The Concord School Board will get the first updated cost estimate in two years for its proposed new middle school in June and will ink a final “not to exceed budget” for the project on July 1, according to a new meeting schedule released by the district Wednesday. 

District leaders have long emphasized that the current $176 million cost estimate they received in 2022 for a new middle school will drop. Taxpayers can now mark their calendars for when they’ll learn whether — and by how much — that will happen. 

Project architects HMFH will present their new cost estimate — based on a schematic design currently being developed with input from a board subcommittee — at a board meeting tentatively scheduled for June 6. There will then be two public question and answer sessions on June 11 and 18 and another board meeting to review and adjust the design and its corresponding price tag on June 26. The board will make a final vote on the budget for the proposed project on July 1. 

The board’s Building Committee, which includes voices from parents, construction and development professionals, teachers and the city, alongside board members, has met twice so far this spring to guide architects developing a design. Along with input from working groups, they’ve settled on a building layout, debated adding a ramp to the second floor in the design’s main atrium and other accessibility components like the location and number of elevators and asked the architect to better incorporate spaces for special education into classroom areas. 

Working plans presented by HMFH earlier this month show a three-floor building with an auditorium and open cafeteria on the first floor, gym and library on the second and art spaces on the third. Each floor has three classroom “pods.” Outside there are fields for baseball and softball, a game field and a track with a practice field inside. A wooded area will separate the school from neighboring Broken Ground and Mill Brook elementary schools.

Architects said at the April 11 committee meeting that their target square footage is 205,000.

The new cost estimate presented in early June will be based on the “ideal” — or most expensive — options under consideration, architects said. That means a 900-seat auditorium,  a 9,000-square-foot gym, a track, spaces for robotics, woodshop and greenhouse. Alongside this estimate will be a list of priced-out reductions the board could make: they’ll know how much it would bring down costs, for example, to not have a track or to do a smaller, 450-auditorium or a combined gym-a-torium. 

The next Building Committee meeting is scheduled for May 2, when it is expected to discuss construction management candidates.

The board’s not-to-exceed budget vote in July will set a hard ceiling for project costs — and how much taxpayers might be on the hook to cover — if the board moves forward with the rebuild.

State building aid presents a wildcard in this calculation: the district won’t know until July of next year whether or not the aid program will get any funding in the state budget. Estimates from state officials put the maximum amount of help available to Concord at roughly $30 million, but it could get none at all. 

A final schematic design is expected in September, based on the district’s timeline.  The board isn’t set to take its final vote on the project and accompanying bonds until fall next year.