Acton-Boxborough School Committee Meeting - December 18th, 2025

001All right, everyone. If you could please take your seats. So, we've already called the meeting to order and been to executive session and now we're back. Is it not picking me up? So, I want to begin by acknowledging the many emails, phone calls, and conversations that I've received over the past two weeks expressing anger, disappointment, and frustration with school committee members, particularly around comments made at our last meeting about readiness to discuss materials and vote. December 4th was a significant moment in our overall AB forward process. It marked the first of four meetings that the full school committee will have to deliberate and vote propen meeting law. We can only do this during our public posted meetings. It was also the formal handoff from a subcommittee to the full school committee and is as is

002often the case at that juncture members were in different places. Some had spent months immersed in the work, asking questions, attending meetings, and for AB forward members, deliberating in depth. Others were engaging more fully for the first time, having intentionally waited until the full committee received more developed materials to begin their own analysis. Both approaches are legitimate and both are consistent with our roles and responsibilities. And I also want to acknowledge that there were some tense moments in our remarks as our different approaches became evident during our conversation. This is hard work. It's difficult to discuss publicly in the heat of the moment as anyone who stepped up to that microphone knows. And I hope we can all give each other a little grace because we are here for the same reason. We all care

003deeply about the education of our students. What unites the members here is not that we all enter discussions at the same point or even that we all agree because we don't but that every school committee member is responsible for making an independent informed judgment that serves every student within the resources of our community. We do not represent only our own school communities, our social circles, or even individual towns. We represent the district as a whole. The decisions before us affect approximately 2,400 elementary school students, their families, and more than 500 staff both now and for years to come. I have spoken with every member of this committee, and I can say with complete confidence that each is taking this responsibility seriously and is committed to the depth of preparation that this work demands. And I'll

004pause here in case any of my colleagues want to add any comments. Vicram, >> I would just like to make a general comment. Last week I said some things that seemed flippant and off the cuff uh specifically that I'm not being paid to be here, which I'm not. But I I want to make it very clear that I work very hard at this. Frequently up at 4 in the morning worrying about all this stuff and all the stuff that we have to do. It's a big It's a lot of stuff going on here. Um, and you know, it takes its toll emotionally, physically. There's a lot going It's very stressful. Um, so I apologize if anybody misinterpreted what I said or took it the wrong way. I did not mean to be flippant. I don't

005take this position lightly by any measure. People who know me well, uh, will attest to that. Uh, so I just wanted to say that and and issue a general apology for the way I worded things last meeting. Thank you. All right. So, before we move on to public comment, just some bits of instruction so that everybody knows what's going on here. As I mentioned before, we can't do this work behind closed doors. We have to do it here. Under open meeting law, our deliberations have to be in public view so decisions are made transparently and so you can witness them as they unfold. And that is why we are genuinely glad you are all here tonight. It's also why this evening public comment is going to be limited to 15 minutes. We as a committee

006need time to talk through the issues before us together. There will be an extended 75minute public forum on January 8th closer to our final vote to allow additional community input once members have had a chance to deliberate. So to give everybody a sense cuz last time we had people who were prepared to make much longer comments and and were were not ready to be be shorter. Let's do this now. The the public comment period for AB Ford will be later, but let me see just a show of hands about how many people are thinking they might want to make a public comment tonight. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 17 18 19 20 22 23 about 26. >> Okay, so we're counting about 26. So think about

007that math for a moment. Let me toss one other thing out to consider. Um it's entirely possible that we might have a vote tonight to remove one or more options from consideration. We're not going to vote to select an option, but to to remove some. If that happens, my proposal to the committee would be that we have the conversation, we do our deliberation, and then like the steering committee did, we table it, we go to public comment so that if we have people who want to um say something specifically about the options that we are proposing to eliminate, they have that opportunity. Um, and my proposal to everybody who's thinking about wanting to comment tonight would be to consider letting the people who want to comment specifically on the vote that we might potentially be

008taking be the first ones in that line. Um, so that we have the opportunity to uh to hear from you before we move. And I don't know that that's going to happen. I just thinking through what this might look like and setting some some possibilities here. Um, that said, you should see some papers out there. There are other ways to provide full comments. So if you came with 3 minutes worth of comments and with 26 people and 15 minutes >> 30 seconds, >> we're looking at 30 seconds. >> You can email us your public comment. You can submit it to the AB forward public comment form, which is why we set that up so that you have this physical form that will collect all of your comments that gets to the committee. It gets published

009on our agenda so that other people can see them as well. So, those are kind of the primary means if you have extensive comments and you don't have the opportunity to give them to us this evening. Um, so let's just see where this goes. We'll think about that when we get there. But just to set some expectations, plan for short comments, please. So, that said, um, we do have a section here for public participation that is not related to AB forward. So, other stuff on our agenda, stuff that is not on the agenda but is related to the school committee, that would be appropriate. Now per school committee policy beedh members of the public are invited to speak for up to three minutes. Public participation will only take time at this take place at this

010time during our meeting with the exception of AB forward. Speakers must be recognized by the chair before speaking and the committee does not typically respond to comments during public participation. Do we have any nonAB forward related public comments this evening? All right. Seeing none, Peter, superintendent's update. >> Okay, good evening everyone. Um, I'm going to keep this very brief because I know we want to maximize time uh being able to to allow you to talk. Um, but the primary focus I just want to share all of our district's very sincere appreciation for the generosity shown by our community during this year's AB Resource Center holiday gift drive. Uh, we're equally grateful to all of the volunteers whose donations, time, and dedication brought that effort to life. Through this collective support, we were able to gather

011an abundance of toys, clothing, essential items, helping to brighten the holidays for 92 families and 206 children with comfort, joy, and care. That is a huge undertaking. So, congratulations to the resource center for all of that work and with much gratitude to all of the members of our community. Um, for those who celebrate, we wish you a joyful Hanukkah and a meaningful Quanza uh and a merry Christmas. I also wish everyone a restful and rejuvenating break and a very happy new year. All right. So, moving on to subcommittee assignments. Uh, school committee assignments and subcommittees. Um, we have a recommendation to add Liz Folks to the capital subcommittee. >> Moved. >> Second. >> So, that was moved by Lisa, seconded by Vicram. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? All right, that is unanimous.

012Thank you. Um, Sherry has provided us an update on OPEB in the packet. Does anybody have any questions for Sherry? All right. And Adam, >> I just have a quick comment which is the the highlights of the OPED packet say that amongst our similarsized communities and districts, we're doing an excellent job of saving for future expenses related to post-employment benefits for our employees. So, just want to highlight that um there's some some great financial management happening there for our retirees. >> Thank you. All right, Andrew. Personnel report. Anybody have questions for Andrew? >> Typical monthly personnel report. Not a lot of shifts, but um if you end up having any questions, you can feel free to contact me. >> All right, in record time, we have made it to the AB Forward update and continued

013discussion. So, um, before handing this over to Peter, I want to acknowledge some of the very real tensions we are holding as a committee. Tensions we're hearing clearly in letters, emails, and in the broader community conversation. We're balancing the district's long-term sustainability, whether you look at that from financials, staffing, educational quality, with the amount of change we're asking families, students, and educators to accept in a in a short time. We are balancing how distribution how disruption is distributed while hearing deeply from families and staff who feel uniquely targeted, displaced, or made to feel less than as we imagine next year's school communities. We are balancing pride in our school identities and educational philosophies with the recognition that some narratives around rankings, labels, or fit can feel exclusionary and can echo in ways that our children

014experience directly. We are balancing the needs and perspectives of both Actton and Boxboro, communities of different sizes and changing demographics within the shared responsibilities of a regional district. We are also holding tensions around what equity means, whether it is sameness, fairness, or meeting students where they are. between preserving stability now and avoiding repeated ad hoc disruption later. Between honoring feelings, real feelings of loss and working within structural constraints, and between the community's desire for clarity and the sequencing realities of decision-m, including the timelines required by our legal and budget obligations. And finally, we are balancing the pole of the status quo. What is familiar? What has worked for many with the possibility and the risk of building something new while asking not only what is most comfortable for the majority, but what best serves every

015student over time. None of these tensions are abstract. They are deeply human and they matter. And our task tonight is not to deny them, but to hold them with care, honesty, and respect as we continue this difficult work together. Peter, can you show the dignity index, please? So, two years ago when I went to the Association of School Committees meeting, um Tim Shrivever addressed us and talked about this idea called the dignity index. And it's a way of thinking about how our public discourse goes so that we can have real conversations with each other and actually listen and hear each other in um a way that we can build paths forward instead of finding ourselves completely polarized. And I want to be clear, nobody is saying we shouldn't have free speech. Our our first amendment

016rights absolutely apply. But thinking about how we talk to each other really matters. Um, it's not about agreeing, it's about really listening and understanding. And so I want to read these out loud and then I'm going to ask everybody as I read them out loud, think about the number that kind of represents how you're experiencing this now. And I don't mean by like necessarily majority of comments, but it just might be how you're kind of feeling like the tone is. So starting with the side of dignity, an eight, each of us is born with inherent worth. So we treat everyone with dignity no matter what. Seven, we fully engage with the other side, discussing even values and interests we don't share, open to admitting mistakes or changing our minds. Six, we always talk to the

017other side, searching for the values and interests we share. Five, the other side has a right to be here and a right to be heard. They belong here too. Then on the other side, Tim Shrivever talks about this as this is kind of the side where we're tending towards contempt and it gets hard to have a conversation with each other. Four, we're better than those people. They don't really belong. They're not one of us. Three, we're the good people and they're the bad people. It's us versus them. Two, those people are evil and they're going to ruin everything if we let them. It's us or them. One, they're not even human. It's our moral duty to destroy them before they destroy us. So, I will tell you that I've seen commentary ranging from a two

018to a seven. Like, we are all over the place right now. Um, if you're willing, this is not a vote, but if you're willing to just kind of share with the room how you're experiencing this, use your hands, hold up number of fingers, how are you feeling about this? I see some fours and some fives. See a lot of fours and fives. There's a seven. some fives. I see a seven. Okay. [clears throat] Um anybody anybody feeling twos or ones? We're not ready to share that yet. Okay. I know those are out there, right? Um so just just something to think about like we are all here because we believe in the same big thing. We would not be in this room if we didn't care. And we're going to figure this out and we're

019going to have a conversation and we're going to learn some stuff because Peter has a lot to share with us. Okay. So, as as we start this dialogue, I just want to, you know, highlight a couple of things. Um, one, the school committee came to us at the last meeting and had a series of questions and requests for information. Um, and what we tried to do was do our best to listen to all those various requests and then come back with additional information. uh we developed a relatively uh extensive packet of that and hopefully you felt as though that uh was responsive to a lot of the questions that you had. Um I'm going to go through a lot of that material. Andrew is going to jump in when we get to enrollment options. Uh

