Acton-Boxborough School Committee Meeting - January 8th, 2026

001All right. Noting the hour and the presence of a quorum, I call the ABRSC Actton Boxboro Regional School Committee to order. >> Wow, I've never used that before. Thank you everybody. Noting the hour in the presence of a quorum, I call the Actton Boxboro Regional School Committee to order. Members of the public who wish to watch the meeting online may use Actton TV's YouTube channel which is found at the top of the agenda. This meeting is being recorded and will be posted on Actant TV's website at actantv.org. Um so I'll note that we had some questions about capacity. We made sure that we got um some more seating this evening so that we could welcome you. Um there is additional seating in room 23 which is up the hallway that way. So if you see

002people coming in who are looking for a place to seat uh to sit, they can go up there and the broadcast is being shown live. Um we had some questions about could we move the meeting to a different venue and the fact is we just don't have the technology to both do the live broadcast which allows people to be able to follow along at home and also move locations. So that's the setup that we've got. Um we're really glad to see you all here. This is this is great to see our seats filling. Um, and yeah, let's get this uh let's get this thing going. So, we're going to start out with uh public comment part one for school committee policy BEDH. Members of the public are invited to speak for up to three minutes

003on topics not currently related to AB forward. Speakers must be recognized by the chair before speaking. The committee does not typically respond to comments during public participation. Um, before we launch into this, uh, I'm going to ask an AB forward public comment question. Can I see a show of hands of who's thinking they might want to comment during the listening session so I can give you an idea of how much time we'll have available? Okay, keep your hands up, please, while we do math. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 about 30. Okay. Uh, thank you. You can put your hands down. So, um, assuming we keep about those numbers, we should be able to continue with our planned 90 uh 1

004minute and 30 second comments and I see more people coming in. So, we'll take a look at that uh when we get a little bit closer. So, maybe think about what a one minute version might look like just in case. Okay. So, coming back to public comment on things not related to AB forward. Um, we will take those comments now. Good evening. I'm David Martin, Actton Select Board. Just two quick things. I wanted to remind people that elections are coming up this spring in both Actton and Boxboro. In Actton, there are a number of positions available from library trustee to select board. And maybe most important to this audience, there are several seats available from Actton on the school committee. If anyone is interested, uh you could contact a member of the school committee or

005the select board. I believe that any of us would be happy to help you uh uh let you know what's involved. If you feel unsure because you don't know about town government, there's a solution for that, too. Actton is holding a public service academy this spring. It's brand new, so there's not an easy to access uh link yet. I would suggest contacting manager atacttonm.gov if you're interested in finding out more about how the town government works. Thank you. Not to be >> Thank you. [laughter] >> Not to be outdone, Kristen Hillberg, chair of the Boxboro Select Board. I'm actually here. Um I know you had your budget subcommittee, I believe, this week. Um I think you've heard that Boxford does not need an override this year. So a little less pressure on the budget. We

006have Adam, remind me was a 5.3 or 5.7% factored into our budget right now. I don't remember. I sent you a text [laughter] at anyway. We um I believe we took the assessment that you sent to us in your preliminaries and that's what we're using in our budget model which still leaves us some levy capacity. Um I am speaking now for myself. I believe there's a little liquidity there. If if we need a little plus or minus um I'll be advocating that we work with you and then also Box also has a civic academy. Feel free if you're interested in volunteering or learning about us. We've actually been already doing it for two years but I'm just teasing. Anyway, um yeah, thank you very much for all you're doing. I empathize with what you're working

007through right now. Stay strong and let's get this done. >> Thank you. Peter, superintendent's update. >> All right. Thanks, Tori. Um, I'm going to keep my comments brief because I know we have a lot of public comment we want to get to and and provide people time to speak. Um the only thing I really want to talk about um this past Monday we had a pretty significant incident over a boardwalk campus um in which the uh alarm system was triggered which triggered kind of an Alice event at the school. Um that is a very very frightening thing to have happen in this day and age. Um and I just want to say you know we're doing all the steps to take afteraction reviews to make sure that doesn't happen again. We've actually found some faulty

008wiring in the building um that needs to get rectified as a result of that. So, we're already on that and working with vendors um to make sure things are done accurately. Um you know, but the bottom line is if you ever have to put students out in faculty in a position where they're following an Alice procedure that they didn't anticipate, that is tremendously frightening um and anxietyprovoking. I just want to make sure I commend all of our staff and administrators in that building for doing the right thing because that's a very stressful situation. Um it's a situation where you have to use your best judgment. That's the intent of those drills and why we teach those procedures is to teach people to use their best judgment in the moment. Um and our staff who are

009working with kids absolutely demonstrated fantastic judgment because you don't know what's happening and you have to react in the moment. Um, fortunately it was, you know, an incident that shouldn't have happened. It was something that we're working on to make sure we fully understand why it was triggered and what's going on. We're still in the process of looking at that. Um, but I just wanted to thank all of our staff for the the the real just dedication to students that they showed in that moment. >> Thank you, Peter. And yeah, just want to echo that as well. that's not not something that you like hearing over the phone as a as a school committee member as well, but um just really grateful to all of our staff for handling it so well. Thank you. All

010right, with that um we can get into AB Forward. So, I'd like to invite Gabby and Natalia to come and join us and they have some information to provide to us um taking a look at the teaching and learning side of the options and then also um how we're thinking about special education. So, welcome you. Just this one. Just this one. Good evening, everyone. It's so good to be here. Happy New Year. For those in the audience who don't know me, my name is Gabby Abrams, and I am proud and honored to serve as the assistant superintendent for teaching and learning for the Actton Boxboro Regional School District. Tonight we uh want to share and start by saying we recognize how deeply impactful this process has been for our families and colleagues because it's not

011about systems and structures for all of us but rather communities of care and connection that serve children. Natalyia and I have prepared to share with you a highle summary of some of the implications for each reorganization model. We've partnered with many others to push our thinking and enhance our insights. And while we understand that we were we are in this situation because of circumstance and not choice, our commitment to you is of hope and support and opportunity. Be assured that students and their well-being remain at the center of all of our thinking. We know well that the most important work that takes place in the school district is within our schools and we continue to feel the privilege to serve that work. In early December of 2025, the school committee voted to approve an updated

