Concord Finance Committee Launches New Year With $17.5 Million Bond Sale at 3 Percent

CONCORD — May 7, 2026 — Concord Finance Committee opens new budget cycle with bond sale news and broad member priority-setting. The committee held its annual organizational meeting May 7 at Concord Town House, welcoming new members Rita Raychaudhuri, a former UN analyst and investment banker, and Donald Parker, a Harvard public policy lecturer with roughly 15 years of school board experience. Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Barrett informed the committee at meeting's close that the town sold $17,500,000 in bonds that day at a 3 percent true interest cost and a 3 percent coupon, supported by a reaffirmed AAA Moody's rating, with net proceeds after premium of approximately $16,200,000. Members approved the April 16 minutes 6-0 with 4 abstentions and tabled a vote on forming a Guidelines Subcommittee and a Financial Solutions Subcommittee until June, after Barrett clarified that formally constituted subcommittees are subject to open meeting law. Across a roundtable on member priorities, recurring themes included monitoring the FY24 audit's material weakness findings, containing long-term budget growth, achieving greater transparency into enterprise funds and staffing, and addressing the Concord-Carlisle enrollment-driven assessment shift — which Member Brian Conway called the largest uncertain variable for FY28.