Concord approves Deerfield school contract, Deerfield residents yet to vote

A contract between the Concord School District and the town of Deerfield is back on the table this year, as the districts are re-negotiating the agreement that allows Deerfield students to attend Concord High School.

The Concord School Board voted unanimously to approve a 20-year contract at a meeting Monday. Deerfield residents will vote on the contract at their annual meeting in March.

Deerfield students have been attending Concord High School through a tuition agreement since 2004. Deerfield, which has Deerfield Community School for grades pre-K through 8, doesn’t have its own high school. There are 159 Deerfield students at Concord High this year.

Much of the proposed contract is the same as the previous one, according to Concord School Board member Pamela Walsh and school board president Jim Richards who have been involved in negotiations with Deerfield School Board members.

The new contract is longer than the last one – 20 years instead of 10 – which would carry the agreement from 2024 to 2044 with the option to re-negotiate or terminate the agreement at the 12-year mark in 2036.

According to the contract, at least 90% of Deerfield’s public school students would be required to attend Concord High School. Deerfield could send up to 10% of students to other public schools on a tuition agreement, but those students would have to apply for a hardship exemption to attend a school other than Concord High. Private- and home-schooled students aren’t included in that requirement.

Richards said the percentage rule benefits both districts.

“For us, it means that we have stability of knowing that Deerfield students are coming to our school,” Richards said. “For them, it makes Concord High School their school of record, it allows them to enjoy the benefits of CRTC that all Concord students [do], and the finances of that.”

At a Deerfield School Board public hearing in September, some Deerfield parents said they wished they had more public school choices, arguing that Concord High may not be the best fit for every student. Deerfield School Board had also explored the idea of a tuition agreement with Coe-Brown Northwood Academy but found it would be more expensive.

In the proposed contract, Deerfield’s tuition rate – currently a little over $14,000 per student – would remain the same for the first year of the agreement, after which the rate would be calculated using a different formula that is based on expenditure rates from more recent years than was previously done. Deerfield would no longer have to pay a capital fee in addition to tuition. They would remain responsible for transporting students to Concord High.

“I can speak from a personal point of view that we’re really, really lucky to have Deerfield students here,” Richards said. “They add so much to our community and they bring in to our high school community that diversity and expansion of  view points that really  help.”