Dear Acton-Boxborough Community Members,
Please take 5 minutes to help us advocate for the funding our community needs to continue providing strong schools and essential services for all residents. We’ve prepared the email template – all it takes is a few sentences to share your story.
Why advocate?
This has been a challenging year for both our towns and our schools. Boxborough needs a new fire station. Acton needs a new Department of Public Works building. Budget pressures continue for us all. In our schools, we closed an elementary school, reorganized the remaining five, and still made difficult staffing reductions across the district.
These were not easy decisions, but they reflect a larger reality: local communities are being asked to absorb more and more of the cost of maintaining essential public services.
At the state level, the Governor and House have both released their FY27 budget proposals, and the Senate will begin debating amendments and finalizing its position this week. This is an important opportunity for our community to advocate for fairer and more sustainable state funding for both schools and municipalities.
We also recognize that some may wonder why communities like Acton and Boxborough should be speaking up. Our towns are widely viewed as successful and affluent communities with strong schools and high property values. But that is precisely why our situation should raise concern.
Despite having some of the highest residential property tax rates in Massachusetts, our schools spend less per student than the state average. We are closing schools, reorganizing programs, reducing staff, and managing growing student needs – all while trying to limit the burden on taxpayers. If communities like ours are struggling to sustain high-quality public services under the current system, it is fair to ask whether that system is working as intended.
Many of you have already written to the School Committee this year to advocate for your families, your neighborhoods, and your schools. We ask you now to join us in writing to our state legislators as they finalize the Senate budget and, in the coming weeks, the final Conference Committee budget that will go to the Governor for signature.
Attached is a draft advocacy letter that you may personalize and send. Personal stories and individual perspectives are especially important and far more impactful than identical form letters. Please send letters by the end of the day on Monday, May 18.
You can learn more about how our district has handled budget challenges over the past 5 years and our future outlook in the Acton Town Meeting presentation.
Thank you for your continued engagement and support.
Sincerely,
Tori Campbell
Chair, Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee