The atmosphere inside Nashua’s new middle school differs dramatically from the school it replaced, a dark and gloomy 85-year-old building about five miles away.

Natural light pours through the expansive glass windows. Almost all the classrooms are equipped with 70-inch screens. The flooring is durable, rubberized tiles to prevent serious injuries from falls, while the halls are lined with energy-efficient LED lighting.

Outside, students have access to an impressive array of sports facilities, including a quarter-mile track, baseball and soccer fields, tennis courts and basketball courts.

Other modern safety features include bulletproof glass and an advanced gunshot detection system that identifies both the location and caliber of any firearm that goes off in the building.

The refresh is contagious, according to Doug Duffina, the supervisor for plant operations at the Nashua School District.

“We came to bright and light,” he said. “There’s a different attitude; the kids are way different. We’re seeing a big difference.”

That’s the transformation Concord has working toward for the better part of a decade.

When Nashua asked for state building aid in 2020 to fund its middle school project — which included both $30 million in renovations to two other schools and the $92 million construction of McCarthy Middle School — it was the most expensive project to ever apply for the program.

That changed two years later when Concord sought aid for its new middle school — currently with a price tag of $152 million for a single building. Concord’s ambitious plan to build a new middle school on South Curtisville Road set a new high-water mark for any school building project seeking state aid during the past two decades, even adjusted for inflation, a Monitor analysis found. State record-keeping made a deeper historical analysis impractical.

Named after the late alderman Brian S. McCarthy, Nashua’s new school has comparable square footage, serves roughly the same number of students and was built on raw land about the same distance away from the old school as Concord’s plan. As a result, it’s been a frequent point of reference for residents with questions about the Rundlett project.

Pamela Walsh, president of the Concord School Board, said that comparing the building costs between Nashua and Concord isn’t fair for several reasons, particularly the timing of each project.

With construction starting in 2026, Walsh noted that Concord will face “five or six years of construction inflation” costs compared to Nashua.

“When you’re looking at our construction estimates, those are estimates for starting construction more than a year from now,” Walsh said. “Nashua started and locked in a lot of its prices pre-COVID.”

It is estimated that construction costs have increased by 3-5% per year based on industry standards. If Nashua were to build its middle school today, the cost would rise to around $120 million, based on those assumptions. Even on the high end, Concord’s middle school is still about $25 million more expensive than the one that just opened this fall 35 miles to the south.

Anxious about the price tag to replace Rundlett Middle School, residents have wondered why Concord’s school is so expensive by comparison.

The difference comes down to features, according to Keith Kelley, director of preconstruction and planning for Harvey Construction, which was hired to build Nashua’s school and is working with Concord on its plans. Nashua’s design is centered around its classrooms, while Concord’s design prioritizes features like larger physical and artistic education spaces. Those features, which are what students, teachers and residents alike have told the district they wanted, simply cost more.

“Those are huge costs specific to building an auditorium,” Kelley said. “They are obviously more of a premium than classroom costs.”

What Nashua built,what Concord wants

The 212,000-square-foot McCarthy Middle School, located miles outside of downtown on DiAntonio Drive, was designed to maximize teaching spaces, Duffina said.

Unlike the old school on Elm Street, which featured a 1,500-seat auditorium, Nashua opted for a cafetorium — a flexible space that combines a cafeteria and auditorium. The gymnasium, seating 400, provides ample space for gatherings and events when needed.

McCarthy features 60 classrooms for an anticipated enrollment of 800 students. Concord’s 203,000-square-foot design, by contrast, will contain 45 classrooms for an enrollment of up to 900 students.

The Concord School Board approved a schematic design this summer.

Originally proposed with a 900-seat auditorium, plans were downshifted to feature a versatile 450-seat multi-purpose theater with flexible seating and adjustable flooring, inspired by the Bank of New Hampshire Stage in downtown Concord. The school also includes a spacious 9,000-square-foot gymnasium, a 5,000-square-foot multipurpose athletic space and separate rooms for band, choir, orchestra, music theory and robotics.

The design doesn’t ignore classrooms: its layout was drawn to fit Concord’s middle school’s “pod” structure, which groups students into smaller clusters. The classrooms, which aren’t drastically larger than state minimum standards, will still be far larger than those currently in use at Rundlett.

Unlike Nashua, which decided to build its school without state aid, Concord must comply with stricter energy efficiency and building code requirements due to its reliance on state funds, which also adds to the overall project cost. In addition, the building features a geothermal heat system and rooftop solar panels, a move many residents endorse.

Paying for it

When school districts apply for state building aid, they are assigned a spot in line for funding based on, essentially, how bad the current facilities are.

Nashua chose not to receive aid because it was assigned a fifth-place spot in line. It would have had to wait years for money to come through. What it lost in potential state aid was offset from savings by avoiding the inflated construction costs that Concord is facing.

Concord currently sits second in line for aid and is anticipating a grant as early as next fall. The project stands out among recent building aid applications because of its price tag.

A review by the Monitor reveals that no other school project in New Hampshire has come close to this level of investment since 1996, even when adjusted for inflation.

A rough inflation calculation using estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that schools constructed throughout the state in the last two decades will fall significantly short of the price tag Concord is proposing, even if they were built in 2026 — the same year Concord plans to break ground on its middle school.

For example, Manchester’s application for building aid for the Henry J. McLaughlin Jr. Middle School in 1996 was $9.5 million — an amount that would swell to around $20 million by 2026.

The closest to Concord in terms of total cost were Bedford High School built in 2005 for $53 million, which would be about $93 million adjusted for inflation, and Exeter High School, which started construction in 2003 for $50 million. The price tag would be roughly $91 million if built in 2026.

These financial disparities are particularly poignant when considering the median household incomes – Concord stands at $77,874, which is similar to Exeter, while Bedford has a considerably higher median of $151,850, according to recent state data.

At most, the district would see a $29 million offer in 2025, or around $31 million if it waited until the following year, under the current rules. However, tax estimates for residents have been based on the project’s receiving $40 million.

The final aid amount Concord qualifies for will be determined when it reaches the front of the line.

An estimate for the project hasn’t been done since the district applied in 2022, and the application was based on building a new school on Clinton Street, a long-dead proposal.

According to the New Hampshire Department of Education, the maximum allowable cost per square foot for calculating school building aid in Merrimack County is $265.

However, Concord’s proposal significantly exceeds this limit, coming in near $600 per square foot, more than double the allowable threshold. That calculation reduces the amount of money the project would be eligible to receive.

The state acknowledges school construction could cost more than its cap, but those won’t be reimbursed.

“School districts, designers, and construction firms should understand these costs to be the upper limit for the payment of school building aid,” the state guidelines advise. “They are not intended to be an accurate estimate for the actual cost of construction for a particular design in current or future market conditions.”

The price tag for Concord’s school means school board members are relying on building aid to buoy the cost of the project, and leaders have warned that waiting any longer to build its middle school will continue to drive up costs — and put its ability to get aid at risk.

Concord would only lose its spot in line for aid if it turns down an offer that matches or exceeds the request in its application.

While Concord has been chipping away at the total cost of the project, which was first estimated at $176 million, Nashua completed its multi-school project this year under budget.

“It was a group effort, a lot of people involved,” Duffina said. “I believe there are a few bucks left over for any last-minute things,”

Sruthi Gopalakrishnan can be reached at sgopalakrishnan@cmonitor.com