Andover High Building Project

05/07/2026

Last week, Andover Town Meeting approved $3.85 million for furniture upgrades and security cameras at Andover High School, at zero additional cost to taxpayers. The funding will come from savings on the West Elementary/Shawsheen project (which was completed under budget), existing free cash, and repurposed balances from prior capital appropriations.

This recommendation came at the conclusion of a 26-month study by the Select Board and Permanent Town Building Committee at a cost of $500,000. Their stated goal was to identify a solution to the challenges at AHS that would cost less than $50 million in order to avoid impacting the town’s AAA bond rating. Ultimately, their process reaffirmed what more than eight years of prior studies and multiple building committees had already concluded: there is no meaningful low-cost solution to addressing the needs of Andover High School.

Thank you to everyone who supported this $3.85 million expenditure. It is, quite literally, the very least that could be done.

At Town Meeting, the Town Manager also committed to providing a recommendation on or before November 1, 2026 regarding the major systems at AHS. These issues include noncompliance with modern safety, energy, and accessibility code; necessary electrical infrastructure upgrades, including transformer replacement; an HVAC system well beyond its useful life, including boilers that could fail at any time and problematic air handlers; and a roof warranty that expires in 2028.

At present, there is no commitment or plan to address the many additional facility deficiencies at AHS, including those that limit curricular opportunities for students. The chance to apply for state assistance for the facility closed in April 2026, with the next application window expected in 2027.

05/05/2026

The residents of Salem, Mass are voting today on whether to fund a brand new high school through a debt exclusion.

The proposed new Salem High is for:
- 1,000 students
- cost of $1,050 per square foot
- anticipated $447 million total

MSBA will provide Salem a grant of $208 million, or roughly a 46.5% reimbursement. Salem chose a new school over a $384 million code renovation or a $483 million addition/renovation option.

Compare this to the 2023 Andover High proposal:
- 1,900 students
- cost of $810 per square foot
- anticipated $450 million total

If Andover had MSBA partnership, reimbursement would be lower than for Salem. For example, WestEl/Shawsheen was reimbursed at about 27%.

Between the guaranteed maximum price (GMP) date of December 2025 for the proposed Andover High and GMP date of March 2028 for Salem High (27 months), the price per square foot of construction has increased 29.6%.

Salem Building Committee FAQs about the project are here:
https://sites.google.com/salemk12.org/shs-building-committee/about-and-faqs

02/25/2026

HEADS UP! You are being given one day notice to attend a 45 minute workshop to provide feedback on 3 options for Andover High.

Though status updates were occasionally brought to other Boards, every single meeting of the AHS Working Group that developed these 3 options was done out of public view, with no public postings, no recordings and no meeting minutes.

This is the first time the public has been invited into the process related to these options, so please show up to the School Committee meeting if you can! (Tomorrow, Thursday Feb 25th beginning 4:30pm.)

Looking for an update and an opportunity to share your input on the AHS Improvement Project? 🏫

The Andover School Committee will hear from the Town Manager and school and town officials during a workshop on Thursday, February 26, at 4:30 p.m. Presenters will provide an overview of the three proposed options, including estimated costs, financial impacts, and educational benefits.

Following the workshop, community members are invited to share their perspectives during a community forum from 5:45 - 6:30 p.m.

We encourage all members of the community to join us in the School Committee Room at 30 Whittier Court, 2nd floor.

02/17/2026

When you were considering moving to Andover, was the town's bond rating on the top of your list of considerations?

Of course it wasn't. Chances are, you were more concerned about public schools, green space, or a cute downtown than what Standards & Poor had to say about the creditworthiness of Andover bonds.

Yet somehow maintaining a AAA rating has become sacrosanct to some, even though the math doesn't add up.

What is a town's bond rating? It is simply one of a handful of metrics used to determine an interest rate when the town goes to borrow money for capital projects. Every borrowing - from the smallest items in the annual CIP to the largest building projects - can be influenced by the borrowing rate.

