Hearing on Concord school board charter amendments set for Monday night
Jeff Wells from Concerned Citizens for Concord holds the 1,500 petition signatures in front of the School District building on Monday, August 15, 2024. The group submitted its petitions to put changes to the school district charter on the ballot this fall. Wells and the group also made a map showing where all the signatures came from. GEOFF FORESTER
| Published: 09-06-2024 3:28 PM |
The Concord School Board will hold a public hearing on two proposed amendments to the district charter Monday night that, if passed, could strip the board of some of its autonomy.
The pair of proposed changes, brought on by a citizens’ petition that garnered over 1,500 signatures, was born out of some residents’ hope to undo the board’s decision to build a new middle school on the East Side. If passed, the school board would be forced to allow voters to sign off on where to put city schools and the sale of district-owned land.
It’s currently unclear if voter approval of the amendments means that the school board’s decision to build the new middle school next to Broken Ground could be undone, a question that would have to be resolved in court.
The hearing is set for 6 p.m. in the Concord High School auditorium.
The first amendment reads in part:
“No Concord public school existing as of January 1, 2024, including but not limited to the District’s middle school, (Rundlett Middle School), shall be relocated from the parcel on which it was situated as of January 1, 2024, to be rebuilt or replaced elsewhere, without an affirmative simple majority vote of Concord School District voters voting on the question ratifying such relocation.”
The second states:
“No parcel of real property owned by the Concord School District, larger than one acre, shall be sold, gifted, or exchanged by the District without an affirmative simple majority vote of Concord School District voters voting on the question.”
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Signatures to the petition were certified last week.
The school board chose Monday’s hearing date to ensure that, under the timeline set in state law, the amendments would appear on ballots in November, alongside the election of three at-large members of the board.
Because the school board in Concord is autonomous, other than the complicated and time-consuming process of amending the charter, elections are the near sole check to board members’ decisions and power. The filing period for fall elections opened Friday, and one candidate in favor of overturning the middle school decision has already hopped into the race.
Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com
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