012framework for our next strategic plan. This plan is anchored in our mission, vision, core values, and vision of a graduate. Before you are the four priority areas that were highlighted in the strategic plan adoption. These priority areas will serve as meaningful guideposts each stage of this reorganization process. This is an important one. >> [snorts] >> Something I have come to realize during my first 18 months here is that open enrollment, while an incredibly unique and special opportunity in our community, has primarily highlighted what is different about our six elementary schools. What I have come to understand, however, is that our common shared strengths and practices are much more numerous than our differences. The efforts for coherence, consist consistency and equity did not come without incredible hard work and as a result we have a very

013strong K to6 system. Each of our schools offers an excellent learning environment for students and this should continue to be a point of pride. As a team we aspire to continuously improve upon this work as a school district rather than a district of schools. And these many efforts here highlighted summarize a large set of practices inspired toward this goal. These areas of coherence are numerous and the consistency is important and will continue to serve us well as we continue to grow whatever comes our way. As you know, the school committee has a very difficult decision ahead of them connected with teaching and learning structures. We saw four areas that required some analysis in both options and they're listed here. I'll break them down individually in the next slides. Please know that my intent is not

014to oversimplify something that re in reality is really quite complex. We remain committed to partnership and uh the deep work to support these ideas and how they can be operationalized. The first implication shows how students metriculate through the schools in each option. The largest difference is that option 4 maintains a similar number of elementary schools, goes from 6 to 5, and option 5V2 reduces the distribution of students to three schools. For example, third graders will be assigned to Parker, Damon, Boardwalk, or Blanchard. So, they would be spread across three schools versus five. In option 5 V2, students will transition to an upper school at the end of grade three, but remain in the same physical location. One of the challenges in the field of of education is the limited time available for professional learning since

015most of our time as educators is spent with children. In option four, full staff professional learning will continue to focus on the K to6 grad span and the continuum and the educator preparation period during the workday which is available to educators for collaboration as they choose will continue to be a shared experience. In option 5v2, there is availability for professional learning to be geared to the grade level spans. But due to the number of sections of classes will increase from about 3 to about 6 to 7, it wouldn't be guaranteed that we could schedule preparation periods across the grade level um without some careful scheduling. Our Wednesday professional time would be similarly structured. Regarding resources and learner support, option four continues to provide resources at the five sites and across a similar number of sections

016as we have now. School leaders certainly could examine the possibility of scheduling grade levels across schools in option four, which would mean having specialized support personnel like reading and math specialists support two schools instead of one. In option five, version two with additional sections, we may have the ability to group students more closely by their areas of strength and need and bring practices across the three sites into closer coherence. Option four looks similar to the way schools are currently organized with about three sections per grade level whereas option five version two spreads students across six to seven sections in the grade band schools in Actton. One opportunity the ladder provides is it spreads students strengths and needs across more spaces supporting greater heterogeneity and equity. Here is a high-level summary of the four considerations that

017I just presented. We know that many in the community are feeling uncertain and so worried right now and we want to acknowledge that openly. Change can feel personal and it can rain it can raise real concern about what lies ahead. We titled this slide from strength to strength because we truly believe it reflects who we are as a community. The strength of our system comes from the talent, care, and experience of our educators and support staff and from our shared commitment to research and evidence-based practices. These strengths across every school and in every role give us a solid foundation to move forward with confidence. As our community continues to change, we remain committed to reflection, to growth, and to preparing students for the world they are becoming part of. Our vision of a graduate will

018anchor us as we continue to evolve as professionals just as we always have. I'm deeply grateful and proud to do this work alongside you. At this time, we're going to hold questions and I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Natalyia Carol who's going to be talking about implications for special education and we'll have an opportunity for questions at the end. >> Good evening everyone. Uh thank you for being here and for your ongoing and shared commitment to our students and to the values that define this community. As Gabby stated earlier, students are at the very center of every decision we are making and that commitment is guiding this work at every step. Our goal is to do right by our students and to ensure they are supported not only academically but socially and

019emotionally as well. And when we talk about reorganization, it's important to acknowledge something very human. Our brains are wired to notice change as potential risk. When routines shift or the future feels unclear, our brains ask, "Am I safe? What's going to happen next? Who's going to be there for me?" And that reaction doesn't mean that something's wrong. It's a natural reaction. The brain though is highly adaptable when the change is predictable, supported, and relational. As the district moves from four elementary buildings to three buildings, we have an opportunity to carefully think about where specialized programs will be located. How students, families, and staff are supported throughout the process. How we ensure equity, consistency, and strong outcomes across schools. The district has developed a comprehensive continuum of special education programs that are designed to support all

020students with disabilities. Uh those students require individualized approaches to learning and in addition to the existing programming. So we are supporting currently our uh students with disabilities through learning centers language and beyond program campus program connections pathways horizons ODP pace and step is a program that's available for the students at the secondary level not at the elementary level and this is the program that uh we are proposing and introducing uh in Actton Boxboro that's the program for students with significant cognitive needs who require direct systematic instruction to make effective academic progress. They also require explicit instruction in their functional and life skills and smaller learning environments and especially staff who's highly specialized and uses highly specialized approach to address their needs. They also need to have a cohort of like peers. Uh that's going to

021support their engagement then their growth and their sense of belonging. Research is very very clear that students with developmental delays and intellectual impairments benefit most when intensive individualized instruction begins before gaps have widened. So this is the aspect where we need to provide very intensive specialized instruction that's critical for building communication skills, independence, self-regulation and foundational learning habits. So if we have a well-designed specialized program that also allow us to intentionally plan inclusion opportunities making inclusion truly meaningful and accessible for those students. But I just wanted to remind everyone that any placement decisions are the decisions of the team and the parents are the members of the team and have their say in it. The reorganization of special education programs is grounded in a research-based framework. We looked at the least restrictive environment, multi-tered system

022of supports and a coherence framework when we are making our decisions. MTSS uh provide a district-wide structure uh for aligning interventions, staffing and specialized programming. The LRE framework grants discussion in legal and researchbacked expectations about proximity to typical peers, school-based access to services, maintaining program integrity and continuum [clears throat] and minimizing unnecessary transitions. So what will not change regardless of the option? I want to ensure everyone that the IEPs will be provided as they are written. We will not be changing how the services are provided on what's being provided to the students because their or reorganization is happening. Uh all services, supports, accommodations will remain. They are protected by a law. Special education staffing and related services will continue to be provided and as now the placement decision will be driven by students needs not

