Senator Barry Finegold was elected in 2018 to represent the Second Essex and Middlesex District which includes Andover, Dracut, Lawrence and Tewksbury, a seat he previously held from 2010 to 2015. He currently serves as the Chair of the Joint Committee on Election Laws and Chair of the Joint Committee on Advanced Information Technology, the Internet, and Cybersecurity.
In response to the educational challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barry secured $100,000 in targeted COVID-related aid for local school districts.
Barry worked with Dracut residents to make the new high school project a reality. He helped secure funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority for the new Dracut High School. With his efforts, the town received $37 million from the state for the renovation and addition project.
Barry was also an early supporter of the new Tewksbury high school project and pushed for the construction of a new, energy efficient and technologically-advanced facility. He also helped secure funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which funded 60 percent of the project.
In response to a meeting with the Tewksbury School Committee who were upset by the fiscal abuse happening at the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative, Barry passed legislation to end mismanagement and financial abuses at Special Education Collaboratives. Barry filed an amendment that requires the executive director of each education collaborative to go before the school committee every year, present its budget, and answer questions.
Andover received its highest allocation of education money ever from the state budget for fiscal year 2013, thanks to Senator Finegold’s budget negotiations. Andover received a $1 million increase over the previous year’s funding.