A group of familiar faces raised familiar concerns at a hearing before the Concord Board of Education on Monday night.
Charlie Russell said: “Nobody has ever adequately explained why we went from $80 million to $175 or $168… A $100 million school I think people could live with.”
Bob Wolf questioned: “Wealthier towns include all the bells and whistles when their current schools are worn out and need replacement… Why did Concord get a much much bigger school?”
Elaine Duclos pushed further: “Build a new Rundlett, build a new police station, build a new golf clubhouse, redo Memorial Field. Who in their right mind would saddle the taxpayers with all of this at the same time?”
Those speaking reiterated a longstanding bitterness toward school leaders for capital improvement decisions they view as digging too deep into taxpayers pockets and an attitude they view as brushing off some constituents when they called foul.
However, the rub with many of these concerns is that Monday’s hearing was not intended to relitigate the size, budget or contracts associated with a new middle school. The board settled those issues when it greenlit the project in October.
The hearing Monday night was a procedural one, where the board set up a vote later this month to authorize bonds for the new building.
The board has yet to set a specific schedule or structure for how it will take on the roughly $168 million in debt for the project. That total is greater than the $155 million budget for the project approved in the fall because it accounts for tax credits, rebates and discounts factored into the approved price tag.
At Monday’s meeting, Business Administrator Jack Dunn said he has grown weary of friction over cost and transparency.
“I feel like we’re in 2010,” he said, referring to tensions during the district’s elementary school consolidation project. Over the life of that project, though, the district and its construction partners demonstrated a “proven track record” of finding savings for Concord’s taxpayers, Dunn said.
He opened the books on the elemetary school consolidation project and showed how construction had come in partially under budget, allowing for savings on the inital debt. Then, in 2020, the board refinanced the debt and got further savings through the low interest rates of that period. In total, he outlined, the district paid roughly $13 million less in principal costs and $10 million less in interest on debt for the elementary schools than had been approved.
“What I feel, what I’m going to go through with here, we are going to duplicate,” Dunn said. “Because I’m confident in the team, I’m confident in the people, I’m confident in the administration that can do this.”
A schedule of the bonding process, as well as potential debt payment schedules, are listed on the district’s website under the evening’s agenda and are set to be reviewed by the finance committee on Jan. 14.
Concord now stands at the front of the line for state building aid, Dunn added. Had the state fully funded that program this year, Concord would stand to receive $31.8 million from the Department of Education, money that would be put towards the cost of rebuilding Rundlett.
Two years after lifting a moratorium on this money, Republican state lawmakers brought the total down to zero in the current biennial budget. Concord retains its eligibility until construction officially breaks ground.