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Online, the SAU 8 school board ignores a limited renovation option. Hearing for the quarter of a billion dollar proposal set for Thursday. CONCORD, NH — The Concord School District Board of Education is hosting another lame duck public hearing before seemingly preparing to approve a new quarter of a billion-dollar Rundlett Middle School. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, at the Abbot-Downing Elementary School, 152 South St. (note new location). The board had an informational meeting on Oct. 7 at the school, including tours of the building. During the past few weeks, the district’s website has felt like a propaganda push with a predetermined outcome. The documents offer the option of renovation with a like-for-like comparison: A new school versus a fully renovated school with a price tag of around $156 million (or $232 million to $285 million when interest is included and reserve funds used or not). What is missing from the documentation is a limited renovation option, priced between $4 million and $5 million a few years ago, buried in the district’s files and previously presented, over and over, to the board by some community members. In today’s dollars, the repairs might run between $8 million and $10 million, given that many of the complaints about the school are cosmetic at best. And considering a third of the middle school is not even 30 years old, and two-thirds of the building is less than 70 years old, the need for a new school that looks more like a college campus building than a middle school is questionable at best. So when the district said online, “Renovation is Not a (sic) Option,” officials are not being honest. Despite current board members repeatedly telling the public there would be no new middle school without state aid and prior board members repeatedly telling the public there would be no new middle school until the elementary school consolidation project was paid off in 2041, the district is pressing forward anyway. View all the Concord School District middle school project information online, linked here. When questioned about the lack of options given to the public and the online presentation’s propagandistic nature, acting School Superintendent Tim Herbert said the board and the district’s communications department were responsible for the documents posted. He said the building committee put together an independent audit of some of the renovation ideas submitted by the public, along with prior documents. Herbert acknowledged a limited renovation option was excluded but said if the public supported a limited proposal, they should show up and have their voices heard. “At the end of the day,” he said, “those (info and documents on the site) are the key points. It’s not a home improvement project. There are certain things that will increase the cost of the project.” Herbert said residents concerned about some of the proposal’s offerings, such as multiple playing fields and basketball courts when Memorial Field was about a mile away, or theatre space costs when the city had multiple theatres downtown, some of which are empty for hundreds of days a year, should press those proposals to the district and board. Also Read SAU 8 Concord School Board Holds Yet Another Middle School Hearing Concord School Board To Discuss New Middle School Project ‘Community Votes’ Wednesday School Charter Reform Questions Hearing Shows Deep Divide In The Concord Community Anti-East Concord Middle School Petitioners Secure Ballot Access For 2 Charter Amendments Opponents Of East Concord Middle School Location File 1,500 Initiative Petition Signatures Mayor: No-Go To City Council Middle School Project Public Hearing Washburn: Council Ducks Critical Local Issue Concord School Board Member Seeks Input On New Middle School Gym Space, Other Features Washburn: Is There A New Performing Arts Center In Your Future? New Concord Middle School Design ‘Community Q&A’ Meetings Booked Anti-East Concord Middle School Group Seeks To Add Voter Provisions To SAU 8 Charter Activists Call For Rescinding 2023 New Concord Middle School Vote Concord Resident: Price Tag Of New Middle School Is ‘Appalling’; Makes Me ‘Physically Sick’ Walsh Elected New Concord School District Board Of Education President Concord School District Hosts Middle School Siting Hearing Wednesday Concord School District Hosts 2 Meetings Concerning New Middle School Concord Residents, Others Eye Design, Equity Of A New Middle School Concord's Rundlett Middle School 4th On NH School Building Aid List New Concord Middle School Costs? Around $176 Million, SAU 8 Docs Say CenterPoint Church Says No To Concord School District Land Sale Land Sale Negotiations For New Concord Middle School Reach An Impasse A Lot Of Unknowns With New Concord Middle School Project Concord's Middle School Could Be Sold After New Facility Built Concord School District To Buy Land For New Middle School Navigating The Sordid Past Of Concord's School District Charter Some members of the public are also incensed at the push for a public hearing right before a city election or the seating of at least two new members of the board of education. The last time the district pulled a lame duck vote stunt, in December 2023, when it held a public hearing to site the school in East Concord, by a 6 to 3 vote, activists were able to gather signatures for an initiative petition requiring the district to have a vote before re-siting a school or selling school property. Voters overwhelmingly approved both proposals in November 2024. Accurate Final ‘Costs’ While the district has been bandying building “costs” of around $156 million, that is not the final cost. That is the initial “price tag.” The “cost” of the building includes the interest paid which, for whatever reason, board members, district staff and at least one media outlet refuse to acknowledge (and did so, too, during the elementary school consolidation project which had a final cost of $90.8 million, not the $28 million to $56 million inaccurately bandied about by board members, staff, and at least one media outlet as far back as 15 years ago). Here is how the actual math for the cost of a school building works: The initial price tag is around $156 million. In previous meetings, Jack Dunn, the district’s business administrator, has stated he thought a 4 to 4.5 percent rate was possible. At 4 percent, the $156 million borrowed has interest payments to a bank of around $112 million. At 4.5 percent, the $156 million has interest payments of around $129 million. So the final cost is between $268 million and $285 million. The district has around $20 million in construction reserves in its holdings due to not lowering property taxes to offset other bonding for projects like the 1996 Rundlett Middle School expansion and the debt rates expiring for Concord High School renovation. In other words, taxpayers have continued to pay and pay and pay for projects long completed. In most other communities in New Hampshire and, frankly, the Northeast, a school district or community would have to end collection of the debt tax rate or hold another public vote to set aside the extra money in reserve. If the entire amount of reserves were put toward the price tag during the life of the middle school note, the final cost would drop slightly: at 4 percent, it would be around $232 million; at 4.5 percent, it would be around $246 million. These amounts, of course, will or could fluctuate depending on interest rates. Concord is also reportedly slated to be first on the state aid list if and when aid is restored in fiscal year 2028, at close to 40 percent of the building’s price tag. In other words, since the building is not falling and there are no structural liabilities — if there were, no one would be attending classes now, there is no need to hold this vote. There is also no reason not to wait, given that tens of millions of dollars will or could eventually be available from the state. Do you have a news tip? Please email it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube or Rumble channels. Patch in New Hampshire is now in 190 communities. Also, follow Patch on Google Discover.