ConVal Article 10: We Need A Better Solution

ConVal Warrant Article 10 changes the ConVal School District’s Articles of Agreement to only require elementary schools in only four of the districts nine towns – eliminating 4 of our elementary schools.

This change would give the School Board total control in shuttering elementary schools in Bennington, Dublin, Francestown and Temple in their pursuit of consolidation. This change to the Articles of Agreement takes away the voice of the towns and with no clear plan on how to make the consolation happen.

• NO Tax Savings

Funds will be reallocated to the administration and possibly middle and high schools

• NO Plan

The school board has presented no plan for how consolidation will happen

• School Board Decisions:

are based off of a biased (only looked at closing elementary schools) report from Prismatics

• School Board Failed to Provide a Study

We have no data on the impact closing our schools will have on our towns

• Unused buildings must first be offered to Charter schools

This means neither the town nor district would have say in what charter school operates in your town

• Property values drop if schools are closed

Real Estate surveys overwhelmingly show that proximity to school has a strong impact on home values

It is clear the ConVal District is in financial trouble. Two big contributing factors are rising costs, specifically in the area of employee benefits, as well the well known State funding issue. Neither of these issues are impacted by enrollment. Solutions are needed, however more work needs to be done to find a solution that will solve the problem, not kick the problem down the road for a year or two.

Vote NO on ConVal Warrant Article 10 on March 12.

Read the ConVal 2024 Warrant Articles Here

We ALL believe in provide the best education possible for our students! And we know the School Board has a herculean task dealing with issues of declining enrollment and increasing costs.

We strongly believe and will fight that we having local, healthy elementary school is a foundational core of our towns. The elementary school is a key to building vibrant communities that support the economic system in the region.

Please read through these pages for more details information.

ConVal District notes:

Click here to visit the ConVal School Board Website

Click here to see the current ConVal Articles of Agreement

Click here to see the full report from Prismatic regarding their recommendation for consolidation

Click here for student enrollment by county

Click here for studen enrollment by town

Click here for past student enrollment data for ConVal

Meet the ConVal elementary schools

We have 8 elementary schools which serve the 9 towns which are part of the ConVal School District, SAU #1.
4 of these wonderful schools are scheduled to be CUT unless we VOTE NO!!

Student enrollment listed is as of Sept. 1, 2023.
NOTE: I'm sorry that the websites I'm linking to below are new, and they say very little about the schools.

Antrim Elementary School – 133 students