ACSD School Board News
Winter 2026
Happy New Year!
Below please find updates and opportunities for engagement with the ACSD Board:
Ripton School: ACSD and the town of Ripton worked with Community Workshop LLC and consultant David Hohenschau, to create a community engagement process to explore potential future uses of the Ripton Elementary School building. Find the final report here. The school board subsequently decided to move forward with the procedure outlined in the articles of consolidation for releasing the Ripton school building back to Ripton town. On the upcoming March ballot, all seven ACSD towns will vote on whether the district should offer the building back to the town of Ripton for a $1 purchase price, as per the articles of consolidation, or retain the building and determine an educational use for the space.
Shoreham/Bridport Reconfiguration: The ACSD Board decided to assign Bridport Elementary School as the school attendance location for Bridport and Shoreham elementary school students moving forward. This decision followed a one-year process examining classroom design, best practices for teaching, school capacity, and student test scores. Shoreham Elementary School will be utilized to offer expanded preschool capacity within the district.
Proposed Budget: The ACSD district has put forward a FY2026 budget with an education spending increase of 2.8% (see this Addy Indy article for an overview of how education spending is determined). This year’s budget is focused on supporting student academic success and belonging. On January 12, the Board will vote on whether to approve this budget. In-depth budget information can be found in our board meeting materials , and resources will be posted on the FY27 Budget Page as they become available.
Committee Updates:
Policy: The Policy Committee finished an audit of our out-of-date policies and updated almost all of them. We also have been busy revising our school residence policy (C30). Thank you to the 180+ people who responded to our survey and attended our outreach meetings.
Finance: The Finance Committee has reviewed FY25 financials, discussed FY27 budget drivers and got our first look at FY26 Q1 financials. We'll continue to help shape the FY27 budget presentations.
Facilities: The Facilities Committee has met many times over the summer and fall reviewing evaluations of each building in our district and refining presentations for the full board to review, with the goal of preparing a 5-year capital improvement plan for the full board to review and adopt in the coming months.
Negotiations: The Negotiations Committee has begun talks with the Support Staff association. We look forward to working together with them to come up with an equitable agreement that supports all of our valuable staff.
Communication and Engagement: The Communications and Engagement Committee has been taking our meetings on the road for ACSD School Board Town Halls. These meetings are an opportunity for informal conversations between members of the board and the public. Our next Town Halls are this Wednesday, January 7th at Shoreham Elementary School and Thursday January 15th at Salisbury Community School. Both meetings are at 6pm and all ACSD community members are welcome.
Student Outcomes: The newly created Student Outcomes committee has spent the past year determining our areas of focus and attention that will allow us to understand different methods our district uses to measure and understand student outcomes. We have talked at length about the many definitions of success our district strategic plan outlines for our students. We look forward to sharing information with the full board on an annual basis to ensure that our decisions are informed by a strong understanding of student outcomes across our district.
We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming Town Hall or Board meeting,
The ACSD Board