The amount special town meeting will be asked to approve for budget overruns at the West Elementary School and Shawsheen Preschool construction project was down to $16.5 million as of Thursday, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Administration Keith Taverna told the Andover School Committee.
“Actually $16,496,000, so I’m going to round up,” Taverna said at Thursday night’s school committee meeting. “We’re hopeful that number will continue to come down some. The project team is hard at work, and we continue getting updates multiple times per week, as [they] continue working through that descoping process.”
The descoping process includes reviewing contracts and omitting, reassigning and renegotiating work. The West Elementary School Building Committee disclosed a $19 million budget overrun on the $151.6 million project in September. That number had fallen to $17.5 million by last month’s quad-board meeting to discuss the project.
Special town meeting will be asked to approve new borrowing and to transfer $463,731 left over from the $1.2 million town meeting approved in 2018 to fund the West Elementary School Feasibility Study to fill the budget shortfall. The shortfall is attributed to higher inflation and global supply chain issues. If approved, the measure would add about $74 to the average Andover taxpayer’s bill of $11,088, according to preliminary estimates.
Last month, the Andover select board voted to forgo a special election 13 days after the Dec. 1 special town meeting for final approval, pending approval from the state Department of Revenue. The select board is expected to accept a report from the project manager and approve the submission for DOR review when it meets Monday. That application puts the overrun at the $16.5 million number Taverna mentioned Thursday night.
While the select board and building, school and finance committees all recommended special town meeting pass the two articles, the finance committee raised concerns about borrowing in the current interest rate climate and concerns about the project’s management when it met last month.
If approved at the current $16.5 million estimate, the borrowing would add $70 to the average Andover taxpayer’s annual bill, based on an average assessed single-family value of $759,453. Those taxpayers are already paying $471 per year over 30 years for the original project cost and have a total annual local property tax bill of $11,088.
Read more about the West El project and budget overruns.
Nov. 3 School Committee meeting video from Andover TV: