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[post_date] => 2019-03-27 10:24:45
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[post_content] => March 24, 2019
The ConVal School District welcomes the Winchester School District’s participation in ConVal's legal action to seek adequate school funding for its students.
We thank the Winchester Board for taking this important step to ensure that every child in New Hampshire has access to a constitutionally adequate education.
That a third district has joined this movement so quickly is further indication of the importance of this issue and underscores the increasingly difficult positions of New Hampshire school districts as they seek to provide equitable education.
We look forward to working with the Winchester School District in this important action to hold the State accountable for its constitutional obligation.
— The ConVal School Board
[post_title] => Winchester School District Joins ConVal District Action
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[post_date] => 2019-03-20 17:34:27
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[post_content] => March 20, 2019
On the evening of March 19th, the School Board of the Monadnock Regional School District voted unanimously to join ConVal’s lawsuit against the State of New Hampshire.
The ConVal School District welcomes Monadnocks' participation and thanks the Board for taking this important step to ensure that every child in New Hampshire has access to a constitutionally adequate education.
That another district has joined this movement so quickly is further indication of the importance of this issue. This shows the increasingly difficult positions of New Hampshire school districts as they seek to provide equitable education.
We look forward to working with the Monadnock School District in this important action to hold the State accountable to its constitutional obligation.
— The ConVal School Board
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[post_date] => 2019-03-15 13:58:44
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[post_content] => Dear Fellow Community Members,
The Contoocook Valley (ConVal) School Board wishes to thank you for your endless support of our students, staff, and programming.
Voter approval of the operating budget ensures a continued excellent and supportive education for the children of our district. Furthermore, passing the teacher's contract for the next two years tells us that you value and appreciate our staff for the incredible work that they do.
We heard very clearly that a change to the funding formula or additional busses is not a direction you want the district to follow as we pursue answers to questions regarding declining enrollment, increasing educational costs, single-start times, and how services and/or funding is allocated to each school.
Future communications with the public and discussions at school board meetings will continue to take place about these topics and challenges.
Thank you again for supporting warrant articles #1 and #2 on this year's ballot.
Sincerely,
ConVal School Board
[post_title] => A Thank You To Voters From The ConVal School Board
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[post_date] => 2019-03-13 11:30:46
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[post_content] => March 13, 2019
The Contoocook Valley School District, widely known as ConVal, filed a Complaint and Motion for a Preliminary Injunction today in Cheshire Superior Court. Twenty-six years ago, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, in the landmark Claremont decision, determined that it is a State obligation to ensure a constitutionally adequate education for New Hampshire children. Subsequent decisions by the Court also determined that the State cannot shift that responsibility to the local communities.
Efforts on the part of the New Hampshire Legislature have been ongoing since 1993 to resolve the funding shortfalls. Regrettably, the Legislature to date has been unable to provide adequate funding to the local communities so that all children in New Hampshire receive a fair and equitable education, forcing local taxpayers to choose between supporting the children in their communities and being overwhelmed by increasing local taxes.
The Complaint lays out, using the State’s own formula and the State’s own data, how the State’s base adequacy funding falls far short of constitutionally sufficient funding for the children of either the ConVal School District or New Hampshire. The State’s current funding of only $3,636.06 per child does not fund the actual transportation costs incurred by districts, does not apply the actual teacher-student ratios, does not accurately reflect the actual benefits required by the State, does not provide any funding for school nurses, superintendent services, or food services as required by state law and provides less than 20% of the actual statewide average facilities operations and maintenance costs. The current proposed legislation does little to provide permanent, guaranteed adequacy and while it may provide temporary relief to some communities, it is not a permanent solution to an ongoing problem.
The ConVal School Board has not taken this step lightly, it is time for the State to fulfill its promise to our children and to bring relief to the local taxpayers.
— The ConVal School Board
[post_title] => Important Press Release By The ConVal School Board
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[post_date] => 2019-03-08 00:01:42
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[post_content] => by ConVal School Board Member Janine Lesser
The Deliberative Session on February 6th was instructive to the school board. The session opened with testimony from several parents and community members explaining why the items mentioned in an earlier Monadnock Ledger-Transcript article (on the default budget) should not be cut from the school budget. These community members spoke with great passion, which we entirely appreciate, and support. Although we knew any cuts would be very unpopular, the point of the warning was not to intimidate or scare, but simply to lay bare the reality of six years of decreasing state support, the continuing enrollment decline, and narrow and to-the-bone budgets.
