001All right, everyone. So, welcome. Um, we are about to start our public hearing on the school choice program. Um, but before we get there, it looks like I probably need to start with some of my welcoming remarks to begin with. Um, we hold a civil meeting very similar with Boxboro Town Meeting. We don't hold up signs. So, I'm going to ask everybody to go ahead and put those down, please. Um, we're also not going to applaud and not boo. Everybody needs to feel like they can come here and speak and be heard. So, appreciate that you all are here. Um, we would ask you to please respect the rules that we have for our meeting. Thank you. All right. So, um, earlier when we called the meeting to order, I noted that, um, we are
002being recorded. This is on Act TV's YouTube channel and it will be posted on Act TV's website. And I do appreciate that some of you have put your signs down. Um, let's you are here demanding respect. We are also act asking that you respect our rules as well, please. Okay. So I am calling the public hearing of the fiscal year 27 Actton Boxboro Regional School District Massachusetts Desi School Choice Program hearing to order and I'm going to turn this over to Andrew to talk us through this. >> Great. Thank you. Uh good evening everyone. So the uh this is the annual school choice hearing. Just to clarify, especially since enacted in Boxboro, we've used the term school choice for a variety of um programs. This is not the sort of internal school choice uh experience
003that we know within the district, but this is the interstate or inter community choice program that is in the state of Massachusetts where in towns can choose to invite students from other uh municipalities to enroll in their school district. Um this is a program that in many previous years uh acter had participated in uh but then ceased doing so in 2021. Uh there's sort of costs and benefits that different districts weigh. Uh the the benefit that sometimes districts weigh is certainly that districts uh receive about 5,000 students, $5,000, excuse me, per student who they enroll through the choice program. Uh and so certainly there are communities who feel that that offers a benefit for them from a financial standpoint and programmatic standpoint. Uh we are recommending that we continue to remain withdrawn from the school
004choice program. Uh the cost benefit I think for our district uh is not one that would warrant uh returning to it. We do have some remaining students currently enrolled um because individuals who have siblings who are in the choice program uh are allowed to remain and so we have about four students remaining. Oh, excuse me, two students remaining uh and then they will age out. Um, as you can see in the memo, our current per pupil costs are a little over $22,000 uh at last calculation with DESIE. And so really the math uh doesn't provide um justification for that. There's also additional other sort of costs that um schools that experience and participate in the program um sort of take on that I think also complicate that metric or that calculus. So again, the recommendation
005is to remain withdrawn. There's the motion language at the bottom if if no one has questions, but also happy to answer any questions. Any questions? All right, seeing none, >> I move that the acting box regional school committee moves to remain withdrawn from the school choice program. Existing school choice students will remain through graduation. >> Second. All right. So, that was moved by Adam and seconded by Liz. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? All right. That motion passes. >> I move to adjourn from our public hearing. >> Second. >> All right. So, that was moved by Adam, seconded by Lisa. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? All right. So, we are complete there. All right. So, now we are moving into our regular business meeting. And so,
006welcome everybody. We are glad that you are here with us this evening. Um, I'm sure we have a a fairly large turnout because we are here to talk about finally coming to a path forward with AB forward so that we can really focus on implementation. Um, as we do this, as I mentioned, this is a business meeting. So what you're witnessing is the school committee doing business in public. It's here for the public to observe, but really this is a conversation between the members of the school committee as we figure out the best way ahead. One of the biggest challenges that we have and I think we've all kind of felt this throughout this process is that as new information comes out, the only place we can discuss this is here together as a team.
007And so we've really appreciated the emails that we've we've gotten and I understand that a lot of you have received some pretty stock answers from me at this point and the reason for that is that we can't talk about all this new information until we've had a chance to talk about it as a community or as a committee. So we appreciate your feedback and we're going to have that conversation now. We will give an opportunity for some uh public comments here in a moment. But first we're going to welcome up our student representatives. Um, I think we have Nquille and Zay up here um to come tell us a little bit from the student point of view of what's going on. Come on up. I am going to remind my own committee member that we
008are not applauding. As much as we appreciate our students, we're glad we're here. We are not applauding. We're not booing. We are having a civil meeting. >> Understood, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. Okay, there we go. Good evening. I hope you all are doing well. My name is Zanb and today we'll be debriefing some of the events from the high school this past month. So on Tuesday we had our National Honor Society induction ceremony and this year 92 juniors including myself were inducted and it was a really beautiful ceremony with our jazz band performing. Notably, we also recently had our duct tape fundraiser for the class of 27 where we taped teachers and Miss Dean to the wall for $1 per piece of tape. And from what I've heard, we've also raised a strong amount
009of money for events like senior prom for the class of 27 next year. Next, the student ambassadors program is currently recruiting ambassadors for next year. And in this program, upper classmen are paired with incoming freshmen just based off their interests and experiences. So ambassadors just help welcome new students to AB during eighth grade tours and orientation and I was actually an ambassador myself last year and it was a really rewarding experience just getting to help new freshmen coming into the school. So just looking ahead, we're also excited about preparations for senior prom um on May 2nd this this year. It will be at the Dan Danwin Sport Yak Yach Club and the team is star night and we're hopeful this will be a memorable memorable experience for our seniors. So that concludes my updates for
010this evening. On to Tashar. Unfortunately, Nikil isn't here tonight, so I'm talking in place of him. Uh I'm Tashar. I'm a sophomore at the high school. Um a couple things to talk about. Uh the high school band played the national anthem at Fenway Park uh on Easter weekend. It it was for the Red Sox game and it went very well. I was there that day. And um tomorrow the jazz band is going to be holding their annual swing night and they're going to be playing along with the local band known as the soft touch band and the RJ Gray um junior high jazz band. It's a very fun experience and it's just a lot of uh fun time and you had there's a lot of free food. Um, in the past month we had concerts
011for band, chorus, and orchestra in the Reagan gym. We had the stepping out concert, the shrunk together concert, and the pan coral concert. Uh, in the future, um, senior community community day service is coming up on April 17th where all seniors will meet at the school for breakfast and head out across action for community service projects. And a couple things in the past, we had uh MCCAST on May, sorry, not May, uh March 24th and 25th uh for English. Uh math is going to be uh sometime in May and then science in uh early June. And finally, uh the last thing on my part was that course registration finished for all students and we're expecting um schedules to come out um towards the beginning of next school year. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any
012questions or comments for Zanop and Tashar? Glenn, >> thank you for this. And the anti-suicide walk is this Saturday. Yes. >> Yes. C >> could you say a little about that? >> Do you want to talk about that? Um yes, the anti-suicide walk is on Saturday where people are going to walk around acting and in support of um going out and spreading this awareness against uh suicide in our community. >> Adam, >> I'm curious which administrator got the most duct tape to the wall. I've heard quite a lot about Miss Hog, our PE teacher, and I know about Miss Dean. Um, I I I heard she got a lot of tape as well. >> Excellent. Next time that happens, let the school committee come as well. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much for that update
013and I really appreciate you highlighting the ambassador program. Um, I think that's something that we've talked about with our elementary schools and some potential there. And it's really nice to hear that that is such a solid program at the high school and that it's so influential. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, can I see a show of hands of people who are interested in speaking during public participation? All right, you're going to make me do math. I see this. >> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 >> 21. Okay. Um, so we usually set aside 20 minutes for this. Um, and I'm counting about 21. So we'll do one minute um for individual time and Okay. So per
014school committee policy beedh members of the public are invited to speak for this evening one minute. Public participation will only take place at this time during our meeting. Speakers must be recognized by the chair before speaking and the committee does not typically respond to comments during public participation. So, I'll set my timer and please come up and form a line. And I'm going to ask that everybody come up and form a line at this point so that we don't have like the line that just keeps growing. Yep. That's the That's the mic you're headed for. So start. Yeah. Okay. My name is Martha Bethl and I um was a school teach I was a teacher at Douglas for over 20 years and I have been very involved in subbing since I retired a few years
015ago. Um and I just want to make a few comments. The heart and the soul of any community are its schools. And what you have done here is decimated that foundation. This is not simply a reorganization. The simultaneous reshuffleling of both students and teachers has dismantled the relationships, trust and collaboration that take years to build. School communities are not interchangeable parts. They are built through consistent teamwork, shared experience, and deep knowledge of students. By uprooting both children and educators at the same time, you have erased that stability. >> 15 seconds. Students will feel this the most when both their peers and their teachers are in flux. The sense of belonging and identity that defines a school community disappears for children 5 through 12. That stability is not optional. It is essential. >> Thank you. >>
016The damage I have one more thing to say. I have lived here for over three decades and been very involved in the schools and I've never seen such an irresponsible, reckless and harmful decision but made by any schools committee. Thank you. I, as I said, everybody has to feel like they can come up and speak. We're not going to clap. We are not going to boo. We're going to have a civil meeting. So, please come up and introduce yourselves. And when we've run out of time, if you are still online, you're welcome to email the school committee, but we need to move on to our business meeting. >> Hello, I'm Carol Pizzay. My husband and I moved from San Francisco over here in 2020. Um, we grew up with uh demographics. I mean, your school
017was by where you lived. It didn't harm us. Matter of fact, it made sense. I just want to say I appreciate everything this school committee has done. It's hard. It's hard work to make change. It's hard for everybody, but you know, kids are resilient. it's not going to kill them to go to a different school. May upset them for a little while, but um I just believe you have to keep your budget. If you don't have the money to do things right, you've got to go with what you have. Everybody's budget at home is that way. At least it is mine. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh good evening. My name is Charlotte Phillip. I'm a senior at the high school. >> And my name is Jonas Rivera and I'm also a senior at
018the high school. Jonas and I are both members and captains of the recycling club at AB. Um, as members of the club, we give our school the title of being a Green Ribbon School. By taking the time weekly to go around each classroom, we collect bins like these. Um, a few weeks ago, we counted. We actually collect 100 bins of recycling just like this every week, filling 50 bags, and we empty those into our school's big old recycling dumpsters. um that can take 30 minutes to an hour each week depending on how many people we have and how much there is. But though this though this club is an opportunity for students to receive volunteer hours, most students just do it because it's a service that we provide to our school. It's our way to
019give back. >> And last year they introduced a $50 club fee for every club at AB. Um and our issue with this is kind of that we're providing a service to the school. Many of our members also participate in sports, so they're not in the club for the whole school year. They kind of come when they can. So, I just hope that you guys will consider relieving that from our club. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Crystal Lusca. This most recent widespread movement of our staff shocked and devastated the teachers and our community. What should have been 10 to 20% adjustment became 50%. Separating teams who've worked together for over a decade. Teams who've built trust, collaboration, and communities for our students. As a teacher myself for 15 years, I know the time
020and the commitment it takes to create a cohesive team. One that knows the curriculum deeply and can teach all of our students. This reorganization has dismantled that. Teachers are the ones who support our children every single day, going above and beyond. When teachers are supported, students thrive. The decision to disrupt every elementary school in the name of equity has taken something already challenging and made it quite frankly unmanageable. This is not equity. Equity means giving people what they need, not treating every school the same. >> If this were truly about equity, decisions would minimize disruption while ensuring affected students and staff receive the support they need. Instead, this plan makes it difficult to support anyone and will take years for the schools and communities to stabilize. >> Thank you. >> I urge you to reconsider
021your decisions. Thank you. >> Hi. I'm deeply concerned about these final proposals. Across every scenario being considered, Blanchard's class sizes are completely and unacceptably high. No other school has class sizes this high. We we are being inequitably singled out to carry this burden. For months, we've heard that Blanchard needs to absorb actton students in the name of balance and equity. But if the result is that level of inequity in class sizes, we need to ask, does this make sense? Class size matters. It is one of the clearest indicators of student success and a major factor in teacher workload and burnout. Larger classes means less individual attention for students and significantly more strain on teachers. This is not a small trade-off. It directly impacts educational outcomes. And although I know time is limited, I also want
022to note that the scale of teacher reassignments is deeply concerning. Teachers were blindsided by the extent of these changes which disrupts established teams and relationships that have taken years to build. This does not make sense for students or teachers. At a minimum, Blanchard's class sizes must be addressed and stability must be maintained in our classrooms. Thank you. Thank you. As you come up, please remember to identify yourself. Thanks. >> Thank you. Andrew Bankado, Boswell resident and school committee candidate. In recent months, you've reviewed more than a dozen implementation options, each one supposedly bringing us closer to balanced capacity. But that's not what the outcomes show. Let's recap. When Boxboro alone couldn't sustain enrollment at Blanchard, acting neighborhoods were added, abandoning hometown priority. When that wasn't enough, legacy enrollment was suddenly embraced. So long as you
023live in Actton. So where are we now? Every scenario tonight shows most Blancher classrooms over capacity, while Actton classrooms remain largely under capacity. You tout your commitment to listening to teachers. How are they feeling about potentially teaching division to a class of 27 fourth graders during contract negotiations? Not great. So, we're left asking, how are families, especially in Boxboro and affected active neighborhoods, supposed to have confidence in a process that produces sustained capacity issues at one school? >> 15 minutes. >> If you proceed tonight with one of these half-baked options, then the community must demand transparency and accountability both during implementation and at the ballot box when each of your terms come up. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm George Phillip. I'm the act resident. I'll be brief because I know there
024are other people who want to speak. I'm Charlotte's dad. I'm here as a parent voice around the recycling club emphasizing really quickly all these kids do every Wednesday is empty the recycling bs in the entire high school and you're charging them $50. Now I hope you'll reconsider this policy because if you don't this club will fade away and then you will either have to get rid of recycling or you'll have to pay the cost of having your own team do the recycling. She's done it for four years every Wednesday. Many days I sit in the parking lot waiting for her to finish because other kids didn't show up. So, please consider it. I'll be back in the fall when you have more time to think about it. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> First of all,
025I would like to thank the school committee wholeheartedly for uh taking us. Sorry. >> Oh, sorry. I'm Lakia Pandian. Um uh two kids at Konage. I'd like to start by thanking the school committee wholeheartedly for taking us through the process. I learned a lot of things in this process too and I know hard decisions needed to be made and thank you for making it going through a tremendous amount of data and making uh clarified choices. I wholeheartedly support the 5e2 decision with geographic enrollment and it's good for the district in the long run. That said, at the tail end of this process, I would like to point out a small glitch. I know the superintendent's uh grandfathering idea to bring uh Blanchard kids from Actton back and uh creating space for uh the kids in
026the expansion zone definitely comes with good intentions. I completely understand that. But in the process, the actton kids in the expansion zones uh when they're going back to um you know the existing schools, you're leaving out Conan kids out of the equation. The committee first of all decided to do no grandfathering for anyone uh no matter what. and now we are specifically doing it in the in the uh expansion zones and that doesn't align very well. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Michelle Witz Martin. Um and first of all, I wanted to thank you all for doing this. This is literally impossible. Um and yet you're still doing the absolute best you can and I really do believe that you are making the least bad decision. They're all terrible, but you've made the least bad.
027Um, that being said, um, I wanted to advocate for scenario seven with a straight geographic enrollment. And the reason why is that, um, to address some of people's concerns about Blanchard being disproportionately affected. In this scenario, there is only one grade that is way over and Parker Damon is also affected. There are a lot of grades there. You can't do this neatly. This is not a neat process. And the other reason why is that I'm concerned about the timeline um for this this uh you guys promised that there would be that the class list will come out on April 27th and I want I want to make sure that um that you're able to achieve that and I'm afraid that with any with that if you have to go back and forth between the community
028and yourselves and the administration. I'm afraid it's not going to get done and I'm afraid it's going to erode trust. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Felicia Canetella. Um, thank you for all your hard work. It's genuinely understood and respected, and we appreciate you responding when you can to the information. The geographic enrollment option before you is not ready for approval, though. The data remains largely theoretical, relies on inconsistent assumptions, and does not reflect final staffing, optouts, or flex zones. We've also heard acknowledgement that geography alone cannot correct class size imbalances, and no financial analysis has been presented showing that this model offers cost savings over open enrollment. Flex zones in particular defeat the purpose of geographic enrollment by placing established neighborhoods into flexible boundaries, undermining the promise of true neighborhood schools
029and community cohesion. If geographic enrollment only works by relying on flex zones, then it is not accomplishing its stated purpose. Approving this tonight would be premature. I urge the committee to pause, demand complete modeling, including financial impacts, and seriously reconsider open enrollment. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, >> Joanna Chu Boxboro. Um, our children are not chess pieces. Forcing districtwide school reassignment will not solve your budget problems. It only harms kids. This plan dismantles music programs, athletics, parent organizations that family rely on. For each child, it means disrupted learning, heartbreak as friends are ripped apart, and trusted relationships with teachers discarded. You will destroy the very communities that support children's learning and emotional well-being. Hundreds of parents have protested, but you have ignored us. the school to the school leaders and school committee members.
030If you decide to press on with reassignment, you should ask your expensive consultants if their so-called savings will pay for the tsunami of litigation filed against the school district. Parents, find your inner bear and defend your cup. Hold the district accountable to our by a class action lawsuit. Contact me through a bforward.classactiongmail.com. [email protected]. >> Thank you. >> Until this insanity stop, we will not stop. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Mike Lee. I'm a actton resident and my child attends uh Blanchard. Uh she's in the first grade. Um first I want to pause and just quickly comment that I also think it's uh ludicrous that a high school club is paying $50 to collect the recycling for the school. uh when that is s typically a service that you pay for so I
031want to support them too but uh speaking today uh looking at all the scenarios that have come out I mean seven scenarios 6 a 7 so what nine scenarios uh and I have to echo some of the concerns that the scenarios that you all are weighing are incomplete I recall a time earlier in this uh in this season uh when there was a concern that if we did the geographic zones and all act residents currently attending Blanchard, all acting kids in Blanchard there. Blanchard would still be grossly underutilized and yet somehow today the scenarios have Blanchard at overutilization. >> A lot of this has been done by the numbers. It's been cold. It's been objective. I ask that you consider conserving whatever communities you can, including the acting kids in Blanchard. They're the only option.
032They're the only the acting kids going to Blanchard who go to Actton schools will be the small minority that you sought to protect when you dissolved uh the Conan school. >> If you if you go over it takes away time from people that are in the line. >> Hi, my name is John Pandado. I'm an Actton resident. I'd like to raise some concerns about scenario 7A. Saying that this zone's a contiguous portion of Acton to Blanchard is really misleading. It's clearly three distinct zones. It's only connected by a mile long stretch along the Boxboro border that's literally all conservation land. But my bigger concern is the smallest of those three zones where I live on Orchard Drive, which wasn't included in scenario 7, but is in 7A, and it's essentially just one street that's been
033carved out from the rest of the surrounding neighborhood. And third, the walk zones north of Boardwalk are incorrect. My house is8 miles away, and if you map it out, you can see that walking across the actual boardwalk just wasn't taken into account. So instead, the assumption is that kids walk down Spruce and then all the way back up Central. So as it stands, 7A doesn't achieve these three stated objectives, continuous, walk zones, and keeping neighborhoods together. These exact same problems have been dealreakers for previous scenarios. And last point I'll make with grandfathering, please make the necessary trade-offs to include siblings not yet in school. It otherwise it's just a logistical nightmare for families, especially those with two working parents. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi, I'm Melissa Elmar. I'm an actin resident of 10 years
034and a mom of a four-year-old and a six-year-old. Um, I'm starting my comment with a question that you guys have probably considered, but I just wanted to ask. Uh, will teachers have the opportunity to meet to or discuss their current students with the students new teachers? As I understand it from talking to educators, this exchange of knowledge happens ahead of the school year start, but may continue throughout the year. I imagine this may be more challenging with the staff changes and moves. I would advocate building in time and creating avenues to support these important efforts. Doing so would help ease the transition and ensure the usual knowledge transfer that happens between a student's former teacher and a new teacher still occurs, and the door remains open for any follow-up discussions. Thank you. >> Thank you.
