The public records cited in this section, in the order they appear: the minutes, packets and recordings of Andover's own meetings.
Presenting the FY2024-25 town budget at the April 24, 2024 Board of Finance public hearing, the board explained the creation of the AES Capital Fund on the record: "we have also set up a capital fund for the Andover Elementary School. This is new, hasn't been funded in the past, but the reality is that we need a capital expenditure fund for the AES school. We do not have any mechanism currently significantly in place to fund capital improvements to the school, and this has become a real issue. We've got some parking lot problems, we've got some other infrastructure problems that really need to be dealt with at AES" (~10:08). The statement establishes both that the school had no capital funding mechanism of its own, and that the parking lot was among the problems the new fund was created to address.
At the April 9, 2025 Annual Budget Meeting the Board of Finance chair explained how the elementary school's capital projects are funded: "Andover Elementary School Capital Fund. We established this last year, put about $100,000 of seed money in it. This was a problem prior because the elementary school did not have any way to fund major projects... they don't have a means to have a capital fund separately from the town, so we had to set one up in the town." He said the fund was not seeded again this year and is instead fed by the school's own surplus, about $360,000 returned after the audit (~15:46). He added that the surplus flows into the fund only by the town's yearly vote, and that if the town declined to permit it, the money "would then just be absorbed back into the town's funds" (~52:45).
Two weeks after the December 4 tri-board meeting, the Board of Finance adopted a usage policy for the AES Capital Fund. The fund is held on the town's books: the town "may choose to deposit money into this Capital fund through its budget process" (it put in $100,000 that year, the first), and the Board of Education "may also choose to deposit money from its budget," meaning its post-audit surplus, with all money in the fund to be spent on capital projects for the elementary school (~53:19-55:24). The policy was adopted subject to the school board's review and feedback (~63:54). Board members explained the fund's origin: the school, unlike the regional district, had never historically had a capital budget of its own, so its only vehicle to save for capital was its 2 percent non-lapsing account (~39:29).
At the December 4, 2024 joint meeting of the selectmen, the finance board and the school board, the dispute over the elementary school's capital projects played out at length. First Selectman Jeff Maguire told the Board of Education the school "is not a board of education building, it's a town asset, it's part of the capital," and that state law "says that the town owns the assets inside this building," while the board has "total control how you educate children" (~11:02-11:52). He demanded a five-year capital plan routed through the town's capital improvement committee, "just like every other group within this community" (~13:16). The Board of Education answered that the committee makes recommendations which then go to the selectmen for approval, so what was being proposed was that the school seek the selectmen's approval for its own capital money (~15:57). The superintendent set out the statutory position: by law the board of education "shall have the care, maintenance and operation of buildings, lands," and in other towns school capital does not go to the selectmen for approval (~28:47-43:07). Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B9O-4anXqk
At the November 13, 2024 Board of Education meeting the board reported that it could not get a clear account of the AES Capital Fund. A member said she went to the town treasurer in person and then by email, copying both heads of the Board of Finance, and was told the fund "was not located in the town's stiff account" -- although, having reviewed the recordings of finance board and selectmen's meetings, "in those meetings it was stated that that was where said fund was going to be located" (~49:02). The school's statements showed accounts under other names, but nothing titled the AES Capital Fund (~50:04). On further inquiry the treasurer replied that the fund was a stand-alone fund with its own bank account, that the town had funded it for $100,000 for the 2024-25 fiscal year as listed in the town budget, but that "the funds have not been transferred yet into the separate bank account."
Discussing the town's short-term investment account at the July 8, 2024 Board of Selectmen meeting, the town administrator told the board the town had roughly $3.4 million in it and that the town should "try to have as much money... including the AES balance in that account so that we maximize our interest earning potential" (~71:16). He explained that one option would be to encourage the school to open its own investment account, though "technically a school is only supposed to be spending what is budgeted," so unspent money "should go back to the town anyway," and that the town could instead agree with the school board that such money automatically flow into the AES Capital Fund, which would mean "that much less money that we as a town have to put into that Capital fund" (~71:16-73:18).
Across the June 9 and June 12, 2025 Board of Selectmen meetings, First Selectman Jeff Maguire challenged the Board of Finance's authority to move the school's unexpended year-end appropriation into the AES capital fund, arguing the transfer was done incorrectly and should require a town-meeting vote. He restated his framing that the school is town property: "The school building is a town asset. The town hall is a town asset. The community center is a town asset," and that the capital fund "is a town account, not a board of education account." The superintendent objected on the record ("respectfully, Mr. Maguire, you're offering some misinformation... we have a good auditor who has done right by this town"). The town's auditor subsequently found no impropriety in the transfer. On June 12 the board voted to set a town meeting on the question.