Schools
Warrant Set for June 3 Special Town Meeting
Regional school plan will top off the night's agenda.
It's been a few years in the making, but the towns of Acton and Boxborough are a simple vote away from finally having a K-12 regional school system.
Acton residents will cast votes on June 3 during a Special Town Meeting. The meeting will start at 7 p.m. at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School.
Article 1 is the regionalization vote.
Find out what's happening in Actonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The plan has gone through many changes to appeal to both communities, the most recent being the reallocation of funds. Acton will shoulder the larger share of an 80-20 split.
In a May 2 joint meeting of the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee, the Acton Public School Committee and Boxborough School Committee that was taped on May 2 by ActonTV, all three agreed to the most recently changed plan.
Find out what's happening in Actonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Acton's Peter Ashton recently said savings could be made through streamlining staff positions in Boxborough and district-wide enrollment reductions in Boxborough.
Overall savings could total up to $2 million, he said.
The merger would go into affect on July 1, 2014, if it passes at Special Town Meeting, and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education support the plan.
The plan will be a pass-fail option at Special Town Meeting. Both towns must approve it in order for it to take effect. Voters will not be allowed to make amendments.
If Acton and Boxborough approve it, the agreement goes to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The DESE would then either accept or reject it as a whole without making changes or rejecting parts of it.
Changes would have to go to Town Meeting again.
Should it pass, Article 2 would ask voters to amend the Town Charter to bring Acton's membership on the regional school committee into conformity with the amended regional school district agreement. At the same time, this article would also eliminate reference to Acton’s local school committee based on the full regionalization of the public schools as set forth in the amended agreement.
Click on the links below for more information about the regionalization plan:
Overall there are 12 articles in the warrant. To view the all the articles, click here.
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