035Good evening. My name is Margot Ingram and I'm here to speak on behalf of myself and many educators at Blanchard. Whereas we recognize the monumental and near impossible task of reorganization, we also feel called to highlight our disappointment and frustration with the process and our genuine concern for our communities moving forward. Throughout the AB process, we have pleaded for transparency and clarity, but have been met with vague answers and contradictory updates. Just weeks ago, we were told approximately 10 to 20% of teachers would be displaced. To then see placements showing closer to 50% was shocking and deeply upsetting. Not to mention our beloved pathways program and their entire staff being moved. In addition, our special education staff and related service providers are still waiting to hear. Please know that we recognize that 100% of our
036Conan colleagues had no choice due to their school closing and we stand in support of them and all our elementary colleagues in the district. >> Thank you. I just want to let everybody know there's about four minutes remaining. Um so think about the other people in line or email us please. Go ahead. >> Uh Jill Newman, I'm just continuing on from um Marga. Uh so this blow might have been softened with honest timely communication, true transparency as the realities of these changes became much more significant. What we are experiencing now is not just a logistical disruption. It is grief, confusion, and heartbreak. Our school communities built on trust, relationships, and years of shared work are being fractured. The roots we have grown with our students and families are being pulled. And the impact on both
037student and educator well-being cannot be overstated. This process has at times felt like felt less like an educational decision and more like a corporate merger where people are treated as interchangeable pieces. But these are schools. We are educators and above all we are human beings. Humans who will continue to show up for our students and families because we are called to. But we must be thoughtful, transparent moving forward. And we look to you um I'm sorry. We look to you to show us the same care, compassion, and commitment that we give our students and families every day. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Thank you so much for doing this. I know it's hard and as someone said there are no good options. My name is Katherine Kaminsky. I have two kids in Miam
038today and I think that one of the concerns and the challenges that we've been having is that we're going from maximum flexibility to these sudden imposition of rigid zones with no flexibility. And it's based on a number of assumptions that are incorrect. As um as pointed out, this area that's north of Route 2 was suddenly added as 7A, a scenario that sends all of these families to Boxboro. Boxboro is a wonderful school and you have all of these families in South Aton that now can't go there because they have to go to Douglas. If we could relook at the flex zones and actually implement choice for those families that are in those contiguous property where they're two miles from either school. This could help to remove some of this frustration and not send families from
039North Actton past two perfectly good schools over to Boxboro, which is a wonderful school, but it makes absolutely no sense the way this has been set up. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Good evening. My name is Aaron White. I am a fourth grade veteran teacher at Blanchard. I'm hoping that my concerns will be addressed later this evening during meetings discussion. In my efforts to serve as a champion for children, I believe that my professional responsibilities not only include planning and providing highquality instruction for my students and engaging their families. But I also hold a moral obligation and ethical duty to advocate in their best interest on behalf of my kids, our children. A crucial factor and shared goal in deciding to finally dissolve the long-standing open enrollment was in an effort to provide elementary students
040equity and increased access to curriculum and services across our district schools. Equity, engagement, wellness, AB's three core values. >> 15 seconds. >> I'm compelled to highlight and speak to the disproportionate alarming class sizes in fourth and fifth grades at Blanchard. Significant differences across the school buildings. I'll put the rest of it in email. This is in a direct contrast in conflict to a value of equity. My call to action to the school committee and district leadership is to add or if feasible move a section to these grades in an effort to better balance class sizes to align more closely with school committee recommendations. >> I'm willing to let our last three speakers speak, but I'm going to ask that we try to stick to this one minute, please. >> Hi, Hillary Grin of Boxboro parent.
041Um, first I'd like to say that my heart goes out to all the elementary teachers in the district, many of whom are here tonight um, from Blanchard. Even the ones that aren't moving are being greatly affected as their wellestablished teams are being broken up. I don't see how this is helpful for all the students that are moving too. I echo Miss White's sentiment on the fourth and fifth grade classroom sizes at Blanchard. I don't see how that's feasible for one teacher to manage all those students. And I hate to say ask this during this important meeting, but because it's on the agenda, could you please before you vote on the athletic and activity fees, could you state how much the district spends on that per year and then per student who participates in those? >>
04215 seconds. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Jody Brownberg. I have three kids in the school district. Um, I want to thank you for all of your hard work and I remain supportive of 52. However, I urge the school committee to reject the geographic enrollment policies in front of you this evening and implement a limited school choice enrollment policy. As you know, the community and as you've heard, the community is reeling and upset. um give it give the school district and the community the time it needs to implement the first part of this transition, closing the schools and forming new ones properly and delay the implementation of the geographic enrollment policy. Implement a limited choice school choice enrollment policy next year and give the community a chance to catch up and to absorb
043the changes that have to happen for financial reasons. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi uh Shwan Kong uh acting resident uh thank you all. I want to echo everyone saying that for all your hard work uh dedication was the school committee member and I'm here in particular to give a big shout out to uh the retiring school committee member Yangin Schmidt for your service to the AB students learning community and the taxpayer and all the residents. So, thank you. >> Thank you to everybody who came up to share their thoughts. I know how hard this is. We get to sit behind microphones all the time, but we know that that's not often something that we ask of our community members. So, thank you for coming to share your thoughts and your stories. Peter, superintendent's update.
044>> All right. Good evening, everyone. Um, want to do a couple congratulations here. First, I want to give a big shout out to the Blanchard Elementary Band that earned its 16th consecutive gold medal at the Micah Concert Festival. Um, congratulations to our young musicians, music teacher Chris Baird, and K12 uh, director of visual and performing arts, George Arsenal. Thank you to everyone who participated in that. I also want to congratulate our math team for their first place finish at the Massachusetts Association of Mathematics League MAML state championship. So wonderful. Congratulations to our AB speech and debate for their third place finish in the sweep stakes category at Massachusetts state debate tournament. So some great stuff going on. It's that time of year where we have a lot of students being recognized. Um our next AB
045uh forward parent caregiver update will be Tuesday, April 14th. Um and pending your vote, a lot of the focus of that will be just making sure we fully explain um the impact of any decisions the school committee makes um so that parents know what to expect as next steps. Um that's about a 45m minute session, but generally we've been going an hour and 15 minutes or so. Um uh we have submitted the act and Boxboro Regional School District's 2026 student opportunity act progress report. As you recall, um when the state implemented increased school funding um they also in added a requirement for all districts. So even though we received zero dollars from the state, we had a new set of requirements to annually submit progress reports on different goals that we set. Um, so we
046have set um submitted that progress report. We will be sending the link out to families so that they can view the progress report on our website. So I just want to thank all of our staff who are involved in that work. Um, out of Darkness Campus Walk, Glenn, I know you alluded to this and a couple of our high school students alluded to this, so thank you. But the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's out of the darkness campus walk on Saturday, April 11th is designed to engage youth and adults in the fight to prevent suicide, a leading cause of death. Registration at the high school will begin at 9:00 am followed by the walk at 10 a.m. and then we will be sending out the link for people to be able to register to participate
047uh when we get this out tomorrow. Uh we will also be putting in additional information about any revisions that you end up voting to the school calendar for the remainder of this year as well as just background information on some of the April holidays that take place um so our families understand the different uh celebrations that um our families are going through. So thank you. Happy to take any questions. Uh Glenn, >> thank you for that. And I'm I'm glad to see that we're taking uh we're highlighting student successes and that we're highlighting the walk for suicide prevention very gently. Could we look into the $50 recycling thing? >> So noted. >> Noted. >> Not right now. >> Not not right now, but at a future time. Okay. Thank you, >> Liz. Um, I just
048wanted to also highlight that the Blanchard band has also been selected to play at the Micah um, gold stage performance uh, review and that performance is going to be Sunday. Our our band will be performing at 3M at Groten Hill Music Center. >> Awesome. All right. And now we have to shift away from great news. and I appreciate um all the awesome things that our our students and our educators are doing. Um once again, I received really significant feedback following our last meeting from both committee members and also members of our community that we're not adhering to the protocols we committed to, particularly those of demonstrating professional and collegial relations at all time. Specific concerns about what goes on in our meetings included Vikram's use of graphic violent language in accusing this committee of deliberately
049doing harm to children. Intense disrespectful commentary from Andrew and Vicram towards our consultant Nick. Back and forth exchanges without checking in with the chair. lengthy commentary directed towards impeaching the process rather than participating meaningfully in the substance of decision-making. Our students, including very young children, our community, and even potential future superintendent, are watching and listening. Things are getting heated as we near a final decision. And it is clear that many people, including those of us on the committee, are feeling the strain. No matter what our individual roles are, this level of pressure makes it very difficult to show up as our best selves. But we're the leaders in this process. And so showing up as our best selves is exactly what we have to do. Our community and especially our students are watching how we
050treat one another. And our conduct both inside this meeting room and out in our community matters. We have a responsibility to model the civility and the respect we want to see in our schools and to do the job we were elected to do. By reaching a final decision, we provide the certainty needed to move from policy into thoughtful implementation, which is the only way we can finally come together and begin to heal. As for our meetings, um Andrew Vicram's not here this evening, but numerous fellow committee members have stated that that when you express frustration about the committee's decision or engage in impeaching the process, it breaks the following protocol agreements. Empowering school committee members to freely express their opinions, concerns, and ideas in a climate of trust and mutual respect, even in times of
051disagreement. Once a decision is made, all members will uphold and support the community's decision committee's decision and to debate respectfully, effectively, and efficiently so that meeting time is used wisely, being mindful of our large committee. We knew last year this was going to be a difficult process. And it's not surprising that we disagree. But how we disagree matters and knowing when it is time to move forward with the best possible decision we can make so we can bring people together and start to heal our community is essential. So this evening when we go around and we're just asking one question, ask your most important question. Know what that is before before it comes to you. And if you need to pass to somebody else while you figure that out, that's okay. Focus your comments on
052the decision at hand. Let's deal with the things we have to deal with and and not use this as an opportunity to vent more frustration. Look to me before following up with a question or response. And I'm going to ask people to wave at me if the temperature is getting too intense for you to be able to do your best work. We all have different thresholds for that. But I am hearing that we need to do better as a group. Remember, we're all here because we want the best for our students, and our job is to strive for the best possible outcome in what is truly a difficult situation. Does anybody have anything they want to add here? Andrew, thanks. Uh, part of what you said was the free opportunity to express our opinions. Part
053of that expression of opinions is disagreement. Part of the deliberation is understanding and clarifying what's going on. During our last session, I was asking a question that had been asked four times of our consultant who's here tonight. And despite trying to answer ask the question of him specifically around bus routes and times which we publish, I was pushed back from him. I don't often relay the feedback that comes to me. I did receive a piece of feedback. specifically someone who wrote in, "I watched some of the board meeting from Thursday. Wow. As a former board member who served six years in a public school in New Jersey and a consultant serving districts for the past 20 years, I would never let a consultant talk to me that way. I've never received that in business where
054I've been doing this stuff for 30 years. I've never received anything like that here. And I've never had a consultant tell me I'm not allowed to ask a question of them and that don't don't want to answer it." I apologize to anybody in the on the committee if I've made you feel upset. Part of what we need to do is get to the bottom of things and try to understand what's happening so that we can make the best decision possible. My tension last time was because when asking our consultant who we're paying to do the work for us, a question that was asked by many others, the push back was why do you want to know? And he wouldn't allow us to answer the question. So, sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. I felt
055uncomfortable because the question we needed to ask wasn't answered. >> Glenn, thank you for this and I'm glad we're addressing professional conduct out in the open. We are here to govern, not to vent. We should act like it. I I'm glad we're addressing this directly. Personally, the way I feel I feel the consultant has been professional in his conduct and has presented us with as much data as we could possibly need to make an informed decision. Andrew, with all due respect and for your contributions to this committee and my respect that I have for you, it does sometimes get to feel like quite a lot when you're angrily it comes across as venting. And I think we need to be a little more level-headed here and come to discernment. I say that with as much
056respect as I can. So I think it's good we're addressing this. I think that we need to demonstrate the professionalism in this community that has come to expect for us to serve the public school district. >> Does that include you? >> All right. So we're a team. We are going to work our way through this. Anybody else? Yension, >> sorry. Um, my first year on the committee, I was Andrew's alternate at the Health Insurance Trust. Um, Andrew has his way of speaking to consultants. His I wasn't here last meeting, but I remember my first year as he was as we were going through that health insurance premium going up. It was his fierce conversation with the consultant that helped us through. Um, I trust you're going to do better, right? Thanks, >> Lisa. >> Thank
057you for holding us to high standards and holding us accountable. Thank you. >> Okay, so we're a team. We're admitting that this is hard and we're going to get through this together. And I also expect that we are going to have the conversation that we need to have here. And it is okay to disagree. It's how we disagree that matters. So, let's get on with it. All right. So, that brings us to um hearing about the uh Office Support Association and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees 2026 and to 2029 contracts. Andrew? >> Yes. Thank you. Um just as a reminder and context for everybody, uh within our uh employee groups, we do have three employee unions. We have the ABA that represents our certified educators. We have ASME which represents our custodial
058and facility staff. And we have ABOSA which represents uh a certain portion of our office administrative staff. So ABOSA um we negotiate three-year contracts with all three groups and they actually are all lined up where we negotiate all three um at the same time. Uh and we uh have reached tenative agreements with both ASME and ABOSA. Both of those groups have actually already met and have ratified the memorandum of agreement uh that we agreed to and so I'm pleased to present this uh to the committee for your consideration as well and and for possible ratification uh as we discussed in executive session and as you have in your memo uh just a summary of different agreements that relate to both compensation as well as uh working conditions. In terms of the highlights for compensation, um
059obviously the the the big highlights relate to cola uh for the three years for both um Abiosa and ASME. For the next two years it is uh 2 and a4% and then 2% in the following year and then the third year there's a slight difference. There's uh ASME is 2 and a half% and ABOS is two and a quarter%. Uh in addition to that there's other compensation elements related to uh longevity and service recognition uh as well as a few other pieces and then certainly in working conditions uh some elements that both parties uh requested related to various uh job requirements and elements uh for the for the district. There were some priorities around um guard rails and limits regarding uh when uh certain vacation days could be used for certain working uh for certain
060parties uh as well as limits around um use of paid time off for family sick uh and FMLA related family sick along with a few other items. So overall uh I think both both groups along with the district felt good about the process and have reached agreements that um can be implemented for the next 3 years. So there if if um there's any questions happy to answer them. If not there are two separate motions for approving the uh ratifying the the proposed MOAS uh and those are in the packet for your review and consideration. >> Any comments or questions for Andrew? Adam. >> Uh, yeah, Andrew, thank you and thank you to the team that helped negotiate these. I do want to point out in here since we did get some questions from members of
061the public, there's actually an amendment um to both contracts regarding um employees, children enrolled in the district. Um, and first of all, I would say we're an amazing district and if I worked out of town, lived out of town and worked in this district, I would for sure want to have my stu my child have the opportunity to come here. I think that's a really strong benefit to help um draw excellent teachers into the district. Um the contract language though is very clear uh and I appreciate that it discusses the fact that um this is an expense for the district and should those students who come in have extraordinary needs that those um staff members will have to um take advantage of their hometown's um support for students who have special needs. So, uh, it's
062a very clear delineation and helps to explain for our community members who are concerned about this essentially benefit that we provide to our employees that it is not, um, a a significant cost and in fact it's a great benefit for our employees and helps us to to draw in uh, the great staff that we have. >> Anyone else? >> All right. In that case, we have some work to do. Somebody have the motion language up. I move to approve the office support association ABOSA proposed 2026 through 2029 contract. >> Second. Uh I think we actually have >> there's actual language. >> We have actual language. >> I'll get the first one. Liz, you get the second one. Oh, it's on the >> I move to approve the collective bargaining agreement between the Act in Boxboro
063Office Support Association and the Act in Boxboro Regional School Committee for the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029 as set forth in the memorandum of agreement. >> I'll second it. >> All right. So, that has been moved by Adam and seconded by Liz. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Excellent. All right. Who's got the next one? I move to approve the collective bargaining agreement between the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFL CIO, Massachusetts State Council 93 number 1703 asks me and the act in Boxboro Regional School Committee for the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029 and set forth in the me memorandum as set forth in the memorandum of agreement. >> Also seconded. All right. Again, moved by Adam, seconded by Liz. All
064in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Any abstensions? >> All right, good work. Thank you to everybody um on the team who got this negotiation settled. Really well done. >> All right, with that, Nick, come on up and uh let's get to work on the main event of the evening. testing. Hello and good evening everybody. It's a pleasure to be back here as always. Um we are just going to jump right into it given the uh length of the presentation and I know the a lot of decisions you all have to make. So as uh has been standard uh my name is Nick Stalano. part of Dillinger Research and Applied Data. We're a Connecticut based nonprofit. We've partnered with Actton Boxboro Regional School District to help support the decision uh or the decisions uh
065made through the AB forward process in which we are helping to design sustainable geographical enrollment boundaries uh for the coming year and the future years beyond. In terms of the agenda today, uh as always, we'll kind of just go quickly through the project to date in terms of what we've been able to accomplish. Uh we did have a uh survey that we did uh put out uh last week. We'll just go a quick overview given the the content of what we asked as a sort of final review or final set of feedback for the community into the school committee. Uh we'll go over the two different policies uh in question, both the flex zones and the transition policy. And then in terms of final scenarios, originally we were planning on two that was going to
066be scenario 6A and 7A. And given a lot of the conversation and a lot of the feedback we've heard, uh we've uh rebrought back in scenario 7 which I'll go into. Um I'll look to you chair. Uh do you want me to go through the entire presentation uh and then answer questions or would you like to stop at uh some key points to sort of uh answer clarifying questions? >> Let's do questions as we go so that when we get down to the end we can have a good conversation about all of them. So, what I'm going to ask the committee is keep your questions focused on what Nick's on right now. Hold anything that is later. Okay. >> Excellent. So, in terms of projects to date, I won't bleed the point. We've met with
067a lot of uh both you all, parents, and the district team a lot. Uh I would like to say I'm I'm very proud of the fact that uh over the past few months uh we have solicited and received an immense amount of feedback from the community. Uh we've engaged in close to 400 emails uh with different parents and that's individual parents uh not uh multiple conversations but individual parents. Uh we've had uh high levels of participation through the parent webinars and throughout the surveys and the interactive web apps uh we've uh both solicited and received hundreds if not thousands of uh sort of key aspects and inputs uh to the various scenarios. So to the community uh we heard you. We very much appreciate the time that you took to sort of engage and really
068ask I think really good questions and through that process as has been the case it has been an iterative design process and uh one that we have incorporated a lot of uh community feedback. Uh we've done a lot of data analysis and obviously gone through a lot of scenarios and so here we are in terms of the final three. So before we get into that, just as a quick uh review of the final survey, um again the final survey uh I had heard was either uh opening up uh the beginning of the meeting for an extensive uh set of feedback or really in terms of helping try to understand and uh give one opportunity to collect as much feedback as we could. We opened up to three uh final questions. One was around the scenarios,
069one one was around the flex zones and the other was around the transition policy. I tried to provide you with a succinct sort of summary of the various if not hundreds of responses that we received and I'll kind of like generally summarize that I think overall when we were comparing 6A to 7A there was strong preference for uh scenario 7A. Um given that is the case here's what I know to be true about scenarios. Uh and this comes from both the survey and from a lot of the discussions that we've had. Um, one, uh, first and foremost, uh, class size absolutely is a priority and one that we're taking into consideration and that we will go into in much more detail as we review the scenarios. Uh, student demographics and walk zones uh, were also
070extremely high priority along with uh, neighborhood continuity. And so when we think about the various scenarios uh especially when it comes to the expanded Blanchard zone, there is a lot of uh tricky and challenging aspects to what is constituted as a a continuous uh boundary and or a satellite boundary. And those are aspects to I think many of the trade-offs that you're going to have to sort of address here tonight. One thing I do want to sort of flag um is the acknowledgement that yes, in many instances uh there were a lot of priorities that we took to bear in each of the scenarios. Um, I do have to admit in all of the scenarios we were never able to achieve everything 100% of the time. And so that is the nature of the complexity
071of what we're trying to accomplish here. And so in general, we tried to uh do as much as we could. Uh, but just acknowledging the fact that not everything could be done. From a flex zone perspective, there is a lot of trepidation and I think fear about what flex zones mean and ultimately how they will play out as the years go on. Um, interestingly and and I'll sort of identify I would say the challenge and or the duplicity that's sort of playing out in regards to the idea of neighborhood schools and really being concerned about uh individuals uh within a neighborhood potentially going to different schools. Uh, one thing I know for sure in your open enrollment uh process currently, you have neighborhoods that have 50% breakdowns of kids going to different schools. So given
072how I know Actton Boxboro is, I can confidently say that a neighborhood is not just where your kids go. Uh but it's actually bigger than that given all of the immense feedback that I heard from parents in regards to the relationships that are built within the neighborhood. So a flex zone I don't think will sort of derail that. I would also like to sort of flag I think there was concern that well in a flex zone there could be individuals who are sort of sent to a different school in the middle of the year. uh I worked with Andrew and sort of talked through and figured out how that sort of open enrollment process worked currently in the middle years. Interestingly, any individual who came throughout uh the middle of the year, I don't want
073to say rarely but less than 50% of the time got their first choice. And so from that perspective, individuals and there are a lot of individuals who come to act in Boxboro throughout the year um do face that challenge and have succeeded and have uh done very well. So in conversations that I've had with um surrounding towns, flex zones are actually extremely beneficial once you get through the initial process and I would say obviously the community now does no difference but as you move through time flex zones will become common and I don't think it's going to be as uh as a fearful process as it currently I think seems to be through existing uh parents uh in regards to transition policy. As pointed up at the top, uh there are divergent opinions on grandfathering.
