The following tables highlight answers the five candidates running for two open seats on the school committee gave at Thursday’s Andover Service Club Candidates’ forum when asked about the biggest issue facing Andover Public Schools.
You can also read a complete, AI-generated transcript of the forum, courtesy of Andover News.
“There is an approximate gap of $2.7 million between the school committee’s requested budget and the approved school budget. Are you in agreement with the superintendent’s position to eliminate positions to cover the $2.7 million shortfall?”
| Candidate | Comments |
| Lauren Diffenbach | “I would like to see the impact of cuts in the least impactful way for our students. As a parent, I don’t want to see my kids sitting in a class with 27, 28 other second graders. As a former educator, I know what it’s like to teach that many kids in a class and it’s incredibly hard and those kids will miss out. So I also do not want to see those 34 jobs get cut. I would prefer to see some of the positions at central office not be completely eliminated, but perhaps be minimized a little bit.” |
| Susan McCready * | “Unfortunately, the only way to [close] that deficit is to cut positions. This is consistent with what the state has said in terms of aligning our decrease in enrollment over the last 12 years. With the staffing that we have, I am a hundred percent in favor of maintaining as many student facing positions as we can. However…a high-performing school system doesn’t rely only on student facing positions. There’s a lot of background and infrastructure that has to support that.” |
| Jayashree Mohandas | “I think we owe the district to be fiscally responsible as well to ensure that the district is able to make short-term and long-term initiatives for student learning and to address student learning gaps…34 9full time equivalent positions proposed for elimination) is a number we’re hoping that, maybe with retirements or with other moves…can be reduced. But…the unfortunate reality is that that’s the only way to address the $2.7 million gap for sure.” |
| Shauna Murray | “From the discussions that we’ve heard, they don’t seem to want to touch the administrative level positions, and I cannot agree with that. I think you need to save…the student facing positions, the ground level positions, because those are the ones who interact with your students on a daily basis. And while our enrollment has gone down, our students’ needs have gone up.” |
| Christopher Shepley | “My position is that student facing position — so teachers, people who are in the classroom and actively educating our students — should be prioritized and protected. I think our administration, to a lot of people, seems top heavy. So I…advocate for a restructuring or looking into any consolidation of administrative positions that we can.” |
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