The operating budget has been flat over the last five years, with annual increases below 1 %. These budgets were crafted with taxpayers in mind to keep the increases to property taxes to a minimum. These lean budgets absorbed, along with regular inflation, increases to transportation, food services, and health care benefits, increased staffing costs due to inability to hire certain required professionals, and spikes in special education services. In 2018, the nine communities voted to support the operating budget and the Fact Finder Report. That was a strong statement that our residents want to support the schools, the students, and especially that they want their teachers paid in a competitive way. But that vote caused an average of 11.81% increase in property taxes, depending on your town.
This year, the realities of the budget development are that there are no places to make up these regular budget increases: health care benefits, retirement benefits, school maintenance that has become absolutely necessary, transportation contract increases, food service contract increases, and statutorily required special education increases. In addition, we have a new two-year teacher contract, which the board and the CVEA fully support.
In 2018, the state statute that directs how school districts must develop their default budget changed to not allow any expenses that were not included in the previously approved budget, outside standing contracts. That required ConVal to propose a default budget that had to leave $1.2 million in required expenses out of the default--making it necessary to make deep cuts should our proposed operating budget not be approved. The cuts that were listed were the least invasive to the core mission of the school district.
But the point of the default budget, and the article that we advanced, was to alert our nine communities to the crucial nature of passing the operating budget, and not going to default.
Those cuts include 6.5 staff positions in the middle and high school (in addition to the staff cuts that have naturally occurred due to declining enrollment); the Cornucopia Project, New Hampshire Dance Institute, summer programming and Quest programs; the Fresh Fruits & Vegetables program in the elementary schools; fees for the AP courses and the Running Start college credits; the district Arts Enrichment & Integration program; 5th block at the high school (a crucial source of academic support); and the girls & boys hockey, golf, spirit team, and freshman boys basketball co-curricular programs. These cuts look as bad to us as they do to school families, and they are not the total cuts that will have to be made. It is a good lesson on how slim our school budget is, and what cutting $1.2 million out of it means.
We have not found a way to create a firm estimate on how much a consolidation of schools could save. It is more complex than a simple addition. We first have to create a model that looks at the educational plan. We are looking at the model advanced by a previous board working with community members, as well as the models advanced by our administration. Will we be able to deliver services at least with the same quality as we do now? Is there a chance to increase services (maybe contemplate universal pre-K?) with the plans for consolidation?
The communities around our small elementary schools want answers to how a school closing might affect their community. Those have to be answered in order for the voters to make a choice on the educational configuration that will make the most sense for all nine communities. That is why the board fully supported article #12 of the warrant. And finally, the state must step up to its financial obligations. New Hampshire’s constitution has one of the strongest commitments to public education in the country (ncsl.org, The State Role in Education) but is, with Illinois, one of the two states most dependent on property taxes to fund that commitment. Property taxes now pay for 69% of public education in New Hampshire. If property tax payers are looking for demons, that is a good place to start.
In closing, we want to urge everyone to support the proposed operating budget for the coming year, Article #1 on the warrant and the teacher contract, Article #2. It is a bare-bones, skeleton budget and the default budget would mean drastic cuts that will greatly impact student experiences.
[post_title] => Operating Budget vs. Default Budget: The Hard Facts
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[post_date] => 2019-03-06 09:58:29
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[post_content] => by ConVal School Board Member Stephan Morrissey
For the past several years, there have been several constituents and groups that have been advocating for later start times for high school students. Both the board and administration are aware of a number of studies that seem to support better educational outcomes for high school age children in those places that have adopted later starting times. The board requested proposals that would accomplish this.
Based on prior surveys, the administration formulated a single tier system that would keep older children and elementary children separate while accomplishing this goal. It was their opinion that the best way would require us to add more bus routes and would add about $800,000 plus to the budget ANNUALLY. This cost number assumes our current school configuration and meets the goal that prior surveys seemed to demand.
