The School Committee held its annual election of officers for the fiscal year 2026-27 on June 4. Acton member Tori Campbell will continue in her role as School Committee chair. Adam Klein was re-elected vice chair for Boxborough, and Lisa Adil was voted vice chair for Acton. Julie LaLumiere was re-appointed secretary for the School Committee and Stephanie Krantz as the District’s treasurer. The tenure of elected officers begins August 1.
This was the first School Committee meeting for newly elected members from Boxborough, Andrew Boncoddo and Hilary Greven, and the fourth for newly elected Acton members, Dennis Burianek and Jacob Fey.
With a 9 to 2 vote, the Committee also selected the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management (Collins Center) to lead the upcoming Superintendent search scheduled to begin this fall. Members heard presentations from three search firms that included the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) and the New England School Development Council (NESDEC), which were pre-selected at the Committee’s public workshop on May 14.
The Collins Center, located in the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, is a state agency that provides low-cost consulting services to municipalities, school districts, and state agencies in the Commonwealth.
In February, Superintendent of Schools Peter Light announced that he had accepted a position as the next superintendent of the American Community School of Abu Dhabi, starting July 2027.
Also on June 4, the School Committee approved the final draft of the 2026-27 High School Student Handbook which contains clarifications on minimum course load requirements for graduation, specific honors that will appear on transcripts, new athletic fees, and new processes around reporting student absences, which underwent a major revision this year.
The new policy and procedures pertaining to student absences align school-based practices with a revamped School Committee policy voted for on May 21. Changes reflect the work of the district’s Chronic Absenteeism Task Force which were presented to the Committee at their May 7 business meeting by Jen Faber, the District’s director of access and engagement, and Heather Stouch, coordinator of social-emotional learning and mental and behavioral health.
The revised policy clarifies what is an excused versus an unexcused absence, expands the term illness to include both physical and mental illness, and standardizes practices for how schools will monitor absences and when they will communicate with families. Heather Stouch told the Committee, “We are moving from a bare bones policy to a more robust version with greater emphasis on collaboration and moving away from punitive, reactive responses and towards intervening earlier using a framework that is more supportive.”
Two other revised policies approved by the Committee on June 4 pertain to elementary school reorganization. These new policies govern student enrollment and student transportation, which were changed to reflect the new practice of assigning elementary families to a school based on geographic zones. The Committee also agreed to a one-time vote on the procedures related to student enrollment as well as the procedures related to transportation because they represent such significant changes.
Updates to the policies and procedures incorporated feedback from the Acton-Boxborough Special Education Parent Advisory Council (AB SEPAC) whose co-chairs, Amanda Bailey and Kristin O’Neil, were also on hand at the June 4 meeting to present their annual year-in-review and priorities for 2026-27.
Co-Chair Abraham Gutierrez, who was unable to attend and will not be continuing as a member of AB SEPAC’s leadership team next year, was recognized for his service.
Special Education Parent Advisory Councils are state-mandated, volunteer organizations charged with “advising their district on matters pertaining to education and safety of students with disabilities and meet regularly with their district’s leadership to inform planning, development, and evaluation of special education programs.”
Bailey and O’Neil reported that the SEPAC’s legal mandate is achieved in Acton-Boxborough through extensive communication, engagement, and advocacy. Surveys, workshops, regular in-person, virtual business meetings and coffee hours to provide ongoing support and encourage peer connection are just part of what it does. AB SEPAC is a regular presence at school- and community-based events and regularly attends School Committee meetings where, this year, they successfully pushed for funding for elementary school counselors.
Bailey highlighted a new initiative this year to engage candidates running for open School Committee seats in Acton and Boxborough via a questionnaire. “We don’t endorse candidates for office,” Bailey said, “but we felt it was important to ask questions regarding special education and share their responses broadly.” Candidates’ responses were published on the AB SEPAC Facebook page, in their newsletter, and in the Acton Exchange and Boxborough News online newspapers.
O’Neil reported that the AB SEPAC continued its annual staff recognition initiative this year. “It’s become a stand-out thing for us as a SEPAC. This year we had over 20 families respond with positive feedback about their child’s special education teacher and general education teacher as well as administrators and building staff. We then reached out to those individuals and their supervisors, highlighting what incredible people we have in the district.” O’Neil reported that another SEPAC in the state tried this out this year with great success.
Bailey reported on the strong partnership SEPAC has had with the School Committee through the AB Forward process this year. “The School Committee named us as a stakeholder at the outset in May 2025, and we were engaged throughout the decision-making and implementation,” Bailey said. “We hosted listening sessions for our families and brought that information back to the district to draw attention to concerns around the special education components related to elementary school reorganization. We compiled an FAQ for families. Though our general advocacy did not always align with what individual families wanted, we kept the community informed and connected with strategies to help them advocate, and we continue to follow developments in policy and procedures as the district moves forward with reorganization.”
O’Neil stated that, in May, during the SEPAC’s interview with representatives from the Department of Education as part of a scheduled review of the District’s special education programs, AB SEPAC was called out as a model for the state for its exemplary activities and strong partnership with the district.
Bailey acknowledged AB’s Director of Special Education, Natalia Kierul, for her openness to collaborate and for seeking out SEPAC’s input this year. “It has been a pleasure to work with her this year,” said Bailey.
Priority areas for SEPAC in 2026-27 include engaging families in the superintendent search through focus groups; advocacy around the frequency of progress reporting for elementary students with disabilities; and informing AB families on how to effectively advocate when they suspect their child may have a disability.
Diane Baum is the Acton Exchange beat reporter for the School Committee.
