‘Loud and clear’: Reversing 2023 decision, school board votes for new middle school to stay in South End

The Concord Board of Education voted Wednesday night to reverse the decision it made in Dec. 2023 to relocate a new middle school to the area in East Concord near Broken Ground School and voted instead to design a new school where Rundlett is now in the South End.

The Concord Board of Education voted Wednesday night to reverse the decision it made in Dec. 2023 to relocate a new middle school to the area in East Concord near Broken Ground School and voted instead to design a new school where Rundlett is now in the South End. Catherine McLaughlin—Monitor staff

Concord Board of Education members listen on as teacher Somayeh Kashi speaks in favor of a new school at Broken Ground.

Concord Board of Education members listen on as teacher Somayeh Kashi speaks in favor of a new school at Broken Ground. Catherine McLaughlin—Monitor staff

A rendering shows what the South Street property would look like with a new middle school. Rundlett's current footprint is shown in the faint dotted red line.

A rendering shows what the South Street property would look like with a new middle school. Rundlett's current footprint is shown in the faint dotted red line. —Courtesy

Residents look on as Bert Cooper, who helped write and advocate for the charter amendments, testifies at the hearing in favor of Rundlett.

Residents look on as Bert Cooper, who helped write and advocate for the charter amendments, testifies at the hearing in favor of Rundlett. Catherine McLaughlin—Monitor staff

Midde School science teacher Michelle Ruopp testifies in favor of a school at Broken Ground at the hearing Wednesday.

Midde School science teacher Michelle Ruopp testifies in favor of a school at Broken Ground at the hearing Wednesday. Catherine McLaughlin—Monitor staff

By CATHERINE McLAUGHLIN

Monitor staff

Published: 01-22-2025 10:39 PM

Modified: 01-24-2025 5:05 PM


Ellen Kenny didn’t need to tell Concord school board members why she backed a new school in the city’s South End over raw land on the East Side. They already knew.

“I’ve been telling them to you and exceeding my three minutes for the past 17 months,” she told the board Wednesday night.

She opted, this time, to be brief: “I’ll just say that I believe it’s preferable to spend more on a good decision than less money to perpetuate a bad one.”

After a two-hour-long public hearing with more than 100 people in attendance, the Concord Board of Education reversed its 2023 decision to locate a new middle school at Broken Ground and will now move forward with designs for a new building next to Rundlett on South Street.

The Wednesday night vote was 6-3 — coincidentally the same margin as the decision it undid — with board members Brenda Hastings, Jim Richards and Sarah Robinson voting against it.

Few speakers said they wanted the location of the school to be settled by a public referendum. A showing of teachers from Rundlett, both in person and in submitted letters, passionately urged the board to keep its existing plan to build at Broken Ground. Broadly, though, in-person testimony pushed for the school to remain where it is by a more than 2-1 margin.

While multiple board members said they still believed that the plans at Broken Ground had more to offer, delivering a better school for less time and money, the last year had shown them that they didn’t have the public support to build a school on that belief.

“We can’t move forward without community support,” said board member Jessica Campbell. “I can think that Broken Ground is the better decision, and transparently I do, but our community is asking loud and clear for Rundlett and I can’t sleep at night knowing that this is what we’ve been asked for.”

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For many in attendance, like Kenny, those were words they wished they heard the board say a year ago. They maintain the wait, and added costs, were worth it.

“Thirty years down the road, people won’t care that rebuilding at Rundlett was a few million dollars more,” South End resident Andrew Gould said. “They’ll just be happy that you made the right choice.”

For others, especially some parents who spoke at the meeting, the contentiousness and campaigning that unfurled over the last year over the location hasn’t represented them.

From reviewing the cost and construction estimates and other information, resident Casey Stockstill agreed that Broken Ground was the better location. But this was the first time she’d been able to attend a hearing and say so.

“There are many of us who are really passionate that you’re not able to hear from because it’s really hard to come somewhere at 6 p.m. if you have kids and other things to do,” Stockstill said. “I don’t want a special election because turnout will be poor, it will not be any more representative than these meetings where the same people come and talk.”

Over the last few months, a consistent plea from many Rundlett teachers was to build a new school as soon as possible — which would be at Broken Ground. A group made that plea again, both at the meeting and in submitted written comments, Wednesday night, adding their concern about the protracted disruption to student learning and excitement about the greater slate of offerings possible at a new site.

Eighth-grade teacher and soccer coach Joshua Snell noted the middle school’s seven soccer teams must find a way to share the two fields available to them. Not only would Broken Ground have more field space, but those athletes wouldn’t go years without a field of their own during construction.

“I want what gets our students to the school that isn’t falling apart around them and a place for sports as soon as possible — Broken Ground is that option,” he said. “They’re children. A working school building and outdoor fields doesn’t seem like too much to give them.”

Board President Pamela Walsh has long favored Broken Ground for many of those reasons. She also believes that a community vote would be the ideal way to move forward because that’s what the charter amendments spelled out.

But, she concluded, “I don’t see it changing how this ends up.”

“I don’t want further delay or further divide,” she continued. “I ran for school board to focus on education, and I want to be talking about algebra in eighth grade a lot more than we’ve been able to do that.”

The vote marks the opening of a new chapter in what has become a long saga for the middle school project. The board will now start the process of designing a new school on South Street.

The lack of support for holding a referendum left the board with few options other than Rundlett. They had already shot down a motion last week to stay the course at Broken Ground and, as board member Cara Meeker noted, that path would surely face continued organized opposition, both politically and legally, from those who had written the charter amendments.

She hoped that reopening the Rundlett door would mean the project would proceed on common ground.

“I feel like we’ve got to turn a page. We’ve got to get unstuck,” she said. “I have to have hope...that the community, we will move forward together. Not with a bad site, but with a different site.”

 

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.