Francestown will make a second attempt to withdraw from the ConVal School District, after special Town Meeting voted Saturday in favor of two petition warrant articles.

“For anyone who is new to town and  or has not been following  the situation, this is not something we are doing out of the blue. ConVal has tried to close our elementary school numerous times in the past, most recently in 2024. The ConVal School Board says they will not attempt to do so again, but we don’t have that level of trust that it can’t happen again with a different board,” said Select Board member and Francestown School Committee member Charlie Pyle. “We want to create the Francestown Independent School District and have control over the education of our Francestown children.” 

The article requesting a second feasibility study for withdrawal passed with no audible votes against it. Residents also passed, without opposition, an article proposing the town start the process of also withdrawing from the school administrative unit. A recent letter to the Francestown Select Board from Dean Eggert, the attorney who represents the ConVal district, disputes Francestown’s ability to withdraw from the SAU, as the town is not a school district. 

“The lawyers are in disagreement,” Pyle said. “Your vote on this amendment today, however you choose to vote, could send a message to the other towns in our district that we have every intention of withdrawing from the SAU and that we do not want to put a burden on the other towns by withdrawing.”

The ConVal School Board has stated that if any towns withdraw from the district, it would increase administrative costs, because ConVal is a one-district SAU. All school districts in New Hampshire are required by law to belong to a SAU, which oversees the operations of the district. Any town which withdraws from a larger district is required to then create its own school board, which still would be administrated by an SAU. 

As of now, the FSC’s education plan calls for Francestown to run its own elementary school and tuition middle- and high-school students into ConVal. The permanent education plan for Francestown would be finalized by a newly created Francestown School Board after separation from the district. ConVal would set tuition rates for Francestown students.

In September, the ConVal Feasibility Study Committee – made up of a Select Board member and a School Board member from each of the nine towns in the district – voted to not support either Dublin’s or Francestown’s bids to leave the district. The state Board of Education voted to allow the requests to go forward, but voters rejected both in March. Francestown’s request received 81% approval in town, but failed because only 38% of district voters overall approved, less than the 40% required with 60% town approval.

If Francestown approves withdrawal at the ballot in 2026, the town would separate from ConVal as of July 1, 2027. 

Resident Josh Pelton, who works for the Merrimack School District, spoke against the proposal for withdrawal.

“I am concerned for how much this is going to cost, because if you withdraw, you are going to be competing for teachers with much larger, much wealthier school districts, without ConVal and their ability to negotiate with the union,” Pelton said. “I am concerned you could be setting yourselves up to be the most-expensive school district in New Hampshire.” 

Members of the Select Board and the FSC have said that they aware that leaving ConVal might not lower taxes for residents and that Francestown “is willing to pay more.” 

“I hope it will  cost less, but I can’t promise that,” Pyle said. “It would be up to the voters to determine how much we are going to spend. If we want to spend more, we can. If we want to spend less, we can.” 

In 2023, the ConVal School board proposed a warrant article which would have changed the district’s 1968 Articles of Agreement and could have paved the way for closing the elementary schools in Temple, Francestown, Dublin and Bennington. The district across the board  is estimated to be operating at 40% of capacity. Over the past 10 years, the School Board has maintained that maintaining 11 buildings across eight towns is prohibitively expensive.