023by the fact that students is in a building with a program. Uh the only thing that might change for the students in terms of IEP is the placement page because some of the placement pages indicate the name of the school and that might change as a result of the reorganization process. However, there are a couple of changes that uh will happen because of the reorganization. So for sure some specialized programs may be relocated. Another thing um that might change is how staff collaborate and plan together, how space and schedules are organized and professional learning. Uh that's for staff who is support who are supporting students. But those changes are not instructional. They're structural and are designed to support students more effectively. So when special education department uh engaged in that work, our logic followed the

024logic behind each path. option four which really emphasizes continuity and uh option 5 V2 that's focused on systematic coherencedriven approach. So let's take a closer look at option four. This option largely keeps the current structure in place and prioritizes continuity and minimizing short-term change. So what that means for students is that many of them will remain in familiar program communities. Existing peer groups and routines are preserved for many children. Special education services are planned and delivered mainly at the individual school level and the biggest change in that program uh in that option is that connections program will be moving to boardwalk. We recognize that many staff members and [snorts] families have a deep and personal investment in the success of the program. I want to also recognize the meaningful relationships that the staff have built

025with students and families over time. The care, expertise and dedication that staff brings to this works are fundamental to student success and we understand that those recommendations may bring concerns or questions. students learning profiles as well as reducing transition for prek students were taken into consideration were deciding on the location. In addition, long-term vision for special education department is to have a continuity of programming. So in long-term connections pathways is uh intended to be also in one building. Option 5 V2 uses the reorganization to intentionally align programs. This option prioritizes long-term consistency, equity, and alignment across the district. So, what that means, specialized programs are grouped together in the same building to create hubs. Think about hubs as centers for students with similar needs. Those students are served along peers with similar profiles. Staff with

026specialized expertise work more closely together. That also allows special education staff to really specialize and become experts in curriculum. Larger peer groups will support inclusion, belonging, and social emotional growth. Better connections and pathways will be colllocated to support autism and social pragmatic needs and compass and lab would be aligned to strengthen therapeutic and language based supports. The new step program would be located alongside the case out of district program to classroom to strengthen continuity. Both options I just want to make clear path one and path two meet all legal requirements. They protect program quality and maintain student services and supports. So in summary, option four prioritizes continuity and minimizing short-term change, while option 5v2 prioritizes long-term coherence, consistency, and equity through intern intentional system design. The district is committed to making transitions as smooth as

027possible. Especially, we recognize that there are students who will require significant support throughout the process. We recognize that there are students who have significant learning, communication or behavioral needs, who experience high anxiety around change, who rely on predictability and routine. So those students will be prioritized to address their needs by the special education department and we've already started that work by engaging in conversation so with uh the programs staff uh to identify those students and I want to be clear I'm not just thinking about students who are in specialized programs there are students who are receiving services through learning centers and also have high needs who will be needed needing extra support throughout that time. And some of the supports uh that we are started started already planning for include individualized transition planning and IEP

028teams will be involved to provide a high level of planning for those students. We are uh going to organize advanced visits to classrooms or schools. Once that's identified, visual supports and social stories will be uh created and ongoing monitoring and family communications. We throughout this process, we want to make sure that the parents are active members and engaged of everything and anything that we're planning for their children. The district is committed to listening to families, protecting continuity for students, and building strong inclusive school communities. And we recognize that change can feel hard, especially for students who struggle with resilience. So we are approaching this work with care, transparency, and intention. The AB forward wellness working group is actively developing tools and strategies to support transitions and those were posted on the website as well as

029I share them uh on parent square with the parents today and we truly recognize the change that affects people differently and that staff well-being matters. As we move forward, I want to emphasize uh that reorganization is not simply a structural or operational decision that it is a human process that directly affects everyone, students, families, staff, and the community. Our responsibility as a district is to ensure that this process is approached with care, clarity, and intention for student for students who receive special education services. Our commitment is to continuity, inclusion, and individualized support for families to continue to be engaged as partners. For staff, we acknowledge that supporting students well requires supporting adults who serve them. Ultimately, regardless of the reorganization model that's selected, the special education department is committed to ensuring that students are supported

030academically, socially, and emotionally, families are engaged, and staff are equipped and supported to do their best work. Thank you. >> Thank you both. We really appreciate the hard work you've done to put this together and especially just recognizing the timeline that we had and that there was a large holiday in the middle. Um you've really done a great job of responding to our questions. Thank you. So team, here's the plan. Let's do a lap of just one question. No comments right now. We're going to have time to to talk later. Um and then we'll shift to our 75 minutes um of the lifting listening session and then it comes back to us. we will take the time that we need to follow up with questions to have conversation. Is that okay? >> Can we just

031remind people there's an overflow room? >> Yes, actually. So, um I can see there are a couple of seats that are still available and we also have an overflow room up in room 23. So, that's up the ramp. Um and just pretty much straight up the stairs and you're going to walk right into it. Um and this is being broadcast up there. Uh, and then when it's time for um comment, you can come down, but there are also seats up there as well. Um, can you raise a hand if you have an empty seat next to you, please? >> Okay, so there are a fair amount of seats that we uh we can also help people find their way to. Awesome. Thank you for that. Okay, would somebody like to lead off with questions? Lisa,

032we'll start down here. Thank you both for the presentations and I think it um gives us a lot of comfort and solace having both of your dedication and expertise um behind any changes that are made. We're so grateful for both of you. I just wanted to take a minute to direct a question to Natalia. I had the um pleasure of being able to just um to attend the virtual session last night where you provided a lot of the sim same information and in the um presentation that you just gave, you referred to some professional development around changes for staff that may have not been uh in a building with a you know program before. One of the questions that I had is specifically referring to students or general education students that were not previously in

033a building with a specific program and if there was just any plan while it's premature to ask what that plan would be, but just asking if there would be any plan just to help um students have more informed interactions. So that way we build compassion, empathy, and understanding and foster more positive peer relationships. Uh thank you Lisa for that question. I have to recognize that it's extremely important that regardless of where pro specialized programs are located that we are ensuring that uh the needs of the special education students and their diversity is recognized and appreciated by everyone. The district already engaged in conversations uh with the program. Uh it is called understanding our differences. Uh that will be supporting our uh the the whole district in terms of bringing more awareness of what the needs

034of our diverse learners are. to have ambassadors who will be able to serve as uh peer leaders uh for the students with special education needs. However, I also want to make sure that we are not just looking at special education students, the ones who need support. I w also want to recognize them and their leadership skills that we need to also focus on and build as we are building our new community. Thank you. Yen, >> thank you um both of you. I feel like Gabby's voice has a soothing effect on me. feel very calm right now. Um I have a question. So should we go with option 52 um geographic enrollment? Would the students who are placed in specific programs be sent to a specific like school or campus? They won't be affected by the

035geographic location of their homes. Right? Students who are currently in specialized programs will continue with the specialized programs. The program structure is not changing. >> No, I mean like they will go to the program where the campus is. >> Yes. >> Adam, >> thank you both for the great presentation and and memo. Um, you know, as as I was looking at this, particularly in some of the program, special education program options around option 5 v2, um, what I noticed was that we ended up having um, two fairly substantially separate programs, both STEPPP and the case program, which is already an out of district program getting placed at a building that is unfortunately substantially separate from the rest of our campus. Um, my question and and does not need to be answered now, but I think

036as we move through this process, it would be really helpful to see outside of what's already listed in the special education program guide, how opportunities for inclusion, particularly for case and this new STEP program could be incorporated in at Blanchard or what if for specifically for STEP since it's a new program for us and it's kind of outside the scope of reorganization. And I would love to have a little bit more time for us to talk about STEP and what the outcomes and inclusion opportunities are for that. But I think particularly when you have these two substantially separate programs in a building being very intentional about what those inclusion opportunities are so that families as they read through this continuum of programs can understand how their students might be incorporated. I would love to see

037something like that at a future presentation. Glenn, >> thank you for the presentation. And piggy piggybacking a little bit off of that one. So I think I saw on the graph there that pace and step were going to be at Blanchard under the model for option five. But one one thought I had is yeah, that that's the one. So, I'm just I'm not sure how often this is the case, but I'm wondering about like multiffactorial scenarios where like someone needs both intensive language support and also might need to be in STEP or something like maybe maybe there's a student that would be like I'd like to be in connections and STEP but they're in two different places or something like that. But so >> this must this was Can you just address that a little

038bit? I'm I'd like a little clarity on something like that. >> Okay. So, uh students who would be recommended for step programming, those are the students who have uh significant cognitive delays and require more of the functional life skills instruction. It doesn't mean that those students would not be then also provided with explicit instruction for example in social skills or pragmatics if they also have those needs. But if you think about why are we recommending program uh students to specialized programs is because student has a need for certain programming right. So and what is the primary need that we need that we need to address through a specialized approach. All our decisions are really guided by the least restrictive environment that we are mandated to follow. which means that we have to make sure that

039we are educating our students along the nondisabled peers to the maximum extent possible. So that's where we start and then there is the whole continuum of different supports and aids that we can provide before we end up being uh in a situation when we say that the students need cannot be supported by the general education setting or cannot be supported through non-programmatic learning center because the student has a very specific needs uh need that uh our specialized program can address and that's why I'm proposing the step program to ensure that we do have a continuum of programming. This is something that uh federal guidelines require us to do before we recommend that the student for example uh attends out of district program because we were not able to meet the needs of the student in

040one building. uh in terms of your example student who might have both needs. So for example, students in step programming would have global delays. And if you're talking about students who also have pragmatic needs or autism diagnosis, those students are very well supported through pathways program that addresses both skills skill need. >> Hi, thank you very much. It's a wonderful presentation. I I think I'm still somewhat confused about how this would work logistically. Um, if you're at Boardwalk and you need say lab or compass, does that mean you'd then be bus to that school or are these sort of central hubs and would those would those also be provided at you know would you get lab at the boardwalk campus or would they just have to move or how how how does that really work?

041I guess I'm unclear on that. Thank you. >> Yes. So uh the idea of hub is to colllocate programs that are either either have similar uh students with similar needs or complimentary needs. So if you think about the boardwalk hub that would be hub that would be uh dedicated to students who have who are on the continuum of needs on autism spectrum. Autism spectrum is a continuum and we should have a programming that reflects the continuum needs and that's why the boardwalk hub was uh uh proposed then we would have the second one which means that students who are in compass or lab would be at the uh Parker Damon hub and that would be where the program would be located which means regardless of the enrollment option. This is where uh the students would

042be uh accessing their education. >> Vicram, if I can jump in, I think I I know what your question was. Right now, if we have a student who, you know, attends Douglas and we recognize that maybe the student uh requires support through the Compass program, that student actually transfers schools over to MCT um and that becomes their school. Um so that's it. It actually is a change of school when a student enters into a program very often. Um that's a practice now. It would continue to be the practice. Um I think one of the reasons in particular knowing having talked to Natalia about this the idea of creating um an autism spectrum hub um was that students who might be have a diagnosis of autism um have a range of needs and oftent times those

043needs don't fit perfectly into just one of the programs either pathways or compass they might be somewhere in between and by being able to colllocate those programs in the same building students actually then don't need to transfer schools in order to be able to receive support and the the support can be tailored to them. >> I mean, aren't you necessarily going to have children who would say need lab and connections and step? I mean, then which building would you locate them in or or have you sort of d you know, sort of dissected this in such a way that it would optimize generally children would be in these two or these two or these two? >> Yeah, I mean I'll I'll let you know I think Natalia I think that was similar to Glenn's question

044of what happens if you know students have kind of dual diagnosis. um and and need different types of support. Um often times what happens that's a really strong conversation that takes place in the team. Um and parents are part of the team, educators are part of the team. Um and there's a lot of thought given into which of the programs might meet the primary need for the student and then what happens is the school then provides the additional supports necessary to to support the student. >> So I just fine. What if you're on the far side of Actton by Narrow Park and then you actually have to go to Blanchard? I mean, how is that going to be handled? >> Uh the same way it does now. I mean, it's actually I and I understand

045it's actually a challenge. Um and it that's what we have to do now, unfortunately, too. So, yeah, >> Liz, >> thank you. Uh my question is actually for Gabby, moving away from special education to more generalized. Um when I look at version five um option 5v2, one concern that I have is potential loss of the specialized approach which currently exists in Miriam and MCT. Um I'm sure that this is something that you have thought about and I just wondered what are some potential options that we could look at to maintain that special approach and still have that be available to our students. >> Thank you so much. >> Who was on? Correct. Now it's better. Thank you. Sorry about that. Um, the philos the philosophical approach, the instructional approach, the pedagogical approach of arts integration

