Temple residents will have a chance to share whether they would be interested in holding a special Town Meeting on a potential feasibility study to withdraw from the ConVal School District.

At the Temple Select Board meeting Tuesday night, Jim Kingston, who serves as the town’s representative on the ConVal School Board, provided updates on events in the school district, in particular the status of the withdrawal feasibility studies approved by Francestown and Dublin at 2024 Town Meeting.

The articles came about as a result of ConVal’s proposed reconfiguration, which could have led to the closure of Francestown Elementary School, Dublin Consolidated School, Pierce School in Bennington and Temple Elementary School, but failed at the ballot box in March.

Any feasibility study regarding withdrawal in Temple would have to approved at Town Meeting. The district would be required to conduct the study, and the study committee would be required to include one School Board member and one Select Board member from each ConVal town. After Francestown and Dublin approved studying withdrawal, the first meeting of ConVal’s study committee is scheduled for April 25.

Kingston said part of the feasibility studies would be to determine the towns’ tax liability to the school district, which would be the debt owed at the time that the withdrawal vote occurs. There was some discussion about what Temple’s liability to the district would be if the town decides to withdraw.

“There are some large-ticket items that are coming up in the very near future,” Kingston, a newly-appointed member of the ConVal Budget Committee. “On the Budget Committee, there is a 2025 warrant for the high school and [Center for Technical Education] projects which will be bonded in 2025,” he said.

Kingston noted that, while he wasn’t advising the board to take any specific action, there would be a “window of lower liability for the town” if they were to withdraw before 2025, if and when the projects are initiated.

Resident Peter Allen asked if there was a specific dollar amount that would fall to the towns after the projects were bonded. Kingston answered he had not had his first official meeting on the Budget Committee, but “it’s not insignificant – how significant that is on every town depends on how many towns are left in the district.”

“The key point is, if they pass that [warrant] before we withdraw, we’re stuck paying it,” said Select Board Chair Bill Ezell.

Resident Pam Kingston noted that the town voting to initiate a feasibility study wouldn’t commit them to actually withdraw.

“The town can vote for a feasibility study regardless of whether we choose to then vote to withdraw,” she said. “So two feasibility studies are being done right now, why does it not make sense for us to hold a special Town Meeting and vote to have to have the feasibility study done at the same time?”

Kingston added that it may be helpful for Temple to go through the withdrawal process with Dublin and Francestown, as they might be able to share information between the three towns.

Selectman George Willard said that at recent ConVal Selectmen’s Advisory Committee meetings, ConVal Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders had told SAC members that the cost of the withdrawal studies would be distributed across the ConVal tax base.

“So we’re already paying for it,” Pam Kingston said. 

“Since they’re already doing two of them, it would make some sense to have them do all three, although we’d really have to get going,” Ezell said.

“We’ve got a very short time frame here if we’re going to do that,” Allen agreed.

Ezell said the Select Board would put up a notice on the town website to announce the potential special Town Meeting, in order to see if there was enough support. That notice has been posted, and residents are asked to send email to boardassistant@templenh.org to express interest.

“We’ll probably have to have a forum so they townspeople can say whether they want to do this or not – it’s going to take at least a month, I’d say.” Ezell said. “My issue is, nobody likes special Town Meetings – but that’s the only choice we have.”