ConVal voters to weigh in on $58.4M budget next week [The Keene Sentinel, N.H.]

Jan. 31—PETERBOROUGH — ConVal School District voters are slated to weigh in Tuesday evening on this year's warrant, which includes a $58.4 million budget proposal.

The district's annual deliberative session is set for Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. at ConVal Regional High School, at 184 Hancock Road in Peterborough, where voters will finalize the warrant before voting the articles up or down at the polls in March. The ConVal district covers Antrim, Bennington, Dublin, Francestown, Greenfield, Hancock, Peterborough, Sharon and Temple.

The $58,370,749 budget proposal includes an operating budget of $56,000,749 as well as $2,370,000 for programs funded by federal dollars, according to Alan Edelkind of Dublin, vice chair of the board and a member of the budget committee.

Jim Fredrickson, Sharon representative and chair of the board's budget committee, said the proposed operating budget is around 4 percent higher than this year's. He added this is mostly due to an increase in the price of benefits for employees.

"The biggest driver is the fact all school districts are seeing increase in the health care rates for people who participate in the public employee health insurance program," Fredrickson said. "It's up 25 percent."

If the budget proposal fails at the polls in March, a default budget of $57,822,135 would take effect. This is calculated by taking the current year's budget and adding obligations that have already been signed, such as transportation or service contracts.

"All those increases are included in a default budget, but nothing else can be added to it," Frederickson said.

Going to the default budget could mean eliminating sports and other extra curriculars or positions due to the need to make around $600,000 in cuts, he added. This is would be due to the default budget being that much less than the proposed.

In addition to the budget, ConVal's warrant asks if voters will approve an amendment to the articles of agreement, adjusting the definition of the number of elementary schools the board must maintain. Amid a drop in enrollment, this follows a series of meetings to determine whether to reconfigure and consolidate four local elementary schools.

The board chose to move forward with the report received from Prismatic Services, which recommended to shutter Dublin Consolidated School, Pierce School in Bennington, Francestown Elementary School and Temple Elementary School.

The board recommends this article for approval, with eight board members in favor and two opposed.

"We have nine towns, eight elementary schools, two middle schools and a high school," Frederickson said. "We have too many ... It's not an easy decision ... But we need to do something."

He added that he worries budgets will stop passing as they increase to keep up with so many schools.

"We're going to hit the default budget and that's going to hurt a lot more people than if you close a couple of smaller schools; some only have 30, 40, 50 kids," Frederickson said.

Voters will also be asked to approve a one-year collective bargaining agreement between the school board and the ConVal Education Association. Teachers, paraprofessionals, nurses and psychiatrists are among those included in this contract. Around 240 employees would be affected by this arrangement, according to Frederickson, and would see an estimated increase of $1,229,388 in salaries and benefits.

"We felt we needed to do this because we have open positions, and we want to retain the best and recruit the best," Frederickson said. "... Both sides were happy with it."

The school district also requests to appropriate money to a variety of trust funds, drawing from any unassigned fund balance at the end of the current school year. These requests include: separate requests of $500,000 and $200,000 for the building capital reserve fund, $350,000 for the health maintenance fund, $50,000 to the technology fund, $50,000 to the equipment fund and $50,000 to the energy fund.

To see the full warrant, visit https://bit.ly/3OnalVM

In addition to the warrant, voters in March will elect five members to the 13-member ConVal School Board and a moderator. The ballot will feature one school board seat each in Antrim (for a one-year term), Bennington (for a three-year term), Greenfield (for a three-year term), Peterborough (for a three-year term) and Temple (for a three-year term), and a moderator (for a three-year term).

Polls will be open to voters Tuesday, March 12 in the town of their residence.

Jamie Browder can be reached at 352-1234 ext. 1427 or jbrowder@keenesentinel.com

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