Acton-Boxborough School Committee Meeting - March 19th, 2026

001to be included on the warrant. There's also a couple of items of new business, but those are the big key things that we are going to focus on. So, with that, we're going to shift to public participation. Can I see a show of hands of who would like to speak this evening, please? 1 2 3 4 5 6 Okay, so I see seven. We're going to go with um 2 minutes cuz I know that this uh tends to grow as people walk in as well. Um and I'm just going to let everybody know that I will I will cut us off when we reach 15 minutes cuz as you heard, we have a pretty busy agenda. In the event that somebody wants to speak who doesn't get an opportunity to speak, please send a note

002to the school committee email. We will all see that. And with that, um whoever wants to lead us off, step up, introduce yourself, and we will get things going. Good. Hi there. I'm Paul Nowicki. Uh I'm the father of a second grader in Merriam and a preschooler who's going to be going into Acton and Merriam. Um [clears throat] I wanted to thank everyone. I mean, I know this is a very difficult situation. Um My concern is specifically with moving the yellow um north of Route 2 pocket to Blanchard, which I believe conflicts with the um district's principles. Although this area appears contiguous on the map, it functions as a satellite. It is separated from Boxborough by Route 2, commercial development, and conservation land. Um families must travel through Littleton to get to Boxborough and Blanchard.

003Um this is visual continuity continuity, not a a lived community. This pocket is also smallest and uh least cohesive group under consideration. With the declining population and students who are not already socially connected to each of the existing Boxborough community, moving them furthest dis- the furthest distance into a highly established school community concentrates disruption on the least able to absorb it. This also conflicts with enrollment logic. North of Route 2 is low growth, while dense while denser, more cohesive areas exist that better align with Blanchard. I urge uh the community the committee to reconsider including the yellow pocket and apply AB forward principles uh consistently and transparently. Uh 30 seconds. The map um is reminiscent of like gerrymandering where uh a neighborhood is connected to another neighborhood by a highway or something like that. Um

004thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you. Hi there. I'm Ali Gilman. I have two kids in Acton schools, and we live in West Acton. Um when we were first when our oldest was able to uh eligible for kindergarten, we traveled across and did our due diligence and went to every single kindergarten informational night. We quickly learned that the schools were more similar than different, and so we very carefully made the decision that we wanted our child to attend a neighborhood school. Um now West Acton is one of those uh communities that has uh been considered to go to Blanchard. Right now, we go to Douglas, and my kids can walk there in 10 minutes. If they take the bus home from school, it is 40 minutes. Uh I really appreciate

005some of the stated values uh about keeping neighborhoods together and uh prioritizing walkability, and I um just want to thank you for continuing to consider those as you make some difficult decisions. Thank you. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> I always have this problem. I don't know how you Hold on 1 second. Thank you. Perfect. Thanks. Um I I sent this in an email, but I feel like I want to say it again in public here because I'm speaking on behalf of many fifth grade rising sixth grade parents. Um and that it is so important for us to consider our fifth graders. Um as a parent of a rising sixth grader for next year, I'm writing to express my full support of the legacy {slash} grandfathering for all rising sixth graders. The current fifth grade

006class started in the fall of 2020, the height of the pandemic. Many of these kids also lost the opportunity to have closure and an ending to their um preschool experience because of the shutdown in March of 2020. Many families chose remote schooling for the start of their child's kindergarten experience, while others chose to send their child to school. The children who attended school in person were required to sit at desks 6 ft apart and went for approximately 3 hours. Thus, they had limited social interactions. The children who went for remote also had limited um social interactions with peers. I'm not saying that COVID affected the current fifth graders more than other kids. Everyone was certainly affected. However, in the context of this decision, I think the current fifth graders um and the school assignments is

007very relevant. The proposed reassignment effectively effectively breaks up friend groups like my daughter's wonderful friend group. While I know she and {slash} we will make the best of it, and she'll make new friends, and work to keep the old friends, is an unnecessary challenge being put on our fifth graders at a time when they are all trying to find their place. And let's be frank. Let's seeing your friends in a different um outside of school and in a different place is not the same as going to school with those same friends. These kids in fifth grade have challenges such as navigating intense peer pressure, puberty-related changes, developing a unique identity, and social dynamics, and so on. This group requires support to build confidence and independence while managing all of those issues. It feels like the

008fifth grade class is being swept up in this comprehensive change without fully recognizing what impact might be what the impact might be to this particular group of students. I really hope that you will consider this. Thank you again for your service as well. Thank you. Oh. Okay. Thanks. I'm actually going to read this time. Uh my name is Arnon. I'm a parent of two kids in Acton and Merriam. And I'm going to use this opportunity to argue that now that we know much more about uh geo enrollment, we should go back and reconsider this against existing open enrollment. Now, as you know, the geo enrollment does not have any significant financial uh effect on the budget, so this is not related to the budget. At the same time, it has a lot of uh negative

009effects. I'm going to just mention the significant emotional distress it's going to cause to our children. I think that many of your assumptions going into this decision with geo um distribution uh um have been proven wrong. For example, you're speaking about the formation of new communities from scratch. The fact is that the principals are staying where they are, the teachers are staying where they are. The only people moving are the kids. So, what you'll have up end up having is the same communities, the same cultures, but with a lot of frustrated parents and a lot of miserable kids. Now, speaking with many of this com- in this community, I think you have lost the trust of many of us and the confidence in you leading this change. You're speaking about a tax override. Given that

010the previous override barely passed, I don't think you have any chance of uh getting the new one to get passed, which means we'll be uh facing ongoing financial stress and ongoing cuts in the first foreseeable future. The only way I think to avoid this outcome is to bring this back to the public. Give the community a chance to vote on the question of enrollment. I think this would 30 seconds. restore the trust. I started a petition earlier today publishing uh this to again allow people to support this call. If anyone listening to this is interested in signing this petition, you can find this in Facebook in Acton Parents or email me. The email is [email protected]. Again, a r n o n a r @yahoo.com. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. My name's Caylin Durants. I emailed

011you all this morning, so I'm happy to be in front of you to talk to you again this evening. Um I'm here tonight as a parent of a rising kindergartner and as a resident of Minuteman Ridge, a neighborhood of 88 homes in a deeply close-knit community, to express serious concern about the designation of our neighborhood as a flex zone. At this point, the School Committee has not clearly defined flex zones in this policy, and this lack of clarity introduces significant uncertainties for our families. MMR is a is is directly connected to the Parker Damon building by walking path through our neighborhood. Kids meet each morning and walk together, older kids guiding younger ones, parents following closely behind. This is the definition of a neighborhood school. You have said repeatedly that you want to strengthen neighborhoods.

012So, I don't understand dividing one of the most connected ones. Um, later tonight Nick is going to show you some statistics on MMR. Um, and you will see that there's some lack of consen- consensus consensus in the current school choice between the two campuses. I want to remind you that those were choices and not mandates. Family could choose to attend on the campus under open enrollment knowing that a neighborhood was already there or a neighborhood friend was already there or choose a specific teaching methodology that aligned best for them. These choice choices happened all over town. So, I'm not sure why Minuteman Bridge is being targeted in this way. I'm um, I feel like the data is being misapplied in this way. I want to remind you that as members of school committee, you're in

013charge of setting the priorities and representing us. Yet, there's a clear lack of guidance here. The one thing that has been consistent is you have said over and over that you want to strengthen communities and I um, I don't understand how flex zones do that. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Julia Day. I live at 169 Nagog Hill Road. I have a second grader, a kindergartner, and a 2-year-old in daycare. This change in scenario 7 is a huge impact to my family. Um, I work as an essential worker and I have very strict job requirements including being on site. My husband also has requirements for his job. We're two working parent family. We do not have family nearby. This change, which is noted as based on visual continuity and not travel continuity, would

014take away all the flex that I have in my schedule. And these types of logistical challenges are disproportionately borne by women like me and I cannot believe that I'm the only woman in my neighborhood that would have this kind of problem with her job. I'm going to be forced out of my job if this is the ultimate scenario. And the change that and the impact that'll have on my family is massive and I don't think I can manage it before the school year starts. So, I want to strongly encourage you to consider the impact of the different scenarios on families including mine. Thank you. I think I might be the last um, folk to person to speak. Um, I want to thank you all for your time and your dedication. Um, I [clears throat] also

015have a uh, fifth grader at Merriam. Um, I I do, you know, strongly support what uh, the previous person uh, parent had said about consideration for um, this particular group of of children. Um, but after hearing what most uh, all the other folks and their concerns, I do think that there has to be some sort of um, you you know, maybe that's what the flex zone is, but um, some sort of uh, pathway for families that can't uh, abide by the the regional restrictions at least to begin with. Um, you know, for the for the fifth graders as as um, Sarah noted, the the burden on them to to make two massive transitions in two years. Um, you know, one to um, go from going to Merriam to uh, um, to another school um, and

016then to uh, to uh, junior high is I think is overly burdensome to them um, and will have some long-term negative impacts on on their um, well-being. So, I I would just ask the committee and all in in their best possible way to to to allow some venue to to to uh, make exceptions for folks that can't um, can't manage the change. Thank you. All right, this is going to be our last speaker. This is If you have if you have not gotten opportunity to speak and you have things you want to say, please email us. I have been in town for 19 years now. I counted it out. I have seen neighborhoods come and go in terms of the child number of children in it. People rise up, retire, eventually move, it fills up

017with kids. Um, so I have the somewhat less popular argument for flex zones. I think it's going to be a lot easier for families to handle moving in somewhere and having their kids in a school. I'm in a system right now where my kids all of our neighbors have gone to different schools and it's been fine. It's been great. I think that's going to be a lot easier for us going forward than having to redistrict say 10 years in the future or something when we've had a significant shift. So, next year's going to be hard for everyone. We've got just a hard time coming forward. I would love to see you all plan kind of more for the longer-term future to avoid this sort of thing again as much as possible. Thank you. Thank you.

018All right, we're going to move to the superintendent's update. Pierre, you ready for us? All right, good evening everyone. Um, first I want to just offer some congratulations to um, a number of our educators who are completing their 20th year of service um, with the school district. 20 years in one place is really, you know, quite a feat and a lot of dedication and a lot of students and families that they've served over that time. So, our educators um, this year who are being recognized for their 20 years of service, Becky Atchison, Chris Baird, Timothy Bassett, Kathleen Baleo, Vanessa Bergman, Kristen Ervik, Dan Goldner, Robert Graham, Brendan Hearn, Melissa Hubble, Lena Yaroscheck, Raymond Calliger, Kristen Kelly, Kimberly Landry, Kristen Lacari, Timothy Murphy, Kristine Neelon, Pamela Reeves, Nicole Ross, and Jessica Sands. So, congratulations to all

019of them and a huge thank you. >> [applause] >> I thought that would be a good one to change the tone. Yeah. Um, I also want to congratulate some of our high school student artists whose work was selected by jury for the 2026 Massachusetts Amazing Emerging Artists Recognition Exhibit. So, we have uh, Nathaniel Kim, Esther Song, Bella Kalisi, Maria Didier, and Ela Flanzer. So, congratulations to our students as well. Um, want to give the school committee and our community just a heads-up at our next school committee meeting. Um, I'm going to be coming to you with a request for a modification to the current year's calendar as we proceed to the end of the year. Um, as we've gone through the AB Forward process, um, I've had an opportunity to go to all of the

020schools, meet with groups of educators. Um, we've done some educator surveys around, you know, what their thinking is, needs, priorities, things like that. Um, and I think the other thing that stood out to me was one of the top things that our families wanted in surveys through the AB Forward process to make sure our educators were getting what they need. Um, we would like to request some additional half days at the elementary level only. So, I'm going to come forward with more details on this for next time, but we're looking for a couple of things. May 22nd is the day before Memorial Day weekend. It's a Friday. Um, we're going to see if that would work as a half day for you. We would actually like to dedicate that to student class placement and we

021can actually have all our educators working together across schools and grade levels on this if we actually have a really significant chunk of time that we can dedicate to that. So, we believe that that would be really student impactful as we head into next year to make sure all of our educators can collaborate with each other across schools and grade levels to place students thoughtfully into cohorts for next year. The other one thinking about how educators have to move at the end of the year um, and all of the work that's going to go into that given the amount of change that's happening across all of our schools with teaching. The last day of school is always a half day um, and that is Thursday the 25th. Um, we also the day before that is

022a Wednesday um, which is an early release day for educators. We would like consideration for the Monday and Tuesday as well to potentially be considered as half days. I just don't want to surprise you with this. You know, we're certainly open to discussion on that from the school committee and want to you know, get that on the radar of the the community as well. Uh, but I think educators in particular really need a lot of support and I think when we talk about what educators really need when we when they hear support is they need time to be able to do their jobs and I think student placement and making sure that educators have what they need as they get ready to go into summer and into next year is going to be critical. So,

023I just want to give you a heads-up. I will come to you with a more formal request as we get there. I also hope to come to you with potential child care options um, that we are able to provide on those days as well. So, I'll I'll have more information for you and please stay tuned for next meeting. The last one because I know we have a lot to do, I just want to recognize that this is Women's History Month. Um, I won't say the same thing I do every year which that means that it's from the 1st of the month to the end of the month. Um, but it in all seriousness, I I do want to share. This is a significant month because um throughout our history, I think women have been a

024group that has sometimes been overlooked when you look at the history, not only of you know, kind of the nation that we live in and the world, but actually in our community as well when we actually look at who gets recognized for making history in our own community. So, um just want to recognize that this is an important month. Thank you to all of the women who serve um serve on this committee uh because that's a significant undertaking and thank you to all the women out there because uh you make an incredible contribution that has been oft overlooked. Thank you, Peter. Did Nick sneak in here? He did. All right. Um in that case, as we uh transition, first of all, I just want to say thank you to everybody who has taken the opportunity

025to step up to the mic. That's not an easy thing to do, especially when you're sharing a personal story and all of those emails that we have received as well. We are reading them. There are a lot of them and I'm just going to acknowledge that that I haven't gotten to responding to all of them. So, we really appreciate that. Um as Nick's getting set up here, you know, we start out with overarching goals back in our our elevator speech that we wrote together of sustainability, affordability, and excellent quality of education. And my sense is that we're going to have some conversations tonight that relate to that um as well as the many things that have been raised from our community. Um so, Nick and and his team have brought forward some considerations for scenario

026development that's been based on community input. And we started out in our iterations looking at how do we take those and then go back and check ourselves on some of the other goals that we're looking for. So, how do we look at education quality in terms of utilization, in terms of demographics, of setting these schools up for success. And that's really been what scenarios 1 through 5 looked at. Then as we hit 5, we sort of felt like we were getting some of that in line. So, 5, 6, and 7 um we've been looking at refinements that have policy implement implications and we've heard some about that tonight, right? Walkability, neighborhood integrity, hometown preference, um and also looking at transition experience. How does that layer on top? So, grandfathering, what exceptions might there be? Um

027so, that's been kind of scenarios 5 through 7. And our task tonight is to make sure that we give enough clarity to Nick and Peter to focus so that they can test all of the flex zone policy and the transition ideas that we've come up with and figure out if they're feasible. So, tonight we're looking at um some consensus on how we're prioritizing our areas of Acton that will be assigned to Blanchard to balance our utilization and class sizes across schools. We are looking for consensus on our approach to flex or buffer zones, whatever you want to call them. Um and Nick's going to talk about that further as we go. And then we're looking at prioritizing the policies that we want to have evaluated, including anything that um might require some sort of limited