046and project-based learning, which I'm going to and deeper questions about this I defer to our Miriam and McCarthy team. But what I would say to you is there is a commitment in those schools towards implementing um our core curricula in in ways that may be a little bit different, that may look a little bit differently, and it's not necessarily an everyday thing. I see projects actually across the district. I see art integration actually across the district. One of the things that excites me about this opportunity is is the idea of not to lose the excellence and the talents and the innovation of our educators but to rather spread and pollinate those ideas. Um, you know, one of the favorite parts of our job is that we can hop from school to school to school to

047school, six schools, and say, "Oh my gosh, I just had this conversation over at Conent, and you know, there's this teacher over there who's doing some really cool things about it, and I bet you should talk, you should talk to them. Do you even know who that person is?" No. Um, at the in version 52, it reduces the number of schools that were going to school to school to school. Um, and it really opens up that opportunity to cross-pollinate these these practices of excellence and to share and to ask the Miriam and honor Miriam and MCT educators specifically to say, "What are your units of study that you deeply deeply feel are most impactful for learners that utilize arts integration or project-based learning?" the commitment they've made to professional learning around these pedagogies is something

048that I would be willing to offer many educators as we continue to expand this but really to to go from strength to strength really share those practices. >> Andrew, thank you. Uh I actually have a question for both of you. I kind of dug into your your memos, got excited reading them, and I have stuff. Um so Gabby, in in looking through your memo, um you mentioned you're going from strength to strength. I think is worthwhile to think about. In reviewing the research that was conducted for us during this course of this process, it was determined that students were significantly impacted by the number of transitions made within the schools and that smaller more focused classes or sections result in better outcomes. And also with the hybrid banding option, each school would then be limited

049to about three or four years of a student's educational career. and that by shifting to a new structure of the district, all current PTOs, community groups, parent, teacher, student relationships would end and new support structures would need to be recreated. And considering all that research attests to these facts and that among your key areas are student centered, culturally affirring, affirming, traumainformed, social and emotional learning anchored instructional practices and the value of family partnerships. Um, I was wondering how how as we got to your conclusion, you were focusing on monitoring to try to understand what shifts needed to happen to be able to maintain continuity. I was curious as to how you were going to go about monitoring that, what you were looking to measure, how you were measuring it. Um, you know, and what level

050of effort would be necessary for us to maintain the continuity of the kind of soft quality of the district that we have now when we get into this new phase. And I do have a question for you tonight, but >> I think you >> you said one question for each in the memo to us. >> No, it was one question for each member, but okay. [laughter] Is that your favorite question? I'm happy to answer it. >> It was my first question. >> Okay, I'm happy to answer it. Um, thank you for your question. So I think one of the one of the benefits of the model that is remaining is that it's it's a hybrid grade banded model which means that it's not a separate school of grade K to3 students and a separate school

051separate you know physical location. So they are colllocated buildings. So I think the research really does speak to the fact that there needs to be continuity and we have built-in continuity with a colllocated structure like that. So there'll be incredible intense collaboration and meaningful connection with the K to3 and the 4 to6 principle. And similarly, and this is what gets me um really interested about options for support, there'll be very similar cohesion and collaboration between the two K to3 principles and the K to6 principle. So the opportunity for us to really look at early literacy, early numeracy for kiddos, to really narrow down um the areas of focus, to look at the developmental stages within this this model is a has a nice has a nice potential benefit to it. Um we're going to make

052either model successful and I'm incredibly hopeful of that because we are already successful and and model version option four um provides a very similar structure to what we have. But in terms of monitoring that, we would monitor it just the way that we do now. So we have common assessments that are across the six elementary schools that will be five elementary schools or three elementary schools in the future. We have common assessments. We look at achievement data. We look at social emotional learning data. We um have opportunities to engage with families and it's really incredibly important that families understand that they are the first and most important educators in their kiddos lives. Um, and so we'll continue to look at all of those data points to monitor the effectiveness of this work. And we'll never

053be there, right? I always say this this is a a a journey, not a a destination. And we will always have room to grow in this journey. But this will be we'll continue to monitor all of those markers that tell us and that give us information that students are making effective progress and becoming what we intend them to become and what they hope to become in the future. >> So so c can we can we go to Lakshmi and Leela who haven't had a chance to ask a question yet. Lakshmi. >> Hey Gabby. >> Yes. Um so not for me nothing sticks out more than the targeted what the keyword targeted right targeted approach to um kids helping kids right uh in 5v2. So I'm trying to get my head around it. We blend different

054schools, different philosophies, different styles and bring it together. Um, how at this point parents seem to feel that it helps them because it's kind of targeted for their kids style, right? But my my thinking is this will probably even expand on that. And I was wondering if you have given given thought on how to leverage the new structure in 5b2 to make targeting more should I say efficient. Yeah, I think it's I think that's a very fair question. I would say that both options provide us the opportunity for targeted support. So I don't want to and our current practices are very targeted. We try very very hard if we have a student who has a letter naming um need or a fluency need or a nonsense words need. I'm just using some some dibbble subtests

055for you all. Um if you have students who have specific areas of need, we do our very very best to try to group those students across classrooms with the same need so that we're working on the same skill. It's like it's like going to a workout class and you're working on one muscle group and you're trying to work together. But if you have a group of students with with option five and our current situation with three sections to draw from. So say it's time to intervene with a grade three group of kiddos on a specific skill with only three classrooms or sometimes two classrooms to draw from. Sometimes we can't fill that section with enough students who have that need. So to make sure that our our resources and our humans who are incredibly talented

056are most efficiently used and that we can have exposure to kiddos, sometimes we have to mix muscle groups. >> And so that just happens naturally when you do have but it's but it's the aim and the focus and the intention is for targeted work all the time. In 5v2 with more sections of kiddos across a grade level, you have an opportunity to pull from more classrooms and therefore create um more pure muscle group workouts. I guess it's a good metaphor. I haven't even actually thought of this one before, but really working on those specific skills. Um, so there is a there it does provide an opportunity for some efficiency, but I just want to be clear that targeted intervention is the is absolutely the goal in all of our programs and all of our schools