074Uh I can find you half the population that says you should do it and half the population says that you shouldn't do it. I would find the fact that I think there is concern about um selectively choosing different uh sets of populations within actro that do get the grandfather and those that don't. And I think at the end of the day from my perspective um given the class size and I will sort of say it in this way class size is ultimately the top priority grandfathering will help mitigate some of that challenge. Um and so at the end of the day um I think uh there is certainly uh a struggle to understand that some people will and will not be able to be grandfathered and I would say that is sort of uh a
075needed necessity uh to help manage uh the movement from an open enrollment to a geographical uh policy. So jumping into the flex zones, uh throughout the survey that I provided, um there is a link in the presentation that provides you with a much more thorough both description and frequently asked questions when it comes to flex zones. Excuse me. Uh what I've highlighted here though I think are a couple um highlevel and key aspects. So geographical default and scope. Uh every flex zone resident has a primary school assignment. um and that these zones encompass approximately about 25% of actton elementary students. I think there is a balance that you all have to sort of understand is a flex zone is meant to help manage uh the ongoing grade uh grade sizes and grade capacities across the
076three schools. To make that effective, you need to have a big enough population in which to I would say handle the inflows and outflows of students. So 25% of Actton elementary students uh though may seem like a lot I think is just hitting where you need to be to make sure that you have enough uh enough enrollment as uh individuals come in to be able to manage uh I would say the ups and downs of class sizes as they move along. Uh enrollment shifts are driven by class size and building utilization. Um and and this is sort of an important aspect to the idea uh uh that the district is not just doing it uh because they want to do it. doing it to manage the resource allocation and the resource management. Um there is
077an aspect to the flex zone where uh existing parents could volunteer to want to move. Um I think we've established the fact and this ties back to the grandfathering that at the end of the day there are many interested parties who would love to switch schools and so to try and add some level of involvement through the parents there could be uh the prioritization of volunteers or at least open that up to parents so they could uh volunteer transportation and siblings. The district provides transportation for all flex students and remains committed to keeping siblings enrolled. Um, I think there were some fears as they were emailed that, oh, if my kids's in school, uh, there's a chance that they'll get pulled out of that school to be sent to the other. Uh, the flex zone
078clearly states that if you are an existing student within that school, you will not be moved unless the parent volunteers the student to be moved. Um, and to that point, if you have a child in school and you have an incoming student, uh, and they are siblings, then the district will keep the siblings together. they will not be flexed uh to then have a separate and I heard a couple parents sort of really acknowledge that sort of challenge uh which we tried to emphasize here uh volunteer uh voluntary sibling requests again trying to provide that family input we wanted to uh add that into the flex zone to make it both I don't want to say compelling but at least uh again giving the the parent uh an aspect of this process uh that can
079be somewhat challenging exemptions from reassignment again currently enrolled Old students who have not moved their residence are not subject to involuntary reassignment. Uh who is affected? Again par uh new registrants within a school that it lives within the flex zone would be uh sort of eligible to be flexed. It does not mean that they will be. It just means that they are eligible to based on the needs of the district and the the capacity of each uh grade class. uh year-round management again the flex zones would be remain active throughout the year so as to manage the I would say high levels of incoming students that act in Boxboro has seen uh from a historical perspective one just one sec and so then as we had sort of flagged before the proposed regions are below
080um it was identified that the proposed regions are not exactly similar to uh what had been proposed as expanded Blanchard zones um that in many instances was by design to both provide provide again that expansive uh size to be able to provide the district with enough flexibility uh as well as to try to go through all the maturations or the different possibilities of students needing to be moved from Parker Damon to boardwalk, boardwalk to Parker Damon, Boardwalk to uh Blanchard or Blanchard to uh Boardwalk. >> Adam, >> thanks. I have a a quick clarifying question on the flex zones and the and the policy and and I think you've said it like seven ways and I want to say it in eighth way just to to be very clear. >> If I'm a family who
081lives in a flex zone and my student is going to school A, never in my student's history will they be asked to flex to another school as long as I don't move. And my my children, the siblings also will stay in that same elementary school. So, if I live in a flex zone that is by default a boardwalk school, but I'm asked to flex to Barker Parker Damon, my student will stay in Parker Damon through their sixth grade graduation. And their sibling will stay with them as well. I'll adjust one word you said asks. I would say told the district will never tell anybody. They will ask and if somebody might say, "Yeah, I'll move." And then, you know, then that the difference takes into effect. But the district will never tell a uh individual
082to move. >> Great. I think I think that that part and maybe when we get to looking at that the policy language, I think something earlier in the policy that very clearly states that because I I heard a lot of questions about that and I think we're we're using a lot of language to cover a lot of situations. And so I I think we need to be very explicit about that. And then the last one, maybe not for you, Nick, but maybe for our discussion later around the same topic is if I live in a flex zone and I've I'm in a school and I move to another house inside that same flex zone, am I up for reenrollment again or do I get to stay? And I think I I don't think that's a
083question for you. I think that's something we need to to chew on and again clarify because we're talking about in here what happens if if you move residents, but maybe we need to clarify move residents outside of a specific zone. Yeah. Okay. Carry on. >> Is that an I have a question or I'm good? >> That's an I'm good. >> Okay. Carry on. >> All right. Excellent. Transition policies. So, uh there were three, now there are four. Um and so obviously there was a lot of thought. uh and this was really I think driven uh both from a lot of the feedback that we received as well as a lot of the discussions that we've had with the district. So first and foremost as we've heard a lot of folks sort of mention uh there
084number one when we say all at once really establishes the fact that there is no grandfathering policy. Um and that would result in all students transitioning simultaneously to their geographically assigned schools based on the zones that you all uh vote on tonight. Number two, Actton students attending Blanchard. Students from Actton who are enrolled in Blanchard, grades K through five, uh during this year, would continue to attend Blanchard. Uh younger siblings not enrolled in K5 uh would not be grandfathered. Um and I do want to sort of emphasize this point and I do appreciate the challenge that uh comes with having younger siblings that are not currently enrolled in the school. Uh currently when we think about grandfathering uh the most if we're thinking about current K5 students the number of years to then grandfather everybody
085would be six. So current kindergarten kids would go to first. So that's first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. So that's six years of that expanded um sort of grandfathering which is sort of I would say a challenge to any district uh when you think about sort of the logistical and financial costs that are tied to that. Once you start adding I don't know what the cuto off would be uh 5 years old four years old 3 years old 2 years old one years old uh if somebody is about to have a baby before June right like all of those things could then extend the grandfathering process to 10 years uh which then is is really prohibitive and so from that perspective I would highly consider no aspect and there was one parent who said
086uh great grandfathering I would not great grandandfather in uh individuals just for that sheer fact that it could in essence go on for close to a decade. Number three, which is what we had been uh sort of establishing I think for some time was uh the Actton students attending Blanchard and the expanded uh and whichever expanded Blanchard zone you choose uh would also be grandfathered into their existing schools. Um a couple points that we wanted to make very clear. Um students in the expanded Blanchard zone who are enrolled in grades K through 5 during SY 2526 would continue to their current and I say campus not necessarily school but campus. Students who are enrolled in Conan in SY2526 would attend Blanchard. Uh in both cases, younger siblings not enrolled in K and 5 in SY2526
087would not be grandfathered. Uh we had to make a decision on where Conan students would lie and in some instances though we've heard a lot of feedback about it's only um depending on which zone 16 to 20 kids it's a small cohort. We could you know sending them to Blanchard. There are a few Blanchard kids uh I'm sorry Boxboro kids who did attend Conan. They're also going to Blanchard. that is an aspect I do want to fully acknowledge um is a consideration uh in terms of that however then let's talk about transition policy 4 and this kind of gets to the heart of I think uh the the trick um so option four maintains exactly uh what we had talked about in option three um however you as the school committee would be granting the
088district authority to provide um and I want to make sure Uh, I want to I'm just going to read it because I chose the words extremely carefully. The superintendent or their design may offer additional placements to families not covered by the baseline grandfathering rules. These placements are subject to parent approval and and that's the key piece parent approval. So, it would not be done against the parents uh wishes and will be prioritized in the following order. Priority one would be flex zone residents. So, essentially um and I'm going to pause here for a second because this is an important aspect. A lot of folks identified the fact that there are class uh specific classes specifically in Blanchard that have high uh average uh class sizes. Two ways or one way you could mitigate this right
089is uh providing another section which is tricky given the financial constraints and there's only so many sections that can go around across the entire district. When we think about geography at this moment in time, because we're moving from an open enrollment, there is no guarantee that you have, I would say, perfectly equal class sizes. And you're seeing that in all of the scenarios given the scenarios and the fluctuations that you see, especially when you layer in the regional dynamic of Boxboro and Actton, you are going to have these challenges. Any school district has these challenges where class sizes or average classes are different uh from one cohort to the next. It's doubly so an act in Boxboro given the influx of students on a uh by cohort basis that you see. So the end of
090the day there is no perfect way to draw boundary lines within uh Actton Boxboro where every single class would be perfectly averaged out. Um it's just it's an impossibility that just has to be sort of acknowledged. The way you address that is by sing uh very carefully identifying specific students at in a specific geography at a specific grade level and see if they are willing to move. If you do that, that is the second way that the district can manage average class sizes. So you can add a new teacher or you can selectively identify students that may want to move to a different school. That is where this selective grandfathering would be coming into play to help identify and sort of provide guidelines on how this would work is the district essentially would use any
091resident within the flex zone. The students residing within the designated flex zone would be asked first. Does anybody and and I'm going to just be really clear, right? Whatever expanded Blanchard zone you do, you could go to the Conan students who are in fourth grade and say, "Do you want to be grandfathered or really move towards Boardwalk or Parker Damon?" If they say yes, that helps solves the fourth grade problem. Uh, Conan students might not want to do that. They might want to stay in Blanchard because that's maybe there there was their second choice. So then you think about it in the context of transportation efficiency. So this is where the flex zone and the transition the transition policy is different. The transportation efficiency families residing along the transportation routes for the target school. Meaning
092the district can now look beyond the flex zone and along existing routes and say hey is there anybody here that would like to be um grandfathered to their campus as a way to again identify those fourth grade kids that may want to and could move to help alleviate some of those uh constraints. Finally, there could be in the event that that didn't happen, uh, ask anybody, but then acknowledging the fact that from a logistical standpoint, they might have to self transport, uh, transfer, uh, provide self- transportation. So, again, considering that you can't have buses, um, I think going into all odd ends just for one specific student. So, a couple things that are tied to this, capacity for discretionary placement is determined strictly by available space within the individual grade sections. Because a lot of
093parents might say, well, great. I just want to volunteer. Well, it's really based on, as you saw within the scenario modeling, uh, certain grades are over capacity in certain schools, and that's just the nature of the beast. So, it's really based on that. Um, if there were sort of more volunteers than there were seats, a lottery requirement would have to be kicked into gear. Uh, the sequential filing, the district will uh fill spots tier by tier. So, starting with priority one, then priority two, and then priority three. And then siblings. Again, acknowledging the fact that uh siblings could potentially be put into a position where uh if you're asking one child to go, the parent may say, "Hey, I want the other sibling to go." That would have to be done on a case-by- case
094basis to see if there's actually uh space because you can't move another student to make uh an overexaggerated average capacity uh increase. So that was sort of our idea in terms of as was identified how to help manage um I would say the one-off classes that are showing high levels of uh students within their class that um can't be just solved through strictly geographical enrollment. Any this is new so I just want to open up to see if there's any questions. >> I'll work around this way. Start with Glenn. Thank you for this and I I just want to reiterate that I don't blame anyone listening for feeling kind of confused with how the tech the details of this. We're of course doing our homework here for members that are of the community that are
095plugging into different steps of this process. This is dense stuff. So I don't blame anyone for being kind of confused with it. So, just two things I just want to highlight um that I hope you can just either briefly expand upon or really iterate or just drive home for the community. Grandfathering helps with managing class sizes. And this option four is option three with district discretion subject to parent approval. Just that's correct. Yes. Yeah. I I will frame it this way uh because you're you were almost right. Grandfathering helps solve inconsistent classrooms now. Flex zones will help manage future inconsistent classrooms going forward. And yes to parent approval. >> Adam. >> Yeah, I um I appreciate the flexibility. I recognize the challenge and the dense material. Um I'm looking to again clarify some things um
096in option three andor option four. Um if you're allowing um those two groups to grandfather and we're saying potentially in here well we're we're saying if you're doing that we're not going to allow you to bring siblings along with you if they're not already enrolled and a family says that's an undue stress for us to have kids at two different buildings. We then are providing not just the requirement that you must if you're grandfathered you must go to the school but if grandfathering is an option and you get the choice to decide if you want to take advantage of that or not if it's an undue hardship for your family to have kids at separate schools over time. That's as I've read the material that seems to be sort of what is presented as an
097option for us. >> I think that is uh very true. Would you agree Peter? Say it one more time. I want to make sure I'm giving you an accurate answer. >> Yeah. So, uh, I live in Actton. I have a second grader who goes to Blanchard and I have a three-year-old. Uh, and I've been offered the option to grandfather to Blanchard, knowing that my three-year-old will not be able to go to Blanchard because I live in Actton that I'm and I'm zoned towards um Boardwalk campus. If we vote to grandfather, and I see we also have language in here that says we can also provide the option to those families that uh the grandfathering is not a requirement but an option for them that they'll then be able to opt out of that grandfathering because
098they want their two kids to be at boardwalk together when they're of age. >> Yes. I think, and I'm cautioning this because it's pending how you vote it, right? So, I can't really answer it until you make the decision about how you want to vote it. I think, you know, there could certainly be a range of options how you choose to vote that. I think our intention is recognizing that operationally we can't continue siblings in the grandfathering. It's going to cause a lot of complexity with our buses. That quite honestly is either going to cost money or create inefficiency. um which we can live with for some period of time but over the long haul we need to to figure out a way to correct some of those inefficiencies. The if we can't do that
099I think the range of options you would have in front of you would be you can either say nope we're just grandfathering everyone and there is no input into that and siblings are going to be separated for a number of years. I think we've heard loud and clear that people want siblings to be able to be placed together. So I think the two remaining options would be to say parents can unilaterally opt out of grandfathering, right? And so that no, you're not going to stay in the current school, but you can say yes, just move our kids now and we'll be in the new school and that's where we stay. Or you could say express a preference toward opt out, but the district has to also then look at what the overall balance of class
100sizes and things like that is. Think the tension that exists which is real for families and school district right that between the two entities is the more flexibility we give to families the less control we can have around managing class size and the more flexibility you give to the district the less control families have over keeping units together right and so there's going to be a tension there and I think that's what you have to figure out what the right balance ences for the community. >> And if if I could, I think, and thank you, resing it again actually helped. The way this is phrased is um covered by the baseline grandfathering rules, meaning option three would happen as is, then the district could selectively choose. There is a world where you could say, "Okay,
101if we're going with the baseline option three model, the parent could ask to not be grandfathered, but then the district has the discretion to say yes or no, right?" So in kind of a reverse threshold because what the numbers we've presented to you is what we know would happen if everybody got grandfathered. And so that's the I don't want to say the best case scenario, but that's it's a known commodity. And so I would just want to be very careful with again as Peter sort of mentioned giving everybody flexibility because then those numbers kind of go out the the door not knowing where everybody's getting uh grandfathered or not. >> Lisa, I have a multi-part question actually and I'm going to try to keep it as brief as possible. So, I have concerns about separating
102siblings and I'm also um you know concerned about um you know operationally you know being able to balance class sizes. A lot of parents let us know that class sizes were a real concern for them and um so I definitely am hearing all of the things that uh parents have been saying. So, when I'm looking at the different options and I'm wondering if there was not a transition policy put in place, could flex zones be used immediately to balance those class sizes? I'm just checking my understanding because the way that I think that I understand it that they could just be effective immediately and use that as an operational tool to balance class sizes so we get the better numbers in terms of not having too many students in one class. So to put another
103way, which I think you're getting at, there's an now an option five, uh, which maybe I should have done this as well, is just, uh, just district discretion. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> That's so, and that's totally it looks like there's so many different ways to put everything together. And so I think in my mind I was like, "Oh, there was a way maybe you could just have flex zones and then if if none of those other things were done because I think the question or concern that I'm getting at is looking at making sure we can give those class lists out in time." And I think I was worried about if you have people opting in, opting out, you know, making sure that class sizes are not too large and trying to get all
104the all of those things. I was wondering which direction would make it more feasible for families to know to have those class list and to be able to have that certainty. >> So we we talked about that and I mean the benefit is right um and and your option so let's put that on the table. There's an option five now which is just district discretion. Um we know exactly who we'd need to ask. >> Okay. >> Right. And so then it would require some process through the the district which is reaching out to those people in order of how we're doing it to basically say hey would you want a grandfather or not. Challenge is as you sort of identified it's a tight timeline. So you would have maybe a day or two uh to
105sort of decide and then you got to kind of move quick. So um I think what you're getting at uh is and this is sort of an important aspect to this whole thing. There is no perfect solution. I think we've said that a couple times. And so I think part of what we're trying to do here is create as much flexibility to manage uh the uncertainty as possible. Uh because it literally is impossible to have uh perfect certainty. I think there was one parent who sort of mentioned, you know, well, you can't make a decision unless we know where people are going. Well, we we don't know where people are going until the decision's made. So it's the perfect catch 22. And before you go a little further, just to complicate this further, remember we
106got to discussing grandfathering in the first place because we started talking about moving small cohorts and the Blanchard problem of not having as many kids going into Blanchard or coming out if you just started with pure geography. So that's a piece of this conversation, too. And now that we've complicated things, >> yes, carry on. >> Yes, very much so. Any other questions? >> Yes, ma'am. So this is the what we have been discussing so far has been the transition policy. Once the transition period is done, what are we looking at? >> So great question. The transition policy depending on where you go is at most six years give or take. Then it's all flex zones and uh yeah and that that's why part of this challenge right is each normally in most situations you can
107kind of keep them separate. the scenario works. The transition policies um are really sort of to address different social and emotional challenges that the district may face. Flex zones are for future sort of enrollment given the unique nature of actin boxboro and your I say very tight capacity windows that you have within each school and the complexity of your cross town regional agreement. um there is sort of an intertwining of these uh uh issues or policies at the same time. Um so you are having to think about all pretty much two the first two transition policy and the scenario at the same time in some ways. >> Andrew, >> thanks. One of the issues I've had with a lot of the stuff you're doing is that we're basing it off of to kind of today's
108elementary population and demographic mix. you just mentioned after 6 years of this transition things turn to flex zones. After about 3 or four years students will push through their current upper or lower and we have a whole new influx but the houses remain the people who live in those houses remain and the students remain in the system. So you can't necessarily move people inside these flex zones. Are you envisioning that we will move and expand flex zones as time goes on? because you've got effectively a 12-year period um when you know 13 years from kindergarten through senior where families are in these areas and that these houses are occupied by residents and sometimes you'll get in and out but over the course of time you'll have saturated a flex zone with homes. Do you see
109how do you see us maturing the durability of these models that you're putting together over time beyond the first four years? How often are we going to have to do this? That's a great question. I don't know how often. I suspect not too often uh for a couple reasons. One, some of the flex zones are in uh areas that have high mobility and high transency. And so ultimately, I think that sort of is one of the reasons why we chose some of those areas. Uh two, some of the areas are high growth uh and are, you know, continuing to see uh students. And part of the conversations and one of the reasons why we introduced uh scenario 7 was because uh interestingly act in Boxboro again you all are very unique in some respects uh
