To help voters make decisions, Andover News is publishing profiles of candidates running in the 2025 Andover Town Election on March 25. You can also view all Andover News election coverage.
Responses are from a questionnaire sent to all candidates in February and, in some cases, have been edited for length and clarity. Today’s profile is from Sanid Wright, one of two incumbents running in a four-way race for two open seats on the school committee.
The Basics
Family: Married with 2 daughters.
Education: BS Management Westbrook College (University of New England)
Occupation: Managing Director, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
Campaign Website: www.wrightforandover.com
What prompted you to run for elected office?
I’m running for re-election to Andover School Committee to ensure every student receives a high-quality education. I want to build on the progress and accomplishments from recent years, such as implementing new curriculum for Math and conducting audits for security, literacy and equity, which revealed areas of improvement across the district to better serve students.
After living in Chicago and Atlanta, we realized that our quality of life would be better if we lived closer to our families in the northeast in a welcoming community with strong public schools. As a result, we moved to Andover because of Andover Public Schools’ excellent reputation. Since then, I’ve volunteered in many different roles and through those experiences I’ve learned to appreciate how much our Andover values education. Serving on the School Committee is a logical continuation to serve our community.
More about Sandis:
I’m from northern Maine originally and have lived in Andover since 2011. My daughters attend Doherty Middle School and Andover High School.
On the Issues
What are the most important issues facing Andover that you will need to address if elected on March 25?
Our commitment to student learning and success needs to be our top priority. Student needs must be front and center to all policy and budget decisions made as a School Committee. We need to raise the bar in academic excellence and create a culture of continuous improvement, one that supports and challenges each student’s learning, based on their individual needs, whether high performing or high needs. APS staff is our greatest asset we have to educate our students.
We should continue supporting our educators by developing consistent, high-quality curriculum and instructional materials, providing professional development opportunities and coaching support, to name a few.
We’ll also experience future budget pressures not just for APS, but for the town budget overall. Our community expects high quality public schools and town services while also responsibly using resources to achieve that excellence. Looking ahead to the next few years, the School Committee will need to maintain strong partnerships and grow collaboration with the Select Board, Finance Committee, Town Manager and Superintendent to ensure we’re able to deliver on these expectations. The governing boards will need to work together more to ensure a common understanding of priorities and trade-offs in planning for and developing future budgets. Other communities are experiencing similar budget challenges, and it’s important that we learn from those municipalities and school districts as we navigate these headwinds.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the need to finalize plans to renovate or replace Andover High School to meet the needs of today’s learning standards. We also need to maintain reasonable class sizes – more on both of these issues later!
What are your thoughts on Andover’s comparative school performance? In what ways can it be improved?
There are many ways APS is compared to other districts, but DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) provides the most comprehensive comparative analysis against similar districts or state averages. When using DESE DART (District Analysis and Review Tools) criteria, we perform above or on par with several comparable districts for ELA and Math for percent of students meeting/exceeding expectations and student growth across multiple grades. With the adoption of new Math curriculum (Eureka2 for elementary and Desmos for secondary), early indications show the improved curriculum is paying off based on these results.
When comparing educational performance, you can’t overlook that rankings often come into play. While rankings can provide quick insights into how we’re doing, rankings can be problematic since you’re managing to a moving target due to changes in metrics and criteria. I view rankings as informational (nice to know) but aren’t necessarily actionable, meaning, we shouldn’t use specific rankings to drive or plan for district-wide improvements. We always have room for improvement, but we should improve on our terms, not on Boston Magazine’s terms, for example.
With that said, most rankings over time show Andover as a high performing district, consistently placing in the top 25% of districts in the state, depending on the year, the criteria, and the comparison districts (for example, some rankings include charter and magnet schools, while others do not). Niche also grades APS with an A and lists it as the #1 best school district in Essex County.
Our focus is best served in addressing the needs of Andover students. DESE provides the greatest insights where we need to improve (when considering how we stack up against other districts) along with our own internal data on student achievement. If we focus our efforts on what our Andover students need, we’ll perform well when compared to other districts.
Andover is considering a plan to upgrade Andover High School to extend its life until the Town is in a better position to apply for state aid to build a new school. Please outline your position on the AHS project.
The future of AHS has to be community driven and broadly supported due to the capital investments needed to renovate or replace the building. Our educators do an incredible job teaching our students in a less than desirable space which isn’t scaled to today’s learning standards. I am hopeful that once the town’s debt profile lessens in the next 10 years or so, the community will be supportive of a new building. The question is what do we do between now and then? We need input from the community, educators and administrators in making improvements that address, as best we can, some of the needs outlined in the AHS education plan. Once we have a more defined path forward for AHS, I support pursuing MSBA funding after West El / Shawsheen school is closed out with the state.