HOWEVER, there is a poor understanding of how much financial impact a bond rating actually has. If you look up municipal borrowing rates for similar-sized amounts, for similar length terms, taken out at about the same time, you will find that normal fluctuations in bond markets have a higher impact on borrowing rates than a town's bond rating.

An analysis by the Town of Andover determined a bond rating drop from AAA to AA+ would impact borrowing by about 25 basis points (from 4.5% to 4.75%, for example). Their September 2023 study showed a rating drop related to a $480 million high school construction borrowing would have a TOTAL IMPACT of $30.8 million: $26.2 million on the high school project and $4.6 million on 10 years of all other anticipated borrowing.

Compare that $30.8 million to the additional cost in construction escalation -- $100 million and growing -- that has now come with delaying the high school project.

Was it worth $70+ million to be able to say Andover is AAA bond rated? Has our town become more attractive or offered residents better services because S&P's report card still gives Andover three As? Certainly public education has not improved by prioritizing the bond rating over investment in a modern high school facility.

So, follow up question: Is the drive to maintain AAA in Andover:
A. based on math?
B. an ego-driven exercise?

The Town's 2023 financial impact analysis is available here:
https://andoverma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/13408/09272023-AHS-Building-Project-Financial-Considerations
and the slides discussing the impact of bond rating begin on page 11.

02/14/2026

In 2017, The Institute for Human Centered Design was contracted to identify ADA issues at Andover High School. At the time, they estimated fixes would cost $3.9 million, and in 2023, the town's facilities department estimated those cost had nearly doubled since the report was issued. Now, additional years have passed and costs have escalated even further.

The ADA report is available here:
https://andoverhighbuildingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2017-ADA-Study.pdf

The Andover High options most recently developed by the Select Board leave ADA problems within the current facility largely unaddressed.

02/13/2026

Debt exclusions authorize the town to borrow money above what is allowed through normal taxation under proposition 2.5. To approve a debt exclusion, voters need to pass the measure twice: first by more than 66% at town meeting, then a second time by more than 50% in a ballot box vote.

School building projects -- including High Plain, Wood Hill, Bancroft, West Elementary and Shawsheen Preschool -- have all been funded through debt exclusions.

However, since 2017 town building projects have been paid for within the normal property tax levy, each requiring just a vote at town meeting:

- Municipal Services (5 Campanelli Drive) funded in 2017, including purchase of land
- Ballardvale Fire Station funded in 2018
- Robb Senior Center funded in 2019
- Town Hall third floor renovations funded in 2020
- Town Hall second floor renovations funded in 2023

Currently, the plan for each potential option developed by the Select Board for AHS would require a debt exclusion. So, whether you favor an $80 million science wing or authorizing $18 million to address deferred maintenance, voters will need to be convinced twice.

Meanwhile, the town’s Capital Improvement Plan, which includes general mantenance projects, allocates $0 to improvements at Andover High.

You can read the FY27 CIP here:
https://andoverma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/18270/Town-Managers-Recommended-Capital-Improvement-Program-FY2027-FY2031
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02/12/2026

How hard is it to get accepted to the state program for support in building a school? The first step is to submit a Statement of Interest (SOI) to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).

Here's how many SOI submissions have been successful for high schools since 2018:

2018: 4 of 130 total submissions
2019: 4 of 144
2020: 1 of 161
2021: 8 of 118
2022: 4 of 121
2023: 5 of 63
2024: 9 of 119
2025: 5 of 126

(high schools include: traditional 9-12, vocational/technical high schools, middle/high schools, pre-K/high schools, and agricultural high schools)

SOIs are accepted once annually. The deadline for 2026 SOI submissions is April 17, 2026. Submitting an SOI requires a public vote of both the School Committee and the Select Board.

More information on the MSBA SOI process is available on the website here:
https://www.massschoolbuildings.org/building/SOIs

02/06/2026

Last night, the School Committee received pricing information on AHS options born from the most recent facility study, which was funded at the Select Board’s $500,000 request to Special Town Meeting in November 2023 (“Article 7B”).

Unsurprisingly, there is no option that addresses the most critical educational and infrastructure deficiencies within the stated $50 million to $60 million price target.