110your cohorts grow every year. So that means you have new students coming in at a fairly regular basis every single year across every single grade. Um so though I hear you in terms of a sort of static neighborhoods I don't actually think that's the case with an act in Boxboro. Any other questions? >> All right, final scenario. Oh, please >> can I just um Andrew to that comment. I think that's a good point and I think that was one of the concerns that I know Andrew and I talked with Nick about um through the process where if you remember when we started the discussion of flex zones, they were actually really small and I know our community had a strong preference for small flex zones. One of our concerns was having to then keep coming
111back and revising maps. And so by expanding the initial flex zones to incorporate a much larger part of the district, our goal is to actually reduce the number of times the district has to try and revise maps. >> Yeah, it's a I think it's a a very important thing to keep in mind as we're laying over a rigid geographic net on top of a fluid population. um our up I I keep thinking about the kindergartener who when they hit fourth grade is still in the same school but now there's an open space in the lower school same B same building lower open space in lower school that has to be filled and we may or may not have a new incoming family that lives in an area that's this and are we going to start
112like a clock around Actton where you know we've got flex zone here and then flex zone here and then flex zone here the question of stability and durability stability of the community with regard to where the population goes and durability of the model that we're putting together uh I think there's a lot of questions around it and that's before we talk about the need for governance if there is you know superintendent discretion >> so a solution to that would be make the entire district a flex zone >> we didn't vote that >> no but that that I mean that is an option you layer in. >> Thank you. Um I just want to clarify. So if I heard you correctly, grandfather in will resolve the high number of class size right now, but flex zone
113will solve the problem for the long term. >> And okay, thank you. And the next question is actually for Peter. So if we does flex zone give the administration more control over class sizes for the near future? >> Yes, definitely. Um because if we see students come in and enroll in the district and we already see disparities in class sizes between schools, we're actually able to flex new students to the district between one of two schools. >> Okay. scenarios. >> All right, final scenarios. Scenario 6A. Um, again, all uh three of the scenarios that we're providing are east west uh oriented scenarios. Um, I do want to flag a couple different emails that I've uh sort of been responding to. Uh, there was uh the earlier scenarios where it was a north south uh sorry
114oriented uh boundary. We did move away from that because uh there was a lot of inconsistent uh school demographics uh across or variation across the schools and that was identified as a really key decision point early on. I know some people felt that the boundary lines were a lot smoother and it made sense by neighborhood but uh really given the areas where we were thinking there was growth as well as um that student demographics it just did not make uh sense to continue on excuse me with that model. Um, in terms of all these scenarios, what we did try to do too is really flag uh what was this year's enrollment versus what's next year's enrollment. Um, it's really sort of an important piece to this puzzle because at the end of the day um
115we can tell you what a school would look like especially with demographics, socioeconomic status, etc. with current year's enrollment uh that becomes less uh accurate as we uh sort of project forward. So that's why we provided with two different sets of uh data. Uh in this case, as you can see, the expanded Blanchard zone is a satellite boundary. It's on the uh southern portion of Actton, south of Stow Road. Um and ultimately, um you know, through all of these scenarios, we really did try to keep and uh maintain as much of the uh walk zone as possible uh for each of uh the uh set of walk zones that exist. So in terms of thinking about it from the decision points uh cohort continuity again thinking of those consistent boundaries across uh the two uppers
116and lowers school capacity uh does become strained uh at Parker Damund um and is uh again and we're going to go into the difference between building utilization and average class size here in a second. Hometown guarantee was achieved for Boxboro uh balanced student demographics. All these scenarios do a very good job in my opinion of balancing uh socioeconomic status, e special education and uh race. Uh the recognized neighborhoods, I would say it was easier to maintain recognized neighborhoods in 6A versus 7 and 7A given uh how we had to do the expanded Blanchard zone. Uh and I'll get a little bit more into that with 7A and 7. Um there is always going to be some folks who think that uh how we drew the lines uh dissected or biseected through their neighborhood. Um and
117I just would like to iterate. Um though people I think felt like sometimes their emails were going unheard, they were uh not going unheard. They were uh very much uh heard and tried to be incorporated. Uh in many instances given how the neighborhoods were cut up, there were ways that we could manage that and there were ways that we could not. And I just want to be sort of upfront around the idea that uh we were constrained to not have a perfect uh and again I will say this some neighborhoods uh were uh there was a disagreement on let's just say where you think your neighborhood was and where it wasn't and especially uh depending on what streets wanted to be included and what didn't want to be included. I heard from everybody across a
118wide range of different uh inputs. Walk zones were uh maximized. future enrollment trends were taken into account and again we use the satellite boundary in terms of uh the south of Stow road. Again here are all the stats if you would like. All right so now we kind of get into the building utilization and the uh average uh class size and so we did provide you here with the three cuts across the different grandfathering policies. We also wanted to flag it's a challenge in regards to when we're you know ideally you would hope that every student by grade is equally distributed across uh the two districts. Uh hint they are not. And so by drawing the geographical boundaries even though we may achieve uh nice levels of building utilization you can still have huge discrepancies
119or variation between grade levels which is causing some of the average high class sizes. Um so in this case you can see that ultimately 6A does achieve both with no transition policy and with the uh option three grand uh grandfathering policy nice levels of building uh capacity. If we just grandfather the actton students who are currently attending Blanchard that's just basically making the building uh complete over capacity. uh when we think about class sizes here ultimately um as is identified through those uh red arrows again if you do just the pure geographic placement and I'll kind of go back to here right everybody's happily in that sort of mid to low 90 percentile um even though you have perfect uh utilization you don't have it at the grade level which again requires you to be
120able to need to cherrypick out certain students who may want to go to another building uh in terms of thinking about option three when it comes to the transition policy you do see a slightly better um balancing across the schools, but you do kind of still have that grades 3, four, and five. Um hint, we did look at thinking about if Conan students could potentially not go to Blanchard, but go to other schools. That does solve a lot of the problems. It does not solve all the problems. That grade four uh no matter what you do is pretty tricky uh when it comes to Blanchard. So, um that discretionary option to the district I think would be of value. Um, as was indicated, there was a desire to have a sense of what the the
121bus routes look like. Um, so I did provide a an existing bus route. Um, and so there was a couple different ways we could do it. I was concerned by just trying to develop a route or thinking about what the average time was that uh, as with all models, you can poke holes in that and you could basically say, well, there's traffic and there's this and there's that. And so I thought what might be best is to show an existing route. And on the lefth hand side, I tried to give you as much detail as I could in terms of mileage, stops, what time it start uh pickup, what time it drops off, etc. So, this basically starts uh up at Parker Damon and then goes as far east as you can do go in
122Actton uh and then comes back through uh what would be the expanded Blanchard zone and then up the Blanchard. And so here you can see that it kicks off at 750 and gets to the school at 8:40. I would probably fairly confidently say that's about as bad as it's going to get. Uh on the flip side, because it was brought up as well, you know, what what does the afternoon look like? Um and so very much in the same vein, uh you have school pickup at 3:25, they kind of work their way backwards and it gets to 4:15. So slightly faster. Um well pretty much the same uh timeline for uh the first and last drop off and then we have the adjusted historical enrollment uh for uh consistency or you know for the data
123that we've always shown. So uh before I move on from scenario 6A are there any questions? Lakshmi. >> Yes. >> Microphone. >> What are we showing there? Bus stops. >> Yep. So, uh there was no just one Blanchard route that just hit the Stow or rather the the southern expanded zone and then went to Blanchard. So, what we found was sort of the next best thing, which was show me a route that goes through the expanded Blanchard zone, but it's also by far even more complicated because it goes even east uh to the Actton. So, your the bottom red, which I've identified as the expanded Blanchard zone, is sort of an example of where the bus would have to go uh and then up and to uh heading towards Blanchard. >> But, but why is
124it outside of the red? I think that's where I'm confused. >> This is this is a real route. So they're picking up, I think, a lot of special education students um that are a bit more of a complicated route structure. Um and so this is this is the nature of uh route systems within your district, right? There is no easy I'm just going to go pick up these kids. The usually and this is the challenge with open enrollment is you have buses going everywhere. Um and that is the complexity that is involved with that. So, um, to the point of last week's discussion, um, the data that we were able to pull, which I think is more representative of what I think you were trying to get at, uh, is this idea that the overall
125bus time would take about, uh, well, at most 50 minutes. >> What's the What's the worst time for kids in Boxboro to attend their school >> in Boxboro? >> Yeah. Uh I I don't have that off the top of my head, but I'm sure much less than 50 minutes, but it it depends. It also depends on how the length of the bus is, how many students are on it, etc. So, um >> so I'm just trying to see if it's equitable between the two regions. If Boxboro kids have 15-minute ride and these kids are going for 42 minute rides, I think that's seems a little too much. >> Uh you could look at it that way. Um, I would look at it as these kids are already doing it. So, you know, ideally, do we
126want to see more than aif or 50-minute bus ride? No. But I can probably comfortably say I don't think there's going to be a bus ride that's more than 50 minutes uh if you implement 6A. >> Okay. So, hang on. I'm going to jump in here real quick. So, remember one of the things we're looking at is the potential for grandfathering current Actton students who attend school in Blanchard. This is what that bus route looks like. Does that help? >> But he said that's for the special ed. >> Yeah. But so Actton students right now who go to Blanchard are strewn all over the place, predominantly on the western side, but they're still all over the place. You're essentially going to have two buses that pick up the acting kids going to Blanchard. And I
127I would say for the record, they're kind of already doing that. This is really meant to help indicate again part of the conversation from the other day was what does the bus situation look like from this expanded Blanchard zone versus seven's uh expanded blanchard zone. >> So we'll compare those. >> Can y can I just clarify one thing and Sher if you can jump in too. This is not a special education route. This is actually a yellow bus. >> Yes. It's one of the yellow bus routes. >> Right. These are this is a route that our students who live in Actton and go to Blanchard take every day. >> Oh, my apologies. Yeah. Andrew, >> thanks. Thank you for this. Um, the total students 24. What's the capacity of the buses that we have? Sherry,
128what's our bus capacity normally? >> Uh, usually around 70. >> Around 70 kids in a bus >> could be maximum capacity. >> Okay. And so this group that you have here comprises the 24 or so children that would be attending Blanchard as part of this. No, this is this is meant to act as an illustrative uh example of what we think a potential bus or rather what does a typical bus route to Blanchard look like. I think generally speaking, and I've heard this a lot from the community, is that please don't send my kid to Blanchard because it's so far away. And I'm trying to help sort of I think illustrate the idea that I don't think Blanchard's quite as far away as uh I think we're led to believe. if just because there is
129an existing bus route that has to stop off at Boardwalk first, then go to Blanchard and there's eight minutes to get from Boardwalk to Blanchard. And so again, just indicating timelines in terms of the morning and afternoon. >> From our previous conversation on this topic, we were talking about how you would have the Avalon area versus the South Actton area. And the question was, how do you compare the two? So a question of both time and capacity is where that comes from. So thanks for doing this. I'm glad we have it. Sherry, just for a factual check, is this a bus that has 24 total students on it, or is this just 24 of 70 students? >> Yeah, >> I'm asking. >> All right. Well, Sherry's figuring that out. Lisa, >> I think I had
130a similar question along similar lines, meaning if this bus wasn't full and if we chose the transition policy to grandfather students in Actton going to Blanchard, then this would be representative representative of a bus route um picking up some of those students. And so I guess I'm wondering is if there would still be scenarios where you'd have to have buses because we have a limited number of buses and a limited number of drivers where they would have to go to two schools still to be able to for the grandfathering to take place since we'd be providing transportation. So, I think it was it's just a matter of figuring out those logistics of like >> would would we now as a result of grandfathering have other students have that lengthy bus ride because you have to
131fill the bus because you only have so many buses. >> I would so the district transportation team's amazing and they have attempted to try to answer some of these questions. Uh so I'm speaking for myself uh in terms of projecting out. Yes. I mean, given the complexity, right, of where you're trying to move and excuse me, how you're moving different individuals, you would more than likely have those for a time until you kind of like tried to smooth out as much as possible. But I think Sher >> Okay, thank you. >> That route has 24 registered um students on it. And normally, Andrew, to answer a little back, if you have two per seat, it's 56. >> Thank you, Sherry. And one other thing to sort of I think key in here just as a
132a comparison, right? Um this is a I think the way Jen phrased it as a by house. It's a single stop uh route at each individual house, which usually takes a little bit longer than when you start to just pick up masses of kids at different bus stops. So there would be a balancing act between what could be potentially done in this expanded Blanchard zone. Uh there would obviously be trains train uh track stops. Uh but you could imagine that there would be savings from the shorter distance uh and bus stops versus the length of going all the way to East Actton. >> Yeah. I just imagine some of the stops are the way that they are for safety reasons, especially with winter. >> Correct. >> So, >> all right, let's keep going. >> All
133right. The one other thing I I will say for scenario um 6A is that so this zone right here and I'm just looking up cuz I had the numbers. This zone right here has seen um I would say fairly uh steady growth. Uh back in 1819 there were 62 kids out of this zone going to school and now this current year there were 85 um and has steadily sort of increased uh throughout the couple years. So that is a consideration as well. All right. Scenario 7A gets to now instead of using this. Nick, hang on a sec. I'm >> sorry, Nick. Um, because you said 18/19, you mean 2018 and 19, correct? >> Thank you. Yes. School year 2018 to 2019. Yeah. >> Pretty historic district, so I just wanted to make sure >> back
134in 1819. >> Thanks. >> Um, all right. You had open enrollment back then, too, I guess. Uh, all right. So for scenario 7A, uh part of the the challenge here was uh redesigning what the expanded Blancher zone looks like. So a couple uh I would say things that are true um is uh there was the predominantly south south western portion uh of the district and then we extended it as was identified by a mile and then sort of this broader zone. Uh, I don't deny the fact and I think it is one of the things that I I dislike the most about the scenario is the somewhat seemingly not perfect neighborhood boundary lines that were created for the expanded Blanchard zone. I um will fully admit that is a hit. Uh that was uh a
135necessity given the feedback that we received about some of the other areas especially how they were uh located within a walk zone close to other schools or whatever the case may be. And so, uh, part of this, you know, I think there has been a lot of, uh, frustration with why am I driving past two, uh, schools. Um, again, we're talking three mile difference between Boardwalk and, uh, Blanchard. So, I I hear you in terms of, uh, feeling like you're driving past the school, but I do think it is within the the general community. And, um, we did attempt to create geographically close uh, to Blanchard, expanded Blanchard zone, and that got shut down. So uh we are sort of I think adapting to what we are trying to uh accomplish here. So in this
136case uh consistent boundaries uh for the lowers and the uppers. School capacity again is at that higher uh level in terms of utilization. Uh the hometown guarantee again was achieved for Boxboro. Uh 7A and 7 are good for balanced student demographics. Uh again the recognized neighborhoods. Uh I know there are some consternation about some aspects of it. We did really try to account for some of the broader, bigger, more uh well-defined neighborhoods. It then becomes a little bit ambiguous as you move uh down in terms of those less uh concrete neighborhoods. Walk zones, future enrollment trends, continuous zones are all there. Um again, you can look through the stats, but I do feel like they were uh really good and consistent across the schools. Again, utilization, you always see this, and this is probably not
137a huge surprise, your no transition policy versus your uh option three or grandfathering everybody usually is pretty balanced and good. Uh your grandfathering just acting students is always going to kind of like pop Blanchard off. So, um I will just say for the record, just uh grandfathering act students to Blanchard probably is not an option I would uh entertain. All right. So, then in terms of looking at the class sizes, again, I just want to sort of flag this. It's that grade four. Uh, and this is a completely different expanded Blanchard zone. So, a lot of it has to do partly with Boxboro. Um, again, and and here's the challenge where people are just like, well, send the Blanchard kids that were going to Actton to Actton. Well, you could, but you just got to
138do it for fourth grade or current third grade. And so, that could be tricky uh from a equal perspective around do you just randomly pick uh the fourth grade class. So these are the challenges where to make a blanket policy that is consistent uh becomes really tricky. Uh in terms of uh 7A for the option uh three uh again you see that there are uh that grade four grade five class sizes um over in Blanchard. Um and again there is variation across the other two schools but I would say generally speaking it does achieve um I think a vaguely consistent level of average class size. So again coming back to we need to figure out a way um and and here is where I will fully admit right we were not able to give you
139a perfect solution uh through geog geography uh but I think given the conversations I've had with the district there are ways to mitigate those two classroom sizes. So for people who are like that's unacceptable, I hear you completely. Uh that's why the way we're going to solve this is not through the the geog geographical boundaries but through the transition policies. All right. So here's another uh transportation example. So this one was tricky because there was no existing transport uh transportation route that goes to Blanchard uh through this area. So, the best I could do uh was identify this morning run that goes to uh Parker Damon and then Conant. Um again, starts off at first pickup is at 7:59 and then drops off at Parker Damon at 8:29. So, I do want to sort of
140emphasize this route is going all the way through this area and it takes 30 minutes to get to Parker Damon. Um and again, like I said, going from Boardwalk to Blanchard takes 8 minutes. And I know this because there is a bus route that needs to drop off right at 8:35 and book it over to Boardwalk to get the kids on time and they are rarely late. Um, and so ultimately at the end of the day, um, this sort of gives you again more color to say like, okay, how long does it take? Um, I do want to flag there was an email to you all I think early today or the day before that said uh, to get from that area to uh, Blanchard takes 21 minutes. And I I Googled it myself and
141I checked it and this bus route sort of shows I do not think that is accurate. >> Glenn, >> thank you for this data. So just to hammer some key points home for clarification and accuracy, 7A has better racial and ethnic distribution and balance. Well, >> I would say they're both good. I would say >> they're both good. Yeah, >> I this one is a bit more evenly distributed. >> Um, with I I would call it within the margin of error given how I know things are going to change into next year enrollment, but I think yeah, I think they're both perfect. >> They're both okay. And this bus route looks less painful >> if by pain you mean time on duration. Yeah. >> Yes. it uh tech well for the Conan kids it's 10
142minutes shorter than the longest bus ride that we just looked at before. >> So less painful bus route and there is no perfect solution. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yes ma'am. So these bus routes we don't have to I mean you are providing them on based on the existing routes for your data but the school administration should be able to draw new bus routes to optimize on whichever we choose. Is that right? >> Yeah. Oh absolutely. So I guess for folks who aren't kind of familiar with this it takes weeks to make bus routes. Um, and so given what we knew and given the everchanging dynamics of these scenarios, it was unrealistic to assume they were going to kind of like develop uh existing or what the bus routes could look like. And so, yeah,
143we're trying to do our our best in terms of how we're sort of thinking about this. Again, using these as an example, I think, truth be told, I think either one uh I I I'll phrase it like this. I don't think either scenario uh creates prohibitive bus routes. Thank you. >> Okay. Finally, uh, scenario 7. So, I'm just going to, I think, start here real quick. Part of our challenge and as we were moving through scenario 6A and 7A. And as we were getting feedback and we were hearing about class sizes and whatnot, um, we were starting to really think through, okay, is the juice worth the squeeze? So part of the move from 7 to 7A was to expand the expanded Blanchard zone. Um and so just go up here real quick. If you
144look at the north northwest uh expanded Blanchard zone, keep that in mind for two seconds. You'll see that there's kind of a chunk that's now missing in scenario 7. We initially had sort of projected out a couple years in regards to what the overall enrollment would look like across the different schools. And the way we were, I would say, conservatively thinking about enrollment projections, we were showing that Blanchard was uh dropping off in terms of utilization. So in our mind, we were thinking, okay, well, we should expand the size of the expanded Blanchard zone to help sort of beef up, if you will, excuse me, the uh the size of uh Blanchard and the utilization. As we sort of played around with these numbers and went back and sort of looked and tried to get
145better enrollment projections, we actually realized that no, there's there's something that happens with an act in Boxboro where you all gain enrollment by cohort every year despite the fact your enrollment is going down. This is a common thing where people move in regularly uh throughout the year. And so given that was the case and given because there was a couple questions that said, "Hey, your average class sizes looked better with scenario 7, why would we go to 7A?" That led us to sort of come back and say, "Okay, seven actually seemingly could do uh fit the bill, so to speak, in regards to what we're trying to accomplish." I do want to sort of flag your grade four still is tricky. Now the difference and I do want to kind of like flag this here
146in this scenario with the peer geographic placement you can see that there is one additional teacher in grade four which gets you down to that 21. Uh your grade five is still at 26.7 average class size. If you come here you can see that obviously there's only three teachers. So there's a higher average uh class size where Parker Damon was the beneficiary of that additional teacher and you see that grade four there is lower. So you can see not only is the complexity around geographical enrollment but as the district has to deal with every year they are managing the resources they have at play to not just continue to hire for hiring sake and to manage the resources that they have. So in this case uh just to kind of sum up seven I think
147seven does achieve similar if not better results than 7A um still has some of the similar challenges that you're going to have to address through the transition policy and eventually through the flex zone. Um, but I I just to be blunt, I think if uh if I had to say what was better, seven or 7A, I would go with seven. Um, kind of right off the bat. Now, that's a whole different conversation between 7 and 6A. But just to stay for the record and to simplify it, I think seven achieves everything 7A does with uh smaller expanded blanchard zones, which more than likely is better for a lot of folks uh that I know are not uh comfortable with the expanded blanchard zones. So that was kind of a very quick summary of scenario 7.
148Uh I use the same transportation example again uh just as a again a highlighting of what the transportation process would look like. And then you have your historical enrollment. So that brings us to the end of the presentation. Um oh uh one thing that was brought up I do want to kind of flag for folks. Close. Sorry. One sec. Um it was asked for in terms of thinking about what the actual how many students uh would have to move from their current I I used to be buildings I'm saying campuses uh given the fact that uh we have two different styles uh of uppers and lowers now and so we had run those numbers and I would say you know obviously 100% of Conan students are moving uh under these scenarios because they're pretty much
149similar no matter which one you do about 50% of students would be moving uh from uh their existing building or I'm sorry their existing campus to a new campus. Um and so obviously Blanchard's very low because most of Boxboro is still going to Blanchard but the other Boardwalk and Parker Damon um again hover just under 50% but if you average it together it's about 50%. >> Questions on scenario seven? I know we've talked through that one already. Okay. So I think that brings us to figuring out first of all which scenario we're using as our base plan. So 6A 7 7 7A. Um before we raise hands couple of ways we can do this. Does anybody I guess first of all anybody still have questions they need to ask about a scenario before we start
150having a conversation about what we think here? Okay, Lakshmi, let's get that out of the way. >> So, it's not just scenario, right? I think it's scenario combined with transition policy. Okay, then that makes sense because no scenario seems to really solve our problems of transition scenario uh sorry scenario helps kind of establish basic pattern but the transition policy is what we get so many nasty emails about. I'm sorry it's been bit much some of them. Um so um what what I'm saying is a scenario isn't going to be enough. Scenario helps us view the long term but transition policy is what helps right now. >> Yeah. So what I think we should be talking about first because we need to do this in order, right? We're going to have to this is kind of
151like as we worked our way through options, we're going to have to figure out what we marry up. Um it's 8:48 so we're actually doing okay timewise. Um what we can do is maybe just start with talking based scenarios so that we kind of know what the issues are there and we don't have to immediately take that vote. What we can then do is talk about what do we think marries up with that um and kind of get to get ourselves to a point where we feel like we've we're ready to package the whole thing. Does that >> All right, Adam. >> Yeah, I I I will say that that makes sense. I think we we have to work from the broadest topic to the most narrow topic. So, as it's sort of in our
152agenda and in the vote language that we're looking at, we need to figure out what are our base geographic scenarios, what are going to be our flex policies and enrollment policies, and then what are going to be our short-term transition policies. Can I go ahead >> just before you start this and Nick knows that this is an area I've become passionate about is this concept of building utilization versus class size and it's really important to understand that they are somewhat tangentially related and it's not close right the the relationship between utilization and class size I had asked Nick just a very very hypothetical ridiculous question. Knowing building utilization is calculated by us telling him the number of classrooms that can fit in a building and the maximum number of students that could fit in every
153classroom for each grade level. Dillinger then calculates that out and that gives them a maximum total number of students for that building. when they program students for the building based on geography, they get to a number of students that will attend the building and then divide it by the total number. So it's just a gross calculation of how many students are in the building versus what is the maximum number of students the district told us you could put in the building. That is what utilization is. So if we said and just for a ridiculous statement there was going to be one classroom at Blanchard at 500 students and there were a thousand students capacity of the school. Blanchard would be operating at 50% capacity. It would look great when we look at building capacity and
154it's a completely irrelevant number in terms of how we actually operate the district. I would strongly urge us to look at class size as the metric for a lot of this. I building utilization is important when you're looking at the big picture, but what I really think having been here a long time is our concern community is very very concerned about how we manage the class sizes in our schools because that is the everyday experience of our students and our teachers who are trying to work with them. So, um I just I you can certainly go in any direction you want. I just want to make sure that you're really clear about what building utilization means versus what class size means and that you're thinking both of both of them but you're thinking of them
155very very differently. So that was my only pontification. I'm get out of your way and let you do your thing. >> I'm going to go Liz and then I'll come around to >> um just in the interest of acknowledging you know that the community feels so rushed on this. I just, you know, had to put this out there and ask sort of timelinewise. Um, I know that we need to define the uh the geography definitely like before spring break. Is there any leeway where we would be able to potentially come back to or redisuss the other pieces, the transition policy and our flex zones? Is is there any leeway for either of those to be pushed out or are we really up against we have to have this in place? It depends on what your
156other goals are. So, if our goals are to be able to tell parents what schools kids are going to after April vacation, then we have to know it tonight. Um, if we're willing to push that out, we can wait. That is also tied to our ability to collect feedback from families about potential peer groups and our ability to have our educators working together to actually create next year's classrooms. Um, I will tell you we're, you know, from here until the week after April break when we want to release all the classroom informations, we are programmed on a daily basis of things that need to get done. And so any push off of just kind of knowing this, we can we can certainly still work to make it happen. It's just going to mean it's going
157to have to be probably a more directive approach that doesn't involve families to the degree that I think we we value or our educators to the degree that we actually think we need their eyes on our student groupings. So that that would be my only caution. But does it mean that it can't happen? No. >> Glenn, I'll come back around. >> That's these are very important points. I personally want to give parents as much certainty as possible with the uncertainty we're dealing with as soon as possible. So, that's a priority I have. Uh, with that in mind, which one of these three options is the worst when it comes to class sizes? So, this is not going to be a satisfactory answer. They all suck in terms of grade four like no at the end
158of the day the the grade four is the problem which cannot be solved for geography. So I was about to you know say well it's kind of tied in with transition policy and it's not really right the geography no matter what you do and I know you say what's the worst they're all equally as good as they're going to get. How about that? Um because at the end of the day um there needs to be I'll give you an example of uh I'm currently working with Worcester in the same pro uh process. They have schools that are over 112% capacity. They like they are teaching uh sometimes in the hallways. They are sometimes teaching in the music rooms. All this kind of different things. So I'm not saying and I'm not saying that's what you
159should do. I'm just saying like this is good in so far as yes, there is variability across the classrooms but not prohibitively so. And that is not disass you know dissuading the fact that 27 kids in a classroom is not high. I I acknowledge that that's actually a doable scenario for what we're trying to do knowing that the district is going to do everything they can to reduce that number. Um and so at the end of the day I think any and I'll just kind of stick to seven and 6A would be my focus. Any of those two scenarios will be as good as I think we can get knowing that the district has the flexibility to even mitigate it around the margin some more yenshin's also got a hand up as this yen >>
160um I I think u we've all been at this table and talking about a budget for like the past three years or longer like Adam almost a decade So we know um every month, six months or a year that we push um this process back, what would it cost? How many staff will have to be cut? And I think very recently like everybody's focusing on Lexington that they had to let go over 60 staff. Um, Peter, can you just I know this question is probably really broad, but can you just give us an idea um for the people who are not sitting at these tables every two weeks if we push this till next year, how many staff will we have to cut at this point? I mean, I think the personnel savings for AB
161for this process was a we saved about 1.8 million in personnel costs, but then we brought in a couple new counselors at the elementary level and a couple of some office support um for the schools that ended up costing us about $400,000. So, it's probably a ballpark of a million and a half. Um and so however we choose to approach that million and a half still needs to get reduced. Um we also budgeted I think conent operating costs at 50%. For facil you know like facilities related costs and things like that. So that's probably a couple hundred,000 on top of that >> about 150 >> 150. Okay. So 1.6 to 1.7ish million. Does that sound about right, Cherry? >> I guess I'm trying to do the math in my head and it's failing me. Like,
162how many staff full-time staff would it be for the 1.8 million? >> 12 to 15. >> I mean, if you do it a ballpark, probably I'd say between 14 and 17. So that's if we were to push this and we say we're not doing this anymore, that's 12 to 15 staff has to be let go at any at the end of this year. Correct. >> Depending on the salary range. >> I I think the bottom line is no matter what we do from here on out, we have to operate like the the school committee has voted the budget. That cannot change at this point because you actually can't change the budget before town meeting. So that that's going to get moved forward no matter what we do in here. Um the bottom line is what
163we would have to do whatever we have to do to figure out how to make reductions. Um including personnel that have already accepted new positions that now we would have to go hire for. >> Could I chime in just as as a real quick point? You know, I kind of judge a consultant on uh do they tell you what you want to hear or do they tell you what you need to hear. You need to make a decision tonight. And I just I do want to emphasize, right, not that you all are, but you're kind of avoiding talking about the big tricks or the the challenges around these two scenarios. I appreciate the class size is one of the components. I mean, I I'll kind of help cut to the chase here for a second.
1646A and 7A, the biggest difference is your expanded Blanchard zone. um start there and then work out beyond that. Uh but I would encourage you please do not drag this out because uh given what I've talked to with the community, they do not want it dragged out. >> I'll just be really quick. Um I actually know because the school committee has to do what we need to do to educate the students. I think like Lashmi mentioned, I think we've probably received the most vitriotic emails like inerson comments, etc. This these past weeks, I'm allowing it because the school committee is a governing body. As a person, I try not to think that they're just yelling at me. So, I I just want the communities to have an opportunity to hear what catastrophic outcome it will
165be if we push this out. And I'll just put on top of that that we wouldn't really be able to solve that problem at the elementary school level because we'd be going backwards and so then we would have to continue to cut at the secondary level and we already have those class sizes up at the highest level. Like, yes, we need to move on. Okay, we're going to move on. All right, I'll start over here. Let's figure out this scenario. >> May I entertain a motion? >> No. Well, >> yeah, we can put a motion out there so we can talk about it. So that gets >> I think we should do that. >> Oh, yeah. I have a question. >> All right. Question from Lax me first. >> Okay. >> So, actually it's two-part.
166I have to do that because otherwise I wouldn't get a chance. >> Okay. First question is um to Peter um the you said building capacity versus class size when Nick presented as 102% right um capacity at Blanchard does it mean that it it's based on the building building capacity that's question one question two is I hear all these I see all these emails about parents talking about how their kids are missing their friends, their cousins, whoever, whoever, right? And that seems to be the top of cons their concern. My concern as a school committee member is none of that. School kids are resilient as one of the community members said. What concerns me is the class size being really big and is it really big? Is it that bad? I don't know. But I think
167we are jumping from one one way of operating to that. And I think we are not giving that much time to for the staff and the school to grow into it. I think that's that's my concern and for that if Peter can specify what does it cost to get that class sizes down when your flex zones and volunteer uh enrollment options don't work out. >> Okay. So I I there I think I heard two questions to me. The first one was build a capacity and class size related >> building capacity. It's incredibly important. When Nick gets to the example that he talked about like in Worcester, if you have teachers trying to teach students in hallways and aloves and you don't have appropriate instructional spaces, that's when building capacity really comes into play as a
168as a major problem. But I could have low building capacity and grossly high class sizes at the same time simply because I'm underprogramming the number of classrooms I need in a building, but I'm putting too many students in each of those classes. So they do operate somewhat independently of each other. Um, >> so my question was >> I I in all of these scenarios, the number of sections you see at the bottom of each of these buildings, so 22 sections at board at Blanchard, 24, 42 at Boardwalk, and 43 at Parker Damon. Those are all exactly what we were hoping for in terms of what we gave Nick. And we have really worked to balance those sections that way. are also trying to create generally predictable schools for our teachers um over time. So we're
169not bouncing teachers around between schools either. So that that was something that was important to us as well. Um Blanchard, for example, next year has four sixth graders on the scenario that four sixth grade sections in the scenario he has up in front of you. They will graduate out. It's unlikely without having to heavily heavily heavily flex act in residence that we would have four sections at Blanchard the following year in kindergarten. Right? So Blanchard will go from 22 sections in the building probably or possibly to 21. Um unless we choose to flex a lot of students from Actton. That's just something we're going to have to make a decision about at the time. Um so you get these slight enrollment bubbles that go through schools. That is normal. And we can program Blanchard up
170to 24 sections. We can't go over 24 sections due to some contractual issues in some of our teaching roles. And we can program Boardwalk and Parker Damon up to 48 sections. However, Boardwalk and Parker Damon don't actually have space for 48 sections. So, it's actually about 43 that we can program in those buildings. So, there's a lower capacity just due to space. But what you see here works for the district and that's the resulting class size. In terms of the cost of a of trying to adjust this, if we try to add classrooms to our overall elementary total, it costs about $100,000 a classroom. And if you're adding a kindergarten classroom, it's probably about 130,000. Was that pretty reasonable? Uh because it comes with a teacher and an assistant. um the cost of trying to
171think about the transition policy layered on top of a scenario and how we might reach out to families and seek volunteers to be able to stay grandfathered into or move to other buildings that's free. So, you know, I think that was a lot of our discussion with Nick is how do we provide enough flexibility in the transition year, knowing that once we get all of our families situated into schools, we're only then dealing with flex zones, which is very manageable. But the challenge is how do we get from point A to point B. Adding teachers adds up quickly. adding flexing students around is a transitional policy is free. And I think there my gut is there are likely enough families in those qualifying categories who would prefer to stay in a building or go to
172a different building that we could probably get some volunteers to do it which is I think why we put this in front of you and it's entirely your decision about what you think is right for the community. >> Thank you Glenn. The world is volatile enough. Growing up as a kid in 2026 is volatile enough. This is a stressful time for families. We have enough data to make a decision tonight. I want to give parents as much certainty ASAP in this time of uncertainty. We need certainty. We need stability. We need predictability. We need to make these tough decisions now and not kick this down the road. That is a disservice. 6A has the worst bus times and seven is better than 7A. I move to move I move for seven. >> Adam, >> can
173I make a friendly amendment to Glenn's awesome motion? >> Yes, please. >> I will hear it. I move that the act in Boxboro Regional School Committee adopt scenario 7A as the official elementary school geography bound geographic boundary map. This map shall go into effect July 1st, 2026 and remain in effect until or unless amended by the school committee. >> I accept the friendly amendment and >> Okay. So that >> that Okay. So yeah, actually I think every Yes, you said 7A to you and you said yes. Thank you. >> My mistake. I apologize. >> My ap my my mistake. I apologize as well. >> Okay, let's take it. >> Glenn, you want to I I'm going to remove my friendly amendment. Do you wish to remove your second? I do wish to remove myself. >>
174Do you wish to remove your motion and make a new motion based off of the paper in front of us? >> Okay. How about I just withdraw my motion? Let someone else handle it. >> No. No. >> Well, just Okay. It's been a long night. I'm kind of stressed, but we're doing okay. Just >> Do you have the paper with the motion? >> Here it is. >> There you go. >> So, just for transparency with the community, these are complicated motions and we wanted to make sure that school committee members had them. um the the technical language of it and that you could see it as it evolves potentially with amendments and things like that. So, you're going to see it projected. They also have it on paper. It doesn't limit what they might do
175to motions. However, it's just to make sure that the motions being made are accurate. And for school committee members, I will let you know that all of these motions were vetted by our attorneys. >> Am I allowed to enter? >> Nope. So actually we we are past public comment. Um so no nope no you're you're out of order. This is our conversation. Um Glenn motion first and then we will have discussion. As my previous statement I I explained my reasoning. I feel I explain my reasoning well. I move that the Actton Boxboro Regional School Committee adopt scenario 7 as the official elementary school geographic boundary map. This map shall go into effect July 1st, 2026 and remain in effect until or unless amended by the school committee. >> All right, so that was moved by
176Glenn, seconded by Adam. We are now going to have discussion before we vote. So work way around the table. We'll start over here. Lisa, >> can my discussion include a quick question to Nick? >> Okay, >> Nick, uh, you were talking about that chunk coming out of 7A to make seven and I really liked seven and that's why I'd reached out and emailed to you because while I appreciated everyone's um, feedback and the iterating and continuing to, you know, do some tweaking, I think it we had it right at 7. However, I think the question that I have is when I'm thinking about future proofing and sustainability and later on, you know, having to enact those uh flex zones, does 7A prevent us from having to use the flex zone sooner rather than later or
177to a greater degree, I guess, is what I'm asking. because since there's, you know, more students in Blanchard and we know that that's going to drop. I I guess what I'm trying to get out would would there be any benefit to 7A that I'm not seeing here in terms of a future proofing standpoint because I like seven better and so I want to make sure >> no uh there is no benefit I think from 7 to 7A. >> That's what I thought but I wanted to make sure. Adam, >> I I was curious why 7 versus 7A as well. I think Nikki did a great job of explaining it. I don't think that there's any option where we're not going to have some disruption to folks and people are going to be unhappy and we've
178we've seen that. I think the hardest thing for us to portray to the community is the the amount of feedback that we've gotten and you know tens of 20s of hundreds of emails over the past few weeks that get read over and over again. Our thinking evolves, our process evolves. Um I appreciate that so many people start their email with, "Thank you for the work you're doing. This is very hard." And then it usually ends up with a but you're ruining my life and I apologize. I have there's there's no way that we can do this without doing that somehow to some people. Um I appreciate the work that happened at the last minute. I will tell you I was extremely frustrated that yesterday we got another set of slides. Um but it showed that
179there was more thinking going on about how to solve some of these problems in direct response to feedback that we've gotten. I think that option 7 is the way to go. Um, I also believe that as as we've seen our um our enrollment history, this becomes less and less and less of a stress point as our enrollment continues to decline. Oh, by the way, it means that our funding will also continue to decline. Um, and so I encourage everybody who's here who's frustrated about this, please continue to stay engaged. Please continue to follow along the budget process, not just at the schools, but at the towns. We have been fighting this fight for, thanks Yenshin, a decade now for some of us um to make sure that we're getting the funding we need from both
180the state and the town to make this happen. This is not an act in Boxboro regional school district problem. This is not a town of Boxboro, a town of Actton problem. This is a municipal problem in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We are underfunded. Peter shared earlier, I'm on a soap box, I apologize. Peter shared earlier that he had to submit a report for extra work that we have to do that we get absolutely no funding for. And that's that's what we're dealing with here. That is the frustration that we have and the committee and the min administration. We're doing our best to make sure that we get the best resources to all the kids that need that. I'm done. >> I'm going to follow your rant a little bit. Um Lexington and the amount of
181staff that they have to cut, they're doing that on short notice. I know this has been fast. I know this has been hard, but we've been working on this for a year. We're not doing this in a matter of months. And they're now looking at having to close a couple of schools coming down the road, too. As hard as this is, our district has been working on this for years and years and years. And I appreciate the work and the I think I'm up now over 600 emails to the school committee over the course of this year on AB Ford. That is both painful and awesome at the same time. So yes, thank you for all this input. Um I was really relieved to see seven come back as well, Nick. Um the class sizes
182what I really wanted to say to everybody's email that said the class sizes are ridiculous and everything's in Blanchard. You're right. So I think seven is the base problem. the base scenario to work off of and I think we have more work to do on the flex zones and transition policy but this is where I would like to start too. Yen, >> thank you. Um actually I looked through all those scenario multiple times but in my head do you remember when we started the AB forward was one first grade teacher from Blanchard and said that she feels every year that her table the legs are growing thinner and thinner and that always stayed with me. So, as we're looking through the scenario, they all suck, but I think seven sucks a little less because the
183class sizes it's not ideal. Perhaps it's more manageable than either 7A or 6A. Um I I do have a small question which is so for scenario seven that blanches 95 utilization but Parker Damon upper school is like 100%. But the class size somehow didn't go to the crazy zone. I was just wondering like why. >> Can you uh put up the presentation? So I uh what can you be specific? You're saying >> so I I think for scenario seven um >> right >> Parker Damon upper school is 100% utilization. >> Where are you seeing that? >> It's slight. >> Oh am I looking at the wrong side? >> Oh there we go. 408. Okay. >> Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. >> Yeah, >> that's because this is I thought I had labeled it. This is uh
184this current year's enrollment. >> Okay. >> So, the statistics like I had sort of indicated to be able to sort of show you all the percentage of uh lowinccome uh race and all that other stuff is using current year's enrollment. Then for this, we start to use 26 27 projected enrollment as well as the projected class sizes use 26 and 27. So a lot of the trick uh tricky business around the high level or rather the increased sixth grade uh cohort class size moves out smaller class sizes move in. So that's why you see the subtle drop in util total utilization. >> Okay. >> I would I would also say this too to Peter's point right the calculation for utilization uses what you ideally want to have as a max class size. um which in
185this case and I don't have them off the top of my head but especially for the upper grades is around 24. Um so there is a world right where you could be at 100% capacity and you're ex every class size is exactly at where it needs to be. Um again high but not prohibitively high given the current guidelines. >> Thank you >> Andrew. >> Thanks. I think Lisa had a really great question and future proofing is a key concern. You know, this isn't just a map. It's a foundation for a whole new system we're putting in place. And my concern about it is that all of these scenarios, as Yang said, as you said, they all suck. They're collaborated though to our current demographics, and the population is going to change as students move through
186the system, but the boundaries are going to remain fixed. And I don't see a clear plan for how that holds up over time. So, I'm really uncomfortable with all of these pieces here, and I don't have a way of reconciling that. So, I'm gonna actually want to I actually want to talk about that. So, I don't know if everybody realizes that our current demographics are pretty seriously unbalanced. Like that's where we started when we started talking about this. And that means that teachers depending on which school building they're in and the concentration of high need students have different experiences in their classrooms and and different loads. And I I think we you know we definitely have heard that from our educators as we've talked to them. Um it also means for students there's a different
187experience of how much how how many resources we have to help kids when they need it. And and I'm not just talking I'm talking about any kids really. Like our kids who need help are not just the ones who are learning another language um or trying to learn a in learning English when it's not their native tongue or maybe it's a student who's on an IEP. No, like this is all of our kiddos. We have students who don't fit in a high needs category who are not meeting grade level standards for literacy. So to me, the very first thing that is important is getting these demographics balanced. And that's why we have to do geographic enrollment because we can't do it through open enrollment. We can't do it through where we're at right now. And
188so as I'm looking at this, I feel like that's the the problem that we have to solve. And I I I I'm going to acknowledge that none of us can see the future, but we brought in somebody with expertise in doing this to do our darn best to get something that is future proof. So, I think there is a level of that's what we brought Nick in here to do. And when we ask him a question about is this the best f future proofing you can give us given everything that you know and knowing it's based on assumptions. It's going to have to be. Um I think there there's a point at which we have to accept that and move on and and and it's okay to be uncomfortable with that. Like I I recognize
189that as well. Everything you talked about about why we're doing this, I I agree with that. The the mix that we're doing for demographics is based on the needs we have now and the needs we know are in system. But the concern I have about this is that the kids that we're organizing our or our our system for are going to move through the system and that next it goes inside that next round of kids that are coming in will not be the same. They won't be the same needs. they won't have the same demographics and we're locking ourselves into the space but we're not building the additional policies around it to be able to maintain the demographic mix that you're talking about to be able to maintain the mix of services that you're talking
190about. We're placing a rigid non optimal non non uh variable, excuse me, an a rigid nonvariable model on top of a population that's changing. My concern about this is that that within 3 years, the kids that we're designing this for will be in their next section. meaning that the new kids that come in may need additional ser we may need to do this again and we're not talking about the future 10 years from now we're we need to look at what's going to happen three years from now and we need to have that whether it's flex zones whether it's something else whether it's a model that needs to be talked about that's my concern in all of this >> yep and we'll get to those I we're just looking at setting based scenario right okay
191cool >> I want I want to thank my colleagues particularly Andrew for the respectful and productive discussion we have here. I move the previous question. >> Second. >> Okay. So, you're going to make us vote. So, that was moved by Glenn. So, what we just what Glenn just did so that everybody's tracking is that we're going to stop talking about this and take a vote. So, we're voting on whether we're going to take a vote. Moved by Glenn, seconded by Adam. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. So, with that, we're going to circle back up here um to the final reorganization plan scenario being seven. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Okay. So, Andrew opposed. Any abstensions? Okay. All right. So, that passes. And next up, we need to figure out
192enrollment policy and flex zones and transition policy. Um, it probably makes sense to do the flex zones first. So, let's take it in that order. Um, do we have questions before we get a motion on the table? Yenshin. >> Um I have a question for operations. Is it Peter? Is it possible that with the large larger class size for the next year, can we temporarily put in class assistance so that we can help the educators and the students to adapt to the new the new AB? we can do just about anything within the total budget that we have allocated but we don't have money beyond the budget. So just to you know that that is ultimately our answer. Um, I think that's not and I'm going to say in all seriousness that's not out of
193the realm of possibility and that also I think that might not be a flex zone discussion. I think that might be a transitional policy discussion. Um, so because if you choose not to adopt transitional policies and keep more students just kind of locked in place, then we might want to think about staffing mitigation strategies. But if we do it by thinking about how our students sit, we may or may not need additional staffing. >> Adam, >> uh, Peter, can you put up the image on this deck of the flex zones? >> It's towards the be. Yeah, that's the one. Um, so I just want to clarify that what we're doing in our next single vote is two actions potentially. one is to approve these fruit flavored rainbow colored flex zones um and the policy JC
194that accompanies the provides the definition and both the location of those those are the two things that we're sort of capturing into one vote next >> so your current enrollment policy and this is typical of all back and box policies the policy itself is just a vle statement of general direction for the school district as a matter of governance None of our open enrollment procedures that we currently have had in place for the last 30 plus 40 years um actually sit in the policy. They actually sit in the administrative procedure that accompanies the policy. So the policy language that's proposed in your packet is just a revision to the high level statement saying instead of it's an open enrollment policy, it's now a one based on geography. What we're asking you to do is to
195adopt the policy and to also vote to approve the language of the flex zone FAQ which includes the geographic maps of the flex zones. Once that's approved, we would write that into administrative procedure um that accompanies the policy. And our only goal was just to stay consistent with how we've operated in the past with how we write our policy and procedures into the future. >> Go ahead. >> So I I I have a followup then and you sort of mentioned it, Peter. There's I think clarification that's required in the FAQ um particularly around and I'll let me just look at what my notes were here. particularly around um yeah family placement um up at the beginning of the FAQ and I guess what I'm what I'm getting at is I want to describe to you
196the intention of what I would like to see changed about the FAQ. I do not want to mess with that language right now and so the motion that we may carry will be with the intention that's been communicated. So I believe in item one of the FAQ where we talk about purpose and definition, we should have a very clear description of the fact that once a family is placed in a school, their assignment will not change unless they relocate outside of their current flex zone. >> I hate to say this, but because we're asking you to vote to approve it, okay, >> we need to know what the language is and make sure it's in there. >> Do we have a way to edit that FAQ document? Uh, I do I don't want to currently
197have a way to project it, but I can work on getting it over to >> I think Tori's got some of it. So, um, it's it's a document that's in our packet. Um, and my suggestion is at the bottom of the second paragraph of that document, we add the language that says once placed uh, what well, let me I' I've got it typed out here. If we like this, then I will just copy that and share that with Peter and and the rest of the ad administration. Once a family is placed in a school, their assignment will not change as long as they do not um move outside of that flex zone. I'm happy to take any feedback on that suggestion to the FAQ. Can I ask a question? So, you have an individual who
198is in the flex zone. Their child joins the school. They move out of the flex zone but stays in the zone. Are you concerned that the district would move them? >> I I think that's that is implied as I've read the FAQ. So you're concerned with if somebody moves within the flex zone to a new house and because they moved but they're still registered in the school that the kid could be in danger of moving. >> Yeah. So I then the final question is is why is it stipulated within the boundary within like why not just say you could and I think what you're getting at is if you have a child who's in a school and you move within that zone the even if you move within the the flex zone the kid cannot
199be moved. describe to me what you mean difference between zone and flex zone. >> Sorry, a geographical boundary. So if if I have a child who's in the geographical boundary of a school and moves into the flex zone, you I think want to prevent them from having to be flexed. Even though they moved and even though they moved into a flex zone, they are still registered in that school. And so you do not want them to be moved. Is that correct? >> No. I think my intention is if I live in a flex zone. Um, so in the a as I sit and zone and I moved somewhere else in that zone, that geographic zone, I'm not changing schools. If I live in a boardwalk zone and I move in a boardwalk zone, I'm not
200changing schools. So, I live in a Parker Dam zone and I move to a boardwalk zone, I'm most likely going to be moved. If I live in a zone that is flexed and I stay inside that very nar boundary of the area that I'm flexed, I don't want to trigger the opportunity to get moved. >> Okay. So, I'm hearing you completely, but I think I'm trying to get you to give the definition big get I think you want I think you want a bigger definition. And so, let me try. If you have a student who is currently in a build who is a has been registered in a specific building, right, and they move, you want them to stay in that building, I think, unless they move into another attendance boundary. >> Yes. >> Right.
