The Concord School Board will hold public hearings on Monday and Wednesday next week to gather community input on its proposed budget.

In the preliminary budget, the general fund — 95% of school spending — would increase about $1.78 million, or 1.67%, to a total of $108 million.

About $73 million of that is sourced from local and state education taxes, and would prompt an increase in overall education taxes of $0.42, or just under 3%, bringing the school rate in Concord to $15.60. Education makes up 56%, of Concord’s property tax rate.

Salaries and benefits are 77% of general fund spending and — a main driver of the proposed increase — will rise by 4% and 6%, respectively. Bonding to fund new HVAC systems at the Concord High and Beaver Meadow schools and a $1.8 million drop in state aid are also strong contributors.

Items under consideration that were not funded in the proposed budget were $353,000 for math interventionists at the elementary and middle schools and $235,000 for two world language teachers at the middle school. The interventionists, working with both teachers and students, would replace math coaches – paid for with federal funds – intended to bring students who fell behind during the pandemic back up to grade level.

The draft budget includes just under $100,000 to add a school resource officer at the middle school, but the proposal received a mixed reaction from the board. At the board’s Monday workshop, administrators, including the principal at Concord High School, described ways that resource officers aid staff and help navigate various support systems beyond school. Some board members wondered whether the needs supported by a school resource officer could be addressed by a non-law enforcement figure such as a social worker and how resource officers impact school culture from students’ perspectives.

The board will meet Monday at 6 p.m. in the district office and Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Beaver Meadow School gymnasium. Following those hearings, it will have an additional open workshop session on March 25 before voting on the budget March 27.