Narrowly turning down the addition of a School Resource Officer at the middle school while increasing facility maintenance spending, the Concord Board of Education unanimously approved a roughly 2.75% budget increase for 2025-2026, bringing its general fund spending to $111.5 million.

The changes come out to roughly the same increases in the initial proposal: District estimates Wednesday night were that this budget would increase the local school tax rate 61 cents to $14.57, or a $244 increase to the bill of a home valued at $400,000. With declining state revenues, the school tax rate will grow by 4.4%, more than the overall budget percentage.

“I commend the administration's work for coming in with a budget that is under 3% growth, given a lot of increased costs and a reduction in state funding,” board President Pamela Walsh said. 

By a one-vote margin, the board decided against adding a school resource officer at the middle school. 

On one hand, more board members were persuaded than in past years by Rundlett administrators that the position would be worthwhile, especially when supporting students in situations where they would already be encountering the legal system or law enforcement. 

“There is only so much that we as a school can do to support students’ resilience,” board member Liz Boucher said, recognizing that a Rundlett social worker backed this position as a unique resource. “We cannot turn a blind eye to repetitive and multiplying adverse childhood events that students are experiencing outside the walls of the school.”

Boucher noted that the board had continued to support a resource officer at Concord High each year, an apparent endorsement of its benefit. 

In the end, concern with the cost won out.

“People are incredibly squeezed,” board member Sarah Sadowski said. “We just do not have overwhelming public support for adding this cost into our budget.”

With the district’s 75-25 cost arrangement with Concord police, the position would carry more than $100,000 in added staff costs. While some indicated they’d be more open to a 50-50 arrangement, that wasn’t on the table ahead of the vote. In a 5-4 vote, Boucher, Jess Campbell, Brenda Hastings and Barb Higgins voted in support of the position.

The board decided on Monday to increase regular facility maintenance by $150,000 — a response, they said, to criticism the district has received during debates over the middle school project that it hasn’t sufficiently cared for its buildings. 

“We always cut maintenance. We stop painting a few rooms each year a little less than we should, we buy furniture a little less than we should,” Jim Richards said at a Monday workshop. “What the people who came here and testified said we should do is maintain our buildings.” 

The board unanimously eliminated about $137,000 in funding for the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice, which the district intends to keep vacant pending the completion of an equity audit. In the meantime, board members saw no reason to set aside the money to pay for a hire they would not make until next year.

“As one of the folks in this group that has been very outspoken about anti-racism in the school district, I trust this administration's commitment to DEIJB,” board member Sarah Robinson said. With the insight brought by the audit, she said, “I believe that the administration will put it back in with a more focused and centered job description that makes a lot more sense.”

At the same time, a student member of the board has expressed wanting the position filled quickly, because of the unique support it provides students. 

The district will, using grant money, fill the Restorative Justice Coordinator position at the middle school being vacated this year.

No members of the public were in attendance. 

Uncertainty looms large over all local school budgets right now, with the ongoing effort to abolish the federal Department of Education, a rising vacancy in the education commissioner position at the state level, and the state budget yet to be settled.

In Concord, specifically, a range of union negotiations are either currently underway or coming up, and the board also faces major capital decisions about the middle school and Memorial Field in the coming year. Because of its autonomous status, Concord’s School Board can amend its budget with a supermajority vote until October. 

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