Acton's Finance Committee, charged with long-range financial planning, once again missed the boat at their last meeting (March 11, 2014) by voting 6-3 to recommend the new regional school assessment, despite an obvious imbalance in the assessment formula which favors Boxborough over Acton.
Other than restating that Acton saved a million dollars, and detailing the additional state aid for transportation and cutting about five positions due to regionalization, most of FinCom's focus this year has been on whether the school budget was increasing too fast and if that increase was sustainable. Several members expressed reservations about the long-term outlook for reserves (which are being spent at a rate of $2 million per year) but thought the additional school spending was justified. The schools added several administrative and counseling positions which school administrators said are needed due to additional state and federal mandates.
Nobody discussed the issue that Acton Forum has raised, which is that the new regional school agreement failed to properly balance the benefits of regionalization across the two towns....
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Article continues on www.ActonForum.com at:
http://www.actonforum.com/blogs/allenn/fincom-sees-little-picture
