Increase educational equity and reduce taxes
If a Concord resident or School Board member says they believe in equity in education, they mean only within the city and not statewide. They consider it perfectly acceptable to use high salaries to raid poor districts for good teachers and other staff. If the board really believed in statewide equity, they could implement a policy of hiring only from new graduates or staff from other high-paying districts (with a possible exception for Concord residents). Many states larger that New Hampshire have addressed this issue with statewide salary schedules for teachers.
Districts truly interested in equity could engage in regional or even unilateral bargaining to reduce the gap. In the case of Concord specifically, it would also reduce the equity of residents being forced to pay teacher salaries at the highest proportion of their own income anywhere in the state. Based on 2020 U.S. census data, Concord is number 132 of 238 communities in the state in per capita income, $37,223 as compared to $41,234 statewide.
Average teacher salary in Concord for 2024-25 is 6th of 161 reporting districts, which at $88,146 is between $10,000 to $17,000 above Amherst, Bedford, Bow and Hopkinton while they have a higher per capita income than Concord.
If over time Concord switched to a salary schedule of, say, 30th in the state (still in the top 20%), it would reduce taxes by about $3.6 million per year (or $5.9 million at a statewide salary scale at the state average).