Our large district geography, along with parents’ impression/desire that grades K-12 not be on the same bus, combined with the number of schools within the district, make this desirable action an expensive one. The board decided to approve and advance this to the voters by a narrow margin because it was felt that the voters should have the final say if this educational benefit was a worthwhile investment.
Please feel free to contact members of your school board with any questions and with your opinions. Lastly REMEMBER TO COME OUT AND TO VOTE!
[post_title] => Single-Tier School Bussing
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[post_date] => 2019-02-25 06:00:24
[post_date_gmt] => 2019-02-25 11:00:24
[post_content] => by ConVal School Board Members Bernd Foecking and Janine Lesser
After looking at the 2018-2019 tax bill and the proposed budget for 2019-2020, it can appear that educating ConVal students is expensive. Closer examination: the average per pupil cost in ConVal is slightly below the average for New Hampshire. Until recently, the ConVal school budget had been flat, rising under 1% each year. However, the voters approved last year’s budget and the Fact Finder Report. This provided a salary increase to those covered by the CVEA contract bringing our pay scale almost in line with districts where we compete for teachers and special service professionals. This was a strong statement; ConVal residents want to support the schools and the students, and they want their staff paid in a competitive way.
Exacerbating the budget are two important factors that without intervention will continue: decreased student enrollment and downshifting the cost of a NH constitutionally guaranteed public education to local property taxes. This trend will continue.
The nine communities all feel the tax increases; some more than others depending on the year and reassessment factors. We have seen many opinions and guesses about how much a school consolidation could save the district and, consequently, each town. Over the past three years, the school board and administration have been involved in trying to find a district reconfiguration plan that is educationally sound first, and fiscally sound second. This included trying to come up with a projected financial estimate. Consolidation would be a significant shift in how and where we deliver education. We can look at the budget and remove the cost for the community schools including the services that are delivered at those schools and draw our conclusions from those numbers. We can come up with numbers for additional bus routes. We can estimate how big classes could be, how many extra students could be educated with the faculty at the remaining schools as well as project how many positions would be eliminated.
While we can come up with those numbers, we have not found a way to create a firm estimate on how much a consolidation could really save. It is more complex than just simple addition.
We first have to create a model that looks at the educational plan. Will we be able to deliver services with the same quality as we do now? Is there a chance to increase services (maybe contemplate universal pre-K?) with plans for consolidation? The towns in our district who may face school closures-- Hancock, Temple, Dublin, Greenfield, Bennington and Francestown--are, in most cases, opposed to those closures. The communities around our small elementary schools want answers as to how a school closing might affect their community, and what the proposed education will look like. All nine towns need a defendable estimate as to what the savings will be. And what might be the unintended consequences. These questions are valid and must be answered to the fullest extent possible.
We are in favor of giving the voter the chance to vote on a sound consolidation plan. And, much work towards this has been done. Though we could have pushed it through for the March 2019 ballot, in the end many school board members and the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee felt that we simply did not have enough answers to move consolidation onto the ballot.
Taking this step without sound answers for the public will undoubtedly lead to the disintegration of the district. Implementation of such a plan is a long, multi-year process, but begins with support by all nine communities. While it might seem that a decision was pushed down the road for another year, a better starting point--a plan with more answers-- might mean a shorter implementation period.
We do want to caution against using firm numbers in any discussion about consolidation. It is misleading and we then tend to focus on a numerical goal. We will continue working towards an excellent alternative to how we deliver services where the monetary savings would be a welcome bonus. However, it is important to remember that without the state taking up its constitutional responsibility to children, tax relief will be fairly small and short termed.
In closing, it is crucial that everyone support the 2019-2020 operating budget. It is a “maintenance of efforts” budget. Community members who doubt this reality must look at the past five years to see how the budget absorbed contractual and inflation increases. Therefore, the administration started this current budget cycle with a stripped down, minimalist budget. If it does not pass, the default budget would mean drastic cuts to programming that will have a direct impact on our students.