057currently and we do have an ability to make it a little bit more efficient with 5v2. >> Okay, thank you. >> Okay, my turn. [laughter] Um, Natalyia, I found it really interesting to think about um, what a STEP program might look like from an elementary perspective. Um, I think kind of the first description I heard about it was describing it as more of um, being life skills focused and involving functional academics. And tonight I heard you describe it more as gap closing. Um, and so I was kind of curious about that because um, a conversation that that has come up um, with people who are involved in some of these programs has been whether or not we're keeping students on a path to be able to graduate by 22 because all of our students who've

058got IEPs, you know, have the potential to have that extra time. And so I'm wondering how we ensure that um, we keep students options open if we are starting a program this early. um that takes them out of kind of a classical academic track. >> Thank you for the question and I understand there are differing philosophies when it comes to educating students with disabilities who have significant delays or significant needs. And what research agrees is that those students really benefit from systematic direct approach to their education. So they have certain way in which they learn uh academic skills when uh when I think about functional literacy or math direct approach works best and researchers agree to that. The second argument would be that no matter uh what the placement is, it does not dictate whether

059or not the student will graduate a high school or not with the diploma. So you do have students who are currently in step program who are on track to graduate from high school successfully. When I think about programs, I think about students needs. What is it really that the student needs to become the most independent? What is the vision for the student? What family wants for the student? And how can we best support the student and family's vision for the student to be successful? Thank you. Okay. So, Andrew, I'm going to ask because um if we do another round here, we're looking at probably another 20 minutes. Um, is this something that could maybe wait for when we get to the committee back and forth? >> I think we can hold off on it. It

060had more to do with kind of the way that the um the two paths were positioned in her thing. >> Okay. So, hold that thought and when we get to the back and forth, um, I'm hoping that you two will still be able to stay with us just in case we have further questions for you. >> But thank you so much for your presentation. >> Thank you. Okay. So, um I see we have a few more people in the room. So, next question I'm going to ask and I will also give a moment here for anybody who's up in room 23 to come down and join us. But can we see a show of hands from who's in the room now of who is hoping to speak during public comment or listening session? 1 2

0613 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 29 30 >> Yeah. Okay. So, what I'm seeing right now is I think we can still go with our 92nd plan. Um, here's what I'm going to tell you. I am about to set a timer on my phone. It is going to go off at 75 minutes. At 75 minutes, I will apologize to anybody who's still on the line. But the place that we will ask you to submit your public comment will be through our public comment form. And that's going to stay open. Like, you can continue to submit that all the way up through our next vote on the 22nd. Um, and the reason behind that is if you choose to stick around, we

062could be here for a while because we haven't had a whole lot of time to talk about this and we as a committee can only do this in a posted public meeting. So, we have to protect that time as well. Um, so what we're going to do is we have some staff members here who are going to help guide you. Don't don't jump yet. I'll tell you when to jump. [laughter] Who who will guide you in uh following the signs to form a line. And those are going to bring you up to these two microphones. Um, and we'll we'll get those all set up for you. They're wonderful new microphones. You don't have to turn them on. You can just walk up. You don't have to They've got they've got a field, so you know,

063you you don't have to like be right up on them to make them work. You don't have to touch them. Please, especially don't touch the tips. Um, you can see that we've got a timer up here and it's going to change color as you get close to your time being up. And if you're going over, I'm going to be a little bit louder this time and saying something. I understand that some of our speakers uh last time couldn't hear that I was actually telling them that their time was up. But understanding that if you go over, you are taking time from somebody else who's in line, right? So, let's just all do our best to to make that work. Um if we have a number of speakers that go over, we have a new capability

064with this microphone. We are going to ask our uh technical director here to turn the microphone off and we will go to the other microphone and they can start speaking. But let's try not to do that. Kind of like act in town meeting. You've heard our moderator comment that if you agree with a previous speaker and you don't have any new comments to add, it is totally okay to get up there and just tell us that we're good with that. And um I think I have covered pretty much everything else there. I think there are some >> Yep. Go ahead. >> One clarification. There's a button there's one button that you do have to push to talk. It's the picture of the person talking. um you you push that to talk. Please don't touch this

065portion of it. Okay, we're good. >> And then just the other comment I'll make is um all comments are welcome here. So we're not going to applaud, we're not going to boo, we're not going to hold up signs, we're not going to start the wave in the auditorium. Um please let everybody have their opportunity to say whatever it is they need to say. And you know, we all recognize that, especially for those of us with kiddos in the district, by the time we hit junior high, we're all going to school together. So, we're all one big team. We'll figure this out together. Okay. So, with that, um, Sher is standing at where the head of the line is and our we can kind of form working our way backwards. >> Yep. Up the ramp. And

066then it works its way. >> Thank you, Sher. very loud voice. >> Sher, you're doing great. And with that, you please go ahead and get ourselves lined up. All right. Thank you all for doing such a great job lining up. Um, we're go gonna go. >> Yenshin, cover your ears. >> Okay. Thank you all for doing such a great job lining up. We're gonna start over here and we will alternate microphones. >> Thank you, Tori. My name is Amanda Bailey. I'm one of the co-chairs of the ACT and Boxboro special education parent advisory council and I'm speaking in that capacity. To follow up on the presentation we just heard, we have families who are very concerned about the development of a functional or academic life skills program at the elementary level that could potentially offroad

067their children very early on in their education from a diploma track. The CPAC is tasked with working with the district on the development um advising on the development and the um establishment of these kinds of programs and we hope that there will be a commitment to working with families as we go through that process. Um shifting over to AB forward. What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right. Open enrollment has never been equitable for students with disabilities in Act and Boxboro. And you've seen me and heard me here many times say not everyone gets a choice. um even if we reframe it now is you may have a preference and you may not get that preference. The moment is now to do the hard thing and also the

068right thing. Please move to geographic enrollment if we choose option 5.2. Thank you. Thank you. >> Hi everyone. My name is Kathy Cuddy and I'm the parent of a current Conan second grader and two kids who have yet to enter the school system. One who's scheduled to start in September. I'd like to address the enrollment options under plan 5v2. Thank you to the committee for continuing to ask for parent and community feedback. I really appreciate that and the time allotted to us today. I want to talk about the argument made at the last meeting that it would somehow be positive for Conan children to enter what was described as stable environments of the undisturbed Douglas and Gate schools. This argument is unconvincing and dismissive of the very real negative impacts to exclusively distributing Conan students.