201That would be the only way that they could move from and the only reason why I'm saying this is because you could have a student outside of a flex zone move into a flex zone which you don't want them to move right you don't want them to be flexed same boundary you have a student inside a flex zone who has been flexed and they could move within the flex zone I think and you don't want them to move but I think the trick is is what happens if they move out of the flex zone into that uh geographical boundary that they currently exist within that flex zone Would you expect them to have to go to that geographical z boundary or do you want them to stay? >> To me, that's like changing your geographic
202zone. >> Okay. So then it's So I think it's then you would stay in your school unless you move out of your existing flex zone or move outside of your geographical boundary, your current geographical boundary at school or however you'd want to phrase that. Lakshmi. >> So by doing doing that kind of variations I mean the whole reason we are doing flex zones is for operational efficiencies right by doing that what don't we lose that >> I'm trying to provide a level of certainty in a very gray area. Um >> I know I know but that ties down the administration to run bus routes. It it doesn't because what I'm trying to do is protect. If I'm in a school, I'm not going to if I'm in a school and I stay in the zone
203that is served by that school, either through flex or through standard geographic boundary, I'm not going to I'm worried about triggering someone being flexed when they're an established in an established school and are staying within the boundaries of that they're changing their residence. Right. >> I I understand that, but I think that's that's really good. But I'm more worried about let's say that South Actton that green right they either go to Parker Damon or Boardwalk and the buses are basically uh decided based on which part which flex zone the region is decided based every year it can change based on the enrollment requirements for each school right now a kid who is going to park and now suddenly moves into the area where the boardwalk bus is coming now you're asking them to switch keep
204them in Parker Damon. Won't that cause problems? >> My understanding that it of a flex zone is that inherently you're going to have two schools served out of that zone as it continues to get used >> every street in that flex zone. Is that so? >> It's it's not it's not a binary choice. So even in kindergarten enrollment, the district may say, "All right, for kindergarten enrollment, I need four more kids to go over here." And as I've understood our policy or our language right now, we're going to first search for volunteers in the entirety of that zone. Are there four families who want to get flexed into that? So, we've already opened up the entire geographic boundary of that flex zone from a transportation standpoint. >> Can't we leave that in the the language
205flexible enough for the administration to work through? We prefer that, but not tie their hands. if it's going to live with the FAQ of a procedure. I mean, there's not much teeth we have anyway. >> Yeah. I just think there's a lot of I think there's a lot of uncertainty and lack of clarity in the FAQ. And if we're voting in FAQ, then I want that to be as clear as possible. Um otherwise, it comes back to us again and there may be an edge case in the next two weeks that needs to get resolved. And we had a real estate agent in the room earlier today and she was on her phone managing listings cuz it's springtime. And so I'm just worried that we we could hit this now. And I want us to
206if we've identified it as a challenge, I'd rather define it now. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Andrew. >> Sometimes trying to work through these things procedurally is more difficult than focusing on outcomes. the outcome you're looking for. You move, you go to the ad, they go to the school that your address is aligned to. If you move out of a flex zone, if you don't move out of a flex zone, you maintain your status. That's what you're saying. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Or you move into a geography that is defaulted to your >> It doesn't matter. I mean it doesn't matter where you're going because you're move we have said Nick Stef has said every house has a a geographically defined school you move from where you are to where you're going where you're
207going if it's in if it's in the or in a different flex zone any flex zone that's my question to you if you move from the south act into the west act and flex zone are you still able to maintain >> uh I think we probably need a better definition of and and forgive me I don't I have not I have read all of this but Peter can you tell me the West Act and South Actton and the the dark purple zones are they they're they're not you're going to flex they have a defined school that is their primary and secondary correct yes Peter's nodding so >> well my only question was this and I apologize for interrupting but my only question was if we have multiple flex zones and you move from one flex
208zone to another do you maintain reflects on status >> and it's an if, not a that. >> Uh I think the the answer is it depends. >> Okay. >> I I I mean this we've we've talked about this before, right? This is this is a difficult policy to to figure out all of the >> sure >> components of and it's it's sure as heck not easy to do at 9:37 at night. >> So maybe my suggestion would be I mean this is something that I would want to send to the policy subcommittee and have them figure it out. So maybe what I will do is withdraw all of my comments and then just ask that we put this on the policy subcommittee's table to better refine the FAQ as soon as possible. >> Uh I
209think that helps. Hopefully it helps. >> Yeah. No, no, it does. I mean I think you all, Nick included, thanks for turning the tables on us, have, you know, sort of uncovered some of the the the uncertainty that's in here. My hope is that we can provide that certainty as soon as possible to families. My hope is that we don't need to deal with that in the short term, but that we can through our policy subcommittee better define it. You want to say something, Peter? >> I I'm concerned if we want to follow the trajectory we're on, that includes actions we need to take tomorrow morning. If we send this to policy sub for review and then back and then it doesn't get resolved, we can't we don't actually know what you're telling us to
210do. So, I think we're in a bit of a conundrum right here. where unresolved issues tonight >> mean that we don't have a path to move forward. >> Do you feel you have the information in the documentation that's provided to us as written now to move forward with placements for next year? >> Yes. >> Okay. So then I I I think that this is an area of improvement for a policy that can happen post next year's enrollment planning. So and I don't think it's something that can happen at the school committee table. I think it's something that policy committee should look at down the line. >> Yeah. I I guess what I I just want to make sure if you vote something tonight, it is a procedure which means we can incorporate language, but you're
211also voting to tell us to that this is the direction to take. We can then go back and incorporate language that says you want more certainty for families around when they may or may not move with zones. And that's very easy for us. I just want to make sure that we are also clear that whatever goes unvoted tonight we get stuck on. And it's not to try and pressure you to vote or not. It's just saying we're we're stuck. >> My preference is for future clarity on the FAQ. >> Okay. Again, acknowledging it is 940. What else do we need to do with the FAQ here? Can I make a suggestion for how you might think of the motion? Because right now this reads, you know, I move that the committee adopts revisions to the
212enrollment policy JC as presented or as amended. you might say something, you know, um you move to the enrollment policy, right? If you're okay with that, that's that's easy. Um because that's as presented, right? Because we're actually not talking about the enrollment policy. We're talking about the FAQ. Um and the app prove the logistics and location of the flex zones plans as identified in the act and box FAQ to be incorporated into a new set of procedures. So if you're actually okay with the logistics and the flex zone maps, that's actually what the motion is asking you to vote, right? And then we come back with clarified language in a procedure. So that I mean that just that's just my reading of it. >> Andrew, >> this is not about the flex on FAQ, but
213about uh policy JC and another question that I I think needs to be brought up. The first thing regarding policy JC, we made some strikeouts and adjustments to this um that kind of does a a bit of a switch with the way that the school district had school committee has always focused on the school district. It starts here with the school district strives to provide high standards of educational excellence in all of its elementary schools. We don't have that in our new language. Um, and one of the other things that we do inside of this is pull back any agency from parents or families and place all of the decision-m on the decider at the table over here. Um, I have a concern about this policy in that shift that there's only the discretion of
214the superintendent or their designate as the sole way of being able to make any adjustments to enrollment for any family. That could include if you have a child who needs special needs and you want to make sure that your kids go to the same schools and that doesn't have special needs or any other issue. The policy as it states has an opaque way of talking about how to govern what this is. And perhaps as we go through with amended or go through the other variable language he's talking about, we have some way of being able to kind of refocus that we're trying to do this with the students and provide some level of governance or some level of governance to be determined by policy in the same way we're doing the FAQ to allow a
215predictable stable way of being able to request a change rather than inundating whoever our superintendent is in two years with requests to you. I want to be here, I want to be there. So who do you think ought to be making that decision? >> I think that decision is not spelled out here. I think this decision right now is at the discretion. It says specifically the sole discretion of the superintendent of the designate without any opportunity for laying out what that policy needs to be. What's their way of being able to make a decision? because there are lots of bene you there there's benevolence and there's malevolence and there ways of being able to hold things over people's heads. There's ways of being able to um there's no understanding of what that decision-m process is.
216And I would think that if we're putting together this new thing and we are having these questions like Adam has about the flex zones, having some method of being able to say in the case of a requested exception, this is a path that can go through or whatever that might be. I'm not proposing a solution. I'm saying we've removed agency of families in this and placed it entirely on the discretion of the superintendent. And we've also removed that we want to have high standards, but that's, you know, words that we can put in here that just should be put back in. >> Adam, >> I I hear what you're saying, Andrew. I'm going to flip the table on you as well. Is this something that you think we can manage through the procedure and ask
217for the district to provide? I mean, we we we don't vote on procedures, but we definitely see them and provide guidance. So I I agree with you. Inherently moving from a choice program to a a a geographic means that we have removed a great deal of agency from our families. And I hear your concern about sort of the guard rails around the superintendent and the designate. And I just I wonder if that's something that we look to get better clarified in the procedure. As I mentioned in what I was talking about before, similar to what you were talking about with the FAQ, having a way of comment the way Peter had said, comment that a policy of some kind can be put in place to be able to have greater clarity, greater, you know, sunlight
218in this would make this more palatable. And this is not about a shift from open enrollment to geographic. This is entirely about a providing a lot of power to a single person and not allowing the the parents, the staff, the whomever else around that to have a defined path for asking for exceptions. >> I'm guess I'm a little curious about if it wasn't the superintendent, who do you think would be? What you're misunderstanding is that I'm saying I want a policy for this or a procedure or governance around the superintendent's discretion or governance around the superintendent's decision. Sorry. >> That's the issue we have. We don't have any governance in this and without governance we have opportunities for issues. >> Okay. My confusion was that when I hear you say policy, I feel like that's
219a school committee thing. And when it's procedure, I feel like that's an administration thing. You're just saying it needs to be what it is. >> I'm saying it needs to be placed in here. And I think the document as we have doesn't speak to that and having some way of being able to then later speak to that is important to have on the thing that we talk about because when we vote this this becomes law. >> So how are you asking to change this? >> Um I would say and I'm not I don't have the words I haven't thought that part through. But I do think that you know the destiny responsible for implementing student assignments in established zones. I think we need to say through a you maybe it's through a school policy school
220committee policy to be determined or something on that so that we can go back and come up with what that governance is. We don't have governance for flex zones. We don't have governance for um enrollment like this. We don't have governance for how we'll shift this later on. We need some opportunity to be able to put guard rails as as Adam said around what we're doing here. >> Adam, >> yeah, I I don't I agree with you, Andrew. And I think that for the purpose of us giving the administration what they need to move forward tomorrow, I think the best way to capture that is to say we need the district to provide us with JC-R, which is the procedure for us to evaluate. Um, and they're going to have to write that procedure anyway
221because then they're going to have to follow it to go place all of our kids. And I guess the compromise I'm looking to make is to say we're we're going to provide that oversight in real time as you're doing the next round of placements and we want to see the procedure and not for this round but again in in the feedback and iteration for the procedure we want to make sure that those guardrails are there. Yeah, I think >> I think it's important for us to be able to have those guard rails around these decisions to understand what excuse me what our families are going to deal with in the future. >> Glenn, >> I move to close debate. >> You don't have to second, but that's >> I'll second. I think we're going round
222and round. >> All right. So, um, it has been moved by Glenn and seconded by Liz that >> we don't have a motion on the table. Let's get a motion on the table. >> That's my closing debate. >> Then we don't need to vote on that because there's not a motion on the table. So, what you really need to do is make a motion. >> Adam, >> I'd like to make a motion. >> There you go. >> Uh, sorry, we're sharing the same document here. Um, so I move that the committee adopts revisions to the enrollment policy JC as presented and approves the logistics and location of the flex zones as identified in the actin boxboro elementary flex zones policy and FAQ to be incorporated into a new set of administrative procedures JC-R to accomp
223accompany policy JC and that those procedures shall be presented to the school committee before the end of this school year. Second. >> Can I speak to my added language? >> So, first first of all, tell me who seconded that, please. >> That was Glenn. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Um, Andrew, I'm trying to capture your concern, and I want to provide something that's reasonable for our administration, but is also time bound that says we need to see the procedure. >> That kind of variability, I think, is important for us to be able to to codify inside this document. >> Great. Thanks. >> Any further discussion? All right, good work, guys. Um, all in favor? >> I I Any opposed? Any extensions? Nope. Great. Okay, two down. This is going to be the hard one.
224Uh, transitional policy. Um, and as we start looking at that, there's a lot here to work with. Um, I'm just going to comment that as I look at this and I think back through a lot of the feedback that we've received, I think there are couple of things that we're focused on, we started out thinking about um the sizes of cohorts that are moving and so remembering that Blanchard's tricky, right? Because it's almost already, I think it's 75% geographically distributed already. So cohorts moving in in in just the pure geographic model are very small and cohorts moving out in just the pure geographic model are very small. And so that's one of the reasons that we started having that conversation about grandfathering. Um and then admittedly we are also looking because of the flex zones
225and we have Conan students in there as well. How do those things interact? Um, more recently the conversation has been about class sizes. And so we also see the need to think about not just how are we moving students, but once we get them into the classroom, are we getting them into classrooms that are reasonably sized? Um, I'm kind of thinking this in terms of order of operation. Um, demographics was number one. We've we've worked through that in all the scenarios. I'm now thinking that the next thing I'm thinking about is how do we get our class sizes right? because that is really important and going to be challenging to manage. And then as much as we can within that, how do we maximize that small cohort relief? That's how I'm thinking about it. Who
226else would like to comment? >> Adam, >> I I want to just express my extreme gratitude to both Nick and Peter. I know you guys have been on the phone for a very long time working through all of the minutia. And to Tori's point, I think we've we've we've settled the big boulders. We've worked on the pebbles, and we're really at the sand now. We're really at the grains of sand. Um, and so I believe that what you've put forward with our option number three plus the district discretion really answers a lot of the concerns that we have. And I'm going to recognize that even still with all of that, there are going to be a couple kids who might be impacted. But my feeling is knowing the amazing educators and administrators and supports that
227we have in the district, we can wrap our arms around those few kids and make sure that they feel seen, supported, and and heard through the their their transition. So, um there are a lot of different components to this motion, but I believe that we need to grandfather the act students to Blanchard. I need that. I believe we need to grandfather the students in the Blanchard expansion expansion zone into their existing or their current um campuses. And then I believe that um we need to provide that parent preference and district discretion around the grandfathering because I don't want to split up siblings. Um and then that the district can can manage the class sizes in that last group um through some volunteer opportunities. Were you going to make a motion? >> It's a complicated one.
