Dear APS families and staff,
On Thursday, January 23, 2025, the School Committee voted on the school department’s FY26 budget allocation in relation to the town’s overall FY26 budget. Based on the Committee’s vote, the school department’s FY26 budget will increase 3.75%, in alignment with the superintendent’s preliminary budget recommendation of $107,504,760. Our goal with sharing this information is to offer transparent communication with the Andover community.
Similar to many districts across the Commonwealth, Andover continues to experience budget challenges, and the district faces a fiscal deficit for FY26. The impact of rising costs of transportation, salaries, special education programs, and utilities are all factors that affect our budget. Currently, the deficit to close is approximately $1.87 million. We continue to review the data and options to ensure that our budget is allocated effectively to support the needs of our students. This number will be further refined as the budget process continues.
The FY26 proposed budget maintains the goal of providing high quality instruction and maintains services and programs for our students. There will be modest increases of 2.5% to athletic and fine arts fees, and a 2.5% reduction in non-salary expenses. However, the district will need to align staffing levels with enrollment in order to fully offset the deficit. Currently, there is an approximate reduction of 18.7 positions across the district. The process of evaluating staffing levels will take place over the coming months as employees notify the district of their retirements or their plans to seek new opportunities, enrollments are refined, and student needs are assessed.
Upcoming key dates for the budget process include:
Thursday, March 6, 2025 - The School Committee will hold a public hearing. Following the hearing, the School Committee will vote on the School Department budget.
Saturday, March 8, 2025 - The Superintendent will share the FY26 budget approved by the School Committee to the Town of Andover’s Select Board and Finance Committees at the Tri-Board meeting.
Tuesday, April 29, 2025 - The school budget will be presented as part of the total town budget for a vote at the annual town meeting.
Dr. Parvey will also continue her “Let’s Talk!” series on Wednesday, January 29th with a virtual meeting to share information on the budget. As she mentioned in her message to the community in December, projected data can take months to review, adjust, and refine to ensure that we are working with accurate information as the process continues. We invite members of the public to attend that meeting, as well as to learn more about the budget on our FY26 Budget Page.
Best,
Lauren M. Conoscenti, Ph.D., Chair
Sandis Wright, Vice Chair
Emily DiCesaro
Lauren Diffenbach
Shauna Murray