The ConVal School District announces that four more school districts will sign on as co-plaintiffs in the District’s lawsuit against the State of New Hampshire over education funding.
The Fall Mountain, Claremont, Newport and Hillsboro-Deering School Districts join the ConVal, Monadnock, Mascenic and Winchester School Districts in arguing that New Hampshire does not meet its constitutional obligation to provide adequate funding for all students.
ConVal and its co-plaintiffs argue that base adequacy is not sufficient to fund an adequate education and falls far short of funding services, positions, and items that the State requires school districts to provide. In 2019 districts received $3,636 per student in base adequacy.
In March the Supreme Court of New Hampshire returned the lawsuit to Superior Court Judge David Ruoff and rejected the state’s requests to dismiss it. Ruoff will hold hearings that will allow ConVal and its co-plaintiffs to present factual evidence that the state underfunds education. An evidentiary hearing is unlikely to be held until summer 2022.
Ruoff on Wednesday, April 21, allowed other school districts 30 days to join the ConVal lawsuit.
“For nearly 30 years the State of New Hampshire has ignored the spirit of the original Claremont funding decision. As a result it has shifted its responsibility to local communities, creating funding inequities across the state,” Dr. Kimberly Rizzo Saunders, Superintendent of ConVal School District, said. “We welcome the Fall Mountain, Claremont, Newport and Hillsboro-Deering School Districts, and encourage other districts to join us in ensuring the state meets its constitutional responsibility to the children of New Hampshire.”