Budget season formally kicked off at the School Committee’s January 30 business meeting with a 2025-26 budget overview presentation and recommendation to set the preliminary budget at $116.1M. This represents a 2.9 percent increase over a base budget that has been reduced by retirement of debt ($1.6M) and removal of $1.7M in allocations used in 2024-25 for unanticipated, non-recurring expenses. The School Committee’s budget guidelines for 2025-26 limit the overall budget increase to 3 percent. Acton’s preliminary assessment is set at $79.8M, a 0.97 percent increase. Boxborough’s preliminary assessment is set at $16.8M, a 5.25 percent increase. Each town’s share…