Andover taxpayers could share the cost of a new Whittier Tech campus after the school committee authorized a land option on 13.5 acres in Haverhill.

The project to replace Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School is expected to cost more than $445 million. Business manager Angus G. Jennings recommended the committee secure an exclusive option on land at Northern Essex Community College before spending money on architects or a project manager. The committee gave him permission to proceed at its Thursday, Sept. 10, meeting.

"You know we would hate to see the School Committee spend quite a bit of public money only to find this site is not going to happen," Jennings told the committee, according to WHAV.

The land belongs to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, not to Northern Essex. Jennings said he will work with college officials and ask the state's Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) for the option. He expects a lease or purchase arrangement lasting up to five years. He did not disclose what the option might cost.

Committee Chairman Ronald Fitzgerald praised Jennings for the recommendation. The move did not require a formal vote.

Whittier Tech's current building on Amesbury Line Road is more than 50 years old and has a failing sewerage treatment plant. The committee voted unanimously in March to spend up to $2.5 million from its Capital Projects Fund on a feasibility study, putting the 11-community district in line for reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).

Andover is one of those 11 member communities. How much each town would pay for a new building is an open question. A Regional Agreement Amendment Committee, formed nine months ago at the state's direction, is reworking the district's 1967 cost-apportionment formula. Under the current formula, capital costs are split based on each town's total K-12 enrollment, not on how many students it sends to Whittier Tech. That gap is stark for Haverhill, which sends 66% of the school's students but would pay 44% of construction costs under the existing rules.

The committee seated two new members on the amendment panel at the Sept. 10 meeting: Gwendolyn Lay Sabbagh of Merrimac and Maura Mastrogiovanni of Rowley. Newburyport and Rowley both favor switching to a strict per-pupil formula for capital costs, WHAV reported.

School officials say a new campus at Northern Essex would let enrollment grow from 1,250 to about 2,000 students. Demand already outstrips capacity. In a state-mandated lottery in January, 770 eighth graders from across the district applied for 360 freshman seats, and 410 were waitlisted.

Building on the Northern Essex campus would also connect students to the college's early-college program. Nearly 300 Whittier Tech students are taking at least one college-credit course there in the current school year, WHAV reported.

The Regional Agreement Amendment Committee meets next on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 10 a.m. at Northern Essex Community College.