The FY27 Budget Binder for the final Acton-Boxborough Regional School District budget for Annual Town Meeting.
ACTON-BOXBOROUGH REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT ACTON AND BOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS
PROPOSED BUDGET Fiscal Year 2026-2027
Spring 2026
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ACTON-BOXBOROUGH REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT FY2026-27 PROPOSED BUDGET - TABLE OF CONTENTS
School/Fiscal Year 2025-26 Elected Officials and A-B District Administrators
A-B Regional School Committee
Central Administration
School Administration
Tori Campbell, FY26 Chair
Peter Light, Superintendent
Joanie Dean, Principal, AB Regional High School
Adam Klein, FY26 Vice Chair
Andrew Shen, Deputy Superintendent
Jim Marcotte, Principal, R.J. Grey Junior High School
Leela Ramachandran, FY26 Vice Chair
Dr. Gabrielle Abrams, Assistant Superintendent, Teaching & Learning
Michael Votto, Principal, Blanchard School
Lisa Adil
Dr. Tricia O’Reilly, Principal, Conant School
Erin Bettez, Director, Community Education
Ben Bloomenthal
Larry Wolpe, Principal, Douglas School
Amy Bisiewicz, Director, Educational Technology
Glen Cote
Allison Warren, Principal, Gates School
Liz Fowlks
Jennifer Faber, Director, Access and Engagement
Lakshmi Kaja
Christy Nealon, Principal, McCarthy-Towne School
Vikram Parikh
Natalia Kierul, Director, Special Education
Christina Gavin, Principal, Merriam School
Yanxin Schmidt
Sheri-Lynne Matthews, Director, Finance & Operations
Andrew Schwartz
Joe Gibowicz, Coordinator, Carol Huebner Early Childhood Program
Julie LaLumiere, ABRSC Secretary
Daniel Mazur, Asst. Director, Special Education
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Contents
Superintendent’s Budget Message - April 2026
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AB Forward Strategic Plan
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The Challenge of Increasing Student Needs
Ab Forward: Reorganizing for Stability
The New Elementary Model
Moving from Open Enrollment to a Geography-Based Model
Why is the District moving to a Geography-Based Model
Strategic Reorganization and Long-Term Savings
Avoiding Long-Term Capital Costs
Five-Year History of Staffing and District Right-Sizing
FY2023-FY2027 Staffing Changes
FY27 Recommended Budgets and Assessments
FY27 Significant Budget Drivers
Looking Ahead
FY27 Table 6
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FY27 District Budget by Character Code
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Personnel Reductions FY23-FY26 - by Category
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Comparative Highlights
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Per Pupil Spending - Financial Trends (FY15-FY24) Member Assessments since Full Regionalization
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Mission, Vision, Values and Beliefs
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Vision of a Graduate
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Superintendent’s Budget Message - April 2026
Dear Acton and Boxborough Residents,
I am writing to share the FY2027 Budget for the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District. This budget represents a major turning point for our schools as we implement AB Forward , our strategic plan to reorganize and stabilize our district for the future. We are deeply grateful for the support you have shown our students. However, we face a difficult reality: state funding has not kept up with inflation, and our local costs continue to rise. This year, we have moved beyond making small cuts and have instead redesigned how our district operates to protect the classroom experience and provide the support our students need.
The AB Forward Strategic Plan
The AB Forward strategic plan was developed through a comprehensive process that included surveys and focus groups with community members and stakeholders to identify the metrics and goals necessary to guide the district through upcoming changes. The strategy is anchored by four primary priority areas:
● Student Academic Outcomes & Social-Emotional Wellbeing ● Responsive Support for Staff
● Welcoming & Inclusive School Communities ● Sustainable District Systems & Operations
The reorganization of elementary schools is a central component of the Sustainable District Systems & Operations priority. This area focuses on creating "educationally effective and financially sustainable" systems by "right-sizing" the district’s footprint to align with projected enrollment declines. By shifting from six schools to five, the district can direct resources based on student needs and maximize the impact of every dollar spent. This structural change allows the district to reduce its reliance on one-time reserve funds and maintain efficient administrative staffing levels, ensuring that resources are reinvested into high-quality instruction and specialized supports for students.
The Challenge of Increasing Student Needs
While our overall enrollment has decreased by about 11.5% since 2015, the actual work of our staff has become more complex. Today, one out of every three students in our district is classified as having "high needs." This group includes students with disabilities, those learning English as a second language, and students from low-income households.