069There is a huge difference between being the new kid in an existing class and being one of many students in a new class. If Conan children are the only ones moved, they are not just changing buildings. They become the outsiders walking into preformed friend groups, established social hierarchies, and existing power dynamics. They are at both an institutional and social disadvantage on day one. That's not stability. That's walking into a room where everyone else already has a seat. I've heard Douglas and Gates parents say very sincerely that they will be incredibly welcoming and I believe that. But kids are kids. You cannot mandate belonging >> and you cannot legislate friendship. Pretending that is possible may make the adults feel better about what kind kids would be asked to do. But it does not change their social

070reality. And no, this is not about making everyone suffer because my kid is going to suffer. It's about whether any group of children needs to suffer at all. Your time is up. >> There you go. >> Oh, hi. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Joanna Frell and I'm an licensed independent clinical social worker with expertise in child and adolescent behavioral health and crisis intervention. And I'm also the parent of two fourth graders at Conan. I'm here to state my strong professional opposition to the targeted disillusion and assimilation of of Conan. If Conan students are the only ones moved, it's a forced displacement into environments like what was said before where social structures, peer groups, and dynamics are already firmly established. Um that places children at an immediate and measurable disadvantage socially,

071emotionally, and academically. I experienced this type of disruption myself growing up in conquered when students from multiple elementary schools were randomly split between two of the middle school between two middle schools. I was assigned to one school and my closest friends were assigned to the other. That abrupt loss of my peer network had a significant and lasting impact on my academic functioning, social development, and emotional well-being. This is not hypothetical harm. It is real, predictable, and preventable. From a clinical standpoint, the research is unequivocal. Involuntary school moves, especially those that separate children from established peer groups, are associated with increased anxiety, social withdrawal, 15 seconds, academic regression, and difficulty integrating into pre-existing social hierarchies. These effects are strongest when only one group of children is displaced, exactly as is still being considered. I urge the

072committee to reject this targeted plan and pursue district-wide equitable solutions that do not place a developmental burden on a single group of children. We moved to Actton 10 years ago because of the schools. Last year, our eldest son, who struggled socially and emotionally with transition, started kindergarten at Gates and settled into his new school, met new teachers and staff, made new friends, learned new routines, and learned so much new academically. Now a first grader, he couldn't wait to go back to school. He was sad the first day was only a half day. He loves his teacher, he loves his staff, he has a great group of friends, he's found his home away from home at Gates. When we talked to her son about the possibility of moving schools through tears, he asked, "What if I

073give them all my money? What if um will that be enough? What if we give all our money, even the money in the bank?" Our family has been in survival mode. Ever since our sons were born in 2019 and 2021, new parents in a pandemic, I was searching for support in a community. We were all drowning. And this is the first year it's felt like we finally have our heads above water and we found our place in the acting community at Gates. This is a generation of kids that's been impacted by co school closing. Celebrated a key milestones over Zoom and has developmental and social emotional delays as a result. Are we really going to do this to them again? Please choose option four. At minimum, don't rey or redistrict kids and staff. Please don't

074put our kids through this. Don't take away their community. Please don't make our sons start over again. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. >> I'm going to read quickly. My name is Melissa Cherish. I am a McCarthy Town mom and a former Marryiam mom. Uh, I hear and appreciate all the concerns of the Conan parents. In option four, I just want to point out that half of McCarthy Town and Marryiam students would also be sent sent out to other schools. Um, based on my children's experience, the single greatest asset in this district is our teachers and support staff. Uh, so I'm confident that students will be learning and growing regardless of the reorganization outcome. My biggest concern is the relationships our kids already have and how big a transition it feels

075to start from scratch. Um I know there's talk of considering the current fifth graders and I urge you to do that um and and place them with kids that they already know and feel comfortable with in any option. In option five, I can see the exciting potential for teachers to share their unique approaches um with teachers from other schools. But as a high school teacher my whole adult life, I also know the important impact on students of the organic collaboration between teachers who have worked together for years and developed friendships and gone through different stages of life and career together. I'm not sure how teachers would be moved around in this option, but I urge you to pay careful attention to both teacher and student placement. Um, thank you. >> 15. Thank you. >> Hi,

076I'm Julia Mayhew. I'm an act resident and my children attend Marryiam. And option four has really been mischaracterized as a merger. A true merger would not send 349 students according to the documentation provided from both Miam and McCarthy Town to be distributed across the four other schools in the district. Um on the high end about 92 of them would be going to Gates and on the low end about 33 of them would be going to Blanchard. So when you consider that two schools make up those 33 students and are split across grades one through six, how many friends or familiar peers would our students have in that new school? They would be um as a parent commented before me, the new kids at school and have to deal with all the stresses and anxieties and

077transitions and changes that would come along with that. We should not be asking just a few children to bear the brunt of this disruption coming from this reorganization and the budget problems our district's facing. Because of this, I support option 5.2 with all kids coming into a new environment together. No one has to be the new kid at school. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Lena Bodra. I'm an AB parent. I disagree wholeheartedly with distributing only a single community in any of the remaining options, whether that be option four or only Conan students in option V 5V2. I understand where Douglas and Gates parents are coming from. And if I had a student that was in a building or school that was not closing, why would I want my student to move? However, this is

078not a single community's problem. This is a district-wide problem. And we are being provided with the opportunity for systematic for a systemic reset. We should own the full extent of that systemic reset. As painful as that may be, we need to set ourselves up to do all we possibly can so that when a future tax override is needed in a year or two or five, we can look back and say honestly that we did it all when the opportunity arose. That opportunity is now. Please support geographic enrollment under option 5 v2. As mentioned in the strategic plan priority areas, let's build new intentional communities together that create a sense of belonging for every student, family, and educator. Thank you. Thank you. >> Hello, I'm Yina Abul. I'm a Conan parent who's been following this process

079for months. Last time I was here, I said option 52 with the Conan redistribution picks Conan, a majority minority community, as the target of disruption and calls it equity. That still hasn't changed. We have two options on the table in front of us. Option four could be described as the least disruptive, but minimally disruptive and systemic change are mutually exclusive concepts. So, if we're actually choosing systemic change, we need to own it. We need to go all the way. It's too late to invoke minimal disruption now because our kids are going to bear the brunt of this either once now or multiple times in installments later. Under 5v2, geographic enrollment is the only fair option. Everyone assigned by where they live and no community is singled out. The reality is open enrollment is no longer

