The following letter to the editor was submitted by Andover resident Jacob Tamarkin, who is running for school committee in the March 25 local election The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Andover News. You can learn more about our policy on opinion and commentary on our Mission and Policies page.
This is the second year in a row that Andover Public Schools (APS) has faced a budget deficit. Moreover, APS leadership forecasts deficits every year going forward. You deserve to know how every candidate for the School Committee election on March 25th will approach getting APS onto a sustainable path.
No one on the committee today has prior experience managing a budget as big as APS’s and it shows. I have over 25 years experience tackling big financial and strategic challenges for large organizations, and this is how I would approach this role:
- No more finger pointing. Some people blame the deficit on the teacher’s strike. Others blame APS leadership for not taking action when they initially forecasted the deficit prior to the strike. In any case, no amount of finger pointing will fix our problems, and it does not help us move forward in a productive way as a community. Additionally, other districts that dealt with educator strikes invested in rebuilding relations after their strikes concluded; why haven’t we? This is not a hypothetical question, because whoever wins this election will be involved in the next negotiation with the teachers’ union, and if we approach it in the same way as last time, we should expect a similar result.
- Multi-year problems require multi-year solutions. Continuing to tackle each year’s deficit as a standalone event is a recipe for disaster. It encourages a territorial mindset at a time when we need to be collaborative, and it will make it harder to recruit and retain talented educators going forward. Eventually it will negatively impact academic performance and overall enrollment…without ever actually getting our budget under control. It is regrettable that the School Committee did not take the strategic advice or solutions I and other voters offered last year. The School Committee should work with the Superintendent and her team to conduct a detailed review of our goals and budget and engage the entire community to build a plan that we can all believe in.
- Remove uncertainty and provide transparency. It is not clear to me why APS leadership cannot provide us with the same level of detail that other districts have already shared with their stakeholders at this stage in their budget deliberations. At the very least, they should be communicating a timeline of when decisions will be made and announced. Figuring out this timeline in advance could also help avoid unhelpful missteps like last year’s unfortunate timing of announcing dozens of involuntary teacher transfers on Teacher Appreciation Day.
- Be balanced in staffing cuts. Today we have fewer classroom teachers and more administrators and coaches than we had five years ago. Administrators and coaches are important, but proportional cuts are vital to establishing the sense of fairness and shared sacrifice necessary to build consensus and minimize disruption. If there is a case to be made for not cutting proportionally, be proactive in explaining it to the community.
- Respect taxpayers’ money. The School Committee is currently looking at redistricting options with the goal of choosing one as soon as this month. Redistricting has significant financial implications, but the committee doesn’t appear to have conducted even a basic financial analysis of the various options. In addition, APS has been stockpiling cash in several revolving funds over the past few years to no apparent end, wastefully allowing it to get devalued by inflation instead of using it more purposefully. We need to be more conscientious shepherds of our neighbors’ hard-earned money if we want them to continue to invest in APS.
APS was once a top district that was the envy of the state. We have work to do, but with the right expertise on the School Committee, I know that together we can restore APS’s greatness for everyone’s benefit.
Sincerely,
Jacob Tamarkin
Candidate, School Committee
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