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Since 2015, this population has grown from 23% to 33% of our total student body. Because these students often require specialized instruction, mental health support, or legally mandated services, we cannot simply reduce our staff in proportion to the total number of students. In fact, to provide a safe and effective learning environment, we must increase our number of specialized support positions even as the total number of students in the buildings goes down.
AB Forward: Reorganizing for Stability
The FY27 budget implements a significant reorganization of our elementary schools. This plan allows us to: ● Consolidate Resources: By closing a school building (Conant) and reducing our administrative footprint, we are "right-sizing" the district to match current enrollment. ● Protect Student Support: The savings from these closures are being reinvested directly into students. We are adding elementary counselors for mental health and increasing staffing for Special Education and Multilingual learners. ● Fiscal Responsibility: This budget eliminates the use of "Excess and Deficiency" (reserve) funds for daily operations, ensuring we don't spend our emergency savings on recurring costs. The proposed budget uses reserve funds for two purposes: one-time costs associated with this reorganization, and as a buffer in the event the state does not provide the level of aid anticipated.
The New Elementary Model
Beginning in the 2026-2027 school year (FY27), the district will move from operating six elementary schools across four buildings down to five elementary schools in 3 buildings . Under the AB Forward plan, we are closing the Luther Conant building. However, we are not simply "losing" a school; we are merging communities to create a more sustainable and better-supported environment. The new model also moves away from the district’s K-6 schools to campuses organized by lower (K-3) and upper (4-6) schools in Acton. The reorganized elementary level will consist of the following five schools:
1. Blanchard Memorial School (K-6) 2. Boardwalk Lower School (K-3) 3. Boardwalk Upper School (4-6) 4. Parker Damon Lower School (K-3) 5. Parker Damon Upper School (4-6)
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Moving from Open Enrollment to a Geography-based Model
As part of the AB Forward strategic plan and the elementary reorganization, the Acton- Boxborough Regional School District is transitioning from a "School Choice" model to a Geography-Based Enrollment model . For decades, the district allowed families to rank their preferred elementary schools regardless of where they lived. While this offered flexibility, it created significant operational challenges that are no longer sustainable given the district's current financial and enrollment trends. The new model focused on having students attend school with other students based on their neighborhood.
Why the District is Moving to a Geography-Based Model:
● Building Community: A neighborhood-based model fosters stronger local communities, allowing students who live near one another to attend the same school, play on the same playgrounds, and walk to school together. ● Balancing Student Needs: Over time, the open enrollment system led to significant disparities in students' needs across schools. The new geographic zones are being created to better balance our students' needs across schools now and into the future. ● Operational Efficiency: Under the choice model, school buses often had to crisscross the entire town to pick up students for different schools. By assigning students to schools based on where they live (neighborhood zones), the district can create much shorter, more efficient bus routes. This reduces transportation costs and time spent by students on buses.
Strategic Reorganization and Long-Term Savings
Through the AB Forward initiative, we have redesigned our elementary staffing and school structure to align with our current student population. By consolidating resources and closing a school building, we are avoiding $1,879,369 in costs that would have otherwise been spent on 20 positions, including elementary classroom teachers, a principal, and an assistant principal. We are immediately reinvesting a portion of those savings—approximately $413,683 —back into the district to hire essential staff, such as mental health counselors, nurses, and office support. This reorganization results in a net avoided cost of $1,465,686 in personnel alone. We anticipate as much as $1M in one-time costs associated with this reorganization, so there will be lower NET avoided costs in year one than in future years. More importantly, this is not a one-time fix; these savings will compound over time. We project that this plan will save the district $6,978,388 over the next five years and a cumulative $16,802,549 over the next decade, providing the long-term financial stability necessary to protect our students' education.
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Avoiding Long-Term Capital Costs
Beyond immediate operational savings, closing an elementary school building that is nearing the end of its useful life provides a significant financial benefit by avoiding future "dead-weight" capital costs. Older facilities, like the Conant building, often require tens of millions of dollars in renovations or a total replacement to meet modern safety, accessibility, and educational standards. Estimating the exact savings depends on the specific condition of the facility, but modern elementary school construction in Massachusetts typically costs between $60 million and $100 million . Even a "gut renovation" to bring an older building up to code can easily exceed $40 million to $50 million . By moving from four buildings to three, the Acton and Boxborough communities effectively avoids, even if only for the next decade, a significant, future tax burden. When you combine the avoided cost of a major renovation with the decades of saved annual maintenance and utility costs, the total long-term capital benefit to the taxpayers is estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars, significantly reducing the future debt pressure on both towns.