028polling of families cuz I think Peter's going to address this later, but to make this happen in a timely manner so that it can actually be useful information, we actually have to give them enough guidance that they can turn around and do that next week. So, with that, I will turn it over to Nick to lead us through this. And thank you very much and good evening, everybody. Uh happy to be back. Um I am going to jump right into it cuz um I do want to get through a lot of what I have to present to you all, but then uh priority-wise as to as uh Tory mentioned, uh would love to hear your discussion and your consensus around a couple key topics. So, uh my name is Nick. I am from Dillon &

029Rad, a Connecticut-based nonprofit, and we're here uh over the past 2 months to help uh design sustainable elementary attendance boundaries uh to help operationalize the vision of AB Forward. Uh we'll quickly go through um project to date, uh talk uh a couple two pieces of additional data that we just want to incorporate into the conversation, and then dive into uh the process of building the scenario, and ultimately in terms of and I'm going to reiterate this, the three key areas I absolutely, positively need from you all in terms of guidance around the Blanchard uh boundary or expanded zone, transition policies, and flex zones. All right. In terms of project to date, uh again, we're regularly meeting with you all, uh and we uh did host the March 10th uh parent webinar. We've been meeting with

030the district team on a weekly basis. Um this is slightly outdated. We've had now over 220 email conversations uh with the community, uh have participated and collected um well, participated in the partici- uh parent webinar, collected a lot of different input from uh surveys as well as the interactive web app. Uh we've continued to conduct uh a lot of the different data analyses that have been brought to bear, and then ultimately we're in the process of uh developing uh multiple iterative scenarios. So, in terms of the interactive web app, um that has been extremely helpful in regards to again, providing context around neighborhood, uh different various neighborhoods, how people define neighborhoods, what individuals have felt was important in terms of moving uh individual neighborhoods to Acton or not Acton. And so, what we wanted to

031do was just to provide you with a really quick breakdown in regards to the the percentage of responses that we're getting. And so, uh ultimately in terms of uh the area in regards to what uh brought, I would say, the most uh interactivity and and input uh was the upper uh Arlington area, the general rezoning suggestions, and then ultimately general geographic context. So, again, a lot of different pieces of the puzzle have been uh informed. I do want to emphasize to a lot of folks, we are listening and reading through each of these and really trying to incorporate them into iterative aspects of the scenario. Uh a couple different uh emails that were brought to our attention around median housing prices. Um I did want to sort of kind of flag this for folks when

032we're thinking about um the idea of zoning uh a section of Acton uh to go to the elementary school in uh Boxborough. So, a couple different key aspects here in terms of thinking about the median housing prices across both Boxborough and Acton. Um in general, Boxborough prices are slightly lower, but I would say very comparable to uh different areas within Acton. Obviously, there's the northeastern uh section that has a significant uh higher level of median housing prices, but then I would say the rest of uh Acton and Boxborough are, like I said, comparable in regards to to pricing. If you do look at research, uh research shows that property values are primarily driven by school quality, not just location. Um and so, given that uh basically all of the elementary schools are very high-performing, um

033that's number one. Number two, not only would the students be going to elementary school, they will also be going to the middle school and high school, which is exceedingly uh high quality. So, for those folks uh generally from my opinion um that are concerned that their median house prices will uh be hit, I I find that probably not a huge concern given again, it's tied to the entire educational system uh and not just the one uh elementary school. All right. So, I did struggle. I knew that going into today's meeting, I needed to get clarity around the three areas that we talked about. And so, initially, I was not going to introduce a new scenario and we're just kind of kind of jump into it. However, I thought it was really important to kind of

034walk us through the process of developing a scenario so that you can understand where these individual components that I'm going to ask you to weigh in on, where they fit into the whole process. So, in terms of the objectives, um again, I I do want to emphasize uh it was an iterative progress uh in terms of how we've been developing the seven scenarios. Um we are attempting to optimize or what we like to say the best fit model around demographics, utilization, walkability, and future growth. A lot of people, I do want to emphasize, feel like we are picking on them or uh identifying a neighborhood that is completely isolating them out. That is not the case. Uh we have, you know, the pie is the pie, as they say, and so Acton is only so

035big, and so as we look to optimize and prioritize different areas, these are tradeoffs. Um and ultimately at the end of the day, uh that that responsibility falls on you all to determine, like we had decided when we were going through the decision points, what need what is worthwhile of a tradeoff and what are we trying to prioritize as a community and what we are not trying to prioritize. So, in terms of that, in regards to where we're going, you know, before April vacation, uh I need uh we obviously want to or you all want to vote on a uh a final plan or a final scenario um that will bring at least some level of understanding to the community in regards to a path forward, which I think for a lot of districts that

036are going through this, that is a very critical component is uh understanding that a decision has been made and uh folks can sort of move forward and plan accordingly. So, to do that, we're going to talk about scenario 7, but to do that, um I need guidance in regards to how you want to prioritize the Blanchard zone expansion, which I'll dive into in a minute, the legacy option, and then ultimately the flex zones. So, when we think about building a scenario, it really starts with, I would say, the base foundation as I talked about it in terms of thinking about the east-west versus north-south uh boundary. Uh we did look at both the earlier scenarios really did kind of try to unpack a little bit of that north-south boundary. And at the end of the

037day, given what we've seen, the east-west boundary is by far superior uh foundation for a couple different reasons. One, um it does, I think, do a far better job at balancing uh demographic or student demographics across all of the schools. Um given how we know the distribution of various student demographics are across Acton, when you have the north-south, it really is a tale of two cities, so to speak, which is, I know, a priority that we're trying to avoid. Um in regards to some of the analyses that we did about future growth, again, splitting it on the um having East and West uh really balances out the potential future growth and I think could help manage the uncertainty of how, you know, neighborhoods are going to change going forward. So, in regards to that, we

038always look at these two pieces. We We generally will choose East-West because the North-South just in our opinion doesn't work. Then, through these iterations, we've had a lot of conversations about walk zones. Ultimately, and as if you heard from various community members, right? Those communities that are within about a 1-mile walking distance of each school feels that they are extremely both tight-knit communities and tied to the schools themselves. Again, from what we've heard and how we've reordered the decision points, the walk zones generally are a high priority. As you can see based on scenario seven, we have endeavored to basically stick very closely to the walk zone boundaries so that if you're within 1 mile, you're to that school and if you're out outside of that mile, sort of anything's fair game. I would say

039the biggest thing we have heard of is around the Jefferson Street area which is tied to Patriots Hill. We've heard you loud and clear and ultimately, given the level of input around Jefferson City um I'm sorry, Jefferson Street. That would probably be the exception to the rule that we're thinking about in regards to the 1-mile walk zone. I do So, this again, sorry jumping the case was the Patriots Hill. Our decision, again, this is a kind of a key trade-off, right? You can Patriots Hill, which is just north of the walk zone, is zoned to Board Walk whereas within the walk zone, it's zoned to Parker Damon. So, as we think about keeping the different neighborhood continuity together, you would have to sacrifice the 1-mile walk zone. We've heard loud and clear, like I've said,

040it's a small section of the the the area that one, they deem is not walkable and two, is tied to Patriots Hill. And so, those are the types of trade-offs and and I will say tweaking around the margins that we can do around the base foundation when it comes to some of these things. All right. So, now we get to the fun part which is the Blanchard expansion zone. As we have sort of dictated and detailed before, um the overall number of students that live in Acton and live in Boxborough really do max out the entirety of the elementary school system with the five remaining schools. So, for that to work, there is going to be a subset of Acton students that need to go to Blanchard annually to make sure that we're balancing out

041the utilization. So, a decision point could be made from you all that basically says we want to send as few Acton kids as possible, which is a totally a good decision. I mean, it's totally a decision you could make. The trade-off is you're going to have higher utilization in Acton schools versus Blanchard schools or I'm sorry, versus Boxborough schools. That is a trade-off. You can totally do that. We've heard loud and clear from a lot of parents that they don't feel like that that is a valuable or worthwhile trade-off. So, now that leaves us with the idea that there is a set of students, about 100, that we need to identify in Acton to send to Blanchard. There are ways to mitigate the transition. I will put I'm going to anytime that gets brought up,

042I'm going to say that's a transition policy. Going forward for the next, I'm going to say 10 to 15 years, you need to have an area identified. Whether it's used or not, you need to have an an area so that planning and future generations of kids can be zoned to Blanchard even if it's not the case. So, as we had sort of worked through this, we did try to identify all of the, I would say, possible options that both fit in terms of total enrollment and general logistical possibility. I'm acknowledging the fact that some of these, I think, are not very logistically feasible and don't really fit with some of the values that you had identified before. So, we started off, just to kind of walk down memory lane, we started off with the green

043and the blue. There was a lot of pushback in regards to the blue given that it's a walk zone, so then we went to the red. Again, the the proximity to the walk zone and in terms of feeling like they were isolated, we wanted to entertain and identify other areas. There's the purple area which is the Stow Street region. That gets farther away from Blanchard, talking about being on the bus a long time and the trickiest part and I do want to kind of flag, even though visually we do we are trying to create a visual zone, some of these are really driven by transportation. We've been working closely with the transportation department at the district and some of these do make more sense than others. There's usually about one or two entrances to the

044purple zone, which does complicate the transportation process. You can notice the orange, you know, the orange has a nice size in terms of students. However, they are tight-knit community that is within the walk zone that creates complications and also creates bussing issues. You have again, the teal, the yellow and then very far up north, you have Avalon as well. So, we've detailed out sort of how or what could be possible. We have given you our two cents in regards to what we think would be a recommendation. But at the end of the day, it comes down to what you all value and what you all want to prioritize. And I do want to emphasize, I gave you the total numbers. I'll kind of cut to the chase. The demographics is not going to change horrendously

045by school what with whatever you choose. So, in regards to that, the conversation really needs to stick to to you how do you prioritize walk zones, transportation challenges, what you deem to be community or neighborhood continuity and ultimately, how you think, you know, again, back to the satellite zones versus keeping the zone one kind of big chunk. Those are the types of things that sort of play out as decision points. So, this is our first, I believe, School Committee decision. Right? Does the School School Committee feel there are any other better options besides the green and the yellow which we are sort of recommending that we should utilize going forward? Adam. I'll kick it off. Um >> [clears throat] >> Over the past what, 2 weeks, every time a new color is identified on the

046map, we get another round of emails from families saying that your you know, expressing their concern with their area being identified as one that is being shipped off to Boxborough. Um And like I I I recognize that. I think a lot of people in the community also recognize we've got a difficult challenge ahead of us. Um As a resident of Boxborough, first of all, I want to say that Boxborough is a wonderful town. Um and that being able to go to Blanchard is a an opportunity as well as possibly a challenge for some people. The other thing I want to point out is that we've gotten emails from people that say, I moved to Acton so my kids could go to the Acton schools and I don't ever want to leave Acton. Um and I

047do want to point out that every resident of Boxborough goes to an Acton school when they go to the junior high or the high school. Um and so, I just I want to make sure that those things are said. None of it is a value statement. I just think it's something that needs to be sort of shared publicly. Um This isn't an easy decision and I appreciate, Nick, the work that you and the team have done to sort of identify different pockets and um I I think that the I I guess the the question I would have I'm leaning towards your recommendation of Ethan Allen and north of Route 2. The question I have around north of Route 2 is, have we talked with the transportation department and have they provided any feedback around the

048transportation possibilities, challenges for that cluster? Yeah, that's actually I mean, outside of the green and blue, which I think is the most logical for bus transportation given its proximity, the green and the yellow work the best for transportation, for bussing. You would think purple might be, but given again, the layout of how routes are constructed, the proximity of the different neighborhoods and ultimately, how different areas can be accessed via routing systems, the yellow and the green were the next best, basically. Thanks. Yeah, I I then I don't want to say I like your recommendation, but I think your recommendation is the best option that we've got, particularly when we're looking in the long term about how we want to manage this. >> So, I will I will be completely content if nobody says I like

049your recommendation. This is truly a, you know, you have to pick You have to pick one and they all come with a weight that will have to be borne and that is a decision, obviously, that is a very difficult one to make. Ben. So, out of all the colors, which is the worst for transportation? We've talked about the best, but which would impact students the the worst? I think, generally speaking, Avalon given its distance and I'll sort of toss out with Avalon as well. It's a satellite So, the satellite zone aspect is also problematic given a lot of the conversations we've had about the potential move, you know, one house or two houses down kind of thing. So, those are aspects that are considered. But yeah, from a transportation perspective, I do feel it's Avalon.

050Nick, can I add to that cuz I've talked to our transportation department as well. That Stow Road area that is challenging as well. That it's you know, you when you go through, it's all conservation land around there and the neighborhoods are kind of in and out. And [clears throat] because there's no you can't actually get directly to Boxborough from there, it would provide a longer bus route for students is what they were were sharing with me. Lakshmi. Hi. Thanks for the research and the analysis. I'm wondering, I mean for each of these, the only difference is how much time it is between Acton and schools and Boxborough, right? I mean, whatever time it takes to pick up the kids in the neighborhood is going to be the same whichever school they go to, right? If

051if it's yellow, let's say it takes about 15 minutes to pick up all the kids. It takes as much they go to either Parker Damon or Boardwalk or Blanchard. So, the difference is how much time it takes from one school to another. It's not about how far they are. They have to come down to that space anyway, right? That area of the towns. I think so, given what you're saying, yes. So, what's the difference? What's the time difference? When an Acton district when an Acton school school bus comes, what's the what's how much time does it add to come to Boxborough? It depends I think on the route. So, for instance, there's the main thoroughfare that lip runs east-west into Blanchard. And so, the closer you are I would imagine the more efficient time it

052takes to get in there. The one other piece I will sort of flag to is that it's the time to collect up the students, but it's also the number of buses and um I like so for instance, right? 45 and 46 create a slight complication because of how spread out they are, whereas the other areas are more geographically, you know, isolated or rather focused. And so, again creates a little bit more of a strategy. But to your point, I would want to confirm with the transportation department, but I think we're talking an additional I would guess 5 to 10 minutes going from Boardwalk to Blanchard. Okay. So, Assuming assuming you're driving past, you know, Boardwalk to go there, but there are other routes to get to Blanchard without having to drive past the two schools.

