Jacob Fay
Candidate for Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee
Former middle school teacher. Doctorate in education. A candidate who knows schools from the inside out.
Please Vote! — April 28, 2026
Like many families in the AB schools, I've felt the weight of this past year. When reorganization first came onto the table, I had real questions. I listened as families around me worked through uncertainty, frustration, and genuine grief about changes to schools they love. I don't take any of that lightly. Decisions about schools are never just about buildings or budgets. They're about kids, communities, and the kind of place we want to live in together.
Which is exactly why what comes next matters so much: supporting children, families, and AB educators through the transition, protecting classrooms against budget pressures, and making our school communities feel like home to every family in this district.
That's the work. And it's why I'm running.
I am, first and foremost, a proud former middle school history teacher. I know what goes on in a classroom. I've also studied schools, earning a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. My work focused on education policy, including research on what communities actually need to navigate school closures and reorganization well. I've co-written two books on the complexity of educational decision-making, and maintain close connections with leading thinkers in the field.
As much as I value that intellectual work, what energizes me most is making a difference for schools and the families and young people who attend them. Three years ago, I left higher education to put my ideas to work as a leader at the Constructive Dialogue Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit that helps universities and communities build the capacity to work through deep disagreement without losing each other.
The Acton-Boxborough community matters to me. My kids are in AB classrooms today — a kindergartner and a third grader — experiencing this transition alongside everyone else. I coach AB youth sports. I've served as President of the Patriots Hill Recreation Club. My investment in this community is personal, and it's daily.
The next School Committee will face three challenges that will define this district's next chapter. Tap each to learn more.
The immediate task for this Committee is to advance the strategies outlined in the AB Forward Strategic Plan: setting clear policy direction while leaving implementation where it belongs, with the Superintendent and school leadership. As our district transitions to a geographic assignment policy with five elementary schools, the Committee's role is to establish the policy framework, hold administration accountable to it, and ensure transparency and clear communication with the public.
That accountability extends across the whole district. The elementary transition cannot come at the expense of the programs, teachers, and opportunities that make all our schools exceptional, and it is the Committee's job to make sure it doesn't.
The budget is the defining challenge of this Committee's next term — and it will require honesty about what we're up against. Enrollment has declined by roughly 600 students since regionalization, with projections showing another 300 lost over the next eight years. Expenses continue to outpace revenues. State funding formulas haven't kept pace, and federal uncertainty adds further risk. Sustaining what the last override and the elementary reorganization made possible will require careful, long-term financial stewardship.
The Committee's job is to set policy that confronts this honestly: protecting classrooms and direct student services first, scrutinizing every other line, and being transparent with Acton and Boxborough residents about the real tradeoffs ahead. That scrutiny must apply district-wide. Moving backwards from the elementary reorganization cannot become a reason that forces more cuts at RJ Grey and ABRHS.
The next School Committee will select the superintendent who leads this district for the next decade. That is not an overstatement, it is the nature of the role. The right leader, hired through a search that genuinely reflects the priorities of Acton and Boxborough families, can amplify everything AB Forward is building: a district that is academically excellent, supportive of all our students' needs, financially stable, and worth the investment this community makes in it. A search that is rushed, opaque, or driven by insider consensus risks squandering that opportunity.
The superintendent I would prioritize hiring is an executor, not a reinventor. Acton-Boxborough has a five-year plan — AB Forward — built through years of community input. The next leader's job is to deliver it, not redesign it.
That means someone with the financial sophistication to navigate real budget pressure honestly: identifying savings without gutting programs, communicating hard tradeoffs clearly, and working creatively within constraints. It means someone who understands that the Select Boards and Finance Committees of both towns are partners, not obstacles — and who builds strong relationships with both of them.
And it means someone who measures success the same way our families do: are our students thriving academically? Are the educators who serve them supported and retained? Is this district earning the community's investment year after year?
Acton-Boxborough doesn't need a change agent. It needs a skilled, steady steward who can execute with excellence, and who understands the privilege and the weight of leading a district this community has worked so hard to build.
Questions, thoughts, or want to get involved? Reach out directly using the form below.
