After hearing arguments for both sides, the Franklin city council determined Monday that Oct. 24 – at 6:02 p.m. on the dot – will be when it decides whether the Franklin School District should withdraw from SAU 18.
The state Board of Education approved the Franklin Withdrawal Planning Committee’s proposal in August, and the city council held a half-hour public hearing on the topic Monday.
School board and withdrawal committee member Susan Hallett-Cook stood up first.
“I know I came in late to the party,” she said, noting that she joined the seven-member withdrawal committee in January 2016, four months after it formed. But, Hallett-Cook added, New Hampshire appears to be one of the only states bucking the trend of school districts consolidating as a way to save money.
“It seems to make more sense for communities to join together and share funding resources instead of breaking apart,” she said.
Hallett-Cook added that she couldn’t find any educational benefit for students in the current withdrawal plan.
The plan calls for dissolving the 62-year-old SAU by the 2017-18 school year. In exchange for $1,750, one desktop computer, one laptop and four filing cabinets, Hill has agreed to let Franklin keep the rest of the SAU assets so Franklin can maintain its former identity as SAU 18.
Operating as a one-district SAU could help Franklin, Glen and Tamara Feener said.
Tamara, a former school board and withdrawal committee member, argued that Hill School District decided to focus on its own students when the town voted to enter a 10-year agreement with Newfound School District.
The 64 students who attend Jennie D. Blake Elementary School in Hill remain in SAU 18, and that amounts to a $93,700 contribution for administrative services.
“It’s time for us to focus on Franklin,” Tamara Feener said. She suggested withdrawing from the joint SAU and having the superintendent stay within Franklin – as opposed to traveling to Hill or Newfound’s district – and apply for grants and encourage open enrollment and other opportunities.
“If we want money, that’s where we need to start focusing,” she said.
Glen Feener said, “There’s a savings to be made.” He noted that Franklin is considering consolidating its school district finances into a city account, but if SAU 18 continues to include Hill, that won’t be possible.
“They do not want the city of Franklin handling their money,” Glen said.
As far as costs and savings go, the withdrawal plan submitted to the state in April argues that there would be an overall savings.
The report indicates a single school district SAU for Franklin would make a net savings of $21,802 due to the elimination of one SAU administrator, balanced out with lost revenue and additional expenses.
Withdrawal committee member Leigh Webb, however, told city councilors some figures in the submitted proposal were estimates, such as the $18,000 in lost revenue due to the withdrawal.
“It’s already been exceeded because of legal fees and other extraneous financial considerations,” Webb said.
In considering the effect of any lost revenue, he said, “I’m looking at our mayor who is very concerned, as are our city councilors, about the shortfall in our school budget.”
Franklin city councilors and school board members spent numerous meetings this summer trying to make up an almost $1 million gap in the school budget, which lost, among other things, $283,000 in state adequacy aid.
Later in Monday’s meeting, Scott Burns reported on behalf of the school board that its members had just learned that day that Franklin lost an additional $115,000 in state adequacy aid for the impending budget year.
Burns asked Mayor Ken Merrifield and the other city councilors to vote against proceeding with the withdrawal plan on Oct. 24, saying that municipalities needed to work together to strengthen their children.
“It doesn’t take a village anymore. It takes villages,” Burns said.