All Around APS
April 26, 2024
From the Desk of Dr. Parvey
Dear APS staff and families,
I hope you had an enjoyable spring recess with your families. As you may know, Andover’s Annual Town Meeting will begin on Monday, April 29, 2024 at the Collins Center at 7 p.m. I wanted to share some information regarding the district’s FY25 budget in anticipation of this meeting.
The FY25 budget process was more complex and challenging than in recent years. For APS, the increased cost of transportation, out-of-district tuitions, utilities, collective bargaining agreements, and an overall decrease in student enrollment over ten years were factors in the district facing a budget deficit. In line with the town and school’s long-range financial planning model, on March 7, 2024, the School Committee voted to send a level-service budget to the town.
Since last fall, I have presented information on the budget at several meetings with the community. Earlier this year, we created a FY25 Budget frequently asked questions section on our website, which was recently updated to reflect current data. I encourage those interested in learning more about the process to review the FAQs.
In Massachusetts, many school districts are facing similar difficult financial decisions this year. As a result of the $2.7 million deficit and the decrease in the district’s enrollment, affected staff members were notified earlier this month of a reduction in force (as outlined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement for Unit A) or non-renewal of their position for educators with non-professional teacher status. The School Committee Chair and Vice Chair shared further details with our staff and families earlier this week. I recognize these decisions have an impact on those affected and worked diligently to maintain the confidentiality of staff throughout the process.
As our goal is to provide all students with opportunities for lifelong learning, we are pleased that the budget does maintain key services for our families and maintains class sizes within School Committee Policy IIB. Key services preserved include:
- There is no increase to transportation fees for students (grades 7-12). We are able to maintain the $100 per student fee implemented in FY24.
- The budget maintains robust extracurricular program opportunities for our students and there will be no changes to middle school extracurricular fees (eliminated in FY24), AHS Athletics, and Fine Arts program fees.
- The district will be able to continue the curriculum development across all grades and content areas and address learning gaps identified by student performance data.
- The budget will allow the district to continue the evaluation of a new middle school schedule.
I want to thank the community for their engagement and understanding throughout this process. While this has been a difficult time for the APS community, we have worked to put our students at the forefront of every decision.
Dr. Magda Parvey
Superintendent
Doherty Students honored for Scholastic Writing
Congratulations to three Doherty Middle School students who recently received recognition from the Massachusetts Scholastic Art & Writing Awards! Lylah Buono received Honorable Mention for her fantasy story “Lillium,” Abigail Odden received Honorable Mention for her science fiction story “The Press Office,” and Avery Slaughter received a Silver Key for her fantasy story “Echoes of a Sonnet.” Fewer than 40 submissions from public middle school students received recognition across the entire state in this Grades 7-12 Writing Contest.
Doherty had many students who honed and refined their work for submission, including Juniper Klock, Kaylie Xie, Camilla Neissa, Chase Hoffenberg, Casey Kneeland, Owen McQuade, Anish Kumar, Alex Hoffenberg, and William Wrigley. Great job DMS students!
AHS Students to screen the premiere of their movie, Bonsai, at Old Town Hall
Andover High School Seniors, Nate Allen and Roger Almeida, spent last summer in production of their upcoming film, Bonsai. Nate and Roger wrote and directed the movie about a sixteen year old’s coming of age, accepting, and moving on from a traumatic past. The movie was shot around Andover and features many AHS students. Cheers to our talented students on a successful premiere!