Andover Public Schools is facing a $1.9 budget deficit — the second deficit in as many years. The school committee is considering a plan that cuts 19 FTEs and raises certain student fees. Please outline your position on the APS budget issue and the strategies proposed to close the deficit.
As a current School Committee member, we’ve taken an intentional and thoughtful approach to balance the school budget and in being transparent with the community along the way. The $1.87M deficit is driven by increased transportation costs, special education (such as out of district residential placements), utilities and contractually obligated salaries.
Salaries make up almost 80% of the total operating budget of $107M so that’s where a majority of the deficit can be addressed. Several options have been evaluated to close the deficit, with the final recommendation to reduce 18.7 FTEs, in conjunction with a nominal increase (2.5%) in athletic and fine arts fees and to maintain non-salary expenses at prior year levels with a targeted 2.5% reduction.
The Superintendent is evaluating all positions across the district and includes aligning staffing levels with enrollment and based on student needs. This is consistent with the Superintendent’s diligence with repurposing positions in APS, ensuring overall headcounts have not increased across the district. As this review continues, retirements and resignations (which can come in at any time throughout the year) will be evaluated to determine if those positions need to be filled or if they could be repurposed or consolidated with other positions. I encourage the administration to continue exploring ways to find other savings and update our budget deficit projections as the state budget is finalized or as other funding sources are validated such as chapter 70 or from the town.
As part of redistricting efforts, one of the options we explored — but ruled out — is closing one of the school buildings. While there are savings that could be realized from closing a school, doing so would increase utilization at remaining buildings at higher inefficient levels, resulting in overcrowding and capacity issues.
I encourage the community to join upcoming meetings to learn more about the FY 2026 budget and how the deficit is being addressed. While FTE reductions aren’t desirable, I’m optimistic that a majority of the deficit can be offset through retirements or resignations. This will allow the district to maintain all programs and services for students.
Outline your views on class-size guidelines established by the school committee. If you advocate for smaller classes, what tradeoffs could APS make to fund it?
Class sizes need to be balanced with other variables impacting student learning and outcomes such as the composition of students in a classroom, the use of high-quality instructional materials, availability of instructional assistants, etc. There is a large body of research around class sizes and I would support a focused analysis and/or workshop to learn more about the merits of class sizes and other factors to ensure we’re using all of our resources efficiently. Given we don’t have unlimited resources, we need to consider all factors which drive student achievement and outcomes. From research I’ve done, our class sizes are reasonable and in line with comparable districts and the current policy class size guidelines allow for flexibility and normal variations in class sizes across grades and content areas.
As part of the FY 26 budget planning, an analysis was done to estimate what the cost would be to reduce elementary class sizes to the minimum levels defined in the current Class Size policy (Grade K=16, Grades 1-2=19, Grades 3-5=21). This analysis suggested that 25 additional elementary teachers would be needed, which would cost over $2M annually in our operating budget. For every dollar spent to reduce class sizes with additional staffing, dollars would need to be reduced somewhere else, such as cutting programs or other services, which I’m not in favor of.
At a recent February School Committee meeting, AHS administrators presented their annual class size analysis. At AHS, where the class size policy is 21-29 students, about two-thirds (66%) of all class sections have 24 or fewer students. Approximately 12% of sections have 27-29 students, with some of those being sections of Physical Education or music ensembles. AHS administration strives to make section sizes as even as possible across courses that students are required to take. While there will always be inconsistencies due to students changing classes, enrollment changes, etc., our administration is thoughtful and careful in its efforts to ensure equitable class sizes across AHS.
APS has had a 3.75 percent annual budget increase over the past ten years. Is that sustainable? What are your ideas to keep cost growth in line with revenue?
While the long-range financial plan isn’t perfect, it’s provided for stability and predictability with budget planning and helps ensure Andover education is delivered in the most responsible manner in collaboration with the town and district leadership and other governance boards.
Costs are only going to increase in the future, which will put more pressure on APS and town budgets. Since APS is part of a bigger puzzle, I’ve talked with our Town Manager and others about the possibilities of creating a working group with a subset of members of the School Committee, Select Board and Finance Committee in order to explore the sustainability of this model. As the conversation evolves, I would expect members of APS and the town departments to share insights and feedback. By modeling different scenarios, we can identify pros and cons (tradeoffs) in more depth and explore alignment of options or impacts against key priorities. This group can also make recommendations about whether our existing funding framework needs to change.