228And if you'd like, I can put the motion on the table and we can discuss it there or we can discuss it now. I'm I'm indifferent. >> All right. Let's see if somebody wants to go a different direction before we launch this. Lisa, >> so I just want to call out a couple things when we're having this discussion that I I think you did a great job of mentioning everything, but I just want to call out the fact that uh when thinking about moving those small cohorts, I just want to recognize that there are um students who live in Boxboro but are attending schools uh in Actton. And so, you know, by virtue of all of this, they would end up staying in Blanchard or end up having to stay in Boxboro and uh go
229to Blanchard. Um and then calling out the fact that uh Conet students cannot be grandfathered. So, um I think I just want to just acknowledging naming and calling out some things that I think that I've been wrestling with is that um people keep telling us over and over and over again in emails, you know, I I read them. I know we're reading them and um they're saying that their neighborhoods are important and having neighborhoods together and part of the reason that we heard a little bit of um some thoughts on flex zones was because they were worried about the neighborhood getting broken up and um I think one of the problems that I thought about with grandfathering is that you do have again students going to different places wherever they were grandfathered to or if
230they can't be grandfathered like the Conan students Um, so just wanting to name and and acknowledge all of those things and enter that into the discussion and just reiterate your point that, you know, it's impossible to find a perfect scenario and there's absolutely nothing that we can choose that will make every single individual happy um because obviously um you know the variety of circumstances that I mentioned. Yen, >> I I just have a question. Um, I like the option three with district's discretion as well. What I'm worried about is that when we have school choice, Andrew over there is the person who answers every single email. Um, this process, as Nick mentioned, that will have to be done very fast when the parents have input and the turnaround time is like two days, right? Andrew,
231do you think you can manage that? question. >> The short answer is yes. Once you set the once you set the parameters and the and the order of operations, we implement sort of the direction that that's been established. I think that the key really is how much time do we want to offer a family who's invited to give their answer the time to give an answer um and whatever you all think is a reasonable amount of time. I think a few I'd like to think that given the information that we'd want to share with families, as much as it is a consequential decision, they'd have to make the information and and hopefully some thinking, they don't have to have weeks to to make that decision as opposed to say one week. Um, and then once
232that decision is sent back to us, then we we move forward. I think the the one variable that we need to think about is if you see up there, we we would go in order of these different categories. So, flex zone residents, we reach out to all of them and say you have a student in fourth grade at Blanchard. We know that that's uh we are looking to move 10 students from Blanchard to other schools and act. Uh are you interested? Please let us know. Let's say we had 10 spots and you had 15 families who said, "Yes, I'm interested." Then within that one group, great, we already know we've got enough. Then we'd run a lottery and then we'd identify the 10. If we didn't have enough to meet that demand, then the challenge
233is then from a timing perspective, we'd have to go to the next group, which is the transportation efficiency group, reach out to them and say, "Are you interested? get give them enough time and so it really the timing really depends on how many categories of individuals we have to go through um and give each of those categories of groups enough time to respond thoughtfully um so I think that's the one that's the one caveat uh and so that depending on how that goes that may or may not shift when we finally release at the end of the road um the actual class list so to be clear the first step is releasing to families the school rosters who is attending each school. That's in a that's currently in April. Then eventually in June, that's when
234you would uh identify the actual, you know, in in this classroom in fourth grade at Blanchard, this is your class list. So all of that could potentially get moved a little bit, but I think to Peter's point, whether or not we move it a little bit, the goal is still just to have enough time during the school year where teachers can give input about student placement. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Just a I think it might be helpful to also understand just what the timeline looks like over the next couple of weeks. Um our goal is to be able to release student school placements and the list of all students placed at each grade level within a school in the week after April vacation. And we're currently targeting probably like the Thursday of that week, I
235think, or something like that. Um, and that's been consistent through the the whole process. following your vote. If you say that you want to grandfather students in and knowing that siblings going might be a challenge, but if you want to provide parents the opportunity to opt out of that somehow, we would need to actually do that type of leg work starting tomorrow and starting to reach out to families so that they could have kind of the week before vacation because we don't really want to count vacation week in this because we don't know where people are um over the week. So, we would be reaching out to a couple groups of families. One group of families we need to reach out to immediately following this vote would be students with disabilities who are in programs
236um and their families to confirm how they want siblings placed. Do they want to continue to have their sibling with them at whatever the school is or they might have a sixth grader at one school and they say in the students moving to a program in another school and they might actually say no, I want to just keep the kids at the school that they're placed in. So, we need to confirm that group. We need to also confirm whatever the options are that you vote for grandfathering and make sure that those families have an option to tell us like if you're saying this group is grandfathered in, some families may want to opt out of that just because they know they have younger siblings coming into the system over the next few years and would
237rather have them placed together in the long term. So, we want to also be reaching out to that group of families immediately following this vote so that we can then use the vacation week and the very early part of the following week to confirm all of our student placements into schools and get those rosters done so that we can share them with families. that allows us to then um once we've shared it with families start surveying families for potential peer cohorts in time to then hit May 13th which is our proposed date for the first educator placement round. So there's a lot of work that we've have timed out and ready to kind of roll after this. It just might be helpful to know what the schedule looks like in terms of thinking about how
238we're working through this process. But yes, we have this timed out to be able to account for that. This part of the process actually doesn't need to take place until after all of that happens. This is not critical stuff. This can actually evolve more slowly because we're actually only talking probably about 15 students maybe across the entire district that need to be balanced. So, it's not a big group. I'm not concerned about that. >> Adam, >> I'd like to make a motion. I move that the following student populations be grandfathered into their current school placements starting July 1st, 2026. Option A, actton students currently attending Blanchard and option B, students in the identified Actton Blanchard flex zone and that >> so actually hold on. >> I correct myself in the >> Oh, we didn't know
239until tonight. >> The West Act flex zone. Nick, is that correct? Right. I just want to check because we're on option seven. >> Yes. >> I would phrase it as students in the scenario 7 expanded Blanchard zone. To be specific, I'm gonna Get rid of the flex zone. Just call it a zone. >> Yeah. Okay. So everything I said before and then option B, students in the scenario 7 expanded Blanchard zone and that this applies only to students already enrolled in an elementary school and attending grades K through 5 during the 2025 2026 school year and does not apply to students entering kindergarten, younger siblings of existing students not yet enrolled in the schools or students who enroll in the district after June 30th, 2026. and that parents of eligible students may express a preference
240to opt out of grandfathering with the final placement decision remaining with the district. I further move that to balance section sizes and meet specific district operational needs for the 2026 2027 school year, the superintendent or their design may offer additional school assignment options to families not covered by the baseline grandfathering rules. This apply this only applies to class sizes at the Blancher Memorial School in grades that exceed the anticipated average class size for the district at that grade level. These additional school assignment options are subject to parent approval and will be prioritized in the following order. Priority one, flex zone residents. Priority two, transportation effic efficiency. And priority three, self transportation. >> Second. >> All right. All that was moved by Adam and seconded by Glenn. Any further discussion, Liz? >> I think it's too
241messy. I don't think that this is something that is going to be wellreceived. I think that it's a little bit I think that we should go full geographic from the start. I think that you know you know we're at a decade of cutting expenses and we've had such an impassion community display which I appreciate and that year of our unprecedented financial struggle I think we would be here today without the six schools and the choice I think that we can't afford to have the choice any I think we really need to go to the geograph. >> I kind of agree with you, >> Lisa. >> I also agree with Liz and Yan. Adam, >> I I respect what you're saying, but I don't think that this is favoritism. I think this is setting a baseline
242and then using the tools that we have in a temporary way to actually meet the needs that that we have to to reach the goals that we want, which is a balanced set of classrooms, reasonable class sizes. Um, if we do straight on geographic placement, we still end up with very large class sizes in some of the schools. um and we're not putting in place a way to um give the district a relief valve to to balance those class sizes. And as soon as we say we need to have a relief valve to balance the class sizes, then the question is what's the valve? How do you how do you do that? And how do you make that choice? And you've got people who've raised their hand already saying I'm willing to help with this.
243And yes, it's self- serving for them as well, but it it helps us. And so then you get to that point of do I want to allow just the numbers that I need who want to exit from Blanchard or go to somewhere else or do I want to say here's a cohort of people that happens to be balanced by another cohort of people that happens to be further balanced by a smaller cohort. Like that's where I was getting at that we've got the boulders figured out. We've got the pebbles figured out and we're we're it feels messy because we're we're we're in the sandbox now. like we're we're we're really in the details. And I you know, again, I recognize it feels messy, but I I think it feels messy because it it feels like
244it's applying to everything, but we're down to 100 plus or minus students out of the 2400 elementary students that we have. And like these are the details I think that we need to be very particular about to to balance both our overarching goal which I agree with you is important but also the practicality of making the transition today. >> I'm going to start here and I'll work my way this way. Glenn, >> I hear what you're saying. I think we need to give ad Excuse me. This cough is annoying. I hear what you're saying. I think we do need to have some mechanism for pressure valves to be able to be operated by administration cuz to give us some flexibility and leeway and adjustment when um things inevitably change somewhat. I think we're talking about
245it. It is significant. We are talking about you said about a hundred or so or just it's it's a it's not a massive portion. It is significant but I think that little flexibility does help with not just operational efficiency. These are people's lives. This is about making sure that we can maintain our goals for utilizing our facilities to the best of ability and maintaining our goals for even distribution of um of demographic breakup. I think this is the right call. Lakshmi. So initially I used to think like what Adam did but then I started seeing parents emails and I agree with Liz at that point because what we sold everybody on is certain set of principles and we starting to violate them and it's extremely difficult to defend yourself because how are those 50% act
246students who are going to a different school their story different from Blanchard actton students I think It is the same. We are trying to spin it, but I don't think it really holds. >> Andrew, >> I think Adam's got something here. We are balancing the rigidity of this with something that reflects the individual student needs. If there's a way to be able to make a little bit less pain in this, I think it's worthwhile. >> Yin. Well, I think I asked Nick earlier in the meeting that is it true that grandfathering will resolve hard challenges right now but flex zone will resolve the challenges for the future. Um I mean it's not I I think I I don't want to say anything anymore. So, Lax, I hear what you're saying. And I also remember when
247we took our vote on January 22nd, we we laid out the overarching here's here's the big thing we're moving towards and we also said that we left some room for creative solutions. Um, I agree with Andrew and Adam that there there is an opportunity here for some really small cohorts um not to be you know we we also we also made the decision as we were looking at this we thought about groups of small smaller groups of students entering wellestablished communities right to me I am thinking about this on like the grain of sand level like these are the little groups of students that are moving. I don't think we're harming anybody by looking at these hundred students by giving families the option to pro provide some feedback and opt out if it doesn't work.
248Um, and I think we might be doing some good for those students. I'm I'm going to wrap around before we before we come back around. >> Can I just say one thing? I don't think I'm talking about sp uh hurting anybody or injuring anybody, but I think it feels like it's unequal. And what Liz said, it was spot on. It feels like favoritism. >> Okay. We see that differently, Adam. >> Yeah. I think I mean my feeling still stands and I I want to Laxshmi I don't want to call you out but I want to echo back something that you said to us for the the greater group which is you said after I've gotten all of these emails I felt less inclined to support folks and that that is totally your opinion but I
249think it's also an important reflection back to the community that the way you engage with us we're we're going to take your input and we're going to digest it but the way in which you engage with us and you provide that feedback to us does have an effect on how we make a decision. Um, and Nick, I want to thank you for a reply that you sent to an email where a member of the public was um was engaging with us in a way that was not what we would expect for us to engage with that member of the public and you know those act those actions have consequences equally as ours actions have consequences. Um, so again, not at all a statement on on how you're feeling, but a a response to the broader
250tenor and tone of the community that we do have to come together after this. And so we need to be mindful of how we engage with each other in both directions. Liz, I'm still not completely convinced. However, I wouldn't mind if there's a way that we can include this bottom piece without necessarily grandfathering in the um options A and B, you know. So going to geographic and then having this lever to be able to say you know flex zone residents we are looking to you know take a volunteer we have three more children in a fourth grade class than we want to you know you're in this flex zone and offer that opportunity for them to move to the other school. >> I'm confused. So I think what you just said was the language under
251six with only priority one. No, not with only priority one. I'm saying that language six I'm still open to with the um what's the wording here? The baseline grandfathering as geographic. >> Go ahead. If if we look at the structure of the of the motion, the first part of the motion talks about grandfathering students. The second part of the motion talks about um parent preference district um decision. And I'm I'm covering the motion that I made. So those two parts both relate to grandfathering. The the last part of the motion does allow basically says we're just going to let the superintendent decide how to balance class sizes without that text that Peter's highlighted around grandfathering. So basically the motion and and and I will come out and say I don't necessarily agree and I think
252we've got a motion on the floor. We should decide if we want to vote that and if it doesn't pass we can take another go at it. But to clarify, what I think you're saying is none of the grandfathering language stays and we just have this last part that basically delegates all of the class size balancing and a fully um geographic um enrollment process to the superintendent and their design >> because that's the way it would be in future years. Correct. >> Yeah. I I think >> the the thing I worry about, Liz, is that my understanding of the intent in intention of this last section was to really address some of the concerns around if you've done the other two grandfathering things, this concern around um a very small number of con students who
253don't have an actin campus to grandfather to and being able to solve that not 100% but bal be able to use a win-win. Let's take those cotton students who are going to be in the third, fourth, fifth grade that we know those class sizes are high and give them the option to stay in an acting campus. So it kind of solves two problems at once. And so what you're saying, you might not even need this. You basically just we don't do any transition policy and then the flex zones become active and the district gets to decide how to balance class sizes based on flex zone. My concern is that that is a great deal of uncertainty for families until they know what building they're going to be in and the district figures things out. >>
254Peter, you it just may be helpful to put up the class sizes for that option. Nick, could you just Yeah. go to the pure geographic one. Yeah. >> At 7A. >> That's 7A. >> Keep going. >> Oh, sorry. Thank you. >> Yep. >> There we go. >> Yeah. I mean, so one thing to call out here and I I apologize because I didn't notice this. I noticed we had shifted a section out of Parker Damon in fourth grade over to Blanchard um already. So, that was part of what was solved to address this, just to be clear. But I think in this when I look at this, there's actually very few places I would think that we would activate this. I think probably fifth grade epilard we would activate it. And I would actually if
255for some reason we go with Liz's option and not what Adam said, I would actually suggest we look at Parker Damon first grade kindergarten. I am actually not particularly concerned about because we have the flex zones available to us immediately for kindergarteners um particularly who don't have older siblings to be clear. So I I actually think kindergarten will resolve itself but first grade at Parker Damon building is is higher than what I would be comfortable with because it's kind of like almost two over the district-wide average >> and it also changes teacher placement that we've already announced to our educators. one educator has to move from park >> in this. Yeah, we have to figure that out. We don't have an answer to that. Um and I probably would have Yeah, it's yes. >> But
256so I I would just say we just want the flexibility to address the class sizes through that option if that's the case because there's more than one school that I think we need to do that within this scenario. But it's also very very limited and small. Lisa, >> so just to clarify, um, if I I support what Liz is saying about, you know, using that flex zone, but if but would that end up causing you to have to move a teacher? Again, I I just wanted clarification just to make sure if So, if it were this scenario, you'd have to move. >> There are two ways we could solve it. We could either move a teacher, which is what's shown up here, or we could actually leave the teacher there and resolve Blanchard fourth grade
257through the same process that we've been talking about. Um, so, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean we have to move a teacher. If we have the flexibility through that kind of last option, then we can also do it through students, too. Um, and I think the the only reason that I'm hesitant to do it by moving a teacher is when I look at Parker Damon now in the number of sections per grade level, there's a lot of shifting over the course of those grades, which means there's constantly bubbles in a school, more so than any other location. Um, and that means that teachers are constantly shifting around. And I think one of the goals that we've had at least on the professional level is to try and stabilize some of the enrollment for teachers over
258time so that they don't feel like we have to make this one shift and there's a lot of continued uncertainty for them. So that would be the only hesitation I have to do exactly the way it's it's listed up here. But um I probably want to give it a little thought too. >> Thank you. So what I think I understand here is that if we did what Liz is proposing, you would have to use the flex zone policy to balance students. >> Yeah. And okay. >> Uh no, we would use flex zone to balance kindergarten. We would actually use this option, the what is it called, Nick? The last >> discretionary uh >> Yeah, the discretionary discretion >> piece. We would do that. And just to be clear, I actually am not advocating one or
259the other. We can make either work. This is entirely your decision and I'm not recommending one. I'm not recommending other. I'm just saying if we went with that, I would want an additional caveat to to be able to balance Parker Damon as well. >> Adam, >> I'm Yeah, Peter mentioned something that I I think is is worth further clarifying. If you look at the Parker Damon building and you've got um six sections, six sections, six sections, then you have seven sections and then in fourth grade you have five sections. So that means that for the year after next, you need to take one educator from the third grade and move them up. And like you can see how that bubble and it's not a bubble of one section. It's actually a bubble of two sections
260that really like there's a big peak between third, fourth, and third, fourth, fifth, and sixth where those educators in a already difficult time of transition are going to be at moving to a new school, deciding and and you know, co-colaborating on what that school environment is like. And then they're going to be doing third grade, and then they're going to be doing fourth grade, and then they're going to be back to third grade, or they're going to go to fifth. like there's two sections is a lot of movement I feel for an educator over the next four years. Um Peter, can you go forward to the >> But hold on just one second. I want to be clear. >> What I'm actually saying is if we go with option seven, this version of option 7,
261I still don't have to do that at Parker Damon. I would still have I would most likely program six sections in fourth grade at Parker Damon and reduce Blanchard to three and provide more consistency and equal footing across both buildings. So I want to make sure like that should actually come out of the conversation alto together >> but that that requires us to vote that last component of the motion that's on the table right now to give you the flexibility to >> correct move those both scenarios require that last piece >> and then it's the committee's value judgment to whether or not you want >> those other transitional elements and flex zone usage. >> Okay. So, back to the motion that's on the table. What are we doing here? >> I'm ready to vote. >>
262Ready to vote. >> All right. So, this is we're voting on the motion that Adam read, which is most of this page. So, all in >> uh >> Yep. So, all in favor, >> let's see. Hands up. All right. So, that is Glenn, Andrew, Tori, Adam. Oh, this is going to be problematic. >> I've got the calculator. >> Oh, >> Tori, >> it's eight out of 15 and a half. >> And >> hold on. No, >> hang on. 8.5. >> Yep. >> All opposed. And that is Liz, Lisa, Lakshmi, and Yenshin. >> And that's all of us. Okay. >> What happens? >> We're doing vote math because we have to do the weighted >> it. It carried. So the as a reminder for everybody, it's two and a half votes for every Actton member, one
263vote for every Boxboro member. Um the four yeses were uh three members from Actton plus myself, which gives us eight and a half and the nos were two members from Boxboro and two members from Actton, which is seven against. So the majority uh was for yes. And so that motion passes. All right. Did we run out of motions to make on this? I think we take we have taken all of our votes. >> Thank you all very much. >> You think you're escaping, Nick. Thank you. >> Thank you >> for your hard work on this. We really appreciate everything you've done. >> Peter, talk to us about implementation briefly. >> First, I just want to say thank you to Nick. Um I know he and to Katie who's behind the scenes probably watching unless she
264decided to go to bed. Um but um I mean I I'll be honest, you know, they've been on the phone at 9:45 10:00 at night trying to sort challenges out that arise um just to try and make sure that they they got to this. So I just want to say I've really appreciated all the work. Thank you, Nick. Um it's it's been great. So I I appreciate that. And I think what we saw evolve was exactly what you told us is that it's just a series of hard trade-offs. All right. So, here are some just administrative updates to the work that we're doing. Um, some of this has already been shown in parent webinars, but I'm also giving a little bit of the background on staff placement as well as um just the financial overview
265of of what we have to date on on AB4 and how we're projecting that out. So, we are on track with implementation as we've planned it largely. There have been a couple of small areas that we've pushed and pulled and I'm not going to belabor the point. The biggest area that we've had to push and pull in terms of schedule has been around how to book the movers. Um because we initially wanted to put out an RFP earlier, but what we realized when we started to talk to movers was that they couldn't actually answer an RFP until we told them how many classrooms would be moving. Um and so we had to get the staff placement the initial staff placement process done first so we could have a reasonable estimate. Um the good news is
266it actually doesn't change our overall timeline uh because the movers continue to be available. We've been in communication with all the different moving companies that might bid on a project like this. Um and we have a different mover separate from that who's actually delivering our delivering our bins after April vacation so teachers can start to do what they need to. So we're on schedule. I just the moving piece was a little bit of a moving target, but we've since pinned that down. Um, and we're in good shape. Following tonight's decisions, we will probably start communicating with families tomorrow or at the very very latest on Monday. Um, particularly for, you know, some of the students who are placed in our programs um, across the district as well as some of the groups that were grandfathered
267in to make confirm their intent for next year. So, those are some next steps in terms of of where we're headed next. Once we confirm all of that, we're going to know really where all of our students are headed. And that will allow us to finalize our special education and multilingual educator placements. Um, and make sure that we have, you know, all of our staff placements finalized, but we couldn't confirm those staff placements until we really knew where our students were headed. Um, particularly with some of the higher needs that are served by our our staff. So that is kind of the overall picture. Um we still we are on target still to be able to release um information to families after vacation. As I said that will likely be the Thursday after April vacation.
