NASHUA – The Board of Education voted 9-0 Monday night to become yet another plaintiff in the so-called ConVal lawsuit, which accuses the state of woefully underfunding public education and forcing local taxpayers to make up the difference through their ever-increasing property taxes.

“I’m proud of our board in its unanimous support of the ConVal lawsuit,” Nashua BOE president Heather Raymond said in a statement following Monday’s meeting.

“We are not hesitating in joining so many other school districts, large and small, in moving this case forward.”

Around the same time BOE members were deliberating and voting on the move to join the suit, the Manchester School District was in the process of joining the lawsuit as well.

The addition of the state’s two largest school districts brings to 16 the number of plaintiffs currently on board.

The lawsuit, which also names state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, essentially argues that New Hampshire does not meet its constitutional obligation to provide adequate funding for all public school students.

Perhaps the most illustrative evidence supporting the plaintiffs’ claim is the wide gap between the estimated annual per-student cost and the amount of per-student funding the state actually provides.

According to the state Department of Education, the per-student cost for the current 2020-21 school year is roughly $16,800, but the state provides a mere $3,700 per student in base adequacy funding.

Those numbers, Raymond, the BOE president, said, show that “the state falls far short in supporting a student’s education.”

Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess, a vocal, and frequent, critic of what he calls the state’s recent history of woefully underfunding cities and towns, echoed the allegations in the lawsuit.

“Quite simply, the state of New Hampshire is not living up to its responsibility to adequately fund public education,” Donchess said.

The Nashua BOE’s vote, meanwhile, comes a week after Donchess, addressing the proposed city budget in his mayoral remarks at the outset of the May 11 Board of Aldermen meeting, railed at length against the state’s funding practices.

“If it were not for what the state has done, the city tax rate, based on this budget, would be flat, or actually decline, this coming fall,” Donchess said, blaming the state for the possibility Nashua taxpayers’ rates will increase by about 5.5% in the coming year.

“However, the state is slamming Nashua with $11.8 million of increased costs and lower state aid,” he said, adding that he and city department heads “have been working hard to try to make up for the state’s approach of using the cities and towns of New Hampshire as their cash register.”

As for the suit, the state attempted, but failed, earlier this year to convince the state Supreme Court justices to dismiss the lawsuit. Instead, the justices ordered the suit be returned to the Superior Court level, where it would proceed with Cheshire County Superior Court Judge David Ruoff presiding.

In April, Ruoff issued an order that gave any other interested school districts until May 22 to join the lawsuit.

In addition to Nashua, Manchester and lead plaintiff ConVal – Contoocook Valley School District – the districts on board the suit include Derry Cooperative, Monadnock Regional, Mascenic Regional, Mascoma Valley Regional, Fall Mountain Regional, Oyster River Cooperative, Claremont, Winchester, Newport, Hillsboro-Deering, Grantham, Hopkinton and Oyster River.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

Newsletter