053Okay. So, you said 85 the the Stow Street, you had issues because of the constraints on entry and exit. Those are there no matter whether they go to Acton school or Boxborough school, right? That is true. So, they have to come out onto that street that lets them navigate to whichever school. So, we are talking about 10 minutes for any bus that has picked up kids to come to either Acton school or Boxborough school. We are talking about 10 minutes. That is true. Peter, would you agree with that? Okay. Thank you. Yep. It's basically if if for instance they the downfall of purple is that we're probably adding 5 to 10 minutes of a bus ride. The same kids will have to get picked up by the bus and go to Parker Damon in this

054case or go to Blanchard, which would be an additional 10 minutes. I think I drove this the other day just to take a look. Um I think one of the the things I found in that area is as you get in one there's there's no sidewalks around there, so it's tough to get back to and from, which is typical of many of the areas of our towns. Um but to get in and out of those areas for the buses from talking to Jen Lashua in transportation was particularly challenging. Um but it connects into Acton in a more direct way than it connects over to Boxborough. Uh because in order to to get to Blanchard, you're actually kind of winding up through that area toward Boardwalk and then heading over. Um I mean, you can go

055Summer Street, too, but that is also traveling through a couple of different zones. You know, I'm not the Acton maps expert, certainly, but I I I can see what transportation was talking about when I I heard that as a challenge. Okay. But would would you would you agree that 10 minutes lip is the additional >> estimate. I I don't know how I wouldn't be able to estimate that well. Okay. Thank you. Andrew. A little bit of context on that. I live in near that area and it will take if I'm in my car and don't have to pick anybody up every three or four houses 15 minutes 18 minutes to get from where I am to just past Blanchard. Um that's without being in a bus, without having to stop on railroads, that's without having

056to um >> [clears throat] >> manage a bus in Acton traffic. It's once you pick up the kids and that in itself is you got what? 85 people there. You probably have I don't know, three dozen, four dozen stops because we have a tendency of our buses stopping at people's homes rather than stopping at consolidated bus stops. That's probably a 40-minute pickup. And add that 40-minute pickup from the beginning of that to the time they get you're talking close probably closer to an hour or more for the folks that are in the the 85 the Stow the Stow area to get to Blanchard. It's not as easy as any of the other places that are closer. It's not as easy anybody inside of Blanchard traversing down Central to Mass Ave to get to Blanchard or

057Central to Summer to then cut over is not an easy way to go. So, it's it's not a comparable um travel time. Lakshmi. I I I understand the neighborhoods and the times. My kids have dealt with an hour even within Boxborough because of their bus routes. But I'm trying to get an assessment of on the decisions we make, what is the impact to the kids, right? I think that that's something that we want to We we I've lived here for 30 years. I know how these streets work, how much time it takes to be based on the day and which street we are talking about whether you're stuck behind a school bus or not. But we're trying to compare Boardwalk {slash} Parker Damon versus Blanchard. So, we just want to get a proper kind of

058assessment >> So, yeah, well let me So, I don't need to tell you the answer. You just tell me you want to minimize the time kid stays on the bus and then I'll pick the one that that wins. But then let me ask you this. If I can if I say the blue and the green is the shortest time on the bus Do you don't don't sacrifice walk zones? No, no, no, no, no. I'm not saying that. I'm saying it needs to be reasonable. I'm just saying it needs to be reasonable. So, I need to know, right? Like is that is that the priority? Is an extra 15 minutes on the bus reasonable? I think so, but I people may differ. Yeah. Let's Um I would think that it is reasonable and I do want

059to but I I might not be answering this properly. Sorry. I would rather prioritize the like neighborhood schools, you know, being close to the school that you are right next to. And essentially and I do want to thank you because the um the yellow and green scenario was sort of like what I specifically asked for. And I think that while it's not perfect and I think that there's always going to be trade-offs, I tend to agree and that's what I'm leaning most toward as the better option. So, just to reiterate geographical proximity seem okay. Vikram. Um I think after, you know, upending the lives and friend groups of over thousands of kids as well as their families into really extreme degrees as as we're now learning. Um I think the very least that we could

060do is give these kids the shortest bus ride possible and I think that was part of the idea of doing this in the first place. Um so, it seems to me So, one question I have is coming from Avalon, it seems looking that it seems almost equidistant to the three schools, but you can see that the road directly goes down to Parker Damon. So, it makes it fast for them. For the same way, you know, coming from Stow Street, Parker Damon makes it quick for them as well. In fact, you can see there's a direct line direct shot, if you will, from from Stow right to Parker Damon and then it's about 2/3 longer over to Blanchard, right? In the middle of rush hour, right? And slow zones and all sorts of stuff. So, I

061I think it would just be just, you know, on the other hand, as much damage we're doing all these children, right? What's a little bit more, right? They're they're they'll get they'll get over it, I think is what everybody says. The my concern with Avalon is it's a tiny little neighborhood and as was brought up before, satellites up in that area can be problematic, especially for high mobility individuals. So, I'm hearing some frustration and I'm just going to remind us that um we have some agreements about how we want to work together and I I hear your frustration and let's focus on trying to do trying to do what the best for our students that we can. Um I'm okay with the green and the yellow. I think the piece that I was thinking about

062the hardest, um which I don't even see up here anymore. I just have a really hard time justifying asking people who are blocks away from a school to take a bus to go to another school. Um I think it's really important that we empower kids and we empower families to help kids be as independent as they can. So um I was I'm I was came in prepared to kind of argue against putting the blue zone into this and it's not even here. So um I'm I'd like to continue this conversation if other people have other input into it. Lisa. I just had a quick question and this might be a Nick or a Peter question about the buses. So for whether it's the the purple area or the yellow area, is there a difference in

063the number of buses based on the number of kids that are estimated to be in there using the bus? Like could it be one or two whole buses that could get that area and then take them to Blanchard hypothetically if they were zoned for Blanchard or Yeah, I mean I think generally >> trying to figure out >> Generally speaking in this case, you'd probably have one bus for green, one bus for yellow and two for purple. Okay. That's how it would work out. Yeah, that's what I was That's helpful. Yep. Thank you. Andrew. Yeah, it would be nice to get to that level of operationalism with this uh knowing the number of buses, knowing the number of students per bus is knowing the amount of time that it takes from these rough areas to get

064to the schools and being able to compare them like that. I feel like you know we're we're seeing a map that doesn't have streets not listed on except for main roads. And we're seeing a map that has numbers but not necessarily numbers that talk to upper lower or talk to ages or even contiguous students inside of homes. And I just feel like there's like we have a vibe for what you're suggesting but we don't have all the details and I feel like I'm at a loss with some of that. It's so I'm at a loss cuz you guys aren't telling me what you want to value. >> [laughter] >> Like at the end of the day, I I hear you but like tell so I I can't if you tell me like to your point

065about what you're trying to get at, right? Which is I think time on the bus. That's a part Have you driven these roads? >> Yes. And so you know it can it can take a lot of time to go back and forth. then is that is that the high priority? Like if that's the case, I can give you an answer. I think it's data that helpful for us to determine whether it's a priority. >> I have given you guys a lot of data. I need I need values for which to make a decision. Okay, I'm going to take a stab at this. Good, please. >> Um if you're within walking zone of a school, I think that should be a priority. And then I think we should try and keep our bus rides short cuz

066shorter bus rides are better. Um and then I think we should be looking at long-term sustainability. We've got to build something that that doesn't bring us back to doing this again. So that's my stab. Am I missing something that's up there that should be neighborhoods. Um So yeah, just to be so that eliminates the blue, the orange and the teal. I would say the Avalon. And so where we're coming down to is a choice between the green, the yellow, the red or the purple. Okay, so that's >> and generally speaking I would have to do some math with the purple is kind of out there. So it really comes down to the red the green, the yellow and that's it. Okay, so that's my stab at it. Does somebody have something different? Pickering. I'm sorry.

067I I didn't quite understand why why Avalon would be taken out of that. I didn't understand the rationale. I I just in terms of the satellite boundary. Like there's a lot So yes, I I think and I would have to run from a distance perspective. I hear you. It's almost the same but I would have to check on that. I don't think it is the same. But two from a satellite perspective, that to me is setting up problems for those kids up in that area. I I would like to know two things. One actually what is the bus ride time? I guess this from transportation probably be best. The the ride time from Avalon to each of the three schools. Um and also I'd like to know how the how the community in Avalon feels

068about this either way. Um because that seems that that might be a a viable solution but I I would I want to hear feedback on those two things. Understood. Does somebody else have a different take on um how to weight these? Okay, so um Adam. Sorry, I do. Um I I want to be careful with the the um Arlington lower red zone. Um if we're respecting the Patriots Hill touching that walk zone, Arlington uh the the Arlington lower also touches a bit of the walk zone. Um so I just want to be consistent. Um So again for me that that's where you get to the green and the yellow. Um I I also recognize that Stow Street may have the numbers and to Lakshmi's point, picking up the kids inside that region and is is

069a set amount of time. I'm not going to say regardless of where they go because if they're not part of the satellite zone to Blanchard, then transportation could reroute differently with neighboring streets and so it may actually result in shorter bus times if they're going to Parker Damon or um Boardwalk. So I Yeah, I I I That's why I'm still leaning towards north of Route 2 and the Ethan Allen. Pickering. Um another thing is to Andrew's point, these are sort of I don't know. Nebulous fuzzy, I think is probably good way to put it. So we don't have actually clear street delineation. I'm in agreement with the Adam that that I'm leaning towards uh Ethan Allen and north of two. Um there is significant pushback from the north of two community. Um but that's why

070it'd be important to nail this down and perhaps we can alter that region to a way in which they're okay with it, you know? And maybe then that would allow us to lock it down. Um I I we haven't heard much from Ethan Allen. Forgive me if I'm wrong about that. Um but I think really a a lot of information, you know, a lot of feedback has come back from the north of two region. But if we could sort of morph that slightly to where they're content to a large degree, then perhaps that would make it more more viable. Could Sorry, could you define what you mean by morph that area for them? >> Well, I mean here we see a just a yellow blob, number 46. We don't actually see streets or houses on

071these kinds of things and we're getting feedback from people saying, "Well, this is dividing this in in these areas." If we find out specifically what those are and drill those down, perhaps we could alter that to everybody's liking in that area and that would make it more palatable. So that's unlikely uh just given the fact we spent a lot of time especially with the Department of Tran the Transportation Department to kind of create that. We acknowledge that the yellow area is a very difficult area to kind of cut out and cuz there again it's widespread and it's open. So I respect that. I think a better solution potentially is around the transition policy um that we can talk to in a couple minutes. Um but ultimately at the end of the day um yeah, that

072is a a tricky area given the the sprawl of the entire, you know, the entire neighborhood. So we could sort of work around the margins but we do need about 46 uh families to move. But do you feel that that's something that could be investigated? I mean yes but unlikely anything to be coming of it. But I can certainly look at it again. All right. Adam. I I guess um Nick, if we come to you with the consensus that green and yellow um are the ones that we want more in-depth information. We want to do the um interactive map. We want transportation to run the numbers on. My my sense is we maybe get one shot. And so if we want more information, we're going to get more information on on on one shot because

073we don't have a lot of time left. Yeah, let's let's put it this way. I I have a better better solution for you. What would have to be true for purple to win out over green and yellow? Don't ask me. I'm not voting for purple. Lisa. Oh, shoot. I touched the thing. Yeah, you touched it. >> [laughter] >> I think two things. I think when I was asking my bus question, I didn't ask it exactly the way that I meant to ask it. Um not just with number of buses but it would be the difference in the amount of time that they spend on the bus and search the point that the others have made. If they got if that neighborhood gets its own, whichever one we choose, whether it's, you know, the green and

074the yellow or the purple would they because they're going all the way to Blanchard, would they get their dedicated bus to that neighborhood ensuring that it cuts down on the bus time cuz it's not picking up other neighborhoods and not going or meandering anywhere else. So I think that's what I was trying to get at. Just trying to figure out cuz I I just don't want to see kids on the bus longer. And I also like I'm thinking about those commute times. Yeah, totally. So if I could say back, um ideally one question one is if it's an over I think it might be a slightly oversimplification but we have one bus for green, one bus for yellow and two for purple. What's the difference in travel times? Okay. Andrew. We know what bus stops

075we have inside these areas you're suggesting. We know the timing of those bus stops currently. We know how long it takes to collect the kids. We know how long it takes to get to those schools. We have kids probably going to Blanchard from there. You asked what it would take to say yes to purple. Place that data on top of this map and come back to us so we know and that will alleviate some of the concerns that we have regarding the amount of time that it'll take on the bus and that'll allow us to be able to balance the bus time with some of the stuff Tory said like walkability and the So I'm I'm asking what would you have to see? >> have to see that to know what. >> So but I

076can tell you purple is going to take longer to get to Blanchard than the other two. Does that mean So you're not giving me any >> to take a long time, Nick. I'm just asking for data and you're giving me pictures. >> And I'm giving you data but you're also you are not telling me what you value. We have spoken >> can Cuz I can answer that question for you. I would like that answer. We've spoken here about how we want to minimize the amount of time for kids on the bus. We've spoken here that we don't know the time to get there. We know roughly it takes longer to get from here to there. We know we get stuck in traffic. But we also know we have data about buses that currently run. Right.

077And that you have a map that suggests the spaces that we're going to. So why do you Why do you need to see the >> I can put these two together. >> you which one is quicker, why do you need to see the data? Just tell me that. I want the one that's quicker. We're here to make a decision as informed as we can. I'm asking you for more information. I'd like that more information. How do I value that information? I think that's part of our deliberation based on the the data you present to us. I'm sorry that I'm asking for something you don't want to do but we need to know how long this is going to take. So and and I'm telling you we are running out of time and so if you

078tell me what your decision-making process would be, I can get that answer without having to come back to us. >> have consensus on any of these right now and I know that I've heard four people ask how much time does it take to do these things. Not what takes more, how much does it because that could change as well. And all I've seen from you coming back to us is I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to answer your question. Answer the question, man. You've got the data. Plug it in. So So I'm going to ask you a question though. If it takes longer for purple to get to Blanchard than green and yellow, will that change your decision? It will inform my decision. Yes, sure. >> So So then So I'm going

079to come with that data and then you're going to ask for something else. And so that's why I'm asking. I need guidance in regards to how to help make these decisions. >> The guidance I'm requesting right now is for us to have the data for how long it takes to get inside that place to pick up all those kids to how long it takes to go from that place to where they're going and what the return is. That's all I'm asking for. Okay. It's Glenn's turn. I think we have enough data. >> [snorts] >> I don't think we should be going row by row here. People feel strongly about this. The green and yellow zones look good to me. I think we should move on to the rest of the agenda. Walk zones, shorten bus

080times and balance utilization rates are good values to me. Vikram? Um just to follow up on the point Andrew's making. Um that uh hello. Um Nick. So the point is if you are traveling if you you've been in New York City? Yes. So you're traveling from like 14th Street to 23rd Street, right? It takes X amount of time, right? If you're traveling to 25th Street, it takes X amount of time. You're going to 125th Street, it takes X amount of time, right? >> Right. It's different 14 and 23rd than 23rd, right? So the point is okay, we know that going to Blanchard is going to take longer. The question is how much longer? We can see those numbers say okay, well if it's 2 minutes, well that's reasonable. If it's 20 minutes, well that's a

081much bigger deal. And that's why well if it's longer or shorter, that's why we need the detail. Okay. So what would So if I if I show you So this is the point though. Yellow yellow and green is quicker than purple. How much? Okay. So tell me how much you tell me before I tell you the data. How much would it take to change your mind? >> We need to look at the data to determine >> I can tell you it's between 0 and 20 minutes. So is 5 minutes going to change your mind? Is 10 minutes going to change your mind? What's it going to take? >> Well, it depends. On what? >> It depends because I want to see for all three schools. Let me Park Damon, let me Boardwalk, let me Blanchard