Five-Year History of Staffing and District Right-Sizing
From FY2023 to FY2027, the district has undergone a significant "right-sizing" to align staffing levels with declining enrollment while addressing the increasing complexity of student needs. During this period, the district has navigated a difficult balance between efficiency and effectiveness, leading to a profound transformation of our workforce. Over these five years, we have made a gross reduction of 107.86 positions (Full-Time Equivalents), primarily in general education classrooms, leadership, and operational support. These were not simple cuts, but a strategic effort to move away from a "status quo" staffing model that was no longer sustainable. To meet legal mandates and the needs of a more complex student body, we reinvested in 64.63 new positions focused on Special Education and Multilingual (ML) support. This multi-year transition has resulted in a net overall reduction of 43.21 positions since FY2023. This evolution allowed the district to modernize its structure, ensuring that even with a smaller total staff, we have the specialized professionals necessary to support our students' current needs.
FY2023-FY2027 Staffing Changes
Strategic Area
Positions Reduced Positions Added Net Change (Total)
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General Education Instruction -66.64
+7.28
-59.36
Leadership & Operations
-31.93
+8.78
-23.15
Specialized Student Support
-9.29
+48.57
+39.28
TOTAL DISTRICT CHANGE
-107.86
+64.63
-43.23
Recommended Budget and Assessments
The Final FY27 Budget totals $122,593,238 , which is a 4.75% increase over last year.
Significant Budget Drivers
● Health Insurance: Premiums increased by 12.11% this year. ● Special Education: Costs for out-of-district tuitions increased by over 16%. ● Staffing Shifts: We reduced 22 positions related to enrollment and administration to help pay for 17.5 new positions in high-priority areas like mental health and literacy. While the reduction in FTE is not significant, differences in the salaries of staff yielded a savings of nearly $1.5M.
Town Acton
Final Assessment
Assessment Increase
$82,830,682
3.75% 5.57%
Boxborough $17,734,103
The budget includes $1,243,850 from the District’s Excess & Deficiency reserve fund. Of this, $1M is budgeted to cover one-time costs associated with the reorganization of schools, and $244K is budgeted to hedge against unanticipated decreases in state aid from what has been budgeted. Note: Acton’s percentage share of the budget actually decreased this year due to enrollment shifts, but the total dollar amount rose because the overall budget grew. Boxborough continues to see an increase in its share of enrollment, explaining the higher percentage assessment increase.
Looking Ahead
While AB Forward provides a new, stable baseline, we still face a "Sustainability Warning". Without changes to the state's funding formula or increased local revenue, we will continue to face difficult choices in the years ahead.
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Our goal continues to be providing a high-quality, well-balanced education through collaborative, caring relationships. This budget is a disciplined step toward making that goal sustainable for the long term.
Sincerely,
Peter Light
Superintendent of Schools
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Personnel Reductions FY23 – FY26 – By Category
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Per-Pupil Spending - Financial Trends FY15-24
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Member Assessments since Full Regionalization
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Mission, Vision, Values and Beliefs
Mission
Our mission is to provide high-quality, inclusive educational opportunities that inspire a community of learners
Vision
Our vision is to be engaged, well-balanced learners through collaborative, caring relationships
Core Values
● Engagement: We provide engaging educational opportunities where students develop passion and joy for learning. ● Equity: We ensure all students have equitable access to programs and curricula to reach their potential. ● Wellness: We partner with families to prioritize social-emotional wellness, which is necessary for learning and developing resilience.
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Vision of a Graduate
Adaptability
I can...
● demonstrate physical and mental wellness by developing my self-confidence and self-awareness through understanding my strengths, passions, emotions, and needs. ● take healthy risks and use setbacks as opportunities for growth. ● show resilience by adjusting to changing circumstances and persevering toward goals despite challenges.
Intellectual Curiosity
I can...
● reflect on and question my own ideas and think critically about information. ● identify effective strategies to expand ideas and navigate obstacles. ● develop work through creative synthesis and ethical use of resources.
Collaboration
I can...
● seek diverse perspectives to broaden and deepen my understanding. ● demonstrate empathy by respecting the feelings and experiences of others. ● work with others to contribute to collective goals.
Integrity
I can...
● take ownership of my actions and decisions. ● demonstrate respect for others, myself, and my environment. ● understand my role in and actively contribute to my communities.
Communication
I can...
● listen actively to build understanding. ● engage in conversations with others about a broad range of topics. ● convey ideas in multiple ways for a variety of audiences and purposes.
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