SAU 8 Concord School District New Middle School Bonding Process Begins At Public Hearing Monday

CONCORD, NH — A “loan resolution” public hearing will be held on Monday night as the SAU 8 board of education takes its first steps toward bonding for a new middle school.

The board approved the new middle school project in October 2025, built on the current footprint of Rundlett Middle School on South Street. The district said the public hearing on Monday will be the first step taken toward financing the new school. In October, the board approved “a gross budget of $168,770,480, inclusive of credits and rebates of $13,058,679, for a net cost of $155,718,801.”

The cost is higher than in prior votes, which limited the construction price tag to around $152 million, Board President Pamela Walsh said, because voters approved moving the school from the east side of the city to its current location, which is more expensive.

The district said the “gross budget includes the entire cost of the project,” (the district’s emphasis), “before accounting for the savings from the early bid package, rebates, and tax credits.”

The district is eligible for tax credits for geothermal heating and cooling, rooftop and canopy solar, and utility rebates. The tax credits and rebates are issued after construction and must be included in the total amount, the district said in a statement.

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After the public hearing, a vote to adopt a loan resolution and authorize debt acquisition will be held at a later date.

The district is using Troutman Pepper Locke, a financial transaction company, to secure loans for the project.

“The public hearing is an important first step in financing the new middle school,” Walsh said. “The loan resolution hearing gives our community the opportunity to learn about the financial aspects of this project and the process that will be followed over the next several weeks.”

Despite debate in the community and on Patch over the definitions of the words “cost” and “price tag,” most board of education members refuse to acknowledge that interest estimates on the debt push the project’s final cost to $220 million to $280 million.

Even with the $13 million in tax credits being paid down on the principal early, interest will still be more than $100 million on the project because the credits will only offset debt after the entire “gross budget” of $169 million is approved and financed.

As of Friday, specific data on how the district plans to schedule the debt has not been released, despite numerous requests by Patch.

Prior public statements, such as the new middle school will “only cost” property taxpayers 53 to 69 cents per $1,000 in assessed value, have been shown to be inaccurate, since that only raises between $76 million to $99 million across 30 years of SAU 8 property valuation of around $4.8 billion, according to the New Hampshire Department of Education.

The actual amount of property taxes paid by residents for the project is also exceedingly higher than published amounts. The rough math suggests the cost of the school will be between $515 to $641 on a home assessed at $350,000 for the first 15 years of the project repayment, and somewhere between $749 to $875 for the second 15 years of repayment, since the current elementary school project taxes will be rolled into the new middle school project debt sometime after 2041.

The district also released a new timeline for activities related to the school following the public hearing.

Later this month, the district will be working with a securities firm to request a new credit rating and the district’s finance committee will discuss financial options on Jan. 14. The committee will then make a recommendation to the full board for a vote on Jan. 28. Loan offers will be reviewed in February and March. The district hopes to break ground on the project in April.

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