School Committee seeks budget input
This year’s focus on inclusion, well-being, and academic rigor reflects the spirit our community brings to public education.
As the new school year begins, our school buildings are humming with energy. Teachers, staff, and students have returned with real enthusiasm, and that commitment to learning is visible in every hallway. As Superintendent Laurie Hunter wrote recently in these pages, this year’s focus on inclusion, well-being, and academic rigor reflects exactly the spirit our community brings to public education.
The School Committee shares that focus. We’ve launched a new Climate and Culture framework to ensure every student feels a sense of belonging alongside academic growth. Technology continues to be a district priority, and this year, two committees will carry that work forward: one focused on comprehensively evaluating instructional technology internally, and a second bringing learners, parents, and community members into the conversation.
In the first full month of the school year, the committee approved the superintendent’s 2026-27 goals, which include expanding our new literacy program across every K-5 classroom to strengthen early reading and higher-order thinking skills. We also approved our own committee goals, including a renewed commitment to transparent, fiscally responsible budgeting that reflects the district’s strategic initiatives, community priorities, and earns public trust. And we voted to approve the PROTECT Act, reinforcing our schools as safe, welcoming spaces for every student and family.
Looking ahead to October, we’ll receive enrollment data and begin work in earnest on the FY28 budget with our Finance Committee partners, reestablish our policy subcommittee to review school committee policies, plan community coffees, discuss Youth Risk Behavior Survey results, and begin reviewing the first round of academic updates.
We’d love to see more of you at this work. Come to a meeting, send us an email, or say hello on the sidelines of a football game, in the auditorium lobby, at school pickup, or at the park — we’re always glad to talk schools.
Sandeep Pisharody
Hayward Mill Road
Chair, Acton School Committee
Brian Waterson
Aberdeen Drive, Carlisle
Chair, Acton-Carlisle Regional School Committee
