Congressman Jim McGovern and State Officials Tour ABRHS Food Services
U.S. Congressman Jim McGovern, who represents the cities and towns in the second congressional district of Massachusetts and who has spent decades fighting to end food insecurity, paid a visit to Acton-Boxborough Regional High School (ABRHS) on Monday, October 28 to learn more about how Acton-Boxborough has implemented the state’s Farm to School program. You can find more information at Not your mother’s lunch line.
School District receives $50,000 gift for Dragonfly Theater
The School Committee voted unanimously at their October 24 meeting to extend a partnership between Open Door Theater, a local non-profit performing arts organization, and the Dragonfly Theatre at R.J. Grey Junior High School.
As part of the extended agreement, Open Door Theatre will continue to use the Dragonfly Theater space and grant the District $50,000 over the life of the fifteen-year extension for capital improvements.
According to Deputy Superintendent, Andrew Shen, “Open Door Theatre and Acton resident Mr. Bern Haan approached the District with the proposal to extend the original agreement with the same terms and conditions regarding access and usage of the Dragonfly Theatre space. As part of this agreement, Open Door Theatre would continue to pay established usage rates.”
The Dragonfly Theater was named in honor of Mr. Haan’s late wife, Jennifer Doran Haan, who was an active supporter of the performing arts in Acton.
Quarter 1 Financials Update
The District’s Director of Finance and Operations Sheri Matthews presented the financial report for the first three months of the fiscal year 2025 to the School Committee at their October 24 meeting.
Matthews reported that the District will receive an additional $367K in chapter 70 state funding over the $16,091,731 that was originally anticipated. The increased revenue is due to an historic increase of $104 per-pupil for minimum aid districts. The statutory minimum is $30 per-pupil. The State’s minimum aid provision provides additional revenue to districts impacted by enrollment declines and increasing expenses.
State reimbursement for Acton-Boxborough’s regional transportation costs, anticipated to be $2.6M, will likely be about $172K lower than projected. Reimbursement for costs associated with special education for students educated in schools outside of the District will likely be about $500K lower than anticipated with transportation-related reimbursement for this population expected to be 57 percent.
“Claims across the state were so much more significant than in prior years, so they [the State] reduced reimbursement rates,” noted Superintendent of Schools, Peter Light. Light urged the School Committee to continue advocacy efforts with state legislators to fully fund this account.
Matthews described expenditures as “unremarkable” and noted that it’s still very early in the fiscal year.
Matthews’ presentation included an update on the District’s reserve balance in its excess and deficiency fund, which has been an ongoing concern. The School Committee’s reserves policy pertaining to the excess and deficiency fund places contingencies on the use of these funds and recommends maintaining a fund balance within the range of 4 to 4.5 percent of operating expenses. The fund’s balance, which was within target range from 2017 through 2019, fell below guidelines in 2020 and has not recovered. Matthews projects a reserve balance of 2.1M for the fiscal year 2025 which is 1.82 percent of the budget.
Member Klein commented, “In the last five years, the amounts required to offset costs have escalated. We’d like to turn this around. We are trending in the wrong direction. We are well below what we have indicated is our floor.”
The School Committee’s draft budget guidelines for the fiscal year 2026 recommends use of zero dollars of excess and deficiency.
School Committee requests Boxborough Finance Committee input on FY26 budget guidelines
School Committee Chair Adam Klein from Boxborough and Member Tori Campbell from Acton attended the Boxborough Finance Committee’s budget workshop on October 15 seeking early input on the School Committee’s draft budget guidelines.
The draft budget guidelines currently limit the fiscal year 2026 school budget increase to no more than three percent. “That as yet has no input from the Acton Leadership Group or from the Acton or Boxborough Finance Committees,” Klein told the Finance Committee. “The School Committee is scheduled to vote on the budget guidelines on November 21. I am here asking for guidance so that your views are represented in the deliberations of the Budget Subcommittee and the School Committee as a whole.”
Finance Committee members asked Klein to run through several hypothetical scenarios of the impact of potential, targeted budget increases on Boxborough’s school assessment.
Liz Fowlks, the School Committee’s liaison to the Boxborough Finance Committee, who had watched the recorded meeting online, told the School Committee at its October 24 meeting that Boxborough is looking for an assessment that is “as low as possible.” Member Schmidt expressed concern regarding the impact of an assessment “as low as possible” on the District’s ability to maintain the quality of education currently provided to students.
Superintendent of Schools, Peter Light, responded, “There is a wide expectation in both towns that we will maintain a high quality of education. The tension centers around concern that the 2025-26 budget may continue to jeopardize town projects that were deferred in order to allow the Town of Acton to seek an operational override and fund the schools last year, not at the level we needed to fully fund them but about two-thirds of that. An important frame of reference for us in this budget season will be to maintain the quality of education but also live within the fiscal realities of the two towns.”
Member Wilson, the School Committee’s liaison to the Acton Finance Committee added that “there is skepticism and there are questions and concerns in our communities, and we need to redouble our efforts to connect with folks and make sure everyone’s concerns are taken seriously.”
Diane Baum is the School Committee beat reporter for the Acton Exchange. She served on the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee from 2015 to 2021.