020we're going to go through this at a very high level, not as a replacement for the packet that we put out, but really just as a refresher, uh because I know there was a lot of information in there and I think it would be helpful to to guide that conversation. Um, I just want to stress that, you know, the analysis we did is not intended to replace any other uh data point that you've been looking at, including community feedback. It is simply an analysis based on the questions that you asked. We tried to come back to you with the information that was responsive to that. So, to dive in um four overarching elements um or parameters to the options that are on the table. One is around school buildings enclosures and the recognition that all

021four remaining options consider the closion of closure of the Miriam school and the Conan building. We have a staffing model that has been proposed which reduces 11 Ksix classrooms and we want to make sure that everyone's aware that that increases our class size to the upper end of school committee guidelines and at three grade levels we are one student beyond school committee guidelines. There is a projected firstear financial savings that ranges between about 1.9 around 1.9 million depending on the option. Um some models that we've proposed may be more flexible over time if the continue community continues to experience budget shortfalls. Um and then really a lot of the focus is on how do we manage the impact of the work that we're doing. Um and all of the options range to the degree to

022which students are either displaced or disrupted. Um, and in the packet I really tried to define some key terms just so we had common language. Um, there's no right way to approach this. I made up a way which is why I defined it. Um, you know, I considered students being displaced as that student has lost their school. Um, they cannot return to the same school that they are in currently. I defined disrupted as the student may have lost a school building or there's some other very significant disruption but the school that they have will somehow still exist. And then I talked about this idea of um impacted recognizing that in many of the scenarios many many of our students are somehow impacted because they might be in larger classes. They might have new uh peers

023coming into classes. There might be a new teacher in their building. Um and that there's some type of kind of tertiary impact to a lot of what we're talking about. So, I just wanted to shed light on how I chose to define terms before we jumped into this. Just as a reminder, the four options on the table, I'm not going to go into all of the details of these, but option one um which is three version two is to close Miriam. We also have an option that merges uh both the MC Miriam and MCT communities uh which is in effect um the closure of both of those schools and then they get reconstituted with about half of the student body. Um option 5V2 is a hybrid gradeband model where we essentially have two large buildings

024but we make them smaller uh by considering upper and lower grade bands. And then option six is just to create two large schools in Actton um that are both K6 entities of about a thousand students each. Um in both options 5, V2 and six, Blanchard remains largely as it is now um by the nature of the size of the school and the nature of kind of the community uh agreement that we have with between BOR and Actton. There are two main pathways to all of this. One is a pathway of targeted disruption. Um and that is options 3 v2 and four and the goal of those two is to preserve as much stability for the majority of the district uh by concentrating the disruption in either one or two specific school communities. That's the intent

025of those. The intent of path two, which is systemic reorganization, represented in options 5, V2, and six, is to embrace a broader disruption as an opportunity to reset. There can be a lot of disagreement about which has value, but that's the essential message behind these two options that are that are still there. I'm just going to highlight some of how we looked at these options. Um, one lens was through student disruption. So, the next few slides are just talking about the level of disruption. Um, in a a model that closes the Miriam school, um, the enrollment at Miriam represents 15.8% of our school district. And so, you see 15.8% 8% losing a school or being displaced, 16.4% um being disrupted because the Conan building won't exist next year and they would be moving into um

026a new building for them. And then the rest of the students in the district are somehow impacted by it, but not as directly as those two school communities. Also along this first pathway um is the idea of merging Miriam and MCT in this one I have 33% of the elementary population is um displaced because both the MC Miriam and MCT schools no longer exist as they currently do. We would have space for about half of that student body in the existing building. The other half would need to be dispersed into other schools. Um there continues to be disruption to the Conanit um community because they are losing their building and they would be moved into the adjacent space from one of those two schools. Um and then what you see is the remainder being impacted

027kind of with a tertiary uh or third level of impact. The next two talk more about the broader concept of disruption. Um this is shown a little bit differently because it shows two different displacement numbers. This is where what you choose to do as a school committee around your enrollment policies um has a significant impact. Um there is one model where if we kept all of the students where they are then the Conan community would be the one that would end up having to be moved into other buildings. Um because largely we would go under the assumption that most students currently in the Parker Damon building would want to remain there. Um even though the schools no longer exist. There's no more Miriam. there's no more mc. Um the communities there stay largely intact and

028Conan students would move into the available spaces across the remaining four elementary schools. Um on the other end of it you asked us to come back with options that looked at both geography and looked at the idea of a reottery uh process. In those I estimated the disruption at about 70% or displacement of students at about 70%. Um it's 70% um largely because Blanchard does not get displaced because of the hometown uh agreement that we have with Boxboro. So we assume most students in Boxboro stay where they are. Um that takes a significant percentage of the population off. And we also know that just statistically if we did either a reau or geography, we're probably looking at 20% of a population at least that would end up in the same school that they're in. So

029um those that upper end is very much an estimate. There are no guarantees there, but it was the the best thinking I had at the time. And in terms of the idea of a large K6 model, it's the identical um impact of that where it's it's really based on the enrollment model that the school committee chooses to to move forward with. [clears throat] This is just a comparison across of them. I'm not going to spend any time. I already just talked you through the whole thing. Uh but it's here in case we need to come back to it for further discussion. I just want to recognize that and then Andrew, why don't I turn it over to you to talk about enrollment options. >> Sure. Um so in a moment we're going to review as

030sort of we previewed in that packet uh a range of actual um enrollment procedures. What I would say ahead of this is the the part that I I don't want to use the word easiest, but I think is the most linear is sort of is is the mechanics of enrollment placement. However, I think what probably needs to come attached to this and and certainly either happen in conjunction or even ahead of time is sort of the more um the more the broader questions that I appreciate a lot of the emails that we're getting are really trying to orbit around is the um the educational decisions that you're going to need to make first. Meaning, uh a do you feel that some type of choice model is still a model that you want to continue? And

031if so, how does that look? B, if you feel like you want to go to a a setting where you are recon, you are asking schools to reconstitute, say in option 5V or two, what are they allowed to reconstitute into? I.e. Is are there parameters where there could be significant and noticeable differences between schools and therefore uh a choice does make sense in terms of uh family options or are we at a place where we want to provide uh more guidance centrally consistency um certain areas where we feel like regardless of which school you might be enrolled in, there are things that will not be different. And and to what degree do you want that to be significant or do to what degree do you want that to be more limited? Because I think in

032some ways if you did want to offer a continued choice model in 5v2 I think that that begs the question well what are we choosing between and why? Um and if you don't feel like you want to continue a choice model um does that lead you in a certain direction? So I say that not to suggest that you go in a certain direction. I would just say before we even get into the mechanics of the reenrollment, those are things that really um require more clarity and and definition around by the committee so that we can adjust the mechanics of it. Um they all will have some level of human challenge and difficulty and emotion, but the actual mechanics of it are not that going to be that difficult. You can tell us to prioritize certain

033things. You can tell us to dep prioritize certain things. will create the system. Um it's just really about how you want uh to emphasize certain goals, certain priorities, certain values within that process. So that being said, um clearly within um 3v2 and option 4 where uh it's either the closure of Miriam or the what's perceived as a merge, but we understand it's not really a merge between McCarthy 10 and Miriam. those mechanics are are a bit sort of more straightforward in terms of identifying the population of students uh who would need to be uh transferred and placed either uh at a different location or be identified as remaining in their current building. Those are outlined in their packet and those are um at least from a mechanic standpoint pretty straightforward. However, if we get to

034the option about 5v2 or six where we are uh clearly identifying um a direction where we are moving towards a different construction of uh of at least a few schools. There are three avenues um big picture that could be adjusted and tweaked, but they are a you know we know in this model that Conan students at the very least would have to be transferred from their current school to some version that we create. That would be something where the current students who are currently in the boardwalk and in the Parker Damon, they would physically stay in those buildings for the most part with the one caveat being that uh if and when we determine special ed specialized program placements, that's that's a big asterisk. Uh but that aside, they would remain and then Conan students

035would join the three different existing uh communities. what those communities are. Again, goes back to that educational landscape question that you need to answer. That again sort of is is a little bit like option 3, V2, and four where the the process itself is a little bit more contained in terms of sheer scope. Certainly not more contained in terms of impact on the students themselves, but in terms of the actual mechanics, uh a bit more narrow. Then you could uh as people have tried to sort of wrestle with what uh ideas they have around um if we are reimagining things, how do we either ask how do we ask people to share the the the load or the burden or the opportunity if you will um to move in this direction? If you and some

036would posit that uh the most appropriate way to reset would be to engage in initial reau of all students. And so therefore there is not the impact there there is not a direct correlation between closure of a physical space and whether you need to bear the the brunt of of a relocation and a restructuring. And so therefore we create these these new structures these new school communities and then we engage the entire community in some type of um process for reau in this system. If you went there, you would either have to reaffirm certain priorities in the lottery because that is still an open enrollment model um for purposes that you're going to need to identify. But even once you identify them, you then need to say the following things. Do we still feel like

037um walking distance and proximity to schools should still be a priority? Um as as one example. So, you're going to still need to identify what are things that may or may not um lead to certain individuals having priority placement at any of these locations as we do the the reau. Clearly, we are also dictated by the hometown guarantee or as we propose probably shifting it to a hometown priority um by necessity. And so, if we reaffirm that, that also provides and dictates some of the the mechanics of it all. Um but again within that we can um soften the edges in certain ways that you feel would be appropriate. Um and and that of course the devil's going to be in the details for a lot of people. And then finally depending on where you

038again land with educational landscape and purpose and scope of the schools and how we want to either have expectations of similarity or not and encourage choice or not um is geography based framework. So we could shift to what's um most uh municipalities and school districts have which is a geography based framework where it's based on uh residents and you create zones that within uh the community and based on your residence you would be assigned to um selected elementary schools you'd either be Blanchard whatever permutation of boardwalk and whatever form um Parker Damon would be in. What we would um encourage and strongly recommend is a system that is similar to other school districts where you identify fairly generous flex zones. Uh where depending on a variety of variables, uh if you lived in a flex

039zone, uh you may be assigned to not necessarily one of all three schools, but perhaps one of two schools that get designated for your flex zone. This is important for the piece that we don't want to lose the ability to sort of rightsize schools for class sizes, enrollment services, and things like that. You can clearly create still sort of caveats to say if you're in a flex zone and you already have an older sibling in school X, we would still honor that. For a younger sibling, if they're still in the school, you could still do that. But in addition to that, you would still have within certain neighborhoods uh the flexibility of the district to say given our projected class size in a certain grade or area um we're assigning you to one of these

