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North Andover boards narrow FY26 school budget options; school committee to decide Feb. 25
Summary
At a joint Feb. 13 meeting, North Andover officials reviewed FY2026 budget options, discussed using roughly $5 million in Amazon-related levy capacity for school projects, and debated trade-offs between higher tax asks and preserving staff and programs. The School Committee will pick a transmitted budget on Feb. 25.
NORTH ANDOVER — Town and school officials on Thursday presented competing paths for the North Andover Public Schools' FY2026 request and signaled they will remove the smallest (“red”) proposal from consideration while the School Committee prepares to pick a budget to transmit on Feb. 25.
Town Manager Melissa Rodriguez and Superintendent Pam Lathrop led a joint presentation that laid out the town's revenue forecast, the mechanics of Proposition 2—2 (the state law that limits annual levy growth to 2.5 percent plus new growth), and three school-budget scenarios the committee transmitted for review. Rodriguez said the town's FY26 revenues are approximately $133 million, an increase of about 4 percent ($~5.2 million) from the prior year, and reiterated that North Andover currently has about $5 million in excess levy capacity tied to recent commercial growth from the Amazon development.
"If we use free cash to offset the budget this year, all we really would be doing would be creating a bigger hole for next year," Rodriguez said, arguing the town should not rely on one-time reserves to cover ongoing operating costs.
Superintendent Pam Lathrop…
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