The Concord Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Monday evening to discuss the potential sale of the Eastman School in East Concord.
Board President Pamela Walsh has suggested the district look into the sale as a way to fund the construction of a new middle school. If pursued, the effort would put a charter amendment passed last year to the test for the first time.
The new rule 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.”
A dispute emerged this week on which specific action — listing the building for sale versus closing on the sale — would trigger the district-wide vote.
A citizens group that wrote and advocated for the new rule claims that the sale goes before the voters once there’s an offer on the table. This would mean the people of Concord, essentially, would get a direct veto on any sale agreement negotiated.
“Listing the property, putting it up for sale, is one thing,” said resident Charlie Russell. “The voters would be, as I read it and it was intended, would be able to vote on what it’s being sold for and what the use is going to be.”
Walsh said Russell’s understanding doesn’t align with how the district’s lawyers read the rule.
The deadline for items to be included on city ballots is September 15, the same day as the special meeting.
The push to consolidate Concord’s elementary schools, and the question of what to do with the empty ones, has been a divisive subject.
The Eastman School, rebuilt in 1936, was one of the elementary schools closed during consolidation in the late 2000s. Many of its peers have been sold, like the Walker School, which is now Binnie Media. Others were torn down to make way for different public buildings, like the Dame School, which sold to the city and is now the location of the City Wide Community Center, or the Kimball School and Conant Schools, which were torn down and replaced with Christa McAuliffe and Abbot-Downing.
Currenly, the Eastman School is home to the Eastman Early Learning Center, a pre-school under the umbrella of the Boys and Girls Club.
The property at 15 Shawmut Street has an assessed value of $2,554,800, according to city records.