040two schools. In order to do this, typically when schools do reszone their neighborhoods, there are organizations that have expertise in this. Uh I think our recommendation would be that we engage with them sooner than later. I think we have general ideas giving them the contours and the priorities that we have about how to create the zones and yet they would be the ones who would work with us to actually uh facilitate the creation of that. So if if you decide to do that we would um need to engage with them uh fairly quickly in order to facilitate uh this process in that regard. Um again in all of these I just want to note that the special education services piece is still an important variable. I will note for the geography based framework um that

041would be something where if you are assigned to um a specialized program to receive the services that you're required to have that would be one example where even if you are in a certain zone the the specialized program and school assignment that would um be attached to that would override that piece. So you would be someone who could be in a zone where quite frankly to be blunt your neighbors are attending school A, you might be attending school B. Uh and then we would obviously have to work out the details about whether we give your sibling the choice to stay in the neighborhood school or you go with your sibling school. All those details that can be worked out, but those are certainly variables that we need to work on. Um and they're they're they're

042easy to implement. The harder part is certainly deciding how do we feel about um the impact on on the creation of of school communities. So the the mechanics themselves, we can work on them, we can tweak them. The the things that we present are simply sort of the general contours of them. I know the details matter and and but I think the details will only be born from once you make decisions around the landscape piece. what is the guidance and and sort of um direction you want to give our team around how these schools may be uh fashioned once a decision is made and certainly I'm talking about option five or six in that regard do you feel that there we are at a place where we need to have uh more similarity in certain

043features of school community and school identity regardless of school if so what are those areas and and if they are significant then that begs the question about what what is the purpose and scope of of open enrollment. uh if you feel like there is still an importance to having a broad continuum of um educational approaches that offer sort of some remnant of of open enrollment then what does that look like as well and to keep in mind that if you do and and please know that I don't say this to try and discourage it but I do think one of the one of the pieces that this process has necessarily surfaced is again sort of the the benefits and inherent drawbacks of an open enrollment system is that as as a school district as a

044public school district that doesn't have full flexibility, we can't shrink and expand a school based on interest. And so what has happened over time, not at any particular school in general, but what happens over time is if there are schools that tend to have uh at any given point in time a great deal of interest, more interest than spaces, you will have always historically had families who don't get choice uh or don't get what they want. And so if we continue to have an open enrollment system which again has a lot of benefits. There are families who feel so fortunate and come to Act and Box Road because of that opportunity that's that is a wonderful thing to be cherished and valued because I think it it it it allows families to feel a sense

045of connection and and value in terms of their child's education. What accompanies that naturally is that you will inherently have given just our inability to again shrink and flex. You will have a cohort of families who will then be placed at a school that they may either at best be indifferent about uh at worst be really disappointed that they are at a school that runs counter to perhaps what they feel is the education that their children uh that you want for their children. So that's just the trade-off. I'm not giving that as a value statement. I'm just simply saying that's the reality. That has always been the case. We just for whatever reason have never um sort of really surfaced that in conversations. We've kind of touted for good reason um the benefits of open

046enrollment. Um never really sort of had reason or purpose to sort of say, and by the way, here's the underbelly of it. Um now we do. And and of course it's in a shortened period of time and it's a stressed period of time. Uh so that's that's the challenge. It's it's too bad if we could go back in the way back machine and and sort of highlight and educate everybody about the pros and cons and the natural sort of elements of open enrollment and what it means and what it doesn't mean. Um I think we we we could have done that and it it might have benefited but we're not. Uh so we're we're in a in a different place. So with that um happy to entertain sort of wonderings or thoughts, clarifying questions or

047not at all. All right. So, a few additional things. Um, one, we just wanted to clarify what does fall into these. Um, there is the the core staffing model across all four options. Um, is very very similar. Um, and that includes the reduction of 11 classroom sections. Uh, which is both classroom teachers and assistants that go with it. the number of assistants is lower because we don't have assistance in all of the upper grade classrooms. Um and so you see some variation there. Um it also um reduces uh one each of art, music, physical education and library um simply because the roles would not be required in terms of the number of sections that we would have in the school district. Um and then the last one was the proposal to reduce one instructional coach

048because we have six right now. We'd be going down a building. Um so that's 1.0. zero FTE. Uh Gabby will talk more in at your first meeting in January about structures within teaching and learning. So we're not getting into depth of that tonight. Um there are also administrative structures that change. Um I didn't go into detail on this um in terms of administration, but there is a slight difference in how option six is structured versus the rest of the options where option six goes down three principles but has to go up an assistant principal to do that. That's why you see a little bit of variation um from option 5v2 to six. The details of all of that and the the actual spreadsheets were published in the packet so you could could get that detail,

049but I just wanted to highlight a little bit of that for you. We also had a request to review some of the operational considerations. Um we talked this through with our principles to make sure that we had a a good building based view on this in terms of the overall school schedules. um the ability to run our specialized programs in all of our schools and the specials art, music, PE, and library that we have. Um there is minimal impact on our ability to offer those to all of our students. Um all of our school schedules and all of the buildings are designed to accommodate the number of sections that are proposed to go in them. Um I think that there will be some impact in terms of lunch and recess simply because there'll be more

050students on the playgrounds and in the lunchrooms at times. Um it's not a furniture problem because we actually have the the furniture at Conent that could be repurposed in the other buildings um to account for the student population. Uh what we would need to do is provide some additional supervision um in the form of assistance um during those lunch and recess hours in particular. And so that's something we are considering and planning for in our our budget proposal for next year. Extended day could become a little bit more challenging. Um extended day, our ability to offer seats in extended day is a function of both space and staffing. Um staffing could be moved, but if we don't have appropriate larger spaces, it may become somewhat of a limiting factor for how many seats we can

051offer in our own extended day program. And we want to be fully transparent about that. that that is likely to be somewhat impacted. Um, we won't know fully until we get into it. Um, but one of the the limiting factors right now with how we run extended day is they really prefer the large spaces because they can pull a larger number of kids into those spaces. Um, and use their staff really wisely to be able to provide appropriate supervision. If we disperse all the students into classrooms, you actually need higher staffing ratios which then drives up cost to the program. But ultimately that means it's cost to families because the the program is not funded by the district. So just keep that in mind and that that's why it becomes a limiting factor. Um in

052terms of parking um we wanted to just call this out over at either Parker Damon and Blanchard we would have sufficient space uh mostly because Blanchard is proposed you know the increase in enrollment actually isn't proposed to go any higher than the highest Blanchard has been at um historically. So, we've already seen what that looks like and we've lived that experience. Um, but at Boardwalk, um, we would be going uh right at the the max of um the enrollment design of Boardwalk. So, we anticipate there will have to be heavier use particularly of that auxiliary auxiliary lot. Um, across the boardwalk. So, we just want to call that out. Um, it was designed for that purpose, but I think there's definitely, you know, I've done it myself. there's a a lot of convenience um to

053being able to park right at the campus as opposed to having to go from the Elm Street lot. So, uh want to be transparent about that impact as well. One of the things we were asked to do was to kind of create a one-pager assessment of alignment of each of the options with the strategic priorities that were in the plan. Um and again, I want to call out that this doesn't replace any other form of feedback that the district has gotten. And when we talked about this as a leadership team, um this was how we saw the various options playing out with regard to strategy. I think one of the reasons that option 5v2 uh continued to come out um across all of these um and we can talk about this more in January when

054Gabby talks about teaching and learning, but when you have a larger number of sections at a grade level and you're operating six and seven sections at a grade level in a school as opposed to three, three, two, or even three sections at a grade level, there's a lot of different and creative ways that you can deliver services to students who need them. that includes our multilingual learners. It includes um students with disabilities and the ability to be more thoughtful around what inclusion looks like across more classrooms. It also includes um both reading and math support um how you might group students um and actually extend the number of students that our specialists could see uh when you you see more grade level. Um, some of our leaders also noted that there's been a lot of

055history in many of our current schools around collaboration among educators and being able to actually have larger collaborative groups among educators could be a real benefit um to schools. I think in terms of sustainable systems, the leadership team, many people also saw that if we need to expand or contract in the future, having more classrooms at grade levels allows us to mitigate the impact of that expansion or contraction. either way um over time whereas in the smaller schools that was a lot more challenging um I think you know option six jumped up in terms of sustainability there um simply for that reason. I think one of the things I heard a lot of concern about in option six was really you know given kind of the longtime culture of our schools making sure our administrators

056could spend the facetime that they they need to with staff with families um and with kids. So, you [clears throat] know, we said that I think overall were the summary of comments that I heard and certainly can come back to questions on that. And so, this is just a reminder that there really are two kind of critical pathways to be considering. one is this path of kind of targeted disruption and I don't mean targeted at any individuals but targeted in focusing the disruption and trying to keep it small um even though that will be an intense disruption um around either one or two school communities or thinking more in terms of systemic reorganization um and looking more broadly at an opportunity for reset and you know whichever way you go there are four viable options

057on the table that we can do each one has you know benefits and tradeoffs and that are likely perceived differently by various members of the community. So happy to answer any questions and you can also ask Andrew any questions at this time. Okay. So let's think about how we do this before we start raising our hands. Um I'd like to give everybody a chance to speak um comment or question that you have. And sometimes we get into going back and forth. Let's not do that. This is going to be complicated. We might end up to the point where we're going to have to be doing some some Robert's rules stuff. So try and keep this as clean as we can. So I'll I'll just kind of look around and if you're not ready, that's okay.

058Help me come back to people if I miss them. Okay. Anyone want to start us off? Vicram. >> All right. Let me see here. Um so I should say by the time I graduated high school, I had gone to I think uh 11 different schools. Um, I'm sort of the equivalent of an army brat as an intellectual brat and my father was a, you know, visiting professor. Um, and so I've seen a lot of schools. I've been a lot of schools. I'm very cognizant of the disruptions that occur when you're moving from here to there to here to there to here to there. Um, Andrew um Schwarz had written something. I don't know if I should read this in its entirety. No, >> no, you should not. So, um, >> I just I just want

059to say >> so just a point of order here. Um, so we have a member who's unable to attend because he's traveling. He has submitted some notes for the committee to consider. They will be in the minutes. We will not be reading them aloud. >> No, I I just want to allude then to one thing that he said uh which is data has has shown that keeping a K6 model is really beneficial for students. Breaking things up is actually very detrimental. Uh I also uh feel that uh this argument that well some people are being disrupted and that's not fair so really everybody should be disrupted um is it seems to me sort of um just deeply illogical on on the face of it. I'm disrupting all these children. You know, we all have gardens.

