Still at double its stated goal of no more than a 5% tax increase, Concord Ed Board to settle budget Tuesday night

Unless its members are able to pinpoint significant cuts or increases to revenue, the Concord Board of Education is poised to increase local school taxes by a double-digit percentage Tuesday night.

A Monday night workshop saw further staff reductions through early retirements and buyouts and the potential restoration of positions previously slated as cuts, including two art teachers.

Aiming to whittle down to six figures what began as a $17 million budget shortfall, the board previously proposed a few million dollars in equipment and technology deductions, more than three dozen cuts to staff positions and a delay on the first year of principal payments for new middle school debt.

Those measures brought the proposed tax increase to about 12%, or a $1.78 on the current tax rate. A 12% increase would translate to a $711 jump on the tax bill of a home currently assessed at $400,000.

At two public hearings last week, residents who testified sent the overwhelming message that the board should reverse course on a handful of proposed reductions: elementary assistant principals, art teachers and alternative high school programming.

Monday night, board members tossed around both ways to raise revenue and positions they’d like to see added back into the spending plan. More specifics on how those would affect the bottom line will be provided Tuesday but, broadly, the board did not discuss measures that would drastically relieve the need to raise taxes this year.

Many of the further deductions discussed by the board on Monday would be offset by teaching positions they put back in the budget.

To Cara Meeker, the board’s vice president, the board’s session on Monday wasn’t making sufficient progress towards the tax goal the group had made at the outset of the budget process.

“Our goal was a 5%” increase, Meeker said. “We’re still hovering at 12%… We knew the [full-time positions] were going to be the hard thing to talk about. I just want to be mindful that, if our goal is to reduce that tax rate, this is it.”

The board also moved to ask voter permission to sell the Dewey School and some or all of the forested land behind Mill Brook and Broken Ground that had once been set aside as the location for the new middle school.

The board will approve a 2027 budget Tuesday night. Any of the spending adjustments approved so far could be revisited.

Read on for a rundown of new adjustments discussed at Monday’s budget session.

Additions

The following items, previously pulled out of the budget, were added back in or are being considered:

• After student testimony, a middle school art teacher and a high school art teacher were added back into the budget. The board felt the art classes and high school advanced programs were worthy of exceptions to the class size increases and enrollment floors imposed on other programs. Together, they cost just under $300,000 in salaries and benefits.
• A reading tutor at the Abbot-Downing School. All other elementary schools have this position, but it is covered by federal grant funds for which the south-end school does not qualify because it has a lower rate of students receiving free and reduced lunch.
• A half-time music teacher at Broken Ground. This position would ensure that school could continue to put on the same orchestral offerings as other elementary schools, board members said.
• The board discussed, but did not agree on, reinstating four of six elementary classroom teaching positions that had previously been cut. A sum wasn’t presented, but together they would represent around $400,000 in salaries and benefits.

The board unanimously approved restoring the high school art teaching position, while the role at Rundlett was preserved by a narrow, 5-4 vote.

“It’s important to me that we offer advanced classes in every discipline,” Board member Madeleine Mineau said of the high school position. Reducing the number of art teachers at CHS would likely impact whether the school can provide AP Art.

But Mineau was among those splitting her votes on art staff. On the other hand, she added, “when we see middle school classes that are smaller than our kindergarten classes, I would prioritize adding back in elementary classroom teachers.”

Reductions

These positions would be cut next year on top of the staff reductions already included in the budget:

• Slightly under $800,000 in more senior staff through early retirements or buyouts that have been settled over the last week.
• Eliminating at least three permanent substitutes districtwide, which operate as on-hand fill-ins. Some money was added into the call-in substitute budget to offset the change.
• Three program assistant positions. A handful of these positions were added using federal grant funding during the pandemic, then absorbed into the general fund when those grants expired.

Revenue

Looking to raise money through means other than taxes, the board is weighing:

• A 10% increase in sports activities fees. The district would continue to offer waivers for families who can’t afford to pay the fee. Administrators proposed increasing hockey fees by a larger proportion because of the program’s disproportionate costs.
• A further increase to rental fees on top of the 30% increase already included.
• Increasing pre-school tuition.

While revenue from land sales likely wouldn’t come in during the current fiscal year, the board voted to ask voters whether they want to sell the former Dewey School and a school-owned parcel off Curtisville Road, totalling 59 acres. The property had previously been the selected site for a new middle school.

“Why sit on this asset?” Board member Jessica Campbell asked.

“If we’re not going to build a school on it, we want to know what the people of Concord want us to do with it,” Mineau said.

The board has been considering offloading some of its properties, including the Eastman School, to help pay for new middle school construction.

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