Special meeting on $152 million middle school project scheduled Dec. 4

Aerial views of some of the intersections in area near the middle school project included in a traffic study and of the traffic flow on the proposed site. Concord School District
Published: 11-21-2024 5:48 PM |
A meeting of the Concord School Board will allow public comment for the first time since the election.
The board isn’t expected to take major action during the special meeting on Dec. 4, but it will allow the first public input on the project’s future since the passage of two charter amendments.
The special meeting will include a presentation from the school district’s attorney about the board’s options, which members will discuss before opening it up to public comment, according to Board President Pamela Walsh. She could not be reached for an interview Thursday but said in a written communication that a finalized agenda is forthcoming.
While any member of the board can make a motion at any time, Walsh noted, she as president does not plan to call for a major vote at this meeting.
Two amendments to the school district charter passed on election day require the board to get approval from the voters to relocate a district school or to sell a substantial piece of district property. Their passage has complicated the course forward for Concord’s middle school project, currently being designed by the board for forested land in East Concord near the Broken Ground School.
The amendments were written and publicized by a group of residents who want the school board to keep the middle school at its current South End location, but their passage doesn’t automatically force the school board to rebuild at Rundlett. A member of the board said after the election that he didn’t see the amendment’s passage as a clear directive from voters to reverse course on the project.
The board has met multiple times since the election with its attorney but hasn’t said publicly what it will do now with the amendments in place.
The state’s Right to Know law allows government officials to meet in private to get advice from legal counsel without a meeting notice or keeping minutes.
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The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the board’s meeting room in the basement of the district offices on 38 Liberty St.
The following day, on Dec. 5, the board’s Capital Facili ties Committee will include a review of the board’s capital improvement plan, summer projects and renovation to Memorial Field. The board’s final regular monthly meeting of 2024 will be on Dec. 2.