060You grow things, right? Things are growing well if you take them and then you move them. Sure, some of them will continue to do well, but a percentage of them won't. And the more that you move, the larger the number that don't do well and you move them. Then you have to address all those issues of movement. Um I I I uh like a broad reorganization. The other thing is uh somebody had written that you know they do a lot of project management. I myself one of my jobs is actually installing uh live statewide driver's license systems which is huge oversee 208 driver's license system you know offices backend front end security these are huge huge projects so when you look at something like a systemic reorganization and thinking that we have the time to

061implement this by next year I think is really you know it might look good on paper when the rubber hits the road projects like of that magnitude rarely rarely go well Um I think also disrupting every single family and every single child um is just an enormous ask and I I think the idea is that well that's less disruptive if like later on we have to close classes and students have to move. I think that disruption is still going to be vastly uh smaller than just asking absolutely everyone to re and a full reauy and moving schools and breaking all the communities and and the friends and relationships that we've built with parents and the our children have built with their friends. Um it's it's just um I I'm just flabbergasted that that's um you

062know that that's even on the table. Ben, >> thank you. Tori, uh, couple of quick points or or thoughts. Choice is what is one of the things that defines who we are as a district. It was the choice of Conan that our family made in sending our son there. At the same time, I look at the the alignment of the or the four different options and what aligns best with the district as that uh slide, if you could put it back up, please, Peter. as yes, that's one. As we can see, options four and 52 are pretty much what align best within um the priorities of our district. I think when it comes down to brass tax, those are the two options that we need to look at. Uh option V uh 3v2 I don't

063think would benefit the district and I think six would be too disruptive as a whole. And that's my personal thoughts. Thank you, >> Yenshin. >> Thank you. Um, so I I I just I have a comment and a question. I really want to acknowledge that I think everyone who's sitting here, everyone who's sitting in front of their YouTube streaming right now for the parents, families in this district and statewide or nationwide, the past 5 years is very very has been very disruptive. Um I think just in our district we had every single school had change of principles. A couple of them had interim for a few years. I think right now is probably mo the majority families thinking we're finally settling down. Oh, we're not. There's a lot of fear. And I remember Peter once

064said that there some of the emails are kind of emotional, but I remember you used to say that they're just caring about their kids loudly, so they're yelling. Um, that's my comment. My question is I think myself included, even though I won't have an elementary school student at the end of this year, um, I think the anxiety over what would the schools look like for 5v2. Um, I don't know if everybody else knows, but I think everybody here knows that with the teachers, there's a bumping system. So, we don't really know which teacher will stay, which teacher will go. We don't know the administrators like the principles who's saying who's going. What would schools look like? What would you know? I'm sending my children to a school. Who will the principal be? Maybe I don't

065know who the teachers will be, but who the principles will be? That will cause a lot of anxiety. I know it's not a question you're ready to answer right now, but I hope that we can have some information on that say on the 8th of January. Is that reasonable? we will not have any staffing information about who people can be uh because a lot of that's personnel related. So that's that really the personnel side of it can't be part of a broader decision-m process. >> Adam, >> thank you. Um, I have a couple questions and I think most of these questions are to sort of think about and come back on the the 8th or the 22nd for the administration to sort of share with us. Um, and I think Peter you alluded to a

066bit and maybe Gabby you'll include this in your presentation, but as you look at 5v2 where you've got a K3 and a 46, um, they're they're different sized programs. Um, and so I I guess what I what I would like to see and or like to have sort of have some discussion of what happens as a bubble moves through um that building because you do have separate principles, you do have separate supervision. Hopefully you have a unified schedule, but I I would like to know sort of from a from an administrative and teaching and learning perspective, what does it look like when a bubble goes through um a school like that? Um the the other area I'd like some clarity on um Peter and I think this is on the agenda for the ETH as

067well um is around the special education programs really around um where does the responsibility lie in terms of creating those programs deciding where those programs get placed and how that decision-m you know depending on who owns it how that decision-m process um gets made through this reorganization. Um and then the last question I have is um you know particularly in the systemic reorganization options um you know we say that uh Blanchard remains main remain untouched um but I'm curious what there might be for options around or or what direction you might need from us with regards to how Blanchard may be revisioning what they do as well to sort of go through that that systemic reorganization with the rest of the community. So those are my questions sort of for the future. Um the comments

068I have um the first is for our us as a committee as we're as we're considering this. Um I think we all need to sort of take into account what our bias biases are. Um what schools did or did not you know what schools did or do our kids go to now? What elementary schools did we go through? Do we have kids in schools? Do we remember what it was like? Um, and you know, thanks to Tori for bringing up the the dignity index because, you know, we we each sort of feel strongly about the community that we're in, but how are we considering sort of the views of those other communities? So, I I think everyone around this table has been through this system in some way, shape, or form. And so, I think

069it's important for us to just sort of remember while our perspective is important and it's what makes us who we are, we considering the perspectives of the rest of the the groups. And then the last thing that I just sort of want to highlight which was an outcome from the the steering committee work um was that there were a number of folks on the steering committee who had been part of the remote learning program um during the pandemic. And one of the things that they um highlighted so there's a couple things that I think we should highlight about this. First of all, we were in a very sort of uncertain and and crazy time. And we were able to actually spin up a whole new school building, a whole new school program in a very

070short amount of time. Um, and enroll, you know, a significant number of our students in that program. And on top of that, those those people who were involved in that program had a very strong sense of identity. They all came together and created what that school was and what it meant to them in that short period of time. in there. I'm sure plenty of people in the in the room tonight and in the community at large who remember sort of the magic of that. So, you know, one of the things that I think we we want to start shifting towards is, you know, the outcome is going to be the outcome, but what are going to be some of the great things that we can get from this? And I take solace in the fact

071that um, you know, remote learning program is a a really great example of something we've done here with a lot of the the staff and the people who exist here today that had a a great outcome. And then my last thing is I just want to sort of recognize that um for the committee and the community as a whole like we are dealing with just so much uncertainty right now and that is um emotionally draining and and taxing on all of us and it's it's everything from you know our own personal paychecks and lifestyle to what our kids are doing to what's happening in the Commonwealth where they're you know receiving less funds and looking at tighter budgets to what we're seeing nationally. So again, I think, you know, just recognizing that this is one

072part of a much broader um sense of uncertainty in the community that that affects us all. >> Leela, >> yeah, I just want to start by um [clears throat] thanking folks who worked on all of the materials for this packet. Um it's yet another large packet with a lot of work. Um, and then I just want to ask kind of a more targeted question about the geography based student placement. Um, thank you for sharing some kind of models. Uh, it makes me think about the way that school funding right now in the Commonwealth is inequitable just based on like where people live and inequities and wealth. Um, and I was wondering if you have any preliminary thinking about how that might inequitably impact school um, buildings and who who makes up a school building. Um,

073I was trying to look at some maps online about like where our wealth lies and it might be interesting. >> Yeah, your your thinking is a line similar to ours. I think um, a couple things. One is regardless of where our schools were located, and I'll get to that in a moment. One of the big pieces that we think about is as we think about zones, how do we incorporate the appropriate mixture of different types of housing knowing that different types of housing sometimes are sort of associated with um different types of sort of housing security um stability movement. So we clearly as as a community have um sort of very affluent areas uh and and homes and we also have affordable housing, apartments, rentals, ownerships, things like that, concentrations. So I think one of

074the things that we would work with the um organization that we can find is to say this is an area of priority in terms of how do we ensure an appropriate level of mixture regarding that. I think to that end, what's also helpful is where we physically have our schools does not speak to quote unquote neighborhood schools, right? They're within sort of close proximity to each other. So, the degree to which we I think that gives us the freedom to actually create sort of zones, not necessarily based on neighborhood, but based on how we want to organize the communities to have that appropriate balance both by class size and by demographic, I think gives us additional freedom and flexibility in that regard, if that makes sense. Lakshmi. Um, thanks to Peter. I think that the

075slides were extremely helpful in summarizing in a very concise but uh comprehensive way. And thanks to Adam and Tori for I think you expressed what I I think I would have um probably not that well. Um going back to why I am on school committee. I think I wanted to help to see if I could help move the school and the education system in the direction meant for future. And I feel like this was the opportunity where we whether it was meant to be that we are not we are going in that direction and I think the data presents itself. My kids have are grown. My I have gone through the system 12 + 12. I have two kids. My older son is 30. Both of them have started with kindergarten and done with high

076school graduated. So I see a lot of cons concerned parents about change disruption. If I look back at what impacted my kids the most, it is the classroom teacher and their friends. Uh nothing else mattered. The buildings didn't matter. The buses didn't matter. Yes, short short term it did. But in the long term, no. Um so what they walked away with is a summary of the experiences they had. And I think if we look at it from that angle, I think we should look at it as maintaining the school system for future generations that are sustain that's with a sustainable organization. And I think if we can leave the emotion out it in the long term they will work out and if if we can get great teachers in the classrooms I think that's all

077that matters. Thank you. I I want to echo that point in particular because I really do think that everyone here in this room remembers at least one educator in their life that made an impact on them. And I so I do agree that what giving the educators the resources and the conditions that they need to do their job well and effectively. Um that's one of my top priorities in my brain as I'm navigating throughout this. Um, I I have a couple of thoughts, but I I do want to start off with I do think it is important that we continue to set a good example of how we navigate big tough decisions. Um, cuz if we want to walk the walk here, I think just being able to demonstrate that like it is okay to

078disagree intensely and like not be at each other's throats at the whole thing. So hopefully we can continue to demonstrate that because our students look to us, for example. Um, with that in mind, I I do personally think it this would be my hope. I I do hope by that the end of this meeting tonight, we do take at least one option off of the table. Um, my my read from reading the emails and seeing community input is that it looks like the biggest fault line or the most intense area of disagreement is perhaps between options four and five. And so therefore I think that is where we should spend the majority of our focus on discerning in this input. So um I I would like us to seriously consider removing either option six and

079option three tonight. Perhaps even both. That part I'm not totally fixed on, but I do think that is worthy of our serious consideration. Um, and the the last point I I do want to make, I I would like to say I do gently disagree with my good friend Vicram um regarding about how the the disruption can be sort of distributed cuz I I do think that it is really important that we do everything we can as a committee to not further to not exacerbate conditions that cultivate any semblance of resentment or like or like segmented. It it is hard not to feel as a as a parent with a child in a community. It's it's I I totally get why you can feel singled out throughout all this. Um, and I do think that emphasizing

080the need for like a communitywide lift about being able to create a more systemic distribution of the change that we're all going to have to collectively absorb anyway. I do think that that will be the best way for us to cultivate the conditions where we can build the community that helps us navigate this forward. that that is a better scenario in my brain than like segmenting like okay here's the here's the changes it's going to be over there that might feel more what's the word um it might feel more digestible in the short term but I do think for like a few years out um that the more s I I personally am leaning much more towards the systemwide approach but I would like to hear the best case possible for the other option that's

