Rethinking Rundlett: The Concord school board charter amendments in plain English
Published: 10-25-2024 5:43 PM
Modified: 10-25-2024 8:58 PM |
Local election results in Concord on Nov. 5 will include tallies for a pair of amendments to the school district’s charter that would give the public more say over major decisions involving school building moves and property sales.
While those amendments have been tied to the district’s controversial middle school project and could ultimately affect that project’s future, neither is a direct vote on the location of the project.
Rather, the amendments would change the governance of the school district more broadly, forcing the board to secure district-wide voter approval whenever it wishes to either relocate a school building or sell more than one acre of property. Currently, the nine-member school board can take these actions on its own.
Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about the charter amendments.
Question 1: “No Concord public school existing as of January 1, 2024, including but not limited to the District’s middle school, (Rundlett Middle School), shall be relocated from the parcel on which it was situated as of January 1, 2024, to be rebuilt or replaced elsewhere, without an affirmative simple majority vote of Concord School District voters voting on the question ratifying such relocation.”
Question 2: “No parcel of real property owned by the Concord School District, larger than one acre, shall be sold, gifted, or exchanged by the District without an affirmative simple majority vote of Concord School District voters voting on the question.”
Both are intended to take effect immediately if they pass.
If question 1 passes, it would require the school district to get approval from a majority of voters any time it wishes to move a school from one location to another. Voters would have to make a decision during a regular school district election or a specially scheduled election. The next municipal election in Concord is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.
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If question 2 passes, it would require the school district to get approval from a majority of voters any time it wishes to sell, gift, or exchange more than one acre of land it owns. Currently, the school district can sell, gift, or exchange property without getting voter approval. Those decisions would also need to be made during a district-wide election.
A “Yes” vote means you support implementing the new voting requirements. A “No” vote means you support the status quo.
There are a number of ways the adoption of Question 1 could affect the future of the middle school project.
A reconsideration by the school board: Though the school relocation amendment has been framed as a referendum on the middle school project, it is not directly a vote on that project. Nonetheless, because of how the amendment arose, strong majority support for it could signal significant community dissatisfaction with the board’s decision to build the middle school at Broken Ground and lead the board to reopen and potentially reverse its decision. If the new school was built at the Rundlett site, it would not constitute a school relocation and would not trigger a city-wide vote.
A vote: If the board sticks with its decision to move the school to the Broken Ground land, the amendment would likely trigger a vote to approve relocating the middle school.
A court battle: It is not an absolute certainty the amendment would definitively trigger a vote because there is some argument over its applicability to the middle school. The school board’s attorney has argued the decision would be exempt from a vote because New Hampshire does not allow retroactive application of charter amendments.
But not everyone agrees the applicability would be considered retroactive. Though the board has already voted on the location of the school, proponents of the amendment say the school would not actually be “relocated” until the funding and bond for the new building is approved or until students move in years from now.
The Attorney General’s office has declined to opine on the issue. “That is an issue better resolved by the courts,” Assistant Attorney General Brendan O’Donnell stated following his office’s review of the amendments.
Current school board President Pamela Walsh, who is running for re-election and opposes both amendments, committed at a candidate forum on Thursday to “honor” the amendment’s applicability to the middle school decision if it passes. Barb Higgins, the other incumbent running, and each of the four challengers have made the same commitment.
A delay:Passage of Question 1 would likely delay the completion of the project.
The amendment that would create a voter approval requirement for sales of property was motivated in part by a desire to have some control over the future of the Rundlett building if the middle school is indeed relocated. The district has yet to decide what it would do with the building. Following the consolidation of Concord’s elementary schools a decade ago, several of the former schools were sold.
The arguments in favor are two-fold. First, adoption of the amendments would likely reopen debate on the location of Concord’s next middle school and give residents a vote over its future. Second, the amendments would strip the board of some of the unique power it holds. Concord is currently the only fully autonomous school board in the state, meaning it can set its budget without getting approval from voters or the city council. While neither amendment would affect the board’s control over its budget, supporters argue the amendments would give residents some say over other major decisions the board makes on rare occasions.
Passage of the amendments would likely delay the middle school project – perhaps significantly – which could increase costs due to inflation. More broadly, opponents of the amendments also argue that school board members are elected to make decisions that often require significant research and subject-matter expertise. They say these amendments would slow down planning and could place the district in a bind in the event of an emergency, such as a building fire.
No, you don’t. They are separate questions and so you can vote “Yes” on one and “No” on the other.
The language of the amendments would go directly into the school district’s charter, the governing document for the district. You can think of the language as new rules for the district, rather than traditional ballot questions.
Staff writer Catherine McLaughlin contributed reporting. Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.