On The Campaign Trail
If you are a candidate for reelection, highlight your biggest accomplishment(s) during the current term. If you are challenging an incumbent, highlight some of your professional and/or life experiences.
During my first term on the School Committee, I’ve supported and voted in favor of numerous initiatives which have positively impacted student learning and their overall experience. Examples include:
• Created a district mission, vision and values during a strategic roadmap process, which has guided the work of the district for the past two years.
• Adopted Social Emotional Learning initiatives including implementation of the RULER (Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, Regulating) approach to address mental health needs of students post-pandemic.
• Conducted a district literacy audit, resulting in recommendations to create and enhance high quality instructional materials for reading and writing.
• Conducted a district equity audit, resulting in creating a district equity vision and action plan to ensure all students receive an excellent education regardless of their identity, background or ability status.
• Adopted new math curricula (Desmos and Eureka2), aligned with DESE standards for elementary and middle schools.
• Conducted a security assessment of the school facilities to assess vulnerabilities or areas for improvement for student and staff safety.
• Established communications protocols and resolution procedures to help parents identify the best person to work with for specific questions/concerns.
• Reduced transportation fees for Andover families, expanded the number of buses to improve service and added electric buses to our fleet.
• Eliminated fees for middle school after-school activities to improve access for students to participate in extracurriculars.
• Secured funding for Doherty Middle School facility improvements.
• Secured additional funding needed to complete construction for West Elementary and Shawsheen preschool.
• Created APS Staff Shout Out program to recognize APS staff for their contribution in educating and supporting students.
• Worked with Andover Recreation to offer additional after school programs to families for APS early release days.
• Increased communication, engagement and outreach across the community, including supporting creation of Advisory Councils (Budget Advisory Council, Superintendent Advisory Council, Redistricting Advisory Council), Let’s Talk series, use of videos and social media, etc.
There is much to be proud of across APS! I hope to build on these accomplishments in my second term if I’m re-elected.
What differentiates you from your opponent(s)?
Since I’ve lived in Andover, I’ve volunteered in many different roles to better our community including serving on Andover Parent to Parent, Destination Imagination team manager, Andover DEI Commission, PAC/PTOs, C3 (Culture, Climate, Committee), A Better Chance of Andover and helped organize different community events. This spirit of working collaboratively and building strong relationships is directly transferable to the School Committee which is important in working with community members, town and district leadership and other governing boards. Serving in these volunteer roles has strengthened my commitment to being objective, curious, listening and learning from others and to evaluate issues from different angles and perspectives. I’m proud to know so many different people in a diverse range of capacities from my service in Andover.
Serving on a School Committee takes years to master due to the complexity of the role involving municipal finance and state laws. The knowledge I’ve gained from my first term will help the School Committee function cohesively given challenges that lie ahead. I have had the benefit of connecting with our professional organization, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC), and with other School Committee members across the state to learn how other districts are approaching challenges and to share ideas and best practices. I have advocated for Andover at the state level, including attending MASC’s “Day on the Hill” and speaking with members of our state delegation.
Finally, the accomplishments I’ve cited above are a part of a broader strategy for APS which require a multi-year commitment, stability in leadership and continuity with implementing a plan. My prior experience on the School Committee, involvement and collaboration in the community, commitment to continuous improvement and long-range planning, and ability to make decisions as a balanced, independent and critical thinker make me an ideal candidate for a second term to ensure that every Andover student thrives.
Is there anything else you want Andover News readers to know about you and your campaign?
Values are the beliefs which shape how people work together to solve problems or achieve shared goals. Respect, integrity, compassion, positivity and accountability are all important to me. The strengths-based approach used in teaching can also be applied to the School Committee where empowerment, curiosity and innovation are core principles impacting our work. I enjoy brainstorming on solutions over fixating on problems. I prefer thoughtful conversations instead of social media soundbites and divisive polls. I won’t always have all the answers, but I am committed to bringing the right people together while being open-minded, independent, respectful, and forward-thinking.
In times of uncertainty and change, consistency in leadership can help calm the waters. There’s lots of uncertainty regarding changes at the federal level that we’ll need to manage, including possible changes to the Department of Education that could directly impact our budget and our services. This would be compounded by looming budget shortfalls at the state level. Having continuity and stability at a local level with experienced School Committee leadership is critical for our future success.
I would be grateful for your vote on March 25th.