080viable. Probably not financially and definitely not politically. The last override barely passed and we know we will need another. Thank you. Thank you. >> My name is Lindsay Antwistle and I have the privilege and honor of being a connections teacher and a Conan community member. After the release of the special education memo on Tuesday, it has become evidently clear that there has been a lot of there's been a lack of transparency during this reorganization process. It's also highly alarming listening tonight that many of you on this committee don't know how our special education uh programs function within the district and you're the ones making the decision. Until this week, our understanding at Conan was that option four, keeping the Conan community together meant exactly that, keeping the entire Conan community together. It was never communicated

081to us that connections would be moving to the Boardwalk campus regardless of the the decision. I'm angry and heartbroken for my students that you don't see them as part of the Conan community. Nor do you see how greatly this will affect them. Regardless of the option chosen, the students and connections will be impacted greatly. They're losing friendships that took hard work and to form and maintain. They're losing staff who have had years of experience working with this population, something no PD will ever be able to replace. This reorganization process feels as though it has been dishonest. We've spent time in your focus groups filling out your surveys and emailing you advocating for the needs of our students, but it all feels like it has been ignored and I have never felt less respected or less

082valued. I hope that in the future our students will be put first, that their needs will actually drive these decisions. Our hearts are heavy, but no matter what the future holds for our program, I know my colleagues and I will continue to advocate and show up for our students and their families each and every day because that is what they deserve, not this. >> Hi. Um, I'm an AB parent with children in second and fourth grade. Initially, I was in support of option four because um after learning that our building was going to close, I wanted to preserve a sense of familiarity for the Conan community, for my kids. But I've since come to see that preserving identity and stability for some schools and not for others runs counter to the values we should be

083modeling as a district. If we're truly committing to a district-wide reorganization, we shouldn't be trying to keep half of our schools exactly the same. Equity is hard. It can feel uncomfortable. But tonight, we need to center the well-being of our students and educators. How do we ensure every child and every teacher has access to the resources that they need to succeed? Creating new schools under 5v2 allows all students to benefit from the strength of this district, regardless of where they attend. Geographic assignment is the fairest way to move us forward, and it sets the stage for a solution that works for all schools, not just some. Our kids may want familiar buildings, but what they need is a unified, supportive community focused on preparing them for the future. I urge the committee to choose what

084is right, not what feels easiest. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jasmine. Darling, my niece and nephew go to Conan. My son is at MCT. My hope for our community is unity. I support version 5.2, assuming that it creates schools with similar pedagogy. Ideally, we take the best aspects of all schools and create three buildings with art integration, project-based learning, and support students in their academics with the love and care they have been receiving from their teachers. I'm strongly against an immediate redistribution of all students by geography or open lottery. Under version 5.2, all students at Parker, Damon, and Boardwalk will also experience a significant change. Each student will become one of over 120 in their grade instead of one of 60. They will be dispersed amongst a larger group of new peers. There's no need

085to disrupt all of the students in the district further than what will already occur. At MCT, the class placement each year has been very thoughtful. I believe the administration and teachers can continue a thoughtful approach to the distribution and organization of students. For example, at Parker Damon, the upcoming fourth grade class could consist of three MCT sections, two Miriam sections, and one conit section. The students could be cohorted to have a class with at least 50% of students from their previous school. Familiar faces while making new friends. With the geographic redistribution, you may have many students who see very few familiar faces based on their geographic location, while others may have a significant number of known peers. My recommendation would be to move towards a transition to geographic distribution with incoming kindergarten classes and new

086enrollment, which could then occur over the next 7 to 10 years as siblings come through or keep open enrollment. Please keep cohorts together. Please minimize disruption. Please work to a unified community. >> Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Vanessa Galadi Rhodess. I'm a McCarthy Town parent of a third grader and a kindergartener. Um, I would like to just make two points. Um, I would like to remind the school committee that the problem we face is a district-wide budget crisis. The burden of these fiscal challenges should not exclusively be placed on any one school or any one building. Um therefore as as you would see in option 52 uh excuse me 52 enrollment option three or option four. I also want to express my hope as leaders that you lead and do not fall prey

087to mob mentality. [snorts] To echo what Amanda said earlier what is popular is not always right. Especially in regards to 52 enrollment option three and option four. I urge you to support 5v2 with geographic enrollment. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Ken Young. I've got two kids at Conan. Um, and as the parent of two children at Conan, I've only recently really come to terms with the reality that our Conan school will be closing and leaving our community's future uncertain. Nobody really asked for this, but this is our current reality. And as the prior speaker mentioned, this is a district-wide problem. And given the circumstances, I support option 5v2 and specifically an enrollment process that eliminates school choice and moves to a geographic based assignment across the district. This option does not solely

088move any one school community into an already established school setting. Our main responsibility though right now really needs to be assessing how we create the conditions such that every child is supported through any transition and is able to show up each day with a feeling of inclusion and belonging. Not some children, not most children, but all children. And the truth is, our kids are watching us. They're watching us right now. And we have a tremendous opportunity to role model and put into practice what it looks like to come together and build community. I encourage us not to look at this as a zero- sum game where in order for this to be less bad or more tolerable for my family, other families have to lose something. And I refuse to accept that that's the only

089path. So let's choose an outcome that places the responsibility on all of us to move towards the future together rather than simply trying to shift the pain from one community to another. This work is called AB forward for a reason. So let's ensure that all of us and all of our ch children move forward together toward a new start and the one that is full of hope, opportunity, and potential. Thank you. >> My name is Caitlyn Norsy and I'm a third grade teacher at Conent. I'm here to share my serious concerns regarding the decision to remove the connections program from our school. Connection students are currently included in our classroom and school in our school community in ways that honor both their strengths and their needs. Conan has intentionally built a culture of inclusion where

090all students belong. Many students in the connections program face challenges developing and maintaining relationships. Yet, with years of consistent support, they formed meaningful and lasting connections with their peers and staff. Our entire student body benefits from learning in this inclusive environment. Removing the most vulnerable students from their established peer groups is deeply concerning. Um, this concern is especially significant in the current state of option 4 where the rest of Conan would remain intact while connection students are removed. I cannot imagine my students learning that most of them might stay together next year while some cannot simply because of their disabilities. This directly contradicts the values of inclusion and belonging that we teach every day. I'm also troubled by the lack of clarity around why connections could not remain with Conan if the school were to

091move to the Parker Damon