Town officials gave the clearest picture yet on how a study looking at ways Andover High School could be renovated would work if approved by special town meeting on Nov. 20.
And that was enough to allow the AHS building committee — which has spent more than a year developing and pushing forward a plan to build a new, $451.5 million school — to give unanimous approval to recommend special town meeting approve Article 7B along with $1.3 million to complete a detailed design of the new building.
There was one caveat: Building committee member Shannon Scully — who was a vocal critic of 7B when first presented at a pair of quad board meetings — moved to approve recommending 7B only if representatives from the school committee, building committee and Andover Public Schools administration were included in the process.
Town Manager Andrew Flanagan said the Andover Permanent Town Building Advisory Committee would oversee the interim plan study if special town meeting approves article 7B — a key piece of information that had not been previously available to the building committee. The building advisory committee “has the bandwidth right now to focus on the interim approach,” Flanagan said.
Kimelman: Motion’s Wording Aims “To Kill” 7B
The $1.3 million schematic design article was originally proposed for the annual town meeting in May, but ultimately was pulled from the warrant when the town disclosed the project would push Andover over a state-mandated debt cap. The state legislature changed rules to exempt new school debt from the cap this summer.
The interim plan — which supporters of the new high school say is a nonstarter and won’t help Andover avoid a downgrade — is aimed at making improvements to the school until the Town pays down existing debt and will have a better chance of getting state money from the Massachusetts School Building Authority to offset the cost. Last week the finance committee recommended special town meeting not approve $1.3 million for schematic design but approve the interim study
Building committee Nancy Kimelman tried to amend Scully’s motion, saying Scully was changing what the select board was asking special town meeting to vote on, before withdrawing her motion.
“You are sending a clear message to the town, which I think is your intent, frankly, to kill 7B,” Kimelman said. “And I think the town deserves to vote on 7B alone.”
“There have been a number of weeks where no one has been able to accurately and clearly define what would happen with the 7B…this morning for the first time as a committee got a readout,” Scully said. “My recommendation for approval would be reliant on all of the information that we’ve presented today being accurate, complete, and on the same page with everybody else involved in this process.”
Flanagan said he planned to vote yes on both articles after giving an overview on the benefits the $500,000 interim study would offer if 7B passes.
“It gives me and Patrick the best opportunity to effectively evaluate the [short- and long-term] financial impacts of both options…and provides a little bit more clarity of the options,” he said. “This will only benefit this process as we go a step further in providing information to taxpayers as they weight their options.”