The Andover High School Building Committee voted against adding a $43 million parking garage to the project that already has a$480.9 million preliminary price tag.
The project’s estimated cost is already threatening to push the Town over a state-mandated debt limit and could lower the Town’s bond rating. At last week’s meeting, the building committee looked for other ways to reduce costs, including:
- Changing the building’s floors to polished concrete from terrazzo to save $18 million.
- Using natural instead of synthetic turf on athletic fields to save $1.5 million.
- Reducing the design’s square footage by 1,000 feet to save $1.2 million. The current proposal includes 286,008 square feet of space, above the 213,388 the MSBA recommends for new schools. The Field House, which would be retained in the current design, accounts for 75 percent of the overage.
Voting to eliminate the parking garage was the only formal action the committee took on design changes, with members saying they wanted public input on other potential cost-cutting changes discussed Thursday.
The project is heading into the schematic design phases, which would give officials a more accurate cost estimate. The Town has already decided to move forward without help from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
At the current, preliminary price tag, a new high school would cost the average Andover homeowner as much as $66,410, or $2,215 per year, over 30 years. The project could also lower the Town’s bond rating, making future borrowings more expensive, and push the Town over a state-mandated debt limit for municipalities, although officials are optimistic the state legislature will fix the problem.
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At the current, preliminary price tag, a new high school would cost the average Andover homeowner as much as $66,410, or $2,215 per year, over 30 years. The project could also lower the Town’s bond rating, making future borrowings more expensive, and push the Town over a state-mandated debt limit for municipalities, although officials are optimistic the state legislature will fix the problem.
Waiting for state aid to build a new Andover High School could raise the cost for taxpayers by as much as 14.3 percent, according to a rough estimate the school building committee reviewed last month.