081why this is we're doing this. Um, and those are my main points. And I I guess the very last question I do have for Peter, um, is it safe to say that with the grand the grade banding model of option five, with the more efficient allocation of resources of being able to target more specific portions of the student population? Like is it fair to say that with that particular model that is not found in options three or four that there may be a better literacy rates may be better than they otherwise would not have because you can target the kids more or is it perhaps it's more nuanced than that but I'll I'll ask Gabby to weigh in maybe as well. I'm personally not sure just looking at literacy rates. I think it would be

082hard to to make any promise around any one model targeting that. I think overall we feel as though we can more effectively reach more students with the existing resources especially if they become more constrained if we have more classrooms at a grade level. I think uh in that regard both options five and six get there. I think the only reason that we are cautious about six is we think there's another trade-off that may be less palatable to the community. So um but in terms of actual like student outcomes, I think we feel like we can serve our students better in both five and six in a particularly in a period of limited resources. Um >> Gabby, I don't know if you want to jump in >> except this one. >> Y thanks. Thanks for your

083question, Glenn. I don't really have anything else to add. I think that our hope and our focused efforts have certainly been energized around um early literacy. And I would say that we're hoping to see student literacy rates continue to improve because of this incredible commitment and hard work that's happening within all of our schools to always look at data and to always target improvement. We do think the efficiencies could be streamlined a little bit better in a model five or six, but um they're work the educators are working really really hard. So it will be would be really hard for us to say what is the exact cause if we're seeing one way or the other. So I do appreciate the question. >> Thank you for that. That's basically all I had. Lisa, >> I

084just want to take a moment to acknowledge that I understand how hard this is and especially, you know, again, many of us, you know, parents and, you know, having kids, whether they're young or they're old and you think about their you think about their elementary school experiences and I think it's difficult because I think they come home and they're always so happy and they tell you about their experience. experiences and it's they're always so happy to talk about their teachers and the people that really care about them and make their day. And I think one of the things that I've realized that's so important in all of this is it's just always the people. And when I'm thinking about the people, I'm thinking about how every year, year after year, they're doing more with less.

085And I think one of the things I struggle with when I'm thinking about this as a parent is just thinking about how much harder our teachers are working every year to to give our kids everything that they possibly can. [sighs] And I don't think any of this is easy. And I think when we talk about, you know, how, you know, removing 11 sections and having to move people around, I just want to make it clear that that it's not something that we're discussing lightly, that there is emotion behind it. But, you know, when we're thinking about the great change, I think we're also thinking about the great opportunity. And when I'm thinking about services and I'm thinking about our students who need more, you know, just not just, you know, the kids going into the

086classroom and they go in, they go out, but the students that who need speech or who need reading specialist, who need a math specialist, who need um occupational therapy, physical therapy, there's so many different services that our children need. And when I think about how hard it is to deliver services to those kids, trying every year with all the cuts that we make, doing more with less, I think about the opportunities when we consolidate to have better groups and to optimize our groups. I'll give an example. Um, you know, for a child receiving speech services, those pairings are so important when they pull the kids out of the classroom, that time is really valuable. And for any parent that looks at that IEP and looks at the time and fights for that time and is

087always wanting more time, you know how valuable that time is. And if it's not if they're not paired with a, you know, the appropriate partner, the work doesn't get done as efficiently. It it's it's harder to accomplish what the therapist is trying to do in that setting. If you have more students and you have more sections to pull from, you can better optimize the groups. you can put kids together that are a better match when they're receiving those services. And so it's not just about improving schedules for the people delivering the services, but you're actually giving a better quality experience to the students. And so when I'm thinking about student outcomes and I'm thinking about at the end of the day, the entire reason I'm here is for our students. When we make hard choices,

088I think that has to be at the heart of it. >> [sighs] >> And I'm thinking about what our students are going to get at the end of this. And I'm just asking every parent to think about what if it was your child that needed extra reading support, physical therapy, all of those things. And even if your child doesn't, because we can recognize that not every child does need those things, to think about what it's like to be in a classroom with students who are not receiving the services or not getting enough of what they need and what that classroom and that classroom community experience looks like. when you have children that end up more disregulated or having a tougher time getting through that day or don't even want to show up to school because

089it's so hard and if only they could receive more support. So, I just want to throw that out there. So, I mostly have questions. [laughter] Probably a big surprise here. Um, Peter, you alluded to talking about some of the flexibility over time of some of the scenarios and I'm thinking that in terms of can you stress test them? At what point in time, you know, assume that we have kind of the budget shortfalls we've had over the past 5 years, they've been what 2 to three million every year. Is that about right? So assume that for couple of years, at what point in time do things really start to fall apart? And I'm going to define that as um you know, do we have to start Yeah. At what point do things really start to

090fall apart? Um distributing kids across new schools or not having staff in the places that we need them, what whatever that looks like. Um and then also you talked about what does it look like to be able to expand and contract. So conversely, um I'm the optimist. I'm going to believe that at some point in time we are not going to have a budget shortfall and we're going to get to add back add things back in. What does that look like when we can actually add sections? How how does what how do we do that? Um so that was one. Two, I'm wondering in option five, um you know, we've heard a lot about the importance of having older student role models of um of our book buddies, our star buddies. All of our schools

091have a program like that right now. Um, what would that look like in in 5v2? And what sort of coordination would you expect of the upper and lower schools to be able to make some of those things that I think we we consider important um, continue to exist? And then probably my third one is um you know kind of taking Yenshin's question maybe maybe a little bit different direction if if we can't talk specific staff can we talk about process what does how are you thinking about the idea of how we might create new schools and I I heard Andrew gave us some homework in there that you know school committee we probably have to figure out what the things are that we think need to be consistent. So, you know, certainly for four, five,

092and six, we would need to have that conversation because there would be a new school community being created. So, that's probably a doout to us. But, you know, just curious once you have that sort of structure from us, what might that look like and what might that timeline be? >> Okay. So, to our crew here, um, >> go ahead, Peter. >> You don't have to answer those right now. That was kind of a next time. >> I I we Yeah, we'll we'll take a look at all of that. I mean, I I think, you know, in all honesty, like my most flip answer is going to be to when do things fall apart because I think I'm looking out right now and I think there's a lot of feeling that that would have been 3

093years ago. Um, you know, and I think, you know, we're at a place that we can, and I'll make an initial comment and then we can do some of the work behind the scenes on this. We can reorganize ourselves and take a couple of million dollars off the base budget. The expenses that continue to exist are going to continue to increase at whatever the market rates are for all of those expenses. And so if our personnel go costs go up greater than 3% that the community can afford, that's 75 to 80% of our budget. We're going to have a a challenge. If our utilities go up greater than 3% a year, which they have over the last few years, we're going to continue to have a problem. If our health insurance goes up in double

094digits over the next few years, we're going to continue to have a problem. There's no way to create a reorganization scenario that eliminates those cost centers. Um, it's just not realistic. I think, you know, we are taking this work on seriously because we recognize that we can make potentially more efficient use of our resources in our staff time, our school buildings, and everything else that considers the changes in enrollment that we've had. And I think we need to be super clear with the community that making this one-time change is not a long-term this doesn't solve the budgets for the communities. And if the communities are going to want to continue to have strong schools, at some point we're going to have to fund the schools that that we're doing. And I recognize that for many

095in our community, there's a real tension. They're they're passionate about schools and they care deeply and they're at their limit for what people can afford in their own homes. And I I absolutely understand that. You know, I think one of the most frustrating things for all of our staff is that none of our staff can solve that problem. Um it's not a staff level problem that can be solved. It's only a communitywide problem around how we fund things. Um and quite honestly, I think a lot of the work that many of you have been doing around trying to advocate more at the state level for increased funding um is is really a testament to to thinking that it's not even just a community problem. So, you know, I I think my initial gut reaction is

096I don't want to overpromise and underdel that reorganizing our schools means we fixed revenue problems because we have a revenue problem. Revenue is not keeping up with expenses. Um, and that is just the reality of schools everywhere right now. Um, and I also believe firmly that you need to do whatever you can control in the moment. And how we're choosing to organize ourselves and how we're choosing to work within the resources we have is what we can control right now, even though we can't control the big revenue picture, but that needs to be a serious conversation, I think, going down the road. But, you know, to recap, we will work on these and come back with some more detail for you at the next meeting. So you actually just hit on why I I asked

097that question. Um so I sit on act leadership group. This is my third year going through this and we have conversations with the town about how we how we bring to town meeting a budget that works for both town and the school. Um you know there our box bro members do a similar type of thing. And I will tell you that I am thinking about you know going in at some point in time and needing to have this very conversation that we need to fund our schools. And if we have not if we have not made a good choice now and people look at us and go you didn't you didn't go big when you could have and you didn't do the thing that is most sustainable that becomes a really hard conversation. So that's

098knocking around in my back of my head but thank you for um stating that more eloquently. Okay. Um so what do we want to do for this next round? Do we want to look at trying to narrow this down knowing that what that might do is help the administration out a little bit more or do we feel like we need to have more conversation? So, let me get a just kind of a show of hands of how many people would like to whittle things down a bit. Okay, anybody think they need some more time on this? Abstensions are allowed. This isn't an actual vote. Okay. Um, so I guess we should entertain that conversation so we can move this along. Glenn, go ahead. With that in mind, uh I make a motion to remove option

099six and option three from further consideration. >> I second that. >> All right. So that was moved by Glenn removing six and three from further consideration and seconded by Vicram. Let's have some discussion. Adam, >> uh I like this idea. Um, and I think that we should move forward with this quickly because this is now not the most pressing decision we need to make. There are some really interesting decisions we need to make around enrollment policy. And I didn't hear any of us really dive into that, myself included. And I think that that's sort of the next conversation that we need to air out and probably get more input from the community on as well. >> Yen, >> thank you, Tori. Um, I know I recognize I probably was the only one who didn't raise

100my hand. Um, I'm having a really hard time um to I don't have a problem with removing 3v2, but I'm looking at option four. That still leaves the the option that we will close two schools and moving one school into the building. I don't know how much that's going to do to reduce in terms of reducing tension in the community or hurt and harm. Um, this is our last meeting in 2025. I don't know if I can do that. >> Lisa, >> I would be in favor of removing options three and four. So the motion that is on the table right now is to remove six and three. This is what we are discussing and anybody else want to discuss this before we uh complicate things. >> But can I make a friendly amendment >>

101or does it work that >> Lisa? Let's let's let Lakshmi address this one and then we'll venture into friendly amendments. >> What are we trying to accomplish by eliminating the options? I think we should put it on the table. I think that will be very clear. Was that a motion to lay this on the table? >> No, just a question. >> Oh, you want to know why we're doing it? Um, so at the moment, every every time we ask questions, we are asking our administration to prepare four different versions. If we've reached the point that we're like, we know that we're not really leaning towards some of these. We should probably just take those out of the conversation. Vicram. >> Uh, it's I I think um three should have been off the table a long

102time ago. I think that was initially what was going to happen. It was an after 10 p.m. vote. It's not been fair to Mariam. I think everybody's in agreement about that. Uh, and six, clearly the data shows that having humongous schools is not an option that anybody favors. Um, if that helps answer those questions. Lisa, >> I would like to make a friendly amendment to remove options three and four instead of three and six. Can I do that or no? Or it doesn't work. >> So the front works originator the originator of the motion would have to accept it as would the person who seconded. Oh, >> with as much grace and compassion as I can possibly muster. I I I very gently do not accept the friendly amendment, but I know you're very friendly.

