Concord School Board Member Seeks Input On New Middle School Gym Space, Other Features

CONCORD, NH — One of the new Concord school board members elected last year is asking residents for more feedback about some features of the new $200 million middle school proposed for the east side of the city.

Liz Boucher, who represents Zone B (Wards 5, 6, and 7), has created a G-doc form and requests comments about some of the school’s proposed features. She noted in the questionnaire that the data-gathering process was “created solely” by her and is “not representative of other members” of the board of education. Boucher also linked the latest presentation and video by Concord TV of the meeting on June 18.

Boucher focuses on several features that nibble around the edges of the project.

The questionnaire samples opinions about various auditorium sizes — 900 seats, 600 seats, 450 seats, a stage in a space like a gym, what the Rundlett Middle School currently has, or none at all. The proposed 900-seat performing arts center costs $6 million, while a 450-seat venue is around $4.2 million. Participants can choose a single answer.

While the city and school district are separate entities, the city does own the historic Concord City Auditorium, which is not used nearly as much as it should or could be, and seats close to 900. In the past, the district has utilized the Audi for functions.

Concord High School also has an auditorium named after Christa McAuliffe.

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Another question is about sports fields.

At RMS, there are four overlapping fields. The questionnaire offers eight answers, and participants can choose from any of them. The costs of field construction range from $1.1 million for a baseball-softball field to $1.4 million for a multi-use synthetic field. A track and lawn field is around $1.7 million.

The RMS gym, which has been renovated repeatedly during the past 45 years, is 7,800 square feet. The district is proposing a 9,000-square-foot gym, but $1.2 million could be saved by building a 6,000-square-foot gym.

Another question was about a 5,000-square-foot multipurpose room for wrestling and cheerleading. RMS currently has a second gym where wrestling matches are held, with bleachers and a performance stage for concerts. Reducing the size would save around $600,000.

Another multiple-choice question involves installing an $18.7 million geothermal heat pump or saving about a million dollars by installing air-source heat pumps with a supplemental boiler. Solar panels are also proposed for $1.5 million to $3.25 million.

An external ramp between the school’s first and second floors, costing $3.7 million, was also proposed and is being reconsidered.

Participants can offer additional comments or concerns and are asked to leave their name and voting ward, too.

Boucher said in the questionnaire that the “cost estimate ranges” from $136.2 million to $166.7 million, depending on adding some of the design features. These figures are actually the price, not the cost. The cost needs to include interest on the debt, which pushes even the low price of the building to the $200 million range.

View all the documents for the new Concord middle school project linked here. The latest financial estimates can be found here.

Business Administrator Jack Dunn clarified some of the financials while adding the numbers the district was toying with were very early estimates.

Patch has been performing back-of-the-envelope math on the varying pricing schemes with a proposed 4 percent interest rate. But Dunn said it will probably be closer to 4.5 percent — pushing the final cost even higher than previously thought.

The district has around $16.1 million in its facilities and purchase renovation expendable trust fund and more than $26.1 million in all its trusts. This is the amount of money property taxpayers have been overtaxed in recent years. In fiscal year 2025, nearly $1.6 million was transferred into the facilities trust—money that was supposed to go into taxpayers’ pockets as part of more money being pushed out by the state to schools.

One confusing part of the most recent financial figures shared with the public was a tax hike figure of $32 on a $350,000.

Circling back to the lowest price figure of $136.2 million, Dunn said the district was figuring state aid to be about $49 million. The district would then amortize the leftover $87.7 million at 4.5 percent. The first-year payment would be around $6.8 million. Dunn said by using $3.4 million in the first year, the tax rate could be brought down to about 9 cents per thousand or $32 for a $350,000 house assessment.

Using the $136.2 million figure and about $72.3 million in interest payments based on the $87.7 million financed ($136.2M minus $49M in state aid equals $87.7M), without using any of the trust funds or selling off any current land assets the district has, including the former Eastman School land or the current RMS parcel, the final cost of the new middle school, at its lowest level, is around $208.5 million.

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