Mark your calendars: a Special Town Meeting to approve plans for a new multimillion elementary school will be held Monday, Dec. 6.
Selectmen approved the date on Monday, Aug. 23, giving residents the chance to add items to the meeting warrant between Sept. 20 and Oct. 22.
The board also approved Tuesday, Jan. 25 for a ballot vote, if necessary, to approve funding for the new school. Earlier in the summer, the School Committee cancelled school for Jan. 25 because polling stations at Andover High School are expected to swell with a high voter turnout if there is a secret ballot vote for a debt exclusion override of Proposition 2 1/2.
Bancroft Elementary School, built in 1969, has structural problems. If plans for a new school on the Bancroft site are approved by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the state will reimburse Andover for a minimum of 40 percent of building costs.
The School and School Building Committees approved the Dec. 6 and Jan. 25 dates over a month ago, as plans for the new school are coming together over the summer.
If the School Building Committee's design is approved by the MSBA at a Nov. 17 meeting, the town has 120 days to get resident approval at a Special Town Meeting and a ballot vote.
"We don't have the flexibility to push it off," said Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski as selectmen discussed scheduling Monday night. "It's a 120-day window we're bumping up against."
Residents would need to approve a debt-exclusion override, which allows the town to temporarily raise taxes above the limits set under Proposition 2 1/2, to pay for the new school. If the new school does not pass by a two-thirds majority at the Dec. 6 Town Meeting, there will be no need for the special election.
Stapczynski advocated for having the warrant open for just one month, as the town clerk's office is already handling a state primary and election through the fall and winter and the Finance Committee would need time to crunch numbers and produce its report.
It remains to be seen if a project to relocate the town yard will be included in the Dec. 6 Town Meeting.
"If the Town Yard Task Force is ready to go, those dates would work (to approve a town yard project). It's just a question of if they'll be ready," said Selectman Brian Major, liaison to the Town Yard Task Force.
A $21.9 million proposal to relocate the town yard was withdrawn from the April 2010 Town Meeting warrant. Town yard, located on a roughly three-acre parcel off Lewis Street, has fuel pumps and a maintenance garage for town vehicles, salt and sand for winter roads and overnight parking for some, but not all, of the town's vehicle fleet.
The December Town Meeting warrant will be open Sept. 20 to Oct. 22; residents looking to submit articles should visit andoverma.gov/clerk or call 978-623-8255.
