Several teachers, the district teachers union president and other community members told the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee on Jan. 16 that continuing budget cuts risked teacher burnout and would impair student supports if key positions are cut.

Mike Balulescu, president of the district’s teachers union and an RJ Gray parent, said the district is entering a fourth consecutive year of cuts and urged the committee to “take a hard look at everything we’re doing as a district and let some things go” to reduce teacher workload. Balulescu said staffing levels will be “more anemic than at any point in my 20-year career in the district” without changes and asked the committee to give administration “a clear directive” to identify programs and tasks that can be paused without relying on teachers’ unpaid time.

Multiple teachers described the effects of proposed elementary staffing reductions. Douglas K–6 art teacher Lauren Donahue described her prior experience traveling between three schools as a unified arts teacher in Franklin, Mass., and said the model left her stretched thin and unable to build relationships or develop consistent curricula. She urged keeping unified arts educators attached to a single home school to preserve their role in school communities and their ability to lead professional learning and culture work.

Blanchard teacher Courtney Stevens emphasized the classroom function of general education assistants: covering classes when teachers attend meetings, monitoring non-instructional time, and providing targeted support that helps teachers keep instruction consistent. Stevens asked the committee to prioritize positions that have direct instructional impact and suggested central-office positions might be candidates for consolidation instead.

Committee members and administration acknowledged the concerns and described ongoing budget work. Superintendent Peter Light said he and staff are preparing the preliminary budget presentation on Jan. 30 and a deeper budget workshop on Feb. 8; committee members signaled an intent to pair anecdotal testimony with data-driven analysis. Several members also urged community outreach about state funding shortfalls and supported the committee’s plan to press state legislators for additional Chapter 70 aid and a multi-year minimum-aid increase.

The committee did not take any formal vote on staffing at this meeting; comments were part of the public-participation and budget-discussion portions of the agenda. Members asked administration to provide structured data to identify which student groups and schools would be most affected by proposed cuts and to return with concrete recommendations to the committee’s budget workshop.