You might’ve seen them outside your favorite grocery store or in front of the state house; posting on your social media pages or knocking on your door.

A group of residents wants to put Concord voters in charge of where the district puts its schools. They need to change the district’s charter to make that happen and are collecting signatures to put their charter amendments on ballots this fall.

The group, Concord Concerned Citizens, was founded earlier this year in opposition to the Concord School Board’s vote last December to locate a new middle school, if built, on raw land near Broken Ground rather than redevelop at the current spot off South Street. The group has vocally demanded that the board reconsider. But its members, even some who prefer the South Street location, declined.

So, throughout this year, as the district has forged ahead on project plans, refining the design and setting the budget, the Concerned Citizens group has set out on a mission to undo the location vote. The group has put forward two potential amendments to the district charter: they would make the board get voter approval to relocate a district school or get approval to sell district land larger than one acre.

To put those charter amendments on city ballots this fall, the group needs around 1,056 signatures of registered voters. Currently, it has about 800, but its target is around 1,500, adding a cushion for any that get discounted. While state law gives them 120 days to gather them, the group is in more of a rush: there’s less time than that before city ballots get written for the fall.

Even if they get enough signatures, the amendments make it on the ballot and the voters approve them, it’s not clear whether that would undo the board’s choice to put the new school at Broken Ground: State officials, reviewing the amendment language, left that question to the courts.

Organizers are also circulating a second, separate petition that appeals the location vote directly back to the board. Per state law RSA 199:8, cited on the petition, “If 10 percent or more of the voters of a district are aggrieved by the location of a schoolhouse by the district or its committee, they may apply by petition to the school board, who shall hear the parties interested and determine the location.”

Jeff Wells, a leader and founding member of the group, described that second petition as an effort to stall the project while the amendment process plays out.

School board leaders have long said that backtracking on the location decision would set the project back years and funds. At public hearings on the project, other residents have worried that the location fight will hurt students and teachers by delaying construction of a badly needed new school.

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com