[post_title] => Consolidation Can Be an Option, But It Will Not Be a Magic Wand
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[post_date] => 2019-02-18 06:00:44
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[post_content] => by ConVal School Board Member Rich Cahoon
Over the past decade, there have been many efforts to study the configuration of ConVal schools, and to recommend alternative models that would be educationally appropriate and financially sustainable. In addition to the not fewer than six potential models considered in the past year, there were earlier efforts such as the Elementary School Study Committee, the Model Study Committee, and the District Study Committee.
What these efforts all have in common is that none of them recommended undoing the middle school model, and moving sixth grade into the elementary schools. Multiple studies involving thousands of hours of effort on the part of dozens of ConVal administrators, School Board members, and members of the public, and none have ever identified moving sixth graders back to our small elementary schools as being an educationally sound approach.
There is a reason for this: ConVal’s middle schools work. They provide broad and rigorous educational opportunities, do so in a fiscally responsible manner, and support the social and emotional wellbeing of our students.
First, ConVal’s middle schools provide excellent educational opportunities. In recent years, both South Meadow School and Great Brook School have been honored as New Hampshire Middle School of the Year. Staff members have received awards for excellence, at the regional, state and national levels.
Students at our middles schools have access to a wider array of offerings than we are able to offer in our small elementary schools. So far this year, my fifth-grade student at Great Brook School has been able to access courses in robotics, computer programming, Spanish, and Greek mythology. These programmatic offerings are simply not feasible in an elementary school with a student body of a few dozen students.
Second, ConVal’s middle schools are financially efficient, and maintaining the middle school model costs less than adding grades to the elementary schools. There are meaningful economies of scale in larger buildings. When there are 75 students in a given grade in one building, fewer teachers are required than when those 75 students are spread out over six or seven buildings. At some elementary schools, there are not enough classrooms available to move in two additional grades, and doing so would require adding on to the buildings, at considerable cost.
Every year, the New Hampshire Department of Education gathers data from all New Hampshire School Districts and publishes a spreadsheet of the cost per student for each district, broken out by grade level. In 2017-2018, the per-pupil cost of ConVal middle schools was $17,233. The per pupil cost of ConVal elementary schools was $20,099. Moving students back to elementary schools does not make financial sense.
Third, ConVal’s middle schools are supportive of the social and emotional needs of our students. Advocates for ConVal’s small elementary schools often speak of the “family-like” environment of our smallest schools. It is true that many students find an environment where they spend five years with the same very small cohort of peers to be rewarding. But this is not true of all students. In the ConVal district, more families from small schools request that their children be moved to a larger school, than families from larger schools request assignment to a smaller. By the time children reach the end of fourth grade, many of them are ready for the opportunity to broaden their social horizons. Our middle schools provide that opportunity, as well as providing a smooth transition from small elementary schools to a much larger high school
ConVal’s administration has never recommended educating sixth grade students in our small elementary schools. Doing so would limit the educational and social opportunities available to those students, and come at a significantly higher cost. So why would we do it? ConVal’s middle schools work.
[post_title] => ConVal Middle Schools Work
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[post_date] => 2019-02-13 14:30:50
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[post_content] => by ConVal School Board Member Janine Lesser
On March 12th, voters in the nine communities of the ConVal School District will vote on a warrant with several important articles. The nine communities are justly proud of the education that they have been able to provide for families who live in the ConVal district.
The administration and school board work hard to look to the future and ensure we are preparing our students to work and thrive, and keep New Hampshire growing and healthy—a state where they will be proud to live and raise their own families.
What does it take to ensure these opportunities continue?
A good and fair budget, for one, that carefully manages resources raised by taxation against the diverse needs of nine towns; fair and supportive teacher contracts, for another; and most importantly, a belief that we are making an investment in our communities, our families, our children, together.
The administration and school board regularly struggle with the complexity of running the district. We want to make sure that your questions are answered.
The Budget and Property Committee developed a comprehensive explanation of how the budget is developed, how the budget translates to your tax bill or the district methodology (this is important since Article #4 proposes to amend the Articles of Agreement to apply a new apportionment formula), and lists the part of the overall school district budget for which your town is responsible. It also reviews the warrant articles and explains the school board’s position on those articles.
A School Budget Primer: Understanding School Budget Preparation, Methodology, and the Important Role of the Taxpayer was distributed at the Deliberative Session on February 6th, and can be found on the ConVal website by searching for “School Board Primer”, or clicking the 2019 Warrant banner at the top of the screen to see the actual handouts from the meeting.
