Lacking quorum, committee focuses on answering questions about withdrawal from Newfound school district

BRIDGEWATER — The Bridgewater, Hebron, and Groton Steering Committee, formed to develop a structure for the creation of a special-purpose school district for the three towns, failed to reach the quorum necessary to conduct business last week, but Hebron representative Jennifer Larochelle used the opportunity to answer attendees’ questions about the effort to withdraw from the Newfound Area School District.

Since Gov. Chris Sununu signed House Bill 349 into law on Aug. 4, many residents of the Newfound district have expressed confusion about the bill, which allows voters in the three towns to decide whether they want to leave the district. Traditionally, withdrawal from a cooperative school district requires an affirmative vote by a majority of the voters in the entire school district, although a separate legislative bill that passed this session amended that requirement so it would take a three-fifths majority of the voters to prevent one or more towns from withdrawing if they chose to do so.

In the case of Bridgewater, Hebron, and Groton, the New Hampshire Legislature recognized the special circumstances that govern the Newfound Area school system. Bridgewater and Hebron had formed an independent village district to build an elementary school, which they lease to the Newfound Area School District for $1 a year. Newfound handles the curriculum and staffing as well as administrative services for the school.

HB 349 expands upon the Bridgewater-Hebron Village District’s authority to allow those towns and the adjacent town of Groton to form their own school district. Each town would have to approve the change at their next town meetings in March or otherwise remain part of the seven-town cooperative.

Until the bill passed, proponents had no authority to explore options or develop plans for an independent school district, but that lack of detail has led Newfound residents to complain about the process.

On the evening of Oct. 11, they got some of those answers.

The steering committee comprises one selectboard member from each town — Terry Murphy representing Bridgewater, Patrick Moriarty from Hebron, and John Rescigno from Groton — and Newfound Area School District Budget Committee members from each of those towns: Erick Piper of Bridgewater, Larochelle of Hebron, and Virginia Parker of Groton. Derry Riddle and William White serve as ex-officio members from the Bridgewater-Hebron Village District.

Only Larochelle, Murphy, and Rescigno attended the meeting last Wednesday.

One of the questions raised is why the steering committee does not include any parent of a student currently attending Newfound schools. The steering committee has said the initial group was selected because the first issues to address are largely financial, but Larochelle said they have discussed expanding the committee to include a parent representative. Rescigno noted committee members have grandchildren in the school system.

Bob Brooks of Hebron asked why they are considering leaving School Administrative Unit 4, the body that encompasses the various districts. The response was complex.

Larochelle said that, when they built the Bridgewater-Hebron Village School for kindergarten through fourth grade, it was designed to allow for expansion through eighth grade.

“The then-superintendent was someone who was very forward-thinking, and he thought it was great that we were building this little school,” she said. “If we were to have the K-8 and the middle school at the Newfound Area School District, we would be therefore more attractive to families who wanted to settle in the area ... because their kids would have a choice. The parents would have a choice about where their kids would attend, depending on their students’ needs.”

The Bridgewater-Hebron Village School later expanded to K-5, but when the village district proposed expanding to K-6, the administration did not allow it. Later, when they proposed a K-8 expansion, the administration again disallowed it.

“When you have a K-8, you have a different model of education than you have with a 6-8 middle school,” said Larochelle, who spent 15 years teaching middle school. “There are lots of examples of K-8 in SAU 48, the Plymouth SAU ... who are very successful. In fact, Ashland, which is much the same size as us, has a very successful and very creative model of educating their kids, so there’s the educational piece of it.”

The financial motivation to split from Newfound came when voters asked to reconsider the formula governing the allocation of costs among the towns. When the school district was established in 1962, the seven towns agreed to assess costs based on each town’s average daily attendance and associated transportation costs. Led by Alexandria residents, district voters considered adopting the more standard allocation of costs using attendance and equalized valuation. Larochelle said, had the change passed, school taxation in Bridgewater, Groton and Hebron would more than double.

“We would have towns such as the three of ours paying upwards of $59,000 a year per student to offset the cost of other towns in the district,” she said. “So other towns in the district might pay $14,000-$15,000 a student.”

The formula change did not pass, but voters established a study committee that could bring it back before the district at any time.

In response to a follow-up question about the quality of education that Newfound students are receiving, committee members praised the work of teachers and administrators and said they hope to continue their relationship with Newfound through tuition agreements and service contracts.

The Newfound Area School Board has agreed to discuss how they might work together after a potential split, including ensuring that students wishing to continue attending the middle and high schools would be able to do so.

Murphy assured those attending the costs to the towns would not significantly change from what they are paying now. When asked how he could be sure the Newfound board would not set high tuition rates and charge higher administrative fees, he noted the New Hampshire Board of Education has to approve any agreement, and it would look at the previous two years’ costs to determine what is fair.

“You cannot be blackmailed,” he said.

Asked why they have not approached other school districts about establishing agreements, Larochelle said, “We wanted to make a good-faith gesture toward SAU 4. We don’t want to create any strife there.”

She added, however, “That is not to say that other school districts — and I’m going to keep it right here — that other school districts have not reached out to us.”