268April 30th is what we're targeting. Um just knowing the details of the work that has to happen dayto-day. Um what families can expect to see. We're going to be doing this in the parent uh excuse me power school portal. um when we do release that information, we're going to do it very similar to class placement. So parents can log into the portal, they can see uh the school assignment for their own child, but then just how we publish class lists every uh fall when kids are going back to school, they'll also be able to see kind of a grade level list of students in the school so that then they can actually help us during the classroom formation process. Um, you know, so what people should expect um of that cohort placement process, we want
269students, excuse me, families to help us identify. We're looking for up to six peers for supportive relationships in the new school. We don't believe we're going to be able to satisfy all six requests, right? But the goal of collecting six is to be able to try and do the best we can to match, you know, as many as possible. Um, however, classroom placement is an extremely complex process. What we've done, um, is actually create, for the first time ever, we've now have a district-wide classroom placement process where all educators across the district are using same criteria, same discussion points around how we place students. That's something new, and I want to thank our educators because that's one of the things that does trickle down um, and impacts what teachers do every day. Um, teachers are
270starting to think about the groups that they the students they currently have and how they might think about grouping students going into next year, that all goes into kind of a master database across the district now so that we can then think about how those students get matched. What will happen is once we collect the information from families about supportive peers, the teachers will be able to access that information and then we actually have two dates planned for educators to come together. The first date is that Friday before Memorial uh excuse me, May 13th, it's not a Friday. May 13th is the first date. Um I believe it's a Wednesday that educators will come together. Um at that point, they're largely working in their buildings, but they'll be able to see the new schools that
271students are heading to and they'll be able to start grouping students together into cohorts that they think would travel well together. the second date, which is the date we proposed the additional half day on May 22nd, they'll actually come together across the district by grade level and actually have an opportunity to collaborate with each other across schools to think about how cohorts of students within schools can now actually be merged across all the elementary schools as well. We wanted that kind of two level dialogue where teachers think about their individual students, they think with their grade level colleagues at their current school and then they think with grade level colleagues across all schools to create cohorts. That is a very very complex process. I cannot make any guarantees about trying to you know a certain
272number of potential peers and we want to be really clear with families. We are going to try our best. Um, and ultimately, you know, any shortcoming there needs to be my fault and not any classroom teacher's fault. I want to be really clear about that. So, parents, if like that doesn't work, please email me directly and not a classroom teacher. It is not something that they could control because there were just simply too many factors out of their control. But we really will try our hardest to make as much of that happen as possible. Want to also just give you a little overview of staffing update. There was a memo in your packet. Um, and then we also released because I know it already was screenshotted and sent out on social media, so we figured
273we might as well just get the list out um, to everyone, but we wanted to get the list of classroom placements out to our community so that there was a good consistent set of information. But Andrew, do you just want to maybe just give an overview of the placement process and what that entailed and why we made decisions? >> Yeah. So uh again very quickly because I want to be mindful of time and and I know that this has already been a point of discussion certainly in public comment and I'm sure just in in various circles but we did release uh staff placements for next year in elementary uh along with obviously the substantial changes for students and schools. Uh the staff placements was also a substantial element of this as well. uh and I
274don't think there's any surprise that the the reactions and the thoughts and the feelings uh run the continuum. There are clearly uh individuals who for various reasons are are disappointed or frustrated about the decisions. There are some uh we've received also messages of people who feel um positive or enthusiastic and then there's everyone in between. So uh I do think that there are a range of emotions. I think obviously our obligation as an institution is to support everybody um given where they are at and finding pathways forward. Uh certainly to listen and to understand uh we may not be able to reach agreement or understanding about some of the decisions that are made but certainly to uh provide support and uh opportunities to continue moving forward. Uh to that end the the principles I was
275in the room with them several times as they were trying to reconcile a lot of um competing interests and identifying u various opportunities. There are some factors that are very concrete like lenture, what grade levels, subject areas and then there are other variables that were subjective based on principal feelings where they had conversations about what they viewed as combinations of skills, experiences, um, needs, uh, combinations that they thought would have promise both in the short and the long term. Um, and then also teacher preferences that that they um factored in as well. Obviously, a lot of those things were going to collide with each other and and so judgments and decisions were made. Um, and this is what was come up with. Uh, and that's what we're going to work towards. Um, and then we
276we sort of now are working on all the the mechanical pieces as well as the adaptive pieces of of developing and preparing for next year. And I also just want to talk about both short and long-term budgetary impact um and and just give you some data. So one I am not accounting in this presentation for any facilities related costs. Um what I am accounting for are only personnel related costs at this point because we have actually identified every single personnel to the individual along with salaries down to the dollar. Um, and so we know this is exactly what avoided costs look like. Whereas with facilities related costs, we have estimates and we have a budget, but we haven't actually accounted for them yet. So what I'm doing is going through the actual true tredup numbers
277essentially for you and not speculating. Um, so in terms of AB forward related reductions, it was about just shy of $1.9 million, 1.875. Um, we also because of the reorganization process, we identified some very specific needs that were tied directly to reorganization. The addition of two counselors to bolster mental health supports, the shift of one of our LPNs in, excuse me, one of our registered nurses into two LPN positions because we could provide greater coverage um at a more cost-effective uh way of doing that. Um and then we also increased elementary office support because we had reduced it a couple years ago. Um the staff were already struggling to keep up with demands and with the additional number of students and educators in a building, we realized we needed to increase that support. So that
278was about $415,000. So just keep those two areas in mind. It was about $1.5 million in net savings on the personnel side of the budget. I also want to acknowledge that there were personnel costs and expenses um that were not AB Ford related but just were part of general district operations. We had about $300 of attrition and that is the savings when someone retires um their ending salary versus what the starting salary of a of a lower paid employee might be. Um we also had nonAB forward additions. These are all special education related. Regardless of whether we did reorganization or not, we would have had to have added these positions because we must provide the services that are required. So that was about $500,000 um in required additions. And then we had really three roles
279that we added. The middle one is grant funded, so there's no actual dollar value to it. Um but we did increase a custodial position at the high school because we cut too much um and we're not keeping up with the maintenance and cleaning that needs to be done um to avoid longer term higher costs to capital. Um as well as the K8 humanities coordinators and we've discussed that extensively in the past. That's something where we used to have probably five or six seven coordinator positions or did you give me eight? >> Seven coordinator positions total for the elementary level and we now have one. um we've cut too deep. We're struggling with literacy in particular and we want to bolster that support moving forward. So that was about $200,000. Um so when you get back
280to the AB forward related savings, that $ 1.5 million, we have about a million budgeted um through the use of reserve accounts. So the actual year 1 savings is $465ish,000. Um, I will say I saw one of the signs that people had and they they had it at 500,000 or something change. It's actually a little lower than that um in year one savings. However, I think the important thing to understand is the year one say the use of reserves in year 1 actually drops off the books. And so that year 1 savings of $465,000 actually becomes $1.5 million the following year. Um, in terms of district budget savings, I've projected out what the avoided costs look like on the top line. Um, those are only personnel related costs. So, I increased them at 4.25% a
281year, which is a very conservative personnel estimate for us. We've been averaging over 5% over the last several years um, in terms of our cost of contracts. So, we're pretty conservative in our estimates here because we did, you know, want to be, you know, pretty transparent with the community about this. Um, so you can see how that net avoided cost on an annual basis changes over time, but then you can see actually how that compounds itself over time as well. So what we've actually estimated is, you know, by year 10, the avoided costs of this are about $2 million a year, maybe a little higher, but the cumulative avoided costs are about almost $17 million. And so just looking at what that looks like over time from a visual representation, it's the same thing. I
282don't need to go into detail on that, but I wanted to at least get some of this information out for you and make sure you understood what we were looking at and where we were tracking to date in terms of costs. I will also share, and I didn't put it on a slide, we did do an initial walkthrough with the town manager um of Conent Elementary School. Um we have some uses that we need a couple of spaces in Conan for. Um if we you if we use some spaces in Conan, we can actually provide more seats in extended day for families who need child care next year um than we would um otherwise. So that's a good use of some space educationally for us. And the town hall in Actton is going through a
283major renovation um next year where it would be much more efficient for them to be able to potentially use Conan as well um alongside us. So that's pending town meeting. >> Yeah, that's all pending town meeting, but we um are working on that with the town manager in Actton. Um I don't foresee a lot of obstacles. Um we talked about that with you before, but that would allow us to also avoid a significant chunk of the utilities costs and things like that um that we have budgeted. So that might save us another $50 to $100,000 potentially. So um that's some some news there. So that is it for me in terms of the administrative update. >> Questions or comments for Peter? >> All right. Thank you, Peter. >> Yep. >> I I just want to
284thank you, Peter, for this presentation in particular, the giant orange line. That's what we're doing this for. Like when people talk about bending the curve, we're doing some really hard things, but it's a significant savings. And this has not gone unnoticed by the the two towns leaderships, the finance committees, the select boards. They've all unanimously voted to approve our budget. They support the work we're doing. They know it's hard. They maybe aren't so happy about some of the details, but the goal here was to really bend the curve on our costs. So, thank you for showing that, Peter. >> We're not clapping. Thank you, Greg Glenn. >> $17 million nearly $17 million of savings over 10 years is nothing to sniff at. >> All right. Yeah. And that also doesn't take into account any capital
285costs that we avoid of not renovating Conan, too. Um, and so that alone is probably in the 50 to $80 million range. So that it really is a significant avoided cost and it's hard to do that, right? This is it's not easy. We've heard that from the community and I want to recognize that. But this is some of the what we're tracking to right now. >> Thank you, Peter. Okay, let's see what see if we can get ourselves through our remaining agenda here. Good heavens. Um I don't know who's >> All right, we're going to drive on. >> You can walk around. >> So we are going to do um just a heads up that we are coming up on superintendent evaluation. It's like the end of the year is coming. So if you are
286a sitting community member as of today, you get to fill out an evaluation. Yes, even if you think you're escaping, um please return those to me and Julie by May 22nd and she'll prepare the paperwork for us like usual. Uh members of the public are also invited to send feedback regarding um superintendent evaluation input to both myself and Julia Lumiere by May 22nd and I can help you with the process. Peter, I think you commented last time I talked to you about this that you like to have these written to you like somebody's having a conversation >> as opposed to being in the third person. >> I I'm going to be honest, I don't remember much at this point of the night. >> Okay, totally fair. So, I will with >> judgement write them like
287you're talking to Peter. Um, and so yes, that would be the superintendent's evaluation. So, now we are on to the second read on fiscal year 27 athletic fees, activities fees, and parking fees. So, we are to the point we need to take a vote on this. Do we have any further discussion? >> I move to approve the FY27 athletic fees, activity fees, and parking fees. >> Second. >> That was moved by Adam and seconded by Lisa. All in favor? >> I. Any abstensions? I am missing Glenn. Okay, that passes. Thank you. Um, that brings us to the revised 2025 2026 district academic school calendar. And Peter, I believe that got after the half days that you were referring to on the 12th or 13th of May. And then in last couple of >> the first
288half day would be May Friday, May 22nd. Um, and then we have additional half days the Monday and Tuesday of that last week of school is what we have proposed. Andrew, >> are you going to be treating these like regular half days? Will the kids not get lunch? Will they get recess? What are these days going to look like? And how much of this the the classrooms are going to be depleted over the course of these times? And you know, it's like it's like sitting inside a hospice for their schools. >> I hope it's not a hospice. >> Me, too. Um, you know, I I'm confident it won't be a hospice. I actually am very confident it's not going to be a hospice. Um, I mean, I quite honestly I think every year at the
289end of the year, classrooms are largely getting packed up because oftent times, you know, for example, any school where we're um hosting ESY over the summer, the classroom teachers often have to pack up all their belongings and things like that, cover them up so that they're not getting moved over the summer. So, I mean, there's going to be certainly packing in the last week of school. I I I can't avoid that. Um the I don't anticipate May 22nd we'll see that level of disruption because there's still a significant amount of time. Um we have talked to the principles about creating schedules that, you know, honor kind of how kids need to experience a school day. So, it's not just like four Wednesday schedules during that last week of school. I don't have the specifics for
290you on what that day looks like, but we have talked to principles about not trying to replicate the four days um of of all Wednesdays every day. >> Will you do lunch like you would normally do on a regular school day or lunch like you would do on a Wednesday? >> I believe it's the intention to do lunch like on a Wednesday. >> Adam, hang. Nope. No, hang on. Yin. >> Um, I think I heard from the communities that the community feedback is that the three additional half days, while it is necessary for teachers to have the time to pack up, but it poses a logistic challenge for people who have to work. Um, child care is really scarce at the moment. Is community ed going to provide any additional programs? >> Yes, with a
291caveat. So I think on the days so the proposal is that the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and then the Monday and Tuesday of that last week of school they are they are able to provide uh extended day to students who are who would have already been registered for that those days but just for the expanded amount of time. So, if you're normally a participant in extended day on Fridays after school, they would be able to offer to you um starting during the early release, but they wouldn't necessarily have the capacity then to take others who normally would not have been registered on Fridays anyway. >> And that's just a function of staffing levels. >> Okay. Adam, >> I move to approve the revised 2025 2026 district academic school calendar. >> Second. All right, that
292was moved by Adam, seconded by Liz. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any I lost Lakshmi. Okay, that passes. Okay, we are to the common thread task force. Andrew and Liz. Um, common thread task force. We wanted to put some additional information together for you so you get a little understanding as to where we're evolving the the idea. And Liz, interrupt me and throw stuff at me anytime you like. Um, the goal of it is to be able to to capture all the things that happen inside the district that's separate from just the curriculum stuff. So, we'll be doing cataloging current school and past school traditions and norms historically in our district, facilitating engagement through um, summer 2026. Our goal is to build a playbook to be able to have a resource online that describes
293not only what we have done, but how to do the things we have done as a district. We're looking to do a series of sessions from late April through to the beginning of the year uh beginning school year um with some engagement things happening once a month. Uh Jen Faber has been volunttoled to join and we thank her for her um acquiescence. uh and Liz and I will be co-chairing and I I think it's going to be a great way for us to get a lot of the people involved who will then spark involvement and enrichment inside the schools once they start up at the beginning of the school year. >> And um someone just mentioned to me that we do actually have 178 people watching uh live. So, I just want to invite anybody
294who has ideas, wants to find out more, um, feel free to email Andrew and myself because, uh, you know, we're really looking for this to be a communitydriven initiative. >> And to that end, we are building out a whole digital pipeline to be able to capture ideas, to be able to present them, to be able to have as much clarity and transparency as we can to the folks who are interested in where this is going, either from even from either from a contribution or from an audience and snark point of view. Glenn >> this looks excellent. This looks looks very well thought out. I think you two are going to rock it. >> Adam, >> I second that. >> Uh I I'm going to reiterate my concerns from before that, you know, in particular the
295the charge here describes this as a something that's structured after the the PTO. Um and I believe wholeheartedly in the activities that need to be done. I really like the the what you've laid out. I just don't feel like this is a task force of the school committee, particularly when the membership is just two school committee members and someone from the administration who's been volunttoled. I feel like this is better suited as a function of liaisonship to the JPTSOs. And I know that the JPTsos don't necessarily have the resources, but that to me feels like the better vehicle through which to do this work than to vote a task force that has to have open meetings and minutes and and all of that. And if that's the case, I'm not comfortable with the membership of
296the task force because it's too narrow. >> So, a couple of things. Um, as of June 30th, there aren't PTOs except for Blanchard. Um, there's no one in that capacity. So our goal and if you look at mask the one of the things you can do is task force or advisory board. It's probably better called an advisory board here. All of the concerns that you have are administrative and nothing that anyone's particularly concerned about accomplishing. And the leadership of this is as of today. I do expect that we're going to bring many more people in as it comes to who's representing the administration, who's representing from uh the the committee. This is the maximum minimum based on our policies. We are welcoming everybody at the table, everybody else, 178 of you watching, please go to
297bed um to join in and be a part of this. When it comes again to the administration, this I don't think it's going to be a heavy hand. I don't think the open meeting law is going to be a heavy hand. I think it's going to be something that's going to be helpful. And as the committee, the school committee is adjusting, revising, and reinventing, we should not only look at what happens inside the schools, but absolutely what happens outside school rooms. We should be responsible for ensuring that we're continuing to make act in the best place it can be. Adam Boxboro, excuse me, >> Adam. >> Again, I I'm totally aligned with the intention. My concern is um without a clearly defined membership, I worry that we have the opportunity to not be inclusive as
298possible. If we don't have someone from every region, if we haven't if we don't have a list of interested parties who are not the three that are listed here, I I just am concerned about how we ensure that we have guard rails around representation for all the organizations and all the groups that need to be covered here. And that for me was the goal originally of saying I would like to see a membership that better represents the school community as a whole recognizing that they're all moving and fluctuating. But that's like that's your goal here is to make sure that you capture all that. And I don't know how we make sure that you're able to do that if you don't have people who've raised their hand and said I'm interested in supporting this from
299the community side. If we're talking about people who have raised their hands, the JTPSO groups that have met have raised their hands to be a part. CPAC has raised their hand to be a part. I've spoken with some of the principles who wanted to be a part. I've spoken with other teachers who've wanted to be a part. We'll have full representation. That's the goal. We want this to be open and we will continue to recruit to ensure that it is. You will not Your concerns will be allayed in practice and passion. I feel like we're having the exact opposite conversation what we had around enrollment procedures and policy. I I hear your words. I hear superintendent designate. I don't see it written down. I don't see the accountability for that and that's my concern. >>
300Glenn point of parliamentary inquiry. So is there a motion on the table right now? No. Okay. >> I What? So moving on to discussion then I agree with Andrew here. Um I think this is nimble enough and it's official enough and it's front-facing enough to serve its need of um having a front-facing community input. I I trust you two on this. It's fine. I'll second that. A wondering I have is um now that we actually have some boundaries and people are figuring out what schools are headed for, I wonder if we might um come back with an updated membership when we have some people who know what where they're headed and might raise their hands and say, I want to be I want to be tied into this because I might want to be the
301seed of forming that next PTO. So my anticipation is that when we come back on our regular basis to report back to this group what we're doing, you'll have that information from the people that are part of this. >> So maybe we're aiming for a what is this? This is April. Um maybe we're aiming for a May or an early June update of let's see if let's see if we could get somebody out of each building. >> I would expect Yeah, we're going to have we're planning on having our first session sometime after school break. So whatever our first meeting is after that, we'll do a a full update. Yeah, looking looking for could we designate formally a member from each, you know, to address some of what Adam's saying. >> So, bring bring back
302an updated vote this now. We got to get it moving, but bring back an updated list that Yeah. gives us that. >> I would anticipate that we could have that um available in May. >> Sounds awesome. Okay. >> You need a motion. >> Can I move to um approve the common thread task force proposed membership roster, charge, and schedule? Second. >> That was moved by Liz and seconded by Yensen. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? I >> All right. So, you're going to make me write things down. Lakshmi and Adam. Any abstensions? Okay, I think that passes. Andrew, is there anything you'd like to say about personnel? No, it's been pretty static. We actually, just as a side note, we have started the normal spring hiring process for anticipated openings for next fall. Uh,
303and those are underway. So, those who know educators who might be interested in positions, we'd encourage you to look at our um job posting site and and there's postings listed and uh we're encouraged and optimistic about finding candidates to join us next year. >> Awesome. Um, we are now to talking about uh the Actton school committee member retirements and Leela has not been able to get in here which is unfortunate but I'm going to speak to both of you as if Leela is here because she's going to listen to this if she isn't listening right now. Leela and Yenin we started on this path a little together a little over three years ago. None of us knew what was coming, what it would feel like to sit in these seats and make difficult decisions under
304public scrutiny, especially on nights like tonight, or how quickly the challenges would unfold after the fall of 2023, the override and everything that followed. Leela has kept us student focused through a remarkable ability to translate what we're discussing into what students actually experience today. I didn't anticipate how quickly I was going to forget that Leela is half my age. Um because she speaks with the insight and quiet confidence not just of someone who belongs at this table, but somebody I could see leading it. She's been a strong advocate for ensuring our schools were fully funded during a difficult time and consistently brought forward the perspectives of those who face barriers to participating in our processes. As a member and chair of the policy sub, Leela brought thoughtful analysis and deep commitment to doing right by
305students and staff. She built meaningful connections with students and I am so grateful she accepted the role of vice chair. I value Leela's counsel, humor, encouragement, and her sense of when I need a dose of each. Yenshin, as you said when you nominated me for chair last year, it hasn't always been easy. We both care deeply about our schools and we don't always approach the work the same way. And that's a good thing. I appreciate how instead of seeking the spotlight, you are always there coaching others to see what they can become and then holding us accountable along the way. You have brought forward voices in our community who don't always feel represented and I feel more confident navigating our diverse community when I know you're by my side. You bring a unifying spirit to
306our work on policy sub. You helped us not just see how policies to to see how policies can be experienced differently than maybe we intended, not just in theory, but in real people's lives. And in Capital and Budget Sub, you asked questions that made our work stronger and brought a steady sense of the bigger picture, just like you did tonight. You've helped us communicate what mattered to the right people at the right time in a way that could truly be heard. And so much of what you do happens behind the scenes. You are somebody who quietly builds trust. You connect perspectives and you do the work that allows us to move forward together. In our most difficult and often contentious moments, you have a way of lowering the temperature and bringing us back to what
307we share. I value knowing when you've made a decision, you've fully wrestled with how to bring people together and that if there were a better path, you would have found it. And I appreciate your sense of when I need a pep talk and how to deliver it in a way that ends with a yes ma'am from me. You know, Leela and Yenshin, together, you two have woven a community's worth of ideas into the strongest shared outcome of our term, our vision of a graduate. It is our keystone statement of what we believe matters in education, and in it, our whole community can see a reflection of who we hope our children will become. That is an extraordinary achievement. You have both served us so well because of the skill and dedication you bring to this
308work, enhanced by lived experiences and the connections that you bring. The more diverse this committee is, the better we represent our community. And I challenge the rest of us to remember that and to make the extra effort in the coming years to reach out to those who come from different backgrounds from our own and those who may wonder if their voices will be heard. It has been an honor to serve alongside you. Thank you for your courage, your integrity, and the care you've brought to every decision. You leave our district stronger than you found it, and we are deeply grateful. Now, you may applaud. And I was long-winded, but it was appropriate. I will pause here for the rest of the committee if anybody would like to share their comments as well. >> Flowers. Oh,
309>> and I think there is a Did you you have the card? Thank you, Adam. >> Adam >> Yenchin, I just want to to again say thank you for your your thoughtful partnership over the past three years. It's been um great to have you around the table, great to have your perspective. Um, and I know that at times it's been really challenging for you and I'm just so proud of your ability to persevere through those challenges and bring your perspective to our table, to the community. And so, thank you for that. >> Glenn, >> you made me feel so welcome and valued. Lisa, >> I just want to note that it's 11 o'clock and I don't know if I'm going to articulate my uh sentiments as well as an as eloquently as everyone else did,
310but I do want to tell you that even though I've only known served with you for less than a year, um you've made a huge impact. Um I've learned so much from you and thank you for kind of taking me under your wing and teaching me everything you know. Um I really I'm going to miss you. Um, I think you've just been such a valuable member of uh the committee and I love hearing what you have to say and I think you're one of those people when you say something everyone listens because you know you you might not say something really long- winded but you get right to the point and you you always have something really thoughtful and um thank you so much for bringing all of your perspectives and um for all that
311you've taught me. Thank you. I'll be brief. You've been such a great colleague. Um, make sure that you look at the back of the card because I took up the whole back. Um, but I appreciate uh all of our time together and I hope that we continue to keep controlling my husband and children together because that's just really fun. Um, I was recently reminded that with my departure, um, the school committee ends a 20-year stunt with East Asian representation. I wasn't sure how to make of it. Um, this certainly has been an education. I will miss every one of you, but I probably will stay away from this building for a little while. Thank you, >> Yang. I would just say, you know, both to you and Leela, thank you for all you've given over
312the last few years. Um, this is a hard job. People don't know how hard it is until they're on the inside of it. Um, but it's been wonderful working with you and thank you so much. >> All right. 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 in a separate vote. I will read each item and if a member would like it held, please say hold. Members do not have to attended a meeting to vote on the minutes. Uh, approval of ABRSC meeting minutes 31926. Approval of ABRSC meeting minutes budget hearing 3526. Recommendation to approve budget transfers per policy DJB. Approval of warrants as presented in the packet 4926. All right. Given that no items were held,
313is there a motion to approve the cons? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? All right. That was moved by Adam, seconded by Lisa. All in favor? I second. >> All right, that was really fast. Adam, Lisa, all in favor? >> No, that was Liz. >> Liz, Liz, thank you. I just hearing and writing. All in favor? >> I just so you know, the budget message for the town warrant is in your FYI section of the packet that goes to all households in both communities and it goes in our budget book for town meeting. >> Now, all in favor? >> Great. Thank you. 11:03