Betty Hoadley is a Concord resident and former board chairperson.

The dust may not have settled from the Dec. 6 school board decision to build the new middle school in the Broken Ground area. It is doubtful that Concord taxpayers have lost interest in that decision. Read the Letters to the Editor in the Monitor that continue still. Listen to the talk.

This new board has seven returning members and two new ones. This board must spend the bulk of its time on the budget, the timely submission of materials necessary to support the application for state building aid, and supporting all teachers as they try to increase student competency throughout the school district.

The finance committee and the facilities committee should consider working as one committee until the summer. First of all, the addendum to the original application for state building aid needs to be severely cut down from the $175 million figure. The portion of the original application that had anything to do with a failed alliance with the YMCA can be carved right out for an easy start. But then the real search begins as the application should not contain any fat. This is no time for wish lists, only needs. This process also begs the question: what role will taxpayers play in cutting down that figure?

Finally, taxpayers need to be vigilant. The budget being developed now, the preliminary one, will be passed in late March. It will be finalized in October and go to the Department of Revenue Administration which will set the tax rate for Concord. Taxpayers of Concord, be aware of these school board activities. Attend budget sessions. Attend meetings of the facilities and finance committees. Keep up with their work. Keep the heat on! Demand answers to questions about costs.

Taxpayers can call for a second look at the Dec. 6 decision date. The board should take a lesson from the city council. It gave the 2024 council an opportunity to assess its controversial issue, the addition of a $10,000,000 building to the golf course grounds. Isn’t it reasonable for the school board to take a second look at the site decision for the new middle school? Do Concord residents suspect that the board made a purposeful decision to vote before the end of the year because they had the votes at that time? Probably.

Evidently, some of the members of the 2023 school board do not understand that their job is to serve the public, all of the taxpayers in Concord. They should have responded to the widespread public opinion of rebuilding the middle school on its present site. They should have been more demanding of accurate and timely costs from the architects.

Instead of suggesting that the New American community wanted the BG site, they should have listened to the widespread call for expanded public transportation. They should admit that the playing field has changed. They themselves, this new board, should do the honorable thing and call for a second look at the question of where the new school should be located.