103>> So, >> that was like an eight on the dignity index. I just want to say that. >> Okay. So, here's the other thing I will mention. Um, so I do we want to listen to public comment before we vote on things? Okay. >> I I think that'd be a good idea. >> So, hey, let me finish my thought and then I'll come to you. Um, we could lay this on the table. We could bring up anything else that we want to discuss. We could lay that on the table. Then we could have public comment. Does that sound reasonable? Okay. Yenshin had her hand up first. I I was just going to make a friendly amendment to um just to remove option six. I can but it's up to you whether you want to accept

104or not. >> Do you mean remove it from the thing to be removed or remove it in and of itself? remove option six from only >> with as much grace and friendliness as I can possibly muster with a 12,000 on the dignity scale. I do not accept the friendly amendment, but I know you're super duper friendly. >> Okay, [laughter] Adam. >> Yeah. Yeah. I would actually like us to vote on this before we go to public comment because I think that I would like to hear targeted feedback from the from the community on what remains and also on enrollment options. So I think that that will help focus sort of what we're getting from folks during public participation. >> Okay. Lakshmi. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Hello. >> I think putting two on the table is

105a difficult choice for us to vote on and agree on anything. I think maybe one at a time. >> Is that a third? >> Yeah. >> Is that a third friendly amendment? >> Yep. >> I don't know how much friendly I have left. Well, [laughter] I have a lot left. I with as much grace and compassion as I can muster, knowing that you're the most friendliest person ever that's ever sitted to my right, I do not accept the friendly amendment. >> Lisa, can I make a statement for consideration or make a comment in regards to his motion? >> Yes, as long as we're talking about the motion under discussion. >> We're talking about the motion under discussion. Um, I say this in the friendliest of friendly manners possible, um, to the friendliest degree. Um, that

106I do feel that options three and four are continuing to pit communities against each other. And, um, I'm feeling that I would like to put an end to that. So, those are my feelings around those two. And I also just want to take a moment to recognize that yeah, both of those options don't feel great for our community options three and four. And my reason for requesting the friendly amendment earlier was just so we could take the divisiveness out of the community and then focus on the enrollment piece. So that was just my comment in regards to his motion. >> So I think there's also something worth thinking about. Um, we're talking about four options that split pretty neatly into two different types. Have we had enough discussion to be able to decide that we

107are committing to one approach over the other? Because I I think the benefit of what Glenn has proposed here is that we we can still continue to have those conversations. I'm going to acknowledge the tension piece. Um, I I get that. And I think that's what makes it so complicated. Um, and I think we need to look through it carefully before we make a a quick decision. As much as I really would love to be through the painful part, it's going to be painful anyway we look at it. Um, anybody else? Adam, I >> I'm just brushing up on Robert's rules. So, if we're not ready to vote, then someone can make a motion to lay this on the table. That would be seconded and voted upon. >> Yep. So that could be a way

108to see if the group is ready to vote on this or not. >> I move to lay this on the table. >> Is there a second? >> Oh, so we're ready to vote on this. All right, there you go. Well played, Adam reading up on his rules. All righty. So the motion is to remove options six and 3v2. All in favor? I I >> Any opposed? One opposed. Okay, hang on. I'm taking notes and any abstensions. Okay, so that passes in that case. Um, public comment is going to be on what public comment needs to be on. We will let me ask does anybody else have anything any questions we need to pass on to the administration right now? >> Okay. So, Vicram, >> uh, I I just want to say one thing here. um

109and to everybody in the community here. Uh we have all been paying close attention to this, writing all sorts of letters and lots and lots of communication. And I just want to shine again a spotlight on Tori who has been answering every single one of everyone's emails personally and in depth. Uh up until I think yesterday was virtually impossible for her to do it. Uh she's super human and I just want to call that out. Um, >> Thank you. Um, I'm also going to say that we are all going to take a break. Please continue to send emails. We will continue to read them. We're not going to respond over the break. And and it is okay for you not to send emails over the break if you don't want to either. So, um, [snorts]

110>> okay. So, um, let's take a look at that. Show of hands. How many people now feel like they have things to say? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 22 >> Okay. Um we're going to go with with 45 seconds if everyone can make a nice line coming up towards our microphone. And um we greatly appreciate everybody honoring the uh the time. It was shown up here on our little uh iPad courtesy of Adam. Um, yeah. So, when you come up, just uh introduce yourselves, please, and uh yeah, we'll get this going. >> Abul 66 Robin Street. I am a Conan parent. Option 5 V2 with the Conan reassignment option picks Conant, a majority minority community as the target of

111disruption and calls it a reset. The communities the the committee's own language promises genuinely newly formed communities and thoughtful blending but commits no to no mechanism to achieve that. Community does dictate culture and under that enrollment choice every other community remains intact. Same pier, same building. Miam loses a name but only Conan gets scattered. We need a formal commitment from that parents and teachers from host and incoming communities will build together. Otherwise you're making refugees of a majority minority community. You're out voting us to keep the peace and you're asking us to assimilate quietly. Thank you. >> Lena Badra, 66 Robin Street. The need for district reorganization is not a Conan only problem. The district school budget shortfall is not a Conan only problem. Option 5 V2 is presented as an equitable option that to

112have a shared experience to build new communities and drive a collective redesign of our schools and embedded cultures. The reassignment of only Conan students does not align with the notion that this is an equitable experience. Do not distribute only Conan students to solve a district-wide issue. The same level of distaste for this enrollment option should exist as it does for the distaste of options three and four. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'd like to thank committee for for your work and dedication. Thank you so much. Um, I moved to town 25 years ago after looking at the statewide rating for the schools and I think that Conan ranked 33rd place in state and award-winning school. You should try to preserve the name, preserve the culture of a school and try to maintain a ranking

113uh for the town across the state. that basically what's what's valued for the town what's um um allow town to collect high taxes uh maintain high property values um so I think it's minimize the disruption low you know minimize the risk try to preserve the um town ranking um school system you know which is very highly ranked like in upper 1% in the state thank you >> could you introduce yourself Yeah, >> just so we get >> What was that? >> We didn't get get your name. >> My name Alexi Lamin. >> Super. Thank you. Yes, please introduce yourselves as you come up. Thanks. >> Hi, I'm Jacob Mcrendle. I'm a new Conan parent. Um, what I want to just address is with option 5v2. I'm concerned how much steam it has gathered in in

114such a short period of time. Um I did notice that at the steering committee meeting how it was proposed. It was the only option that Superintendent Light actually proposed in that first round vote as even being moved forward for consideration and it seems to have gathered a great amount of steam without a lot of public comment. So I'm glad we're having that discussion here now. Um I think that it is not lost on the Conan parents that it is a more opaque version uh to eliminate Conan when you have that third option where it's saying just eliminate Conan and scatter it across the district. I suggest that in in option four that that really allows the community an opportunity to preserve what is the best about this school district and what has made it a

115shiny example of what public education can and should be. And I would implore this committee to give cons serious consideration to option four. >> Thank you. Hi, I'm Mara Epstein. Today I read excerpts from a letter signed by 50 members of the Mariam community that also align with the petition submitted last week to the school committee that was signed by 185 Actton Boxboro community members. As community members deeply concerned about the impact of the proposed reorganization on students and communities, we urge the school committee to support option 5v2. Based on the district's data, option four does not offer the long-term educationally sound solution our community needs. closing and dispersing both both MCT and Mariam will cause irreparable harm and divisiveness in our communities by clearly prioritizing one community over the two existing Parker Damon schools.

116Uh we also remain concerned about how data were used to justify Miam's selection for elimination um avoiding rank choice trends showing Mariam as a stable middle of the pack choice for many years. Lastly, we ask that the school committee retains the innovative models of education that Marryiam has including looping project-based learning, student led conferences in whatever form our schools take next. Just lastly, please remember we are a top performing school district because of our amazing amazing educators, our teachers, staff, and administrators who have been treated like a line item on a budget. Um, they deserve their respect and to be treated better throughout this process. >> Hi, my name is Crystal Blanc and uh while I could introduce myself as a Mariam dad, I'll zoom out and simply say we're an AB family. While I'm

117worried about the kids and the transition and change, I'm becoming much more concerned about the adults and especially the parents and the divisiveness that this experience has brought. I have witnessed and had to catch myself pitting school against school. And it's really sad. When there's enough heaviness and sadness outside this district, let's choose the option that brings possibility, excitement, and above all things brings us back together. While I'm grieving the loss of the experiences I expected for my kids through Miriam's approaches and hope some of that could remain, my wife and I are choosing hope and optimism about the opening of a new door versus dwelling on the closed ones. We see that possibility with option 52. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi uh Kartik and Kuroni. I go by KK. Um, I've been

118upset and disappointed by the division and the us versus them mindset that has dominated this process. My family chose Actton and the school district after more than 3 years of research. In our first year here, we were asked to support a tax override and despite real financial concerns, we voted yes because we believed in the district and in doing what's right for all children. What concerns me now is a process that creates winners and losers, especially through lottery based enrollment. that is not equitable and it undermines trust. We should not be designing a system where some families win and others don't. I do not want to see 5v2 be implemented in a manner that really makes it 3v1. I urge the committee to focus on solutions that are physically sustainable, fair to all families, not

119just the most vocal, and one that ensures every child receives a good education. We need collaboration and compromise, not coalitions protecting individual schools. A win-lose outcome hurts our kids, our district and the town. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Manusa. I'm a Conan parent and uh my main comment is that I think with all the discussion and the survey and every uh meeting that we have had I feel that we have lost the very goal that we are trying to achieve with this restructuring um and it might help everyone in the community especially the elementary parents community to revisit what we are trying to do objectively instead of being uh emotional about it so that we can come up with a more sustained able model in the long run because

120that should probably be the focus, something that is sustainable in the long run. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Matt Cody. The town already avoided the least disruptive path when dropping 3v1 and option four is really just arbitrarily choosing a metric to sacrifice some school communities for another. And option five is not about trying to make everyone go through the same thing. It's about everyone working together so that no one has to go through too much on their own. If we choose four, many of the dispersed students will essentially be isolated and being asked to integrate into already established schools and already deeply established friend groups and to do so with the knowledge that they're in this position so that a different school can move into Parker Damon. How much more will this affect