This marks the third time in the last decade various committees have reached the same conclusion

As a summary, the most recently developed options are:

Option 1: $80 million
- Adds a new science wing to the front of the building, plus
- everything in Option 2

Option 2: $17 million to $27 million
- Furniture upgrades (cafeteria, science labs, general classrooms)
- Mechanical system upgrades (boilers, roof top units, air handler units, mini-splits in some priority classrooms, and kitchen/cafeteria needs)
- Electric system upgrades (transformer replacement, convert to LED)
- Security upgrades (door standardization & key system, improved/no-gap public address system, exterior door monitoring & cameras, lockdown button for selective closure of building areas)

Option 3: $15 million to $18 million, based on need and actual spending
- Money is appropriated by Town Meeting, then used to address priority items from Option 2 and critical needs as they arise (i.e. when things break)
- Process for making/prioritizing spending decisions is TBD
- Intended to keep the building running for up to 15 years

None of the options presented include bringing the existing building up to modern building codes or into current ADA compliance.

You can watch the full presentation of priced options by forwarding to 18:20 in the video replay here:
https://cloud.castus.tv/vod/andover/video/6985e6ffdced9d00028304fc?page=HOME

As a follow-up, the School Committee stated they will have a workshop on this topic on a yet-to-be-determined date. Workshops allow discussion among committee members but typically do not offer time for public feedback.

02/05/2026

Tune into tonight's School Committee meeting to hear what the most recent Andover High Working Group has come up with as options to improve the facility. (7:00pm, livestream from andovertv.com or view on local access Comcast channel 6 / Verizon channel 7B)

You may recall, the Select Board asked for and received $500,000 at a Special Town Meeting 26 months ago to: "complete Schematic Design" and "establish a realistic total project budget" for an "Interim Approach" to addresses issues with the Andover High School facility.

As presented at Town Meeting, re-studying options for AHS improvement was intended:
- to bridge the gap between the existing building and a new building at some point in the future
- coincide with a process for continuing to submit Statements of Interest to the state's MSBA program
- and preserve the Town's bond rating by with a price tag between $50M to $60M.

Although this work was originally overseen by the Permanent Town Building Advisory Committee, it moved into a separate AHS Working Group. That working group has not conducted any of their meetings in public, so tonight's School Committee presentation will be the first public view into options with pricing.

As a refresher, you can find the slides from the November 2023 Town Meeting here:
https://andoverhighbuildingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SpecialTownMeeting-Articles7Aand7B-20231120.pdf

This slide deck begins with the failed Article 7A which asked for $1.3 million to complete a design of a new AHS, then goes into the Select Board's successful $500,000 Article 7B to re-study AHS options beginning on page 10.

02/05/2026

Tune into tonight's School Committee meeting to hear what the most recent Andover High Working Group has come up with as options to improve the facility. (7:00pm, livestream from andovertv.com or view on local access Comcast channel 6 / Verizon channel 7B)

You may recall, the Select Board asked for and received $500,000 at a Special Town Meeting 26 months ago to: "complete Schematic Design" and "establish a realistic total project budget" for an "Interim Approach" to addresses issues with the Andover High School facility.

As presented at Town Meeting, re-studying options for AHS improvement was intended:
- to bridge the gap between the existing building and a new building at some point in the future
- coincide with a process for continuing to submit Statements of Interest to the state's MSBA program
- and preserve the Town's bond rating by with a price tag between $50M to $60M.

Although this work was originally overseen by the Permanent Town Building Advisory Committee, it moved into a separate AHS Working Group. That working group has not conducted any of their meetings in public, so tonight's School Committee presentation will be the first public view into options with pricing.

As a refresher, you can find the slides from the November 2023 Town Meeting here:
https://andoverhighbuildingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SpecialTownMeeting-Articles7Aand7B-20231120.pdf

This slide deck begins with the failed Article 7A which asked for $1.3 million to complete a design of a new AHS, then goes into the Select Board's successful $500,000 Article 7B to re-study AHS options beginning on page 10.