After receiving an offer from the ConVal feasibility study committee to present their case at an upcoming meeting, the Dublin Education Advisory Committee (DEAC) will send an official, public letter to the committee that details their processes and goals in order to improve communication between the two groups. While the DEAC members are open to giving a presentation to the feasibility study committee, there was some disagreement about what to include in the presentation. The DEAC decided that a public letter would help open communication as they prepared for a more formal presentation at a future meeting.

DEAC chair Jay Schechter told his fellow committee members that he had received a request from Mike Hoyt, the head of the feasibility study committee, to give the ConVal school board input on the direction Dublin is considering if their withdrawal from the school district is considered feasible. While Schechter noted that a presentation from the town looking to withdraw was not officially required, “my personal opinion is that we should give them some input, but that’s something we need to discuss and decide tonight,” he said. Schechter provided a tentative list of points he wished to see included in the potential presentation, and asked the other committee members for additional input.

The first point on Schechter’s draft was related to the quality of education in ConVal. He highlighted what he described as an ultimately ineffective “20 year struggle” by the district to improve students’ math and English proficiency, but noted he hoped to provide more tangible data on that point.

The second point was about the district’s current financial situation. “Dublin is paying a very disproportionate amount of money to ConVal based on the number of students we’re sending,” Schechter said. “We’re number one in payments but number four in median household income – I think basing it on property values is foolish, to say the least.”

The third point was that the town was committed to maintaining Dublin Consolidated School, but Schechter said he felt the board, given their efforts to potentially close DCS, was not.

The draft presentation also noted that the DEAC felt that the current articles of agreement, which were written in 1967, have become obsolete. “They have failed to adapt to our financial and student enrollment, resulting in an unfair assessment for Dublin.”

“In addition, some towns have made changes to their property tax structure, which disadvantages some towns, namely, us,” Schechter said, using Antrim’s recently-instituted TIF district, which allows the town to divert property tax dollars from going to the school budget, as an example.

Schechter also included a list of potential requests to the ConVal school board, namely, the approval of the feasibility of their withdrawal. “I want to be clear, this is not approval to withdraw, it’s approval of the feasibility to withdraw. There’s a huge difference there.”

Schechter included a release from or re-writing of the ConVal Articles of Agreement as another request. He also emphasized the importance of giving the town the ability to educate Dublin as they choose.

DEAC members made several small suggestions for alterations to the draft presentation, but most were agreeable to Schechter’s points – however committee member Jesse Marcum has some reservations.

“There are certain aspects of this I agree with,” Marcum said. “But I’m not in support of asking for approval of the feasibility to withdraw.” Marcum explained that he felt asking for a decision on the feasibility study changed the ultimate goal of the committee from keeping all options open, to one of specifically withdrawal from the district, which he said he still wasn’t sure if it was the right option.

Schechter acknowledged his point, but reiterated that the committee was not explicitly advocating to for Dublin to withdraw from the district, but the feasibility approval would be the only way to get control over education in Dublin, so it was necessary to ensure change.

Resident John Wood agreed with Marcum’s point, and he suggested that the DEAC should allow the committee to come to its own conclusion, and then take advantage of a minority report if the decision didn’t favor Dublin.

The members ultimately agreed that the point about local control over education was important to make, but could make the point more open-ended as to not suggest an outcome one way or the other.

DEAC member Bill Gurney suggested they write a public letter instead, as the group didn’t seem prepared to commit to a presentation yet. The group was in favor of the idea and settled on sending a letter.

The DEAC also continued to discuss public outreach, in particular making sure Dublin parents had a chance to give their input on the direction of public education in town. They will begin to publicize a public event, potentially a pancake dinner, at an upcoming ice cream social held by the ConVal PTO on June 6.