Washburn: Is There A New Performing Arts Center In Your Future?

I guess what’s next for the consideration of the Concord School Board remains a continuing dilemma for besieged Concord property taxpayers is what to do about a performing arts center requested by Concord High School teachers.

Currently, they pack up equipment to transport it to the 1304-seat Capital Center for the Arts with a nominal rental fee. Patrons are then charged an outlandish fee of $5 per ticket to attend the performance. The beleaguered staff repacked the equipment and returned to the high school.

The 900-seat $6 million auditorium at the proposed new middle school might serve as an interim solution, but the pressure will still be there for a new multi-million-dollar improvement to Concord High School, and the staff would have to pack and repack the U-Hauls until the new facility is completed.

What is next is a request for an indoor Olympic-size pool so Concord High can field a swim team along with the new arts center?

There is something fundamentally wrong with the system when aggrieved citizens are denied access to remediate their grievances. The current system to amend the school district charter is to petition for the creation of a charter commission, elect a charter commission, and then vote on commission-proposed changes. This process is designed to take years and protect the status quo. Surely, there must be a better way since there is no current charter provision to petition to recall school board members when they are acting in such a manner contrary to majority views and the best interest of the community at large or other maladministrations.

If that isn’t enough, coming soon to your neighborhood will be appraisers hired by the city to reassess your property values. There is a five-year requirement for reassessment, which most communities seek to avoid the plague, but in keeping the requirement, it will start in July. This gets me to my biggest complaint about both the city council and school board. In completing their annual budget reviews, they tend to fixate on revenues and gloss over expenditures. When the final reassessment is completed, be seated when you see the valuation placed on your property. There is an appeal process, but good luck with that.