The North Andover School Committee opened a public hearing on the superintendent's FY27 recommended budget on Jan. 15, with Superintendent Lathrop presenting a proposal she said will "preserve services" while targeting additional staff and instructional supports. The recommended budget totals roughly $72.2 million after proposed adjustments and uses a combination of local and anticipated state reimbursement to bridge a projected shortfall.

Lathrop described four budget priorities: fiscal responsibility, support for special education and literacy (K-5), instructional quality and safe, supportive schools. She proposed adding one elementary teacher, one middle-school teacher, three special-education positions, and funding for an assistant principal position. The recommendation would also increase the daily substitute rate from $100 to $125, allocate $175,000 to replace approximately 700 Chromebooks, add one general-education bus, and increase building-level per-pupil allocations.

"The FY27 superintendent's recommended budget will preserve services," Lathrop said during her presentation, adding that the plan "will maintain all of our current essential services and program programs for students" while prioritizing special education and early learning initiatives.

To close the gap between expenditures and projected revenues, Lathrop proposed using $1.5 million of an anticipated $2.5 million FY26 circuit-breaker reimbursement, leaving $1.0 million as a reserve. She presented staff-salary and expense totals showing the superintendent's recommended budget near $72.2 million after that proposed offset.

Public comments at the hearing focused on staffing and long-term planning. Kathleen Poor, a sixth-grade math teacher at North Andover Middle School, told the committee the middle school has become "a shell of what it used to be," and urged the board to consider adding more than the single classroom teacher currently proposed.

Several committee members and district leaders addressed questions about which proposed positions are new versus conversions of existing long-term substitutes. Lathrop clarified that three teaching assistants currently paid from long-term substitute funds would be moved into permanent budgeted positions, and that the assistant-principal line at ABECC would convert an administrator-intern role into a funded assistant principal.

Committee members signaled the FY27 plan will not be the district's only fiscal conversation this year: members and the superintendent said an override for FY28 is likely to be necessary and that the district's strategic plan (scheduled for a presentation to the committee in April) will offer a three- to five-year roadmap for program and staffing priorities.

What happens next: the committee scheduled follow-up budget updates and community chats in the coming weeks and will continue the public process that leads into the town's budget deliberations and the committee's final vote.