Anyone who thought the election would lead to a swift rehash of the middle school project location was proven wrong Wednesday. 

School Board President Pamela Walsh made clear in a statement that the group hasn’t committed to a path forward on the new middle school project and said it won’t hold public meetings to discuss it until after Thanksgiving — a month after voters chose to strip the board of some of its unique autonomy via two charter amendments crafted with the middle school location decision in mind.

“Board members heard the community’s desire to have a vote on the location of the middle school,” begins Walsh’s statement, the first by the board as a body since the election. At the same time, she said, “The amendments raise a number of legal questions with regard to the district's contractual obligations, bond requirements, timing for a vote and the potential impact on state building aid."

On election day, Concord residents passed two amendments to the school district charter, one of which added a requirement for the school board to get majority sign off from voters for it to relocate a district school. They were aimed at overturning the board’s decision last December to build the middle school at Broken Ground. The passage of the amendments begged answers to some questions: Would the board avoid that fate by backtracking and altering its plans to rebuild at the current site? Would it put its current plan to move the school to East Concord on the ballot? Or some third option, potentially including fighting the amendment’s applicability to the middle school project in court. 

The Concord Concerned Citizens, the group that wrote and advocated for the amendments, would like to see the school board choose the first option and rebuild Rundlett in the South End. They declined to immediately respond to Walsh’s statement Wednesday afternoon.

The school board met with legal counsel last week to discuss its options. Walsh’s statement said the board needs more guidance before it can discuss potential next steps with the public. 

"It is sensible and necessary to take this matter one step at a time, and we will fully inform the community as we take those steps,” she said.  

The board’s next regular monthly meeting is already scheduled for the Monday after the holiday, Dec. 2. 

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com