’t really fair,” Fredrickson said. “If voters support withdrawal, there will have to be a Francestown school board and a Dublin school board, and the cost of the business manager will be shared by all nine towns.”

The board was working to gather detailed numbers on the costs of withdrawal for the remaining seven towns prior to the deliberative session.

Article 9 is a petition warrant article signed by 25 Dublin residents calling for a budget cap of $29,000 per student per year at the ConVal School District. The proposed warrant article is part of a statewide effort started by the School District Governance Association of New Hampshire, a group of private citizens which describes its mission as “helping members of school boards and budget committees discover their powers so they can effectively assert their lawful authority and be responsible to their electorate.”

Fredrickson said while budget caps are a good idea in principle, applying the concept to a school district may be problematic.

“The concept of a budget cap is a good one, but the question is, ‘Does it apply to us? Do we really need it?’ The language the way it is written in the warrant article is not workable due to formula of when they get the enrollment numbers. Oct. 1 is not the right time to get the data; it doesn’t account for surprises like the 25% health insurance increases we had last year, or things like COVID. If there’s a budget cap and things come up, the district would have to just eat the cost, and then what are you going to do – fire teachers in the middle of the year?” Fredrickson said. “If this were to pass and there was a disaster, there would be no way to cover it, except for an emergency measure from the governor. This not the right way to handle it; every year there are things we could not plan for. This is a good concept, but the language the way it is written now is not workable.”

The budget cap warrant article requires that the district hold nine public forums in the space of 15 days to present the article to the public. The School Board is currently scheduling the forums in the eight elementary schools and in Sharon.