121their social, emotional, and educational well-being than having all of the kids work together to create a new community? Hopefully with many of their current friends if we implement this right, just as we have them do when they go into seventh grade and nth grade. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Molly Sparrow. Um, [clears throat] so as you've probably seen by now, uh, this process is really tearing us apart in some ways. It's pitted school against school and friend against friend, neighbor against neighbor. Um, this is not a problem that belongs to any one school. It's a district-wide problem. Um, open enrollment might have worked well in the past, but with the greater costs that just seems like there's no way we can afford it without disadvantaging a large group of people. Um, which is going to

122just deepen resentment and impede the process of building new communities in uh, Parker, Damon, and Boardwalk. So, the only solution that allows us to all work together toward a fresh start is 5v2 with geographic based enrollment. Um, I hope we can set an example for our children and show them how we can come together and unify to build new communities. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Melissa Katone, AB family, current Conent family. Our district's equity goals commit us to improving outcomes for all students as well as those that are disadvantaged and language learners. Currently at Conan students feel safe coming to school and I know we need to make a systemic change now. However, the draft enrolling policy for option five that dissolves and assimilates Conan into a largely pre-existing communities runs counter

123to the stated intent of option five to build a new community. Whichever new model is chosen, integration is required and it must be done with a deliberate process to protect safety, trust, equity, and outcomes for both our disadvantaged learners and all students. This is not only in the best interest of one school or some schools, but the best interest of our community at large. Let's build a stronger community together that makes the best of what's working and continue to foster students growth. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Vishal. I'm first- time Conan parent. Uh I'm worried about the implementation of option 5 V2 with the choice of distributing Conan kids only. It's not it's it's no different than option 3 V1 which was rejected by the steering committee because it was not uh

124equitable and targeting one community unfairly. If our goal is to create a new community, it should be a burden of entire district and not just one one community to to make the district financially sustainable. So with that, if we are creating a new community with option 5 V2, we should consider a geography based uh enrollment and in that way all children will be displaced but it's a one-time pain and it will be easier for everybody to go through that and create new bonds. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Andrea Drowis. I'm a mom of two at Conan and I want to thank you for your comments. And I really what Lisa said about elementary school kids coming home and being happy. I think we need to consider the kids that

125don't get to come home and be happy. The kids that can't move 11 times and be okay. The kids that I Sorry, I can't see your name. I can't see that far. But you mentioned friends and teachers. The kids that struggle with friends. At Conent, we're already losing our school. the building and the building is important. Conan, what I think has been left out of this conversation houses the connections program. So you have the kids who biologically inherently struggle with change housed in the school that are going to endure that change. So we need to create new committees. I only have 3 seconds left. So the way to do that is to start fresh and have bi geographical enrollment so that everyone is starting new so that the town can really do what it says

126it's going to do and be inclusive and create these new communities. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Amriita. I'm a current Conan parent. Uh first of all, thanks everyone for uh making time tonight and coming to talk to us. Um the reorganization plan has a critical gap. What teaching method will the new schools use? The school committee should think strategically about building a unified culture and teaching methodology that will help all AB elementary students excel. We have an opportunity to create a foundation that makes AB elementary schools consistently desired and high performing across the state. I think having one proven approach, one culture of externals across both campuses will ensure every AB child receives the same highquality education regardless of which school they attend. So by Jan 22nd, it'll be great if you

127can clarify what is the teaching model that we will adopt. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Andrea Blades. My kids go to Douglas. Um, I think there's so much like I I don't disagree actually with almost anything that I've heard today and I I think that what we're all feeling is that this is a very difficult situation and it is being rushed and I actually applaud some of the courage that I think we heard from Vicram. I feel like there are voices that we're not hearing and um you know it's easy to like pit a a new voice um as one against the other and I understand why parents feel that way. From a Douglas Gates perspective, we're just coming into this conversation and starting to understand what the proposal is. And so

128now it feels like we're attacking others at our own expense. I think that we need to hear all voices and we need to allow some time for that. This is rushed. This is happening too quickly and it feels irresponsible. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Arnon. I'm a MCI father. I'm actually going to continue with the line of the previous speaker. I do think this is very rushed especially drastic change like figure five like option 52. Um I think a lot of the reason why being rushed is this looming budget deficit of next year. And for that reason, myself and a few other parents are brainstorming about ways to generate revenue quickly enough to buy us time to make this a much more considerable decision to think about more options. Maybe uh we're

129going to have a Zoom call tomorrow morning to brainstorm these meetings. These options if you're interested, email me. It's Arnon Ayahoo.com. So a R nyahoo.com. Thanks. >> Thank you. Hi, Jasmine Coup. I'm a Mariam and parent. I think first I would second that uh feeling of this being rushed and anything that you know could postpone this until you know maybe some other options could be considered. But in addition to that, I would just like to piggyback on the comments about the divisiveness and any approach that is a targeted approach. And I know Peter Light, you said you it's not targeting individuals, but we should just call a spade a spade and it is. That's what it feels like. And I think taking any approach that targets a particular population, we need to consider what that

130says to that student population, whether that be Conan or Miriam or McCarthy Town. And then secondly, for a 5v2 model, I would just implore everybody to consider rising sixth graders who are current fifth graders. Those were co kindergarteners who had a tough transition, are now going to have to have another transition, and then have another transition going into seventh grade. And so whatever you can do to keep those cohorts together, I think you should make a commitment to do that with any option. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Sisha Kandula and I'm a Conan parent. Um I have a problem with uh calling 52 choice one that it's not systemic. I think it is targeted disruption. It is only impacting Conan uh kids. I I do think we should pick the more um fiscally responsible

131choice that is 5v2 and the geographic assignment because I think that will truly give us an opportunity to arrange the schools, bring them together in a more unified fashion and it will also help with our busing situation and probably help save some transportation costs as well. Um I think most of the country uses this neighborhood assignment. Um so there must be something good in that right. uh when every pretty much every town in the uh country uses that kind of um policy. So um yeah and I'm also disappointed that we are again here despite passing the tax overright. So want us to pick a solution that we are not again doing this one or two years down the line. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hello. My name is Marin Guliver and I'm speaking today

132as a community member, an ABL alum and the parent of two young children. I also work for the district as a K to6 lit literacy coach and Conan and BL at Conan and Blanchard. I'm going to skip the middle part of my remarks which is saying great things about Conan, Blanchard, Miam, where I went and Carol Huner which are all awesome. Skip now to the next point. This is about people and most importantly in all of this it's about the little people. It's the time that we truly live our values of equity and move towards an equitable school model for the future. I ask that we strongly consider taking individual schools out of the equation and move forward together with geography based schools that prioritize highquality education for all students. The open enrollment model no

133long is no longer serving our community in a feasible or equitable way. It's time that we shift from this model and build schools from the ground up that are designed to work together and not compete for enrollment. Let's shift our thinking as a community from how much we love our children's schools because they are wonderful to how we can build something together for the entire community. While I personally really wanted the opportunity to choose where my rising kindergartener would attend elementary school, I recognize that this model is not equitable and does not support all students. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi. Uh, my name is Kate. Um, and I'm just a parent. Um, I hope that this whole process ends up in a future that doesn't put anybody in this situation ever again. That is

134my ultimate goal for this. I will say, however, that I feel like the redistribution is now the main thing um that everybody's going to have to talk about. And I really would like to urge you all to redistribute or scatter people across the globe with everybody being red reassigned. Um I don't think it's fair for one community to suffer the ultimate shame or not shame but you know decision of being not the most important and that the people who feel it's a community problem and it should be a community solution. So everybody should have to suffer or go through the new changes. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Katie Puquin and I'm a little nervous. I want to thank you for your thoughtfulness, dedication, and service to our schools. I'm very appreciative of your work.

135This is hard and I appreciate all of you. I want to thank everyone here because this is also hard for you. I'm a mom of a fourth grade conent fourth grader who recently found out by his peers that the Conan building is closed and asked me if he could bring home a piece of the building as a m as a momento for himself. Okay. So, I'm reminding you that there's kids out there. They're creating their own narrative about what's going on and this is happening. Um, and we don't want to target these kids. We all want the our kids to have friends at their school. Maybe not in their classroom because that's a little disruptive sometimes, but at their school. So I'm asking you to please consider that many hands make light work. This is

136a community problem. We need to spread this out as a community go enrollment please. Thank you. >> Anthony Rambo uh father of three two at Conan um fourth and sixth grade. As for everybody here at involved, this is very personal, but we live on Minded A walking distance to Conan and we actually on Fridays have a fourth and sixth grade now fourth and sixth grade service squad. The acting kid service squad is at our house and we take 17 kids home. So this is just really hard that Conan building is closing. My heart was like keep it together the con community wherever it goes. Through this process though, I have changed and my head is telling me we need to do what's right for the and sustainable for the community. Cuz two years ago, I

137had to sit my children down who were in fourth and second grade and tell them no, no, no, it's okay. We're going to just, you know, vote on something. No, your school is not being dis, you know, dis displaced or dis disbanded. You're okay. You're okay. We need to think about two years from now, right? We can't keep doing this. And I think it's a really cool opportunity for us as a district to do the right thing for everybody and not just a group of people. I think we really need to step back and think about how do we put the district on a better fiscally responsible, you know, court. >> That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Leah Lai. Miriam, um I urge you to vote against any proposal that would replace

138one school at the expense of another. Simply introducing this option has already caused harm and keeping it on the table risks further division within our district. The idea that one school could be singled out sends a damaging message, especially to students or two schools or three schools. When children hear their school might be the one to go, it affects their sense of worth and belonging. All students deserve to feel equally valued and proud of their school. The school committee has an opportunity [clears throat] to affirm their commitment to equity and belonging for every school community and all of the students at AB. We hope you do that. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Shauna Seidenberg. I'm a mom, uh, Douglas mom. It's clear that there's an idea that parents here are here to

139protect individual schools over everything. And that has not been my experience and isn't my viewpoint as a Douglas parent. There are plenty of us who are interested in protecting the experience of the most kids possible over everything. Period. So, I urge you to focus on displacing the least amount of children possible as a main priority. The truth is that integrating displaced kids into an already established school isn't objectively a bad thing like it's being framed here. Entering kids into a stable environment rather than one that's been completely upended for everyone has the potential to be a very positive uh thing. Removing open enrollment is also not just a question of equity. It's a complete philosophical change and we need to fully vet that before we do that together. Look at it from every angle, every

140pro, every con. Lastly, sorry. It seems there's an idea that there's going to be more resentment around targeted disruption versus systemic. And I would argue that that is absolutely not true. expanding the amount of folks who are displaced will expand resentment. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Sharon Chaitton Pollock. Um, a mother of two Conan fourth graders. Um, and I agree with essentially what most of the Conan parents have said, but out of left field, I'd like to urge you to consider consulting with the kids somehow. They do know now that change is coming. um they don't understand what is going on right now. We can't explain all the options to them previously, but now that the options are down to just a couple, um perhaps it would be nice to elicit comments from

141them in whatever way would open the smallest can of worms possible for the district. Um and let them feel that they have some kind of a voice or at least that someone cares to explain to them what is happening. um so that they don't feel completely disenfranchised and so they feel some agency in this. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Hi everyone. Thanks for your time. My name is Britney. Um my son just entered into kindergarten this year. He's my first child going into kindergarten. We did the tour of all the schools. We came very quickly to a conclusion that there are basically two types of schools. There are six different schools, but there's two types at Inactton. There's a traditional and a sort of non more non-traditional approach. I know what people value about Miriam

142and McCarthy Town is the art integration. um the calling teachers by their first names and things like that and then there are schools that have a more conservative traditional approach. Um so what am I saying with this? Uh if we do go to an uh option 5v2 model where we have gradeb banded we have two options. we can preserve those two different sorts of identities and approaches to education, traditional and non-traditional um and allow kids to choose them or we can have a very vanilla approach where we may have children that need a more art integration non-traditional approach stuck in a school that doesn't suit them because of geog geography. So are just against um I'm already over time, aren't I? Okay, thank you. Bye. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Kendra Wilson, Douglas parent.

