Andover High Building Project

In 2017, The Institute for Human Centered Design was contracted to identify ADA issues at Andover High School. At the time, they estimated fixes would cost $3.9 million, and in 2023, the town's facilities department estimated those cost had nearly doubled since the report was issued. Now, additional years have passed and costs have escalated even further.

The ADA report is available here:https://andoverhighbuildingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2017-ADA-Study.pdf

The Andover High options most recently developed by the Select Board leave ADA problems within the current facility largely unaddressed.

How hard is it to get accepted to the state program for support in building a school? The first step is to submit a Statement of Interest (SOI) to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).

Here's how many SOI submissions have been successful for high schools since 2018:

2018: 4 of 130 total submissions
2019: 4 of 144
2020: 1 of 161
2021: 8 of 118
2022: 4 of 121
2023: 5 of 63
2024: 9 of 119
2025: 5 of 126

(high schools include: traditional 9-12, vocational/technical high schools, middle/high schools, pre-K/high schools, and agricultural high schools)

SOIs are accepted once annually. The deadline for 2026 SOI submissions is April 17, 2026. Submitting an SOI requires a public vote of both the School Committee and the Select Board.

More information on the MSBA SOI process is available on the website here:
https://www.massschoolbuildings.org/building/SOIs

Tune into tonight's School Committee meeting to hear what the most recent Andover High Working Group has come up with as options to improve the facility. (7:00pm, livestream from andovertv.com or view on local access Comcast channel 6 / Verizon channel 7B)

You may recall, the Select Board asked for and received $500,000 at a Special Town Meeting 26 months ago to: "complete Schematic Design" and "establish a realistic total project budget" for an "Interim Approach" to addresses issues with the Andover High School facility.

As presented at Town Meeting, re-studying options for AHS improvement was intended:
- to bridge the gap between the existing building and a new building at some point in the future
- coincide with a process for continuing to submit Statements of Interest to the state's MSBA program
- and preserve the Town's bond rating by with a price tag between $50M to $60M.

Although this work was originally overseen by the Permanent Town Building Advisory Committee, it moved into a separate AHS Working Group. That working group has not conducted any of their meetings in public, so tonight's School Committee presentation will be the first public view into options with pricing.

As a refresher, you can find the slides from the November 2023 Town Meeting here:https://andoverhighbuildingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SpecialTownMeeting-Articles7Aand7B-20231120.pdf

This slide deck begins with the failed Article 7A which asked for $1.3 million to complete a design of a new AHS, then goes into the Select Board's successful $500,000 Article 7B to re-study AHS options beginning on page 10.

Tune into tonight's School Committee meeting to hear what the most recent Andover High Working Group has come up with as options to improve the facility. (7:00pm, livestream from andovertv.com or view on local access Comcast channel 6 / Verizon channel 7B)

You may recall, the Select Board asked for and received $500,000 at a Special Town Meeting 26 months ago to: "complete Schematic Design" and "establish a realistic total project budget" for an "Interim Approach" to addresses issues with the Andover High School facility.

As presented at Town Meeting, re-studying options for AHS improvement was intended:
- to bridge the gap between the existing building and a new building at some point in the future
- coincide with a process for continuing to submit Statements of Interest to the state's MSBA program
- and preserve the Town's bond rating by with a price tag between $50M to $60M.

Although this work was originally overseen by the Permanent Town Building Advisory Committee, it moved into a separate AHS Working Group. That working group has not conducted any of their meetings in public, so tonight's School Committee presentation will be the first public view into options with pricing.

As a refresher, you can find the slides from the November 2023 Town Meeting here:https://andoverhighbuildingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SpecialTownMeeting-Articles7Aand7B-20231120.pdf

This slide deck begins with the failed Article 7A which asked for $1.3 million to complete a design of a new AHS, then goes into the Select Board's successful $500,000 Article 7B to re-study AHS options beginning on page 10.

andoverhighbuildingproject.org