North Andover School Committee Chair’s Response to CLA Report

Dear Community,

As Chair of the North Andover School Committee, I would like to share my perspective on the
CLA report. (Linked Here: CLA Report)  Although the CLA report helps us understand what could have been done better in
the past, more importantly, it helps the district to understand what improvements we need to
make going forward with the budgeting process. First, as the report states, “[l]ike most financial situations [this] did not happen overnight nor was it a result of just one factor or a single decision.” It is apparent that our budget crisis faced in FY24 was the culmination of several years of inadequate budgeting practices not based on historical data but rather simplistic percentage increases. Additionally, there became a reliance on years of COVID relief funding that was coming to a known end, yet, although there was knowledge this funding was ending, an alternative budgeting source was inadequately planned for creating a fiscal cliff. 

Not only did years of inadequate budgeting practices leave us in a substantial deficit in FY24, it has created a concerning hardship for FY25. As stated in the report, we do not possess the historical data to adequately plan for future budgeting and are essentially working from the “drawing board” to plan for the future. As the CLA report outlines, we only have a 0.8% increase in our FY25 budget from FY24, yet our contracts bind us to high salary increases. Although we believe the contracts are fair and deserving, when the School Committee negotiated contracts last year with NATA and the TAs, we were working under the reliance of the financial information provided to us by the administration. At that time, we had no reason to believe that that information was unreliable. We now know otherwise. Although the CLA report paints a bleak picture for FY25, I see a different picture. I believe that it is because of the swift action, creative work, and strict budgeting practices of Interim Superintendent Pamela Lathrop, with the assistance of the Town, that we will not be in as dire a position as CLA portrays. We are in what has been described as a “lean” year and it is going to take several years to recover to the financial position in which we would like to see the district; however, I have seen what our amazing administrators have been doing to band together to ensure that our teachers and students have what they need for an enriching learning environment. We will continue to look to the future as we not only improve our financial policies and practices, but become a stronger NAPS community as we rise above the tribulations we have faced together.

Respectfully,

Alissa Koenig

Chair, North Andover School Committee