082and I want to see the time difference because actually I live Let me finish. >> if it's 10 minutes, is that too much? >> I live here and I drive on these roads all the time. I get that. So I know I don't think you really do, Nick. I don't think you really do because we're asking you for this data. It's available. Please just give it to us so we can make our decision because Okay, I have Your job is not to tell us what we need what we don't. Enough. All right. Demonstrate professional and collegial relations at all times, Vikram. You signed this That doesn't mean shutting someone off. >> Hey guys, take a breath. It's disrespectful. We're We're getting All of us take a breath. We're getting heated here. Lila hasn't had a

083chance to talk yet. Let's hear what she has to say. Wild timing. Um all I was going to say is like I I think that there is an opportunity to disagree here and I feel like um it is an incumbent upon us to treat people who are here working with us like they are humans with like feelings and that that that they're here as as equals with us. Um and I think he was like taking notes when you were like Nick. And so I I just am offering us an opportunity to reflect on how we're acting in this meeting. Lakshmi. Okay. Uh thanks for all the information and I really apologize for the tone. Um so I think that was the reason why I asked the question I asked the first first time. What's the

084difference? I don't think we need to go into every house-to-school mapping. I don't think that is going to serve our um as any good. The goal is approximately how much more does it add and I think we have established 10 to 15 minutes. I don't think we need more than that. My kids, having lived within a mile of Blanchard, have gone from 10 minutes to school to 1 hour to school in the same bus route because they've been picked up in a certain order. I think that goes to the transportation department. That goes to the school, the administration later. I don't think those those decisions lay here. We know how much it is and I think we can figure out the bus routes later. My one last point on this is I I hear you

085and I will get you the time. And I when I present you the final and here's the thing, the next meeting it's the final set of scenarios. So if I'm going to come if you could tell me, right? If it's more than 15 minutes more from purple than the green and yellow, don't bother bringing it. That saves us a lot of time to come up with other solutions. But if you guys cannot provide me with that, then I'm going to come with other you know, like I'm I'm wasting time doing other things that I guess you will probably shoot down but it would be nice to know now. Do we have a time? Just quickly, I just want to say I Thank you for that. I I just want to say that if we cuz

086the numbers we know were available. It's not like we have to go research them. So if we can see those quickly, we can turn around and say okay, this is what's reasonable when when we see that. Does that sound fair? That's at the next meeting though. I can't I can't I mean I mean no. Yeah, if I could send you guys that information tomorrow and you email me back and be like yep, that's let's cancel that. I would totally do that. I can't do that cuz I have to come back to your school committee meeting. Right. I I would but but we can individually say what we think about it. Is that is that fair to do? So I think what we can do here is let's just decide what what time is too much.

087Right? Let's give Let's give Nick that guidance and then he knows that as he's doing the analysis, if it busts that timeline, stop because he's already exceeded something that we think is too much. Um I heard 10 to 15 minutes. So do we have Okay. Do I hear 10 or do I hear 15? >> [laughter] >> Um can I just Just to because actually I have two kids who are in the school and they take the bus. I drop them in the morning because if the morning they took the bus, it would be like 45 minutes. When I drop them, it's 5 minutes. In the morning, you know, in the evening they come back, they're like the second or third uh stop and so there it takes them 10 minutes, right? So there's a big

088difference between the morning evening drop-offs. So 15 minutes, that depends on the morning evening. There There are some variables that come into play here. So saying that 15 minutes, are we talking 15 minutes in total for the Difference. So I'm saying that it's not it's not oh well 15 minutes. That that mean that's meaningless in the larger scheme if you actually boil it down. Vikram, we're talking about the delta. So the delta between green and yellow and purple, right? So if it is more than 15 minutes difference between So let's just say it's a 30-minute bus ride to green and yellow and purple is 46 minutes. So we're over 15. And we're saying each way. Yeah, both ways, right? >> you go to and from, if it's that total time that it takes morning and

089evening add to together, that difference? Vikram. I'm I'm just trying to be clear. >> No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm talking about the difference between So whatever the total time is X. Oh gosh, we're going to do algebra. How many of us have algebra one students right now? Total time to to green or to yellow is X. If purple exceeds X + 15, stop developing purple. I'm just saying there's a difference to and from and from and to. Okay. So now we have an X and a Y. Right. So we have to take So longest ride. Let's go longest ride. That work? Whichever one of those two is the longest is now X and if if purple exceeds that by 50 it's over X + 15, we stop. Can we take the total time

090to and from for each individual school and and use that because I think that's going to be more accurate because it varies so much but total round trip I think is going to be more accurate representation of bus time. Okay. So you want to add That's going to be 30. A to B and B to A. Oh, we just added A and B in to get our That's [laughter] okay. From like purple to Parker and Parker to purple. Right. Just to thinking about how we would calculate this. We currently have no routes in our system that would model what the bus time is in any of these zones based on the new geographic model. Because right now, we can we can pick a bus and go by its travel time, but it's picking up students

091in all sorts of different places right now and going to different parts of the community. So, there is no existing data set that's actually going to provide us an accurate answer. And there's going to be wide variance between the first student that's picked up and the last student that's picked up. The first student that's picked up on a bus is going to have a significantly longer bus ride than the last student that's picked up before they get to school. And so, I think one of the challenges that we're going to come back with is you know, is there a specific household modeling to? Is there first student on the bus, last student on the bus? You know, what we don't have the specific bus stops planned. I I know I've met with Jen LaShawn multiple

092times in the transportation office. From the time we give her one scenario, it will take between two and three weeks to produce accurate routes. So, and I mean, we asked her to do this. Like, I I asked her to model what would it take to grandfather all the sixth grade, what would it take to grandfather, you know, acting students in Blanchard. And you know, 3 days later, she said, "Well, I've gotten through two Blanchard buses and one of them has 102 students on the bus. Or something, I forgot what it was, but it was over 100 students on the bus. Which meant that it doesn't work. Like, she had too many kids on the bus. So, it's it's going to be a really time-consuming process. I just want to make sure that the value we

093get out of doing that research is going to make sure that that's the decision we need. Um because I think it's going to end up being highly variable. And and I I think we can give an estimate, but I don't think it's going to be a much better estimate than going on Google Maps and putting in a starting address and an ending address and figuring out what the drive time is. Um I just one point to that. The The two and from, what happens is if your student A, right, at the top of the list, you're dropped off first and then you're picked up last. There's so it depends the morning evening the order is reversed. So, it So, it balances out sort of somewhat, right? So, if you have entire total trip, you have

094the shortest plus the longest and that that's probably, you know, is a And all the other things, we do have the the bus route app, which has all the data and all the pickups and drop-offs historical data for, you know, since the beginning of the year. It It does based on our current routes, not these. Cuz we don't we don't have any one route now that goes through either this area, cuz this is essentially a This is a large I don't want to call it Sorry, it's not a circle, but it's a circle that has a series of like housing developments on either side of it. Um we don't have one bus route in our system that I can point to right now that says, "Here's what that route is going to take for time."

095And I similarly don't just have one bus route that's going to pick up all these students that I can point to. Because right now, the students in both of these are going to different places. And so, that's that is the the the piece that I'm worried will be unreliable data even if we bring you some number. That That's And I we can go try and happy to do that. I just worry that it's not going to feel like it's really reliable data in the end. And I I think that's a great point. So, here would be my you we could either calculate, I think, what would be an approximate average time on the bus. Or we could calculate the average additional time on the bus. Which do you find to be more compelling? I I

096I think it's the additional time the bus. So, here my So, my problem with I'll just throw it out here, with Stow Street is I I would just I would feel horrible if those kids suddenly have this really long bus ride to Blanchard, right? It It's like adding insult to injury after we've like beat them up and then kicked them in the head. Now, we'll do that on top of it. It just seems wrong to me. So, that's my concern. I don't want them to have overly long bus rides and it seems that sending them to Blanchard based on this would certainly do that. Also, myself having driven those times literally thousands of times, I would know, you know. So, uh that's my concern. So, I I'd like some data that would mitigate my fears.

097So, your concern is not the how much additional time, it's the overall length of time. Which is what you said. Well, th- this is why I'm sorry. Like, I I I'm I'm beating a dead horse here and I apologize. Tell me what you're concerned with and I can alleviate that. Remember in terms of the pre-read, identify the problem, then we can come up with a solution. You tell me the problem that you want to solve and I will do the solution. Right now, some of you guys aren't telling me the problem and that's the problem. My concern is overly long bus routes from from 85. >> helpful. I can I can fix that or address that. Liz. Um so, sort of But sort of hearing that concern and also knowing how pressed we are for

098time, I still feel like purple is not feasible. And that's literally all we're talking about is the green and yellow and purple. Do we want to model both of them out or do we just stick to green and yellow and really get more granular with the details? And I would like to propose that we just stick with the green and yellow and don't even look at purple because it's going to be longer. We've heard that it's going to be more difficult in terms of transportation. Um and I just want to see what we're all feeling on that. All right, can I kind of get a sense Can I kind of get a sense of the committee on how you feel about what Liz just said? Lakshmi. I'll be proposing to kind of make a shorter

099list of the options we want to consider. I think what she is it's a valid point. We don't want to be all over the place. We really want to focus what matters and I think given the amount of time we can spare, I think we should narrow it down. Um I'd like to make a motion to remove um I We're not We're not We're not voting on anything. This doesn't require motion. We're I'm just getting a sense of the committee. Is there anybody who sees another viable option besides yellow and green that they want to pursue? Okay. There Vikram. Possibly Possibly Avalon, but that that depends on what that community thinks about it and also the the >> I will calculate that. But that that's it. But yeah, other than that, as far as I'm

100concerned, all the others are out. Okay. Any Can I ask a question? Is anybody else interested in Avalon? Uh Vikram, I'm hearing nobody else on the committee is interested in looking at that. What about I'm sorry about Avalon? Yeah. Come on. Avalon. All right. Of course, once again, okay, that's fine. Thanks. I would propose that we move this on to Let's Thank you. Yeah, okay. Uh all right. So, that gets us to scenario seven. Um as we had sort of detailed before. And in terms of scenario seven, there are some problems when it comes to this. Um and I do want to kind of keep this at a high level at the moment. To keep it consistent in regards to the other scenarios that we looked at, the biggest issue with this scenario is utilization

101at Parker Damon Upper. Uh as you can see, it's using 102% utilization. Now, the trick with this and I did not want to seem like I'm trying to trick anybody is this is this year's enrollment. Uh we have started to model out next year's enrollment and that drastically changes the utilization, but I did not want to introduce that as a new way to look at it. And that I'm giving you it up front in regards to how we're looking at it. Some people did ask about Boardwalk. Why is Boardwalk so low in comparison to Parker Damon? Boardwalk is so low because we need to keep space for the special education uh sections. So, again, the next time we show you scenario eight or whatever the case may be, we are going to matriculate all of

102the students into next year's grade levels along with move the special education to give you a more accurate picture of what next year's utilization will be. I do want to sort of flag um and I had it and I lost it. Oh, this year's sixth grade class, which I can show you in the appendix, is quite bigger than most other classes. And so, you are seeing that general trend downwards as we had talked about in terms of overall enrollment. Scenario seven, just really quickly, it does have consistent boundaries. It does not have satellite school capacity, bad hometown guarantee. Again, yellow for achieved for Boxborough. It does balance the student demographics extremely well. It does keep the recognized neighborhoods together to include the walk zones. It does include walk zones. And it takes into account the

103future enrollment trends in contiguous zones. So, um and I did not update this, but the interactive web app is live. And so, I encourage folks who are um interested it, if you go back to the old link, the old link is now hosting the new scenario seven. And we encourage excuse me, people to provide your feedback. All right. So, building a scenario. Uh We now move to the transition policy. So, if we're focused kind of on the the Blanchard zone and we know, generally speaking, the foundation in the walk zones, again, uh not taking into account some of the additional on the margin changes that we'll do. The transition policy policy is our last is one of the last two things we need to sort of align on. In a perfect world, um I think

104everybody would love for every kid to finish out their time in their building, move out, and then new kids come in. Um given the state of a K3-4-6 modeling, that's uh near impossible. We know, I think, the two areas that we could potentially entertain a transition policy on is the sixth graders, as was mentioned, as well as the Blanchard extended zone. And so, by that I mean, if we take the extended Blanchard zone that we've identified and say those kids will go to their campus that they're on. I say that, right? Not their building, but their campus. They finish out their time, any new incoming kindergarten kids that come in to the extended zones would go to Blanchard. We've sort of started to run those numbers and try to play it out. Generally speaking, if

105we try to and I should say, I'm sorry, the Blanchard expanded zone and any Acton kid who is going to Blanchard. So, we would and so, let me try to say this one more time. The grandfather options that seemingly could work are any Acton student who is currently going to Blanchard, they continue to go to Blanchard and finish out their time. Any kid who is in the extended Blanchard zone in Acton would go to their previous campus. They kind of marry each other up. It would probably result in a slightly lower Blanchard zone initially or utilization initially, but we think generally speaking the numbers could potentially work. The sixth grade legacy is highly unlikely given the spread at which they are around the entire Acton area. The only way, and I know a couple people

106were not too pleased with me tossing this out there, is if you chose to remove bussing for the students who lived within the walk zones, that would potentially open up bussing routes to help with the sixth grade grandfathering. So, what I'm asking for here is I need to understand from a priority perspective what you would want to prioritize. Is it walk zones? My My recommendation in terms of feasibility would be, given what I know to be true, prioritize the walk zones to receive bussing, prioritize the Blanchard expanded zone and Acton kids going to Blanchard transition policy with the sixth grade more than likely not happening, but could be a potential. That is sort of what we're recommending, but I would love to hear from you all in terms of what you would want. All right,

107I'm going to start down here and just work around cuz I see lots of hands. I just had a quick question about if we had the transition policy enacted to allow Acton families to continue with Blanchard, you mentioned that how that would impact the utilization numbers. So, I think I just want to have some clarification on my end. Does that mean if that were done on top of a Blanchard zone or having that Blanchard zone potentially later discussion being a flex zone, like which way that would push the numbers in Blanchard for utilization? So, yeah, I think if I understand you correctly, I would say the flex zone is separate, right? This would just be a complete just transition policy over the next 5 years. And so, Boxboro kids would go to Blanchard. Acton kids

108going to Blanchard would go to Blanchard. And then incoming kindergarten kids in the expanded zone would go to Blanchard. Everybody else would not go to Blanchard. Got it. Okay. I just And then that would bring the utilization of Blanchard to like 96%. What was the percent? Potentially. So, this is where if you want to do transition policies, and there's two ways to now think about utilization, um utilization can be thinking about in the capacity of the building, but it's also as what many community members have brought up as the average class size, which is what they're really interested in. So, we've started to model Yeah, do you want to Yes. Sorry. Sorry, real quick. So, just Lisa, your question was a good in cuz at some point I wanted to get to this. I've taken

109data from Nick's scenario seven and I've actually put that into class sizes because utilization rates, you know, Nick uses them, I don't. And I'm going to be honest, like utilization rates don't mean anything to me. What I What I care about as a superintendent is can my buildings fit the number of classrooms that I need in them and what What's the impact on class sizes, right? And I So, I actually worked yesterday and today with Nick's data to put in how would we program for sections and what are the resulting class sizes for that. So, I actually think it might be helpful before you talk about transitional policies to understand how that impacts classrooms. Um This is not my prettiest slideshow. Um I will say that we were more concerned with the data than making