If you have additional questions, please contact your school board representative whose contact information is available at the website as well.
Please vote “yes” on the operating budget, and “yes” on the proposed teacher contract.
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[post_content] => Many residents of the ConVal School District have a solid understanding of the school budget process and have kept up with the changes that were implemented during the past few years regarding the ConVal budget.
But the ConVal School Board also recognizes that there are residents who are new to the district and want to gain a better understanding of how the annual district budget is proposed and finalized before it comes before the voters for annual approval. The following documents are intended to offer a closer perspective on how the budget was established for the 2019-2020 school year.
The first document consists of a slideshow that can be read online. The presentation contains five subsections:
- Overview: a brief summary of our district school budget.
- School district budget process: a detailed description of how the Con Val school budget is created.
- The 2018-19 budget: an explanation about recent increases in the "local education" portion of 2018 property tax bills in the district.
- District tax assessment methodology: a discussion about how each town contributes to district costs.
- Proposed warrant articles: what taxpayers can expect to see on the March 2019 ballot.
For those who want to explore the budget process in even greater detail, the Schoolboard offers a second document, the 2019-2020 School Budget Primer, for even more information about the ConVal School District budget.
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[post_content] => March 24, 2019
The ConVal School District welcomes the Winchester School District’s participation in ConVal's legal action to seek adequate school funding for its students.
We thank the Winchester Board for taking this important step to ensure that every child in New Hampshire has access to a constitutionally adequate education.
That a third district has joined this movement so quickly is further indication of the importance of this issue and underscores the increasingly difficult positions of New Hampshire school districts as they seek to provide equitable education.
We look forward to working with the Winchester School District in this important action to hold the State accountable for its constitutional obligation.
— The ConVal School Board
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March 24, 2019
The ConVal School District welcomes the Winchester School District’s participation in ConVal’s legal action to seek adequate school funding for its students.
We thank the Winchester Board for taking this important step to ensure that every child in New Hampshire has access to a constitutionally adequate education.
Read More: Winchester School District Joins ConVal District Action
March 20, 2019
On the evening of March 19th, the School Board of the Monadnock Regional School District voted unanimously to join ConVal’s lawsuit against the State of New Hampshire.
Read More: Monadnock School District Joins ConVal District Action
Dear Fellow Community Members,
The Contoocook Valley (ConVal) School Board wishes to thank you for your endless support of our students, staff, and programming.
Voter approval of the operating budget ensures a continued excellent and supportive education for the children of our district.
Read More: A Thank You To Voters From The ConVal School Board
March 13, 2019
The Contoocook Valley School District, widely known as ConVal, filed a Complaint and Motion for a Preliminary Injunction today in Cheshire Superior Court. Twenty-six years ago,
Read More: Important Press Release By The ConVal School Board
by ConVal School Board Member Janine Lesser
The Deliberative Session on February 6th was instructive to the school board. The session opened with testimony from several parents and community members explaining why the items mentioned in an earlier Monadnock Ledger-Transcript article (on the default budget) should not be cut from the school budget.
Read More: Operating Budget vs. Default Budget: The Hard Facts
by ConVal School Board Member Stephan Morrissey
For the past several years, there have been several constituents and groups that have been advocating for later start times for high school students.
by ConVal School Board Members Bernd Foecking and Janine Lesser
After looking at the 2018-2019 tax bill and the proposed budget for 2019-2020, it can appear that educating ConVal students is expensive.
Read More: Consolidation Can Be an Option, But It Will Not Be a Magic Wand
by ConVal School Board Member Rich Cahoon
Over the past decade, there have been many efforts to study the configuration of ConVal schools, and to recommend alternative models that would be educationally appropriate and financially sustainable.
by ConVal School Board Member Janine Lesser
On March 12th, voters in the nine communities of the ConVal School District will vote on a warrant with several important articles.
Many residents of the ConVal School District have a solid understanding of the school budget process and have kept up with the changes that were implemented during the past few years regarding the ConVal budget.
Read More: School Board Offers Background Information On Budget, Budget Process