143I noticed that two folks tonight on the school committee did not vote and two are also not here. So that's about almost 40% of the school committee did not vote on what took place tonight. I'm wondering what the voting jurisdiction is um policies around this since nearly 40% didn't get a voice tonight. >> If you email us, we can follow up on that. And just to clarify, um, everybody voted on that. We had no abstensions. So, everybody who's present today did. >> Thank you. >> Every single person voted. >> Yes. We had one opposed and everybody else was in favor. >> What about the people who aren't here? >> They're not here. >> So, Yep. Email me and I'll follow you up follow up on that. [snorts] >> Uh, hi. Um, I'm Heather Sheen. I'm

144a Douglas mom. Douglas and R.J. Grey mom. Um, I think in every model obviously there's inherently a ton of change um and disruption. And I think we all are well aware that early childhood development supports um structure, reliability, predictability um stability for social emotional well-being, growth and development. Given how rushed this process is, the lack of real data on financial impact, and an executable timeline by the time school begins in the fall, I would urge the school committee to maintain the reliability, relationships, and structure for our kids to thrive in. A lottery feels reckless, ill-informed, and given recent petitions, a full lottery is not strongly supported by teachers and families alike. Thank you. >> Oh, nailed it. >> [laughter] >> Hi, I'm Ailia. She her. Oh, this is fine. I'm good. I could Okay. All

145right. I'm Ailia. She her. I'm a parent of a uh kid in McCarthy Town. Um two years ago, we moved or three years ago we moved to Actton and I didn't even know that a like pick your own school was an option. Um, I loved McCarthy Town and it was great for Sura as it is, but now that we're talking about a different option, the 5V2 seems like a really great place as far as having experts who are able to make an equitable geographic breakdown. Um, that's not something that I could do by myself by picking it. Um, and it seems like a a really great option for making things even when or not even but equitable in a time that everybody's going to have to change in some way or the other. Thank you.

146>> Thank you. I'm going to note that our line feels like it keeps growing. Could could we >> Yes. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. >> Uh, hi. I'm Vijaya Miduri. I'm a Conan parent. I am here to pass on a message from a Conan student. None none of it is mine. My son I asked I told my son about the transition and he said I want my school to be there but I want to go to the same school as our neighbor. Ironically our neighbor is a Miriam family next door neighbor. So he said whatever you know you can you tell the people uh moving Conent away that I want to go to the same school as our neighbor who's a Miriam another kid who's a Douglas another kid who is some other school. I want

147all my friends and neighbors to be in the same school. It's a message I'm passing on. That's why I'm the last one on the line. My apologies. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> So I guess I will be the one last one. My name is Shafi. Uh I'm a McCarthy parent. So my family moved to this school district this year very new and I have to go through this. So this is a problem. Okay. Posted to everybody and I think this is opportunity from the community to solve this together. that will reflects how we feel in this town, right? I mean when as a parent I teach my child when I persuaded them to move here, this is a opportunity for us to learn to adapt. I think each of us should take this as opportunity

148to teach us kids a lesson to tough to be adaptive. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you all for your really thoughtful comments and for adapting to our figuring out what comments were going to be about. So well done. Um very much appreciated. I think we're on subcommittee and member reports. Um let's do this by exception. Does anybody have anything hot that we need to um report on for policy, budget, or negotiations? >> [clears throat] >> Okay, >> just a quick update for budget. We continue to meet and discuss sort of the the limited information that we'll be seeing compared to traditional budget workshops. I'm not going to say that the information is limited. The district is working on a a myriad of variables for us, but we will see a bottom line budget. We

149will see some of the major cost codes in the in the budget workshop. But so much of the budget planning will come after we make our decision on the 22nd. There's not enough time between the 22nd and our budget workshop on the 9th to prepare a traditional uh budget binder, but uh we've we've got some good agreements between the budget subcommittee and the administration on what will be prepared for that workshop. >> Yen, >> I don't have anything in relation to subcommittees. Can I bring up uh leazison? Okay. Um, so I am currently the actton finance committee liaison, but given my work schedule, I cannot go to the actton finance committee meetings in person. I was wondering um if because Lisa and I had chatted offline, she's interested in attending the meetings, which they don't

150have anymore this year, but the next one is in January. Um I'm just wondering like would you like to be add on as my alternate or would you like to take over as a full leazison because she's on since you're on the negotiation committee I think it would be good to for you to be involved but I know you have little kids so I don't want to >> No I'm happy to take that on. >> Is that okay? Um, so we voted that a little while back and you're g you were gonna make my Robert's rules heads hurt. So we can actually um >> I can make a motion to help this out. >> That would be helpful. Thank you, Adam. >> I would like to move to uh let's do this. Add Lisa as

151an alternative as the fincom liaison to our school committee assignments. >> Second. >> All right. So it was moved by Adam and seconded by Leela to add Lisa as an alternate a fincom liaison on our subcommittee and um liaison assignments. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? All right. So that passes. Thank you. That was helpful. Adam, >> thank you. Um any others were briefing by uh by abstension by exception. Leela, I just want to mention as we're talking about kind of our local finances. Um the Tuesday there was kind of an annual hearing that happens every year for the state to talk about estimated tax revenue to base the next fiscal year budget for the Commonwealth. Um and just as an FYI, the governor is probably going to release an official

152budget proposal towards the end of January that the legislature will then wrestle with. Um, as another FYI, there's also a potential ballot question for the fall of next year that wants to lower income tax, um, which would most certainly impact revenues for the state. And I'll add, Actton Leadership Group is actually probably in the best place they've been in December for any of the three years I've been with it. Certainly, um we have about a $500,000 deficit still to cover, but that's a lot less than usually where we are. Um so that feels like we're on track with um what we're thinking budget-wise on the Actton side. I understand it may not be that way on the Boxboro side. >> So I'm happy to provide the liazison update for Boxboro select board and finance committee

153since I attended both of those. Uh I see you Kristen. Thank you. Um the the select board met first. um and got their sort of first round budget proposal from the town administrator um which looked to be more positive than we had originally thought. Um and then that was followed by the finance committee meeting uh earlier this week. Um and and basically Boxboro is still on the fence about whether or not and it's not been decided about whether or not they will need a an override. Um and I think really where the conversation lies is how deep are the cuts and is the need for an override this year. Um that being said, Boxboro has their budget Saturday on December 3rd. So we think we'll get a lot more information by then. Um and I

154will share um with those two committees in Boxboro next opportunity I have um the conversation that I've had with the administration, which is until we get a really solid sense of what's happening in Boxboro, we're not asking the school administration to plan anything around a B budget. Um because it's it's pretty disruptive to have to plan for that. And then there's a big difference between planning for a 2% assessment to Boxboro versus a 5% assessment to Boxboro. Um so at this point we're still waiting to see. Uh it's not completely off the table in override in Boxboro, but um the depth and need of that may be evolving as Boxboro continues to move through their budget process. >> Vicrim just a question for Adam. Um now that the numbers here seem fairly solid across the

155the R obviously now the remaining two choices um but formerly the four as far as as far as the finance community is aware um does that inform them to a larger degree to which way they're going to go does it sort of like narrow down their what what where they're going to land? >> Uh no so we're a pretty stable number in their planning. Um there's the in there's the municipal side of their budget that they're still working on. um you know what they know is what we've shared with the administration which is to target um about a 3.8% budget increase for next year for the district and we know what that calculates out to for an assessment for Boxboro. Um and you know plus or minus a half a percent is probably where we'll

156land with that once the budgets from our side get voted. Um it's really how Boxboro prepares the rest of their municipal budget side and what headroom that gives them with regards to levy limit and and revenues for next year. So you you know we're we have fairly open lines of communication and so we'll we'll continue to evolve that as the Boxboro municipal side gets more solid. >> Thank you, >> Lisa. Oh, just a quick note that uh joint PTSO is on recess until February and we'll be meeting back together then. So there won't be any further updates until then. They're still thinking about planning a spring event. And I do have a CPAC update if that's okay. Last night, CPAC met in person for a little winter gathering. It was very nice. There were cookies,

157there were treats. Um, something that I just wanted to bring up, it's really important that they're rolling out. Um, as of this week, hot off the press, they're bringing back a wraparound coordinator to help refer parents to other specialists. Uh they're not providing any therapeutic services, but it's just um going to serve as a referral service for parents um needing something extra. Great. All right. Um I think we can probably skip the goal update given that we just really focused hard on AB forward, which is a big piece of that. Um let's get the the consent agenda here. 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

158if a member would like it held, please say hold. Members do not have to have attended a meeting to vote on the minutes. Item A, approval of the ABRSC meeting minutes from 12425. Item B, approval of strategic planning and reorganization steering committee minutes 1225. Item C, Friends of Actton Libraries $24,000 donation to Actton Boxboro Regional School District. >> Yeah, you can applaud for that one. [laughter] Item D, approval of warrants as presented in the packet 121825. >> Move to approve with gratitude. >> Yes, >> that was moved by Leela, seconded by Adam. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you, Ben. All right, that motion passes. Um, nothing in the FYI, says Peter. >> Leela. >> Second. >> All right, moved by Leela, seconded by Adam. All in favor? >> I.

159>> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Great. Thank you everybody for being here today. >> Thank you everyone.