110something that that looks nice. Um This is illustrative purposes only and I will say this is accounting for every current elementary student in the district and having evenly divided the NESDEC enrollment projections for next year's kindergarten class across the school. So, what we did is and Nick said this, he was basing his scenarios on this year's data. This actually bases what you're looking at for class sizes projects all of our current students up a grade and inserts kindergarten at the NESDEC enrollment number. Um and so, I just want to go through and make sure we're tracking the history of this a little bit. On the left column are the School Committee class size guidelines. All right, kindergarten 18 to 20 Kindergarten first, excuse me. Second and third grade 20 to 22. Fourth, fifth, and sixth

11122 to 24. Our current class sizes are right here and that was based on our October 1st enrollment report. Okay? When we modeled out throughout the entire budget process and all of the AB forward work, we modeled We Remember we modeled multiple enrollment scenarios and budget scenarios and we settled on model C was what we were projecting for and what we have budgeted for. That projected these average class sizes here. And when I move this forward district-wide, what you will see is we ended roughly here. All right, based on our current students. We will add some students between now and the start of next year. We'll also lose some, but typically we end up going up a little bit, not not necessarily down as time goes on. So, I just want to put that caveat

112there. I think our original projections were reasonable based on what we're seeing now. This is from the AB forward work and what School Committee voted on when we looked at how are we thinking class the number of sections per school might play out. So, we had Blanchard programmed. We essentially had, you know, and we were guessing at kindergarten cuz we really don't know kindergarten at all. Um but roughly 22, 23 sections in Blanchard. Overall, what we're not as concerned about lower and upper Parker, Damon, and Boardwalk, what we're concerned about is the total number of sections. With our appropriate classrooms for our multilingual learners, students with disabilities, students who receive instructional support, um who may not have a disability, but need other types of support, we know that the target for these two buildings is

113between 42 and 43 sections. Is what we're really looking for and that's what our principals have been working on in terms of how they build things out. And that is what we were projecting and that's what we we were working toward. And Nick has been working toward that. So, when you see lines that go different ways, it's because he's trying to make hit what we needed for our overall enrollment projections and do it in a way that can be durable over time, not just for 1 year. So, with in scenario seven, the only reason I did this is because it was the new scenario when it was up on the board. We could certainly run this for other scenarios given enough time. Um But if in pure geographic enrollment with yellow and green zones, we're

114not grandfathering anyone in either between Acton and Boxboro, we're not trying to grandfather sixth grade. This is just a pure geographic enrollment. This is roughly how the class sizes play out. And so, you can see the overall school capacity of Blanchard, you can see the number of sections is pretty much where we want Blanchard to be. Um and you can see what the class sizes are. Overall, they're pretty good. Third grade is problematic for us, right? Uh fifth grade, sorry. I don't I saw three sections. Thank you. Um so, fifth grade is the one that's that's more problematic and not where we'd want it. That said, it's not that far off of what we said it would be, right? But it I'm not saying we like it. I'm just saying it's it's within a student

115of what we had originally projected. At Boardwalk, we end up with 42 sections. And you can see what the class sizes come out to be. And at Parker Damon, we end up with 42 sections and you can see where the class sizes end up. This is a great way This does not um include any flex or buffer type zones. Right? So, this is purely just on the geography. And when you have a purely geographical enrollment, you will have fluctuations between schools in terms of average class size. One of the reasons to consider buffer zones and why communities like Arlington, Newton, Wellesley, you know, a lot of our comparable communities have buffer zones is it allows them to control more closely the class sizes across schools. I understand that that's a community decision about how to

116move forward with that, but that is the reasoning and that's why you're seeing some disparity between the the different buildings. There are 107 total sections that we programmed and Andrew and I sat down and went through this today multiple times just to make sure we were sure about it. Um we budgeted for 106 sections and I came to you at the last meeting and said we need we're holding one section in abeyance to be able to do. I have programmed that in and there were I forget where it was, but there was one place that ended up with like 27 or 28 students in a class and adding that section in allowed me to bring that back down and keep most of them within reason. It doesn't solve grade five here, but it does get

117to much of the other areas. Parker Damon, is that is that Parker Damon or that would be next year? This will be next year. This This is actually looking forward. Yeah, I took every student this year, promoted them. So, sixth graders here are actually our current fifth graders. This now is another iteration of that. And this goes to what Nick is trying to to talk about with you now is like what is the transitional policy? So, this still it's scenario seven, so it's still the yellow and green zones. And in this one um What did I write? Holy cow, I was doing this quickly. That the heading came in last. Um but this um Oh, this Excuse Yeah, this this did two things and we're not actually suggesting that this should be a scenario. I

118want to be clear about that, but I wanted to show you how I looked for problems, which is why I included this. On this one, what this does is it grandfathers in the Acton students who are currently attending Blanchard, but does not grandfather any students in the yellow and green zones. So, what you get is all of the Acton students still going to Blanchard and all of the students in the yellow and green zones moving to Blanchard as well, which means I mean, on face value it's too big, but I wanted to go in a database reason as to why I say that's too big. What happens essentially in order to manage Boxborough's class size at that point, it comes to 25 sections at Blanchard. Overall, it's still 107 sections, which fits within the school

119district's budget, but I cannot fit 25 students at 25 sections at Blanchard. I need 24 maximum because that is what the teaching contract is for our art, music, phys ed, library, things like that in those unified arts. So, I can't go over that and it's not practical to try and send a point one of something from another building to this. We'd lose a lot of money just on the transitional time and it's not not worth it. So, 24 sections is really the the max for Blanchard to be able to do. 22 and 23 is better. 24 would be the absolute max. Over at Boardwalk, now you see some discrepancies in terms of utilization here. Um and I think that's primarily because we were talking about the yellow and green to all the students in the

120yellow and green zones, which likely would have been at Boardwalk campus, get moved over to Blanchard, but there's no backfill from that. So, that's why you're now seeing different utilization. It changes how I would program sections in there because you know, adding one section or removing a section is a fluctuation of about three to four students depending on how many sections I start with. So, it really is a delicate balancing act about programming the right number of sections to get to reasonable class sizes, but this essentially gets us there, but as I said, it really doesn't work cuz that's just too many students at Blanchard. The next one was a purely geographical scenario for everyone. So, everyone's in a geographic zone, but grandfathers in our sixth graders to where they are. Um I know our

121transportation department has expressed some concerns. They're just really worried about it and they don't have a good way of modeling it out until they have one scenario to model. So, I think I I understand that and I just want to represent cuz otherwise Jen Lashon will yell at me tomorrow and say you weren't clear, but um Blanchard, you can see what happens. There's a couple of things in fifth and sixth grade, but I can't add a fourth section to that. It brings the class size down to like 18. Um and that's not we don't have the resources to be able to do that. So, that becomes challenging. Boardwalk campus actually, you know, it's okay, but the utilization is still relatively low below the 42 43, which means though that that gets pushed to Parker Damon

122building and we end up at 44. We have good utilization maps that provide for appropriate programming for all of our students at 42 and 43 sections. We can do that. When we get to 44, it starts to become more problematic. I will not tell you it's impossible. I'll tell you it's problematic and it means that the programming in that building will not be commensurate with programming in other places. That could be solved potentially by applying a buffer zone or something like that and trying to move students around. The more complexity we add in, the harder it is to build the scenario and by harder, I don't mean it takes more time. Harder, I mean I'm less sure that we can get to a good answer. Um is the the challenge there. So, that is when

123Nick said sixth grade is problematic for us. It I'm not telling you it's impossible. I'm telling you it's problematic, right? And that's So, that's why. And in in this one, again it's option seven. This grandfathers all of the Acton students who are currently at Blanchard, so they continue to stay at Blanchard and all of the students who are currently in the green and yellow zones continue to be grandfathered into the Acton schools. This does not apply to future students. We cannot get this to apply to siblings. We just we don't have a mechanism for that. Our transportation system will not be able to support that. That's going to be the challenge, but it does grandfather in our current students. And what you can see fourth grade, so we it actually shifts by one grade where

124the the problem at Blanchard ends up, but fourth grade is challenging here. Boardwalk actually looks very good and it's right at our overall unit utilization rate and Parker Damon generally looks good. This is bigger in sixth grade, but it's also well within what we were targeting based on model C. So, this this gets pretty close. But so, like Nick has to use utilization rates cuz that's how he does his work. That's not questioning that. That has to happen and what I'm hoping is as you see how scenarios play out, I'm trying to do the modeling on the back end because not only is this important to We have to now account for every student in the district. This is not about estimating anymore. It's about these are going to be kids in seats that have

125to go to school. Um and we're also trying to place educators and the longer we are working with varying section sizes between schools, the harder it is to finalize educator placements for all of this. So, you can see these are not the same models. Just look at Parker Damon upper. 6 7 and on this one. 5 7 6. Right? Now, that you'd say, well, isn't that the same? It's actually not the same because educators have grade levels they teach and things like that and that's required movement for people. And then like 6 7 6 7 down there. Oh, wow. Bad year for that. Yeah, I know I said it. Every you know, kids at home can watch this. Um but it actually loses a section over here. And so, that means that the educators we're

126trying to place right now, we need to get to certainty around that in order to to be able to provide certainty for educators. So, just there there is a chain of events that happens and I didn't mean to go too long with this, but I wanted you to really understand how all of the transitional policies will actually impact what we do in our classrooms. I I just had a quick question. How many How many students are we talking about for the grandfathering from Acton and Boxborough? Is that about 200? Is that right? >> Um It is from I think we [clears throat] we had to go really carefully with this because we had to account for all of any students in pathways, but also siblings and things like that. It's 67 students um that I

127know I know I didn't make that up. It's actually true. Uh there are 67 students who in Acton are in Acton and scheduled to attend Blanchard next year. There are more than that. There's actually I think 100 or something like that right now, but some sixth graders, right? And then you have students who are in pathways who will be moving, right? Cuz it does not grandfather certain groups in. Like I need to be clear. Grandfathering sounds good cuz it's everyone, but it actually isn't everyone, right? Um cuz Conant students, there's no way to grandfather Conant students and there's no way to grandfather students in our special education program. So, um those are two caveats that we just have to keep in mind. So, I know Victor was also Yeah, I That was That was my

128question. Okay. Um Liz. Um honestly, in the interest of time, I'm just going to come out and answer the question that you actually asked. For me, priority A sinks to the bottom. I would like to see um sixth graders in Blanchard and I think that by not offering, you know, I was worried that we wouldn't be able to provide that even with so much feedback that we've been hearing that people want um both the Blanchard um ability, you know, the Acton kids to come to Blanchard and to grandfather for the uh rising sixth graders to stay in their buildings. Uh but it sounds like this is actually a really good way to make that happen and it's just a trade-off of we've prioritized the walking zones for people to have those schools, it would make

129sense that, you know, we're unable to bus them to a different school. And so, I'm sorry, when you say Blanchard, um just the acting kids currently going to Blanchard, keep them and not worried about the expanded zone. Correct. The one that cuz I was going to say I was looking at one and it said if we did both of those things. If we do not bus the walkers, the then we can do both the Blanchard expanded zone and the current sixth grade. Okay. Yep, I got it. Adam. Hi. Well, one of my questions was for Peter and maybe if he comes back I'll ask it, but um I have first a sort of a technical question around bussing. And I'm going to look to Sherry cuz maybe she can answer it. Do we have an

130obligation to bus kindergarteners regardless of their distance from the school? Yes. I'm seeing nods. Yes, we do. Okay. So, my my concern would be Oh, maybe there's not a consensus. We're going to look into it, it sounds like. My my concern would be if we if we are and I would also feel like we probably should have options for kindergarteners um to have a bus even if they're within the mile of the school. That that kind of m- it goes against some of the savings that we're proposing to see um not bussing walkers. Um and I also want to recognize that, you know, we live in New England and there are snowy cold days and there could be a hardship for folks who um may not be able to walk to school. As much as

131I would love for them to be able to have that opportunity. And so, my worry is that if we're making stops for kindergarteners, if we're making stops for um folks who have challenges that prohibit them from being able to make that walk, then more and more people are going to want to take advantage of that um bus service even if they're in the 1-mile walking zone. So, I want to be careful with that gray area um cuz it it To me it says it's black and white. You do not bus anybody within a mile and they're all responsible for either providing their own parent transportation or walking or you provide bussing as we have in the past for everybody. So, I think I must have misunderstood because I thought that it was, you know, if

132we're going to do the sixth grade legacy, then we just wouldn't be able to provide bussing for the sixth grade legacies that are within a walk um walking zone. >> sorry. This is just standard all the way. >> every walking kid. >> Oh, then I retract that. >> Okay. Sorry, when he was talk- I was about to follow back up to clarify, so okay. Um my question for you, Peter, was um in these models, have you placed all of the special education students who are in um specialized programs? So, when we're looking at say Boardwalk Upper um with 403 students, that includes anyone who may be in Connections or Pathways who would be classified as an fourth, fifth, or sixth grader? Connections, Pathways, Lab, Compass. Yeah. And siblings. Okay. Great. Thank you. Um My statement

133to just close this off is I would choose that we do bus walkers and that we provide the Blanchard expanded zone um and uh sort of not be able to do the sixth grade legacy. There's no good choices here, but I think that's the one that probably solves um a couple problems and provides access for the most people. Um I would love to look at whether once we get these exact numbers out, whether we can do both the um the Acton students continuing at Blanchard and not and phasing in the the yellow-green zone with kindergarten and the sixth grade grandfathering. If we can't do both, I would prioritize uh the Blanchard. Andrew. Uh two questions. [clears throat] Um regarding the sixth grade, are we talking all sixth graders or just the Blanchard sixth graders? I

134think it's all sixth graders acknowledging that our Conant sixth graders >> Obviously, yeah. Right. I mean, all the ones that have the opportunity to. Yeah. And to clarify, they would go to the the campus, not necessarily the building. Yeah. >> Um other thing actually is is probably more of a Sherry and and Peter question. I know that we are reimbursed for transportation for buses for everything outside of that 1-mile zone. Um how does this scenario that we're talking about affect the um the funding that we get back, the reimbursement we get back, or um even impact the decision of bussing within that 1 mile? It's actually a mile and a half. We're reimbursed a mile and a half and over. Outside a mile and a half or anything outside a mile and a half we

135get reimbursed for by the state. For the students that are transported, yes. Okay. Can I so I think is it 80%? Just uh that's what I thought or is it full? Okay. But beyond that, too, cuz I think he brought up a a good point uh or keyed my memory. In terms of talking with the transportation department, it's not only cuz cuz I was thinking the same thing, let's add more buses. And given the challenge of getting actual more literal buses given uh bell times and bus drivers, um that is also a constraint uh that your district deals with as well. Yeah, it wasn't actually about adding more buses, but it was that now that we have de-centered buses and centered geographically, there's now a hard point of 1.5 miles from each place Yep. that

136could decrease the amount of funds that we get from the state because we're no longer sharing buses that go around. And that was really where the question was coming from. What's the delta between what we would have been able to got this year versus what we can get through the models that are coming through with that walker's zone now specifically tied to both the students who are attending the school and the schools themselves. And I just think it's an interesting question to try to figure out as we're going through all of this. So, out of the 67 students, if I mean I'm these are the if if scenarios. So, Peter said 67 students from Acton come to Blanchard uh next year if we if we do it, right? Continue. So, those 67 students, what's the

137distribution across the grades and the geographic distance? And what that The reason I ask is that complicates our transportation, right? So, how many extra bus routes do we need to run to accommodate those students to be transported to Blanchard and for how many years? Uh so, all very good questions of which I don't necessarily have on the tip of my tongue. Um I would say generally speaking um just anecdotally, uh there is a high propensity of Blanchard Acton students who are going to Blanchard to be close to Blanchard. Uh meaning, for instance, the green section that we were looking at, um 12 kids out of the Oh, wait. No, it's uh it's like about 10 to 12 kids out of the 20 that would go to Blanchard already go to Blanchard. If that gives you

138an indication. So, there is that propensity in terms of closeness. The grade spans do span across um all the grades. And there was one other question. You had it you asked a couple. So, how many buses do we need to cut run to cover this? That fell into the bus uh transportation department. She felt that was doable without making any big city changes, so to speak. Um it was the the sixth grade complicates the issue a lot more. Um and that's that was the extent of the information that I got, but I can try to get more information on that. Thank you. Yeah. Lisa. I just wanted to voice um support for the Blanchard expanded zone and uh that legacy for that and then also um prioritizing a safe uh bus rides for all students.

139Um I do understand a lot of, you know, the desire for some for the sixth grade legacy, but um I'm really interested in making sure everybody has a bus ride cuz it's not always safe. >> Yep. Vikram. Um just I I find that a really interesting piece of information coming in. I had no idea that we are now on the hook for any bus rides that are less than a mile from someone's house to school. That that's a very interesting development. I'm curious about the cost of that that that seems to me that's going to certainly be a lot more next year. Um regarding uh not bussing walkers with the 1-mile policy, um I can't think of any sixth grade legacy student who would say, "Oh, yeah, I want to stay at my school at

140the expense of kindergarteners and first graders walking in the cold and the rain uh to school." I can't see that. I think that we absolutely have to uh provide bussing to the 1-mile radius, in my opinion. Vikram, just to clarify, did So, were you saying that you said something about additional cost? What did you think that was from? >> Right. I I thought for transportation cost, if it's less than a mile, the district pays for it. If it's more than a mile, the state pays for it or a mile and a half. Is that right, Sherry? Yeah, so that's actually true now. That that >> Right. But the thing is now we have longer bus routes. So, now having short more shorter bus routes means that we'll be paying more because more of those bus

141routes will be a mile and a half or less. Not entirely cuz Conant the what you were s- not saving on Conant will now be saved. It I I hear what you're saying in terms of cost variation. I don't know if it's necessarily a guarantee that I'll be more or less. It might work itself out evenly. It It be nice to see those numbers, but that that's surprising cuz I I had no idea about that. I'm not sure if other people did, either. I will make sure to tell the district. Cuz that's not my job. >> [laughter] >> No, no, I know. >> Sounds Sounds like a a good budget sub-discussion for next year, when we actually have some data. Okay. Anything else on this one, Liz? So, I have another question that is really

142more of a question for Peter. Um since it seems that logistically we wouldn't necessarily be able to offer the sixth grade legacy, is there a mechanism where we could offer that as an opt-in, but opting out of bussing? Like we can't provide the buses for it, but allow families to potentially be able to legacy just this one grade, this one batch of kids. Yeah, I've thought about that, and I know the committee went back and forth on that early. I think if you look at these numbers, right? Like these are students when we talk about grandfathering, it's not who wants to be grandfathered, it's where like everyone's grandfathered, right? And and it's not optional whether you're grandfathered or not. I think the challenge will potentially be as we ask families who might either opt out

143of bussing or not, or who wants to be grandfathered somewhere or not, these numbers are going to shift on us with students that go back and forth, and I I think it's possible we will not be able to control for class sizes anymore. Um because I think once a certain number of families say, if more families wanted to go from Boardwalk to Parker Damon or Parker Damon or either way, one of those buildings' class sizes is going to get skewed. Um or similarly Blanchard. It doesn't It It doesn't matter. And so, I am worried about any options for that. What I, you know, we've now with principals detailed out a very clear timeline of what needs to happen almost like, you know, to the day between April vacation and the end of the year to

144do this. We can't We cannot do anything that extends the known placement of students beyond April vacation. Right? Like we we have to have locked in every student in our district by April vacation in order to do everything else that needs to get done, and communicate with people, and and make sure everyone knows what's happening before the end of the school year. So, I think you know, I'm not saying it's impossible to ask. I think I'm I would be very hesitant. I think especially with the sixth grade, it it needs to be you're grandfathering the sixth grade or not. Um I think the transportation piece would likely skew it even more. Peter, can you just put back the other slide? Which one? Uh the one that that the sixth grade is on. That one? Uh

145Yeah. Is that Is that the No, the other one. The other one. Uh this one, yeah. No, the the The one that seems to You have a microphone? Um the the the one that everybody seemed to be uh more in agreement with. I think Yes. I believe that one. Yes, thank you. >> This is the one like I have the like I have and I'm I want to be careful, cuz everything in me would love to grandfather sixth graders, right? Like I I'm empathetic to that, and I understand the reasons for it. And professionally, I'm far more confident in this than I am in our ability like when I see grandfathering sixth, what I'm also worried about is now what happens if we try to do this and this at the same time? Um we

146I'm actually open to trying to model it just to see what it looks like and bring it back for the next meeting. Um we can certainly model that. We have the data. It's just a matter of us getting together and trying to see what it looks like. And if it works, that would be wonderful. But I'm very cautious about layering choice on top of that for people. So, is this something we want to ask Peter to do? I personally feel comfortable with this. I I I'm feeling unfortunate about the the sixth grade legacy, but it seems that's a really really difficult thing to do based on bussing and a number of things. It seems a really uphill climb and possibly at the expense of bussing very young children. Um this seems to also make a

147lot of people uh happy, because they do get to stay where they where they want to stay, they're grandfathered in. Uh you know, the next generation coming up with then of course adhere to the the yellow and green zones. This looks to me like the greatest win of all uh of of our choices that are limited. Anybody have a different take on this that they want to share? >> [laughter] >> So, I think what I'm hearing Peter is that we want you to finish modeling this out with whatever changes we come up with. I think I'm hearing that we don't think we can pull the sixth grade off. Do we Okay, I see head nodding there, and that we want to bus everybody. And so, just to qualify, cuz they do want to stick to

148how I kind of asked that, right? We will attempt to do the sixth graders, but that is the third priority, right? Keep walkers, um bust, focus on the Blanchard uh expand um legacy, and then sixth grade if possible. If a miracle occurs, that would be awesome. Go for it. Awesome. Thank you. Uh Peter, could you switch the presentation back? So, one more conversation, and I think we'll be within uh the time limit for you to switch. All right, finally flex zones. Um Yeah, this hasn't changed too too much. Given the the nuance of what uh Peter was showing in terms of the uh average class sizes, right? The idea of the flex zone would be on an a year-to-year basis being able to shift um a certain number of students from going to one school

149to another school, and then remaining at that school. Um this obviously, and I've sort of said from the beginning, I would try to avoid using flex zones as much as possible, but I appreciate the fact you want to establish them uh going forward. So, generally speaking, um we can sort of I think come back with much like what we did with uh the expanded Blanchard zone, we can come back I mean, the entire district in essence could be a flex zone. I think what's more important is establishing the governing rules that you all feel are very important when it comes to the flex zones themselves. So, I proposed a set of governing rules. I would love for you to nix them, add to them. Um this is, you know, just your principles on how a

150flex zone needs to be run. Adam? I have a clarifying question, cuz I just came to this realization as you were mentioning it, Nick. You're proposing three flex zones, the green, the yellow, and the hashed zone. As an initial idea for uh geographical zones, yes. And then those three zones could each have their own base school decided, and then the option to flex to either one or both of the other schools if needed. >> Yes. So, so to to that point, well, let's let's say Minuteman I The reason why we chose Minuteman is cuz of the geographical proximity. Somebody did bring up like, well, there's only like one or two kindergarten kids coming in, and sometimes that's all you need in terms of shifting uh to it. So, yes, there is that case. There is

151that sort of division happening at this moment in time in terms of a few number of kids going to either which way. I feel we we could again certainly choose other areas within Acton to be uh geographical flex zones. The I would focus on making sure that the Blanchard extended zone is also determined to be a flex zone, because if the enrollment trends do continue as you would expect, there could be a world where at some point you're like, oh, we can start to phase kids back to Boardwalk, or and that's an or, Boardwalk or uh Parker uh Damon building for the sake of the fact that it space is opening up, so let's start moving kids in. So, we're keeping people consistent. >> All right, now the last point of clarification. We do have

152the option, and I cuz I think we got some feedback on this from Minuteman Ridge, and I had the same question as well. We could say Minuteman Ridge is defaulted, I think right now, to Parker Damon. >> It is, yep. But we could say it's a flex to only Boardwalk, and not necessarily Blanchard, because it may not make sense for that small group Do you want to go all the way over there? Yep. Thank you. Vickram? Um so, regarding uh making these flex zones, um my concern is that uh kids who may be in third grade suddenly say, "Okay, well, now we're we're sending you to a different school." Um and this would go for Ethan Allen and North of two, as well as the Minuteman Ridge. That could we somehow guarantee that kids who

153have started at one building would remain at that building and not transfer to a different building? >> Yes, you'll see it's at the fourth bullet uh or fifth. Okay. Yeah, that's what you're saying. Fourth one down from the second section. Yep, exactly. And again, these are proposed. I tried to cover what feedback I had. Yeah, so I mean, I would make it You want to make it loose, so it's easy for the district to move kids, but given the the I think concern a lot of parents have, I would also want to add a lot of restrictions. So, you'll notice, right? Only may be activated when a school reaches 95% capacity. Doesn't say it will be activated. It's just that there has to be a compelling reason why and then the district can choose or

154not to choose to do it. And so just to follow up, based on what you're saying in terms of data trends of of growth in various areas, do you see that flipping anytime soon? Any any of these flex zones being flexed as it were in the next 8 5 10 years or I mean, do you have any like you know, years out that this may occur a flipping? Uh not off the top of my head, no. I really depend Nick, one Oh. No worries. Yeah, say that again. Yeah, no, I said uh no, not like I said, I would love for you never to use the flex zone. That would be my goal in life until potentially shifting back to Acton schools. Nick, can I just add on to that? I think one of the

155things and maybe you can jump in here if this is what you were talking about cuz I know we've talked about maybe this idea before. The goal eventually is because Acton enrollment is projected to continue to decline, I think the goal eventually is to be able to return both the green and yellow zones into Acton schools once the Acton enrollment declines. So, you're it's essentially treating that as one of these flex zones, but right now we know with certainty that it has to be at at Blanchard because of what the enrollment is. So, that's So, I think that would be the place where I think maybe over time there's some capacity to do that, but it initially no. And then I think the other one I think right now I don't know. I don't have

156a forecast for that uh a a number of years. Um I think that's going to be I think that's really hard to predict over time. Not anytime Apparently, I'm the only one who gets to talk. That's disturbing. Yours is dead, too? Yeah. Yeah. You you guys Something happened on your side. They're all Yeah, all of them. Come over here. No, it's only yours and Uh-oh. Try it. Testing 1 2 3. Ah, yes. As as I was saying, um no, so so Peter, in your estimation, it's not anything that would be happening in the in the relatively near future. I mean, not next year or 2 years or something. Yeah, I mean, you would have to >> [sighs] >> I mean, I would say no earlier than 3 years. That's being conservative. Let's Putting on my

157big picture hat, I agree with this, you know, sort of the ceiling if a school reaches 95% capacity, then that would trigger. Do you think that it would make sense to also put in a floor whereby and this is me, you know, fast forwarding 15 20 years, if we have moved everybody back to, you know, the Acton students back to Acton, you know, should we put something in place where, you know, we don't want Blanchard below 75%? I think it's a great idea. Thanks. Uh a couple of things and then Nick, a question for you. One, I definitely want to emphasize well, let me add if if people are interested in seeing how some neighboring school districts use buffer zones, I actually recommend looking at Arlington public schools. They have a great page on not

158only their procedures, but also the mapping and and how families can understand it. Newton also does it as another place. Two, I definitely would strongly recommend affirming to families that once your family is placed in a school, it does not change. So, the idea of flex or buffer is not about an individual family's vulnerability to changing if you're in a certain address. It's about for people who actually move in for the first time and are newly registered. So, I do think that's important cuz I appreciate a family saying, are we going to get yanked and toggled all over the place? The answer is no. There is no district that that does that for a variety of reasons. So, I would I would say that. The The question I have, and this goes to your point,

159Peter, when you were talking to Nick about utilization versus class size, I'm wondering two things. One is I wonder if the threshold is really about capacity as opposed to class size needs because you could have a scenario where you're under a certain capacity, but you're in a certain grade where for whatever reason, just dumb luck or bad luck, you've got a bubble or you've got more kids strangely moving in in that particular grade where you've got a challenge. So, that's where I do wonder if it's less about overall utilization and my worry My worry is not about utilization just like Peter. My worry is about what happens when all of a sudden we only have three sections of fourth grade, we've got a bunch of kids who move in and now you have class sizes

160of 27. That's my worry, even if you're at 90% utilization. So, for me, I actually think that there's a chance that I would want to use um buffer zones even next year to our advantage if for some reason you had some churn, which we have every year. You have people moving in and moving out every year. Don't know from where. Um that could both benefit and challenge us when it not comes to utilization, but when it comes to class size. Because in terms of capacity, you could let's say you have 10 families who move out of a certain zone and that 10 kids who move out of a certain zone and 10 kids who move in, your utilization stays the same, but if their grade levels are different, that's where I have a problem. So,

161I actually think that buffer zones could be used next year to benefit that piece where the class size issue is the issue. With that in mind, I am wondering, Peter, can you go to the actual like the big picture zone like option seven, the Yeah, or or your side Yeah. Is there a reason why we wouldn't and I've seen this in Arlington, so I don't know if it's apples to apples. They create buffer zones that basically take the actual border between two school zones and say, anybody who's within 500 yards this way of this the line and 500 yards that way, you're in the buffer zone. And then depending on if you move in and we need to adjust class sizes appropriately, you you could be placed at one or the other. So, that's what

162I'm wondering, rather than saying Minuteman Ridge, you are the flex zone, why not take between Boardwalk and Parker Damon, the green and the blue line and say, you know, this far this way and this far this way, you're in the buffer. If you're someone who newly moves in, you potentially could be placed at either Boardwalk or Parker Damon depending on the grade level that you're going into and depending on the class sizes that we have. That doesn't address the the Blanchard um Acton question, so I do appreciate your point about still keeping those zones as flex as the other way, but when we're talking about class size, that's my concern. It's not about utilization, it's about class size. Great idea. Yep. Thank you for raising that, Andrew. You I was also wondering about class size,

163but I think you laid that out better than I could have. Andrew, you're next. Uh yeah, utilization class size or capacity are things I was curious about, too. Capacity seems to be like what the fire marshal says you can have in the building and utilization ends up being something that's more specific to what these kids have and also something we haven't really talked about, which would be the student to teacher ratio, which, you know, there's a delta now. We're going to end up changing that a bit with what we're doing here, especially with, you know, all the things that are happening. But that's not my question. Um My my my question has to do with two things I've been thinking about with regard to this. Um the first one has to do with the governance,

164but not the governance from what we're saying, but the governance and the opportunity for the parents to be able to have some conversation about this. We don't have any way for parents to have a voice or agency in being part of this. And one of the problems I think that we're going to have as we enter into this new era is that we'll have parents who maybe come into the school district who are in this flex zone who have kids next door to them that are going one place and they're going to be told they're going another place and they want to try to find a way to be able to get back. There's also just the general issue that comes with going to a particular school. I know, Peter, you're being very thoughtful in

165the way that you're looking to place students, but I also know that there's certain things that inside our schools now, students have relationships with the support staff of the school to provide them with different types of safe areas for them to be a part of. And being able to have as a parent some agency in this that could play into the governance here, I think is important. We haven't talked about policy for governance and how to bring parents into the conversation, how we're going to bring students into the conversation and I think it's important. Um But the real thing that's been playing in my head is something you mentioned. 3 years. 3 years from we start this, only one grade will be in the school that they started in. And that means that, you know,

166if you you are in, you know, kindergarten, you're going to be in, you know, second grade, whatever. We're only have Well, not one grade, two grades, whatever. You're only going to have a small amount of the population that we're currently configuring for still in the schools that we configured them based off of. That means that while the parents, while the families are still in because their parent their kids are going from upper school to lower or lower school to upper school and from upper school to the junior high, we still have these properties that are aligned to the schools and we have the schools that are defined by the properties and the kids that are there, but we don't have the kids going there anymore. And you're not going to have parents leaving. You're just

167going to have kids vacating those spaces. And the kind of ongoing durability of the geographic planning that you're doing here will either mean that we have to go through something like this every three or four years because again, populations age out of the schools that they're in. Or have some other way of being able to manage a model that includes that includes that. So, my question regarding all of this and it wasn't something that mapped to the three things you had on the worksheet you gave us is how do we have this more strategic version of what we're looking at doing to be able to ensure that we don't have to go through all this stress every four years, every three years to be able to maintain the balance we want to have inside the

168schools. In regards to well, so first I think the geographical zones that we're creating are generally sustainable and what we're trying to get out here is determining the flex zone definitions to be able to move kids across. So, that that is your strategic adjustment lever that you have. Nick, I have a question. What's the difference between a smaller flex zone versus a larger one in longer term sustainability? So, I think there's two pieces to this puzzle. I'll kind of tie in I think a little bit where you were getting at. A flex zone, if you are if you have a flex zone with a particular set of students in it for instance, I think in my mind kindergarten would be your most logical sort of move shifting left or right to adjust for various either

169class sizes or utilization. So, a small flex zone would usually move one or two kindergarteners, right? So, part of the question you have to ask outside of a new kid moving in at a particular grade level is do you want to move the entire entry of a grade? Right? So, if if you have a flex zone that has 10 new kindergarten kids, do you move all 10 kids or do you have to randomly pick? So, to your point, you could add a little bit of a parent flair to this and ask for volunteers. Like do you have somebody who wants to go here or here? We need five. I would want to not or avoid having the district cherry picker choose which family was to go. So, you could put a rule in that basically

170says, if we're moving kindergarten, the entire grade within that flex zone has to move. That doesn't line up with Andrew's sort of like long flex zone. And so then if you have a elongated or a very large flex zone where you actually have too many kids that you want to move and you have to selectively choose, the question then becomes how do you selectively choose? That's where you could in theory have a lottery, right? Where okay, for incoming new kindergarten you tell us where you want to go and we'll kind of move you accordingly. Lakshmi. So, you said um the governance is kind of self-sustaining in this with this kind of allocation of students, right? Geographic. So, I was wondering what are the parameters that you would give them to say I mean, without flex

171zones, without buffer zones, how would they do it? I mean, would they have constraints on class sizes, maintain class sizes, capacity? I mean, they have constraints, right? So, we have to give them some flexibility somewhere. I mean, you do but you don't. There's plenty of districts in the United States that don't have flex zones and they deal with this all the time. >> Yeah, I I agree. But what what would you give them? In terms of the flex zones? Yeah, not not flex zones but anything to kind of work with all those constraints and still kind of come up with a model that looks good. Year by year based on >> Yeah, no. I mean, I I think flex zones could work. It's just depending on how you want to make it either incorporating, you

172know, parent voice or incorporating sort of a logical approach to the whole thing. So, like I said, most districts don't have flex zones. So, it's one thing that they generally will manage accordingly in terms of either adding a section here, taking back a section or adjusting it accordingly. Thank you. Listen. This might be policy or Peter or possibly a combination question. Um so, from what I'm understanding from our discussion on flex zones, would designating the green and the yellow areas as if it were to potentially to be just designated as a flex zone, would it be easier from a policy standpoint to be able to write it in about talking about the floor or talking about the ceiling for either way, would that make that easier to do if we're trying to future proof the

173scenario? It feels like one of the goals whether we're talking about overall building utilization or whether we're talking about class sizes within grade levels across different buildings we're actually talking about more around a range of deviation from the mean than we are a fixed percent, right? So, you know, if if all of our buildings were at 82%, we'd feel pretty good about that, right? If all of our buildings were at 50%, we'd be doing this again, right? Um but I think what we don't want to have is a building at 95% and another building at 70%, right? So, that's what we're trying to avoid is variation and I think the same thing on class sizes. So, I actually wonder more if there's a way of and I don't know how this I'd have to give

174it some thought and we we could team up on it but I don't know if there's a way of talking about the idea of maintaining a reasonable balance across zones. If that's what I think I'm hearing is a concern that that's coming out. Yeah, so if I could build on that just real quick, what I'm hearing, right? Is like there's some level of like it needs to be predictable so parents can see it coming and it needs to be consistent so that if you join a school, you're staying in that school. I think the biggest question I have because I think I've gotten a lot of good ideas that I can put together is how much parent choice do you want? So, Andrew, you brought up a great point about that. Like what would you

175want to see? Well, truthfully, this is the first time I've gone through this on this side and I know this is where you do all the time and trying to understand how to manage for long-term durability is something I'm really concerned about and I'm not sure what the answer is. I'm asking for help with this because we need a model that will perform for us in a long-term basis. We need to be able to have some flexibility in it for a ton of reasons. Um and you have been very precise in the way that you've tried to build out the scenarios to align this incoming cohort of students to map to equity and demographics and socioeconomic and and all the other things. That will change. That will all change as the kids age out of

176the schools that they're in and we do not necessarily have the same demographic and everything following up. It's not that kind of a train. The people who are living in the places are going to stay where they are. The kids are going to stay in the schools but they're going to go to other schools. And I hate to have us go through this. I appreciate, you know, your thought. Kindergarteners come in, give them, you know, a lottery, give them an option, give them whatever. But I think it's something that we have to figure out because we're not just this is not just make a decision and let it go. It's it's it's a long-term engine we got to run and try to figure that out is why you're here, man. Vikram. Uh I'm I'm curious

177about how you chose the Minuteman Ridge area. Um like why why that particular? Uh it's in walking distance of both schools and there's a split between the current people going to both schools, so. No, it seems to make sense to me. >> Yeah, I mean, it was just and and I kind of like you could make the argument kind of what we're saying, right? Make the entire walk zone around the two schools a flex zone and then And and my other question is is this this means basically we're providing school choice to the people who live in that area? So, they would be able to decide which school they want to go to if it comes to it. If >> If if that is what you want, we're coming back to the I can come

178up with a flex zone and I have heard from plenty of parents, they don't want me to decide. Right? And then that's fine. And so, I can keep coming with you know, I've gotten some good ideas and and I respect the fact that, you know, I I am the expert here and but I'm not the expert in your community and I'm not the expert in what you all as a school school community want. So, when it comes to your that that is a great call. Yeah, we can make the flex zone if if you feel like that but I know when you guys when I say like the lottery, you guys laugh and like, oh yeah, we don't want to go back to that. And it's okay, well, what do you want? >> Well, we're

179actually here because we moved away from school choice. We that's why we're here. >> So, so yeah. So, from the context, if you don't want to touch that with a 10-foot pole, that's fine. Yeah, that's great. So, yeah, let's let's do it. Okay, we got a couple more people and then I'm going to mention it is 8:50 which was my mental note of if we go beyond this, we still have to pass a budget. It's going to be a really long night. So, I've got Liz, I've got Adam. Is there any I've got Lila. Okay, those are our last three. Go. All right, thank you. Um so, I want to make some suggestions then to the proposed governing rules. I think the third bullet point um I would like us to get to to rephrase

180the activation and I think I think the the best way to do it is to tie it to cuz I want this to be a durable policy. I want to tie it to our class size policy because if one changes the other will need to. So, I think Peter I sort of I heard you're sort of like referencing sort of the median class size, but that may change depending on what our class size policy is. And so, I think I think what I'd like to see is a proposal of the activation clause around you know, number of students below and above class sizes recommend school committee recommendation. >> and so, you know, utilization and and I'm going to do may, not shall, right? Just from a military perspective like you know, you don't have to

181do it, but it's up to the district if they want to do it. >> Yeah. And and then the other one I would like us to codify is that the Minuteman Ridge is a flex zone only to the two campuses. >> Yes. Okay, got it. Um and then the one that I'm kind of toying with and struggling with is I want to provide more consistency for those families in the green and the yellow zone. And so, I'm curious if you can identify the green zone as a flex to Boardwalk and the yellow as a flex to Parker Damon just so that it's it's your default is Blanchard and should we need to flex into Parker Damon, this is the group that's going to get flexed there. Um I'm I know I I think what I'd

182like to see is the feasibility of that just sort of as you sort of look at the trends, but the more consistent or more stability or understanding that we can give to the families I think would be a good idea. Well, I think to that point too, I would go and find some other areas in the Parker Damon so that then you have a a movement in across two schools that can help balance out, but I I totally hear what you're saying. And then the the last comment I would have in relation to the choice, I think we've got in the second to last bullet there the fact that there were that and I agree with it is that we're not looking for this to be a choice, we're looking for this as relief valve

183if we need to a balance class sizes and those decisions need to be based first on number of students that we want to put in a class and secondly by the needs of the students so that we're not overburdening a specific school with a certain set of needs. So, for me side class size would be the first, the second would be the needs of the students and and balancing demographics. And for me that precludes the idea of choice cuz if I've got 10 kindergarteners and I need to move five, I want to look at the needs of those kindergarteners and balance the the needs and demographics in the school before I go give a choice. Got it. So, Vikram it's going to be Liz, it's going to be Lila. Vikram, you've gotten to say a

184lot of stuff tonight. We have to pass a budget yet? We we will we will Can can I offer to just email me? That would be great. Can can we do that? Just email Super, thank you. That's Um Adam and I would entertain making the the middle flex zone from Minuteman Ridge a little bit larger to be able to provide more flexibility. Yeah, that's all. Lila. Well, I think Adam complicated my thinking a little bit, but I was going to say that um I I feel like this is we are assuming, but it's not explicit here around like if you have a student who needs to be in a specialized program that is building based, even if you live in a flex zone, that takes precedence over the fact that you live in a flex

185zone. Um Yes. I mean it yes. I will make that explicit. And then siblings it is that might actually be a place where there is a choice conversation with a family for our students who are in specialized programs whether or not siblings are staying with or going to their geographical. Right. Okay. That was hard. Good work everybody. What are next steps? >> to do this again. >> [laughter] >> Go ahead. All right. So, uh scenario seven is posted for people's feedback. Um Let's review. This has been a very productive meeting. Uh I have the priority for the Blanchard expanded zone. I have an idea of how we're going to try to attack the transfer the transition policy and I'm going to add layers of flex zones on top of that. I can come with more

186than likely two scenarios for your review next week that encompass all of these aspects for your vote. Does that work? That works and then as well making sure that we get data to Peter so he can do more class size at all. >> yeah, all of that data will come so you can look at the whole thing. The whole shebang. All right. All right, thank you all very much. >> Andrew, can it be an email? That's actually That's actually the question. If we have questions for him, should we email him directly or go through Peter to go to him? CC Peter. Perfect. >> Send them to Nick. That work? Okay. All right, thank you all very much. Thank you. All right, that moves us on to new business. We are on to the Select Energy

187Solar projects. All right, Sherry do you want to talk a little bit? So, Kate is here tonight and she can come up if anyone has any questions. She had put a memo in the packet with some pictures. And I don't know if anybody has any questions for her. This can be a first reading or it can be a vote. We have four PPAs on the table with leases that she can talk a little more bit more about. Yeah. Can I just do one quick preface in addition to what Sherry said? So, we have been working behind the scenes on continuing to try and build out solar opportunities. There are three new sites and in addition as you know, we were unable to move forward with the battery storage pack at Boardwalk campus. And so, one

188of the four options is an alternative to that that is a solar only project. And so, I just want to thank Kate because she's been doing a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes to get four projects ready to launch that could have some nice benefit back to the district. So, thanks Kate. Well, and I am I'll just take a couple minutes. Delighted to be bringing you a pallet cleanser. I think you're I'm I'm the team has been working hard on this. I'm proud to be able to put this in front of you. It has taken diligence and focus. The the Inflation Reduction Act identified a 10-year runway for solar that got changed last summer. There's a deadline approaching. This is a really wonderful window for moving on solar and lots of our colleagues are

189doing that around the state. And there are what you have [clears throat] in front of you is are four proposals to do solar installations, two parking canopies here on the main campus with pictures in the memo and Peter's somebody just pulled up Peter's just pulled up this is the rooftop of this building. Also rooftop at Boardwalk and then two parking canopies on this campus as well. So, the the three uh arrays planned for this campus would provide about a third of the electricity that this campus uses. The Boardwalk rooftop would provide about a third as it happens of the electricity used at Boardwalk as well. And the price is good. We've had two different we have two different projections and both both projections including the conservative highly professional one we we come out ahead. Um

190budget certainty is tremendously valuable as you will know. Um and it you know, also happens to move us forward on our decarbonization goals. I I a piece a piece of information that's not in the memo is that these contracts also have a 0% escalator. So, the price that you're seeing for um electricity, those actually I don't know that that's in the memo, but the price that we're signing up for is the same for the length of the contract. And some they're often structured with a 2% escalator to make the first year look better. In this case, it's the same price throughout the throughout the contract. I'm happy to entertain questions. I'm going to make you two rock, paper, scissors. Kate, thank you so much for this. Um uh two quick questions. Um the the contract

191savings that we're seeing here, that's the difference between what we purchase energy from Eversource versus what we would purchase energy for off the solar array, right? Yes. Okay. Roughly. I mean there's there's some more technical details there. Yes. Um and for all of these, um do we have any not we actually will will the installers have any um will they have to wait for interconnection agreements and approvals to be able to start and or energize the projects? Yes, of course. And they are those are already applied for. They're underway. So, engineering is not complete. I don't think they have they have positive signals back from Eversource, but I don't think they have interconnection permit in hand. I also want to mention the there's a 30% federal tax credit still in place. There's you know, it's

192been the pathway has been filled with potholes and so, there's some risk that I should mention that that 30% tax credit doesn't come through, but that risk would fall entirely on Select. They would cancel the projects if that didn't come through, but there's no risk to the district. And I I think it's unlikely this is It's all well established and these guys are pros, so. I have a third bonus question. I'm We're We're scheduled The The plan is to start these projects this summer, is that correct? Uh we'll see. They're stacking up projects as fast as they can. Um this The steel for in the parking lots will can only be done in the summer. I don't know if they'll hit that this summer. They can't order steel until these contracts are signed. Um and

193the rooftops they think they can do during the school year with minimal disruption, so. Awesome. >> to be determined. Thank you for the somewhere between $964,000 and $3,629,000 in district savings. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Really wonderful. Andrew. Thanks. I'm thrilled that we're getting solar back. Uh I was concerned we couldn't get the battery going and I know the boardwalk was built um to be with zero net, right? And I know this is not going to be the same. What's the difference between what we are anticipating and what we're going to be able to achieve now because we're not using batteries? It's a really good question. Yes, boardwalk was planned as a net zero building. The triumph of the building, I take every opportunity to say is that it was put put up right and really

194well and the and the building envelope is phenomenal. The system inside it is all electric geothermal small and highly efficient. The building is was operated built designed to operate at very low energy use. It's operating better than that. Better than designed. This year even better than last year. It's remarkable. So, you get one shot at putting a building up right and we we did a a great job with it. The The team did a great job with it. Where the electricity comes from is a secondary question. The plan was to generate a lot on site. That hasn't worked out. The most um valuable part of that plan was the rooftop solar, which is cheap cheap cheap to put in. Um so, it makes us money. Um the battery was the next most valuable thing cuz

195it's actually a revenue generator. The parking canopy was going to be kind of a wash. So, at this time it's important to seize this opportunity to at least put rooftop solar up there. Uh the other question um because we're not having the battery anymore, which means that we're not gathering solar energy during off-peak hours for the use of the building, are we now just pushing this straight through to the grid and where that's how we're able to get this? So, and how much of this is we're going to be able to use It doesn't matter. I'm really thrilled that you're doing this. Thank you for putting it in place. Yes, less than ideal. We wish we could put in a battery and I I uh I don't I think it's entirely possible that 3 4

1965 years from now we might entertain another battery proposal. The state is improving its permitting process. We could take a look at that. Um but at this time that's not an option. Um and so, what we're doing is using the grid as a giant battery, if you will. We're feeding solar into it when we have too much and then um pulling at night from the grid. One last thing, and this is actually towards Peter. I mentioned it during budget sub as well. Uh the boardwalk building was built with the understanding the parking lot would have a canopy over it. So, we have not only the networking and the wires and everything built into the parking lot, we have giant holes in the parking lot. What's the plan for boardwalk um parking lot if we're not

197going to have the canopy over there? Uh I'll just mention we What's What's in the under the parking lot is empty conduit. So, there's no no copper. >> Great. I think we'll probably just fill it in. Those those areas. Yeah, there there's It's all stable. We put We put sleeves uh on their on their edges and and and put the gravel in that. So, if we get a notion, we could have another vendor come in and plan to try to find the sleeves and put the steel up and put parking canopies over but it's not cheap and the 30% federal tax credit is about to disappear, so. Ben. Real quick question. Do you have a net metering contract with Eversource yet? And what is the risk if you do not get Um Let's see. I

198That's specified in the PPAs and in the interconnection application, so. We should be fine with that. I The question was one question about whether it's going to be on-bill credit. Um and that is also in the application that's filed and I've written somebody at Eversource to get a confirmation, but I don't anticipate any problem. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead, Adam. I move to approve the power purchase agreements and leases to authorize Superintendent Peter Light to execute these agreements along with any associated, necessary, or incidental documents. Item one, this It's a very long one. Item one, lease agreement and power purchase agreement pertaining to the solar project located at RJ Grey Junior High School, 16 Charter Road and 441 Massachusetts Avenue, Acton, Massachusetts 01720. Item two, lease agreement and power purchase agreement pertaining to

199the solar project located at the ABRSD High School Senior Lot, 36 Charter Road and 108 Hayward Road rear, Acton, Massachusetts 01720. Item three, lease agreement and power purchase agreement pertaining to the solar project located at the Paul P. Gates Elementary School, 75 Spruce Street, Acton, Massachusetts 01720. And item four, lease agreement and power purchasing agreement pertaining to the solar project located at the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District Administration Building, 15 Charter Road, Acton, Massachusetts 01720. For the avoidance of doubt, the PPAs are approved at the prices stated therein and if the price is subsequently reduced in accordance with the power options policies and school committee approve The school committee approves the superintendent to execute the contract amendment to that effect. Second. All right. That was moved by Adam, seconded by Ben. All in favor? Aye. Any

200opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you, Kate. Thank you all so much. Appreciate it. All right. That brings us up to the temporary use of Conant School building by the town of Acton. Um Peter, are you going to speak to that? Yeah, sure. So, um the town of Acton I The town manager approached me and we have since received the letter that's in your packet. Um essentially a request from the town of Acton if Conant's is going to be vacant next year to be able to use the Conant building temporarily um because they are anticipating, pending approval at town meeting, um that they would move forward with a massive renovation on the current town hall. Um you know, we would work out We would obviously need to work out details between the town manager and I because

201we will need to use Conant for some things next year. There's definitely going to be storage that we need. Um we anticipate we might need access to the gym for community education purposes, things like that. But otherwise, it would essentially be a vacant building. Um I think one of the reasons I wanted to bring this forward was from a a school district benefit, um the town would be assuming the costs of operating Conant um instead of the school district. Um we would still probably pay the bills because it would be our building, but we would just bill the town and and at least recoup the the utility costs for that. Um and they would provide, you know, the custodial maintenance, things like that um while they're using it. So, um it seemed like a reasonable

202thing to me to bring forward um and you know, if you are okay with it, I will start to work toward an MOU with the town um and negotiate what we need with the town manager. Pick one. Um as long as the polar bears are placed where people are happy with them being placed, I'm okay with it. I approve. Let's Okay. Okay. All right. Net net net, please. Try to get a net net net agreement with them where they're paying everything, so we don't have to. Okay. Awesome. >> Thank you. Well, that brings us to the final budget. All right. There have continued to be no changes um to the budget, so I am just projecting what the the vote language is. Um You know, just as a reminder, it does take a 2/3 majority

203of all members of the school committee in order to pass a budget um which is eight votes. Um so, just want to We do need eight votes in order to pass the budget. That hung us up a couple of years ago when we had to come back a couple times to to get that right. Um Happy to answer any last questions, but there are no changes to what we've we've been projecting, so I you know, typical is this meeting I don't do any new presentations. Go for it, Liz. I move that the committee adopt the budget of the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District for the fiscal year July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 as presented in the amount of $122,593,238, which is reduced by estimated receipts and available funds in the following amounts: anticipated Chapter

20470 aid in the amount of $17,566,746, anticipated state transportation aid in the amount of $2,619,357, anticipated state charter school aid in the amount of $75,000, anticipated [snorts] Medicaid reimbursement of $200,000, anticipated investment earnings of $300,000, estimated miscellaneous revenues of 23,500, and transfers from the following district reserves: excess and deficiency fund in the amount of $1,243,850, capital stabilization fund in the amount of $0 for a net amount to be assessed to member towns in accordance with the education reform law and the terms of the regional agreement and amendments there to as follows. Acton $82,830,682 consisting of a capital assessment of $4,739,398 and an operating assessment of $78,91,284 and Boxborough $17,734,103 consisting of a capital assessment of $1,935 and an operating assessment of $16,724,748. Second. All right, well done. Your practice reading warrants is clear. Good job.

205So that was moved by Liz and seconded by Adam. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstentions? All right, that passes. Thank you all. We have our budget done for the year. I'm sorry. I have a question. The regarding athletic fees, do we do we cover that or do we skip that? It's next. Yes. Um Now they're showing underneath the budget. Does it did we have a diligent snafu there? So Sherry, do you want to talk about athletic fees? Sure. We're looking for the school committee to vote an increase in the athletic fees for the upcoming 2026-2027 school year. We're looking to increase the per sport amount from $350 to $365, so a $15 increase. And we're also proposing an increase of the additional fee for the ice hockey or alpine skiing from $250 to

206$275. We want to keep the family cap at $1,200. And we also want to keep the junior high and senior high um extracurricular activity fees as the $50 one-time fee. So one of the things with the the main part of the athletic fee um and the the reason of the increase, we actually want to add a certified strength and conditioning coach, um which is something that most high schools um our size in Division 1 would typically have a certified strength and conditioning coach um that's accessible to all teams um in the athletic department. Um we don't have the money in the budget to be able to add that position, but the increase in the fees um families would essentially be increasing their fees in order to have that benefit for their students in the the

207athletic program. It's a significant benefit to students in large Division 1 high schools to be able to have access to that position and where it's budget neutral, we think it's a good good use and I don't think families generally would mind paying a few dollars more in order to have a significant upgrade to the program. Lakshmi. Do we have some kind of grant where if a student can't afford it, we do step in? Do we have scholarships available? For athletic fees. We have the whole financial assistance program. So if somebody fills out the financial assistance, we kind of go through the process and if they're eligible, it is towards athletic fees as well. Okay, thank you. Glenn, did you have your hand up earlier? Strength training has changed my life. This is a good use

208of it. Vikram. Uh just re- regarding the assistance program, there's a way of course that that people are able to do it with, you know, sort of on I don't know privately? Is that right? There's a method to do that privately? Okay. Andrew. Thanks. Um I get a lot of questions about this. I my kids are all over sports and so people talk to me about things, but one of the questions that keeps coming up um and is about how each sport charges 350 or 365. And the question comes is are these fees aligned to the sports themselves? Do they go into Where's the money go? How does the money spend? I don't think there's a lot of transparency in the community as to how once we gather the funds together, how it's dispersed and

209how it's used. Um cuz I know like there's outside groups that bring in lots of money to be able to have a sort with various parts of it. And it's different for sports than it is for clubs. As we say here, $50 one-time fee, join as many clubs as you like. $365 per sport, which means that if you play a sport in February or in in fall, spring and winter, you're at $1,000 underneath the $1,200 fee at limit, but still a ton of money and I know we upped it the last couple years even with the financial assistance, it can be a barrier for kids to be able to get into this. I'm just curious specifically right now, can you talk about where the money goes once it's collected and how it's aligned to either

210the individual teams or what happens with it? Sure. When Jim Scanlon, who's our athletic director, when he puts it together his budget, he puts two separate budgets. He does one budget under the general fund and one budget under the athletic revolving fund. All of these funds go into athletic revolving fund, so it helps fund his overall budget. It's sometimes for coaching, transportation, referees. He has a whole budget process he does. Those combined are our our fees that come in and our gate receipts that come in, that money also goes into that revolving account. So between the general fund piece and the revolving fund piece, it funds the whole entire budget for athletics. So it's not aligned to the sport, it goes to the department, the department parses it out to the sports. So if the

211sports themselves have issues with budgets coming to them, talk to Jim. We try to have enough money in the revolving account to cover everything. There has been a couple of years where the general fund has had to kind of supplement some of the revolving account, but no, it is not sport specific. So if the football team had this much money that came in and the tennis team had this much money comes in, it all goes towards the whole entire athletic program. Okay, I see questions. I actually have a quick question. Do you need us to vote this? Yes. Vikram. I'm just another question. Is are those numbers public on how he divides that money up or how that money is divided up from that that that fund? It's a public document, our budgeting. Okay. So

212it's not sort of arbitrarily as someone Okay, thank you. You know what, I'm going to actually suggest that we come back. We don't need this part tonight cuz it's independent of the budget, but we do not have a specific vote listed on the agenda for this, so we'll bring that back for next meeting. Okay, sounds good. All right. That brings us down to subcommittee member reports and we do actually have one we need to do. Does anybody from negotiations, policy or budget want to give an update? Go for it, Adam. Uh I have a quick one that's related to budget. Last night I attended the Massachusetts Association of regional schools um sort of policy update. Um there are roughly now 280 districts that are in what's called hold harmless, which means that their enrollment has

213declined to the point at which that they're they're only getting that minimum aid that we get now. They recognize that there are districts like ours that have been in hold harmless for decades, um but there's a growing number of uh schools that are in that um challenging position. Um and so MARS is putting together an advocacy campaign similar to what we did last year asking for um the legislature uh to look at the Chapter 70 funding model, to look at some of those um extraordinary costs, to look at the inflation cap, all of those things. Um if anybody's interested, I'll I'll happily share the slides um with you, but I know that we're busy. Um Glenn, once as soon as I get them, I will for sure send them to you, but um not specifically

214budget sub, but budget related, this continues to be the problem that we're facing continues to be a problem throughout the Commonwealth. There are um more than I can count number of communities that are going for Proposition 2 and 1/2 overrides this year and they're all doing the same doomsday planning that we've had to do in the past, which is if this doesn't pass, then um what what can we do? How many people do we have to cut? So it's it's cold comfort that we're not alone. Thanks. One thing, just if you're watching the news and overrides, I don't know if you saw Brookline's override number. So Brookline has 7,000 students, we have 5,000. The Brookline proposed override is $25 million. Um that's that's the level of deficit that a lot of the districts are now

215finding themselves in um and most of that is on the schools, they've said. So that is a you know, certainly a significant gap. Um Okay. All right, I've got an ALG update. Um so ALG met last Thursday morning, last Thursday morning and select board and school committee were at the point that we were we feel like the multi-year financial model is is what we're ready to bring back to our committees and boards for a thumbs-up. Um, Finance Committee is still thinking about it, so they may still have some questions, but with us passing our budget here, I can say with confidence that the um the net position at the bottom for the town of Acton is a zero. In other words, we have with our our estimated revenues coming in and the budgets that we're

216going to bring to town meeting, we're not going to have a fight on the floor for money. Um, so that's that is one of the big goals of ALJ is to figure that out. Um the but the model is in your packet if you would like to look at it, but um we don't have any issues with it. Um, Lila, I don't know if there's anything you want to add to this. No, it's been it's been a lot of work um everybody doing what they're supposed to do, having these conversations. So, um does anybody have any concerns with the model that is shown in the packet that I need to bring back to ALG? We're all good with that? Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Anything else on um subcommittee or liaison reports? We've almost never gotten

217to do these this year. All right, that's exciting. In that case, we should move on to the consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda do not usually require discussion and are approved with one vote unless any member would like to hold an item for discussion and a separate vote. I'll read each item and if a member would like it held, please say hold. Members do not have to have attended a meeting to vote on the minutes. Item 6A, approval of Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee meeting minutes from March 5th, 2026. Item 6B, recommendation to approve budget transfers per policy DJB. And item 6C, approval of warrants as presented in the packet. All right, given that no items were held, is there a motion to approve the consent >> So moved. Second. That was moved by Adam.

218>> [laughter] >> I'm going to give that second to Lila. All in favor? Aye. Any any opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you, Ben. With that, we are good there. Um Move to adjourn. Second. >> Second. >> [laughter] >> That was MOVED MOVED BY ADAM, SECONDED by the whole committee. All in favor? Aye. [laughter] Any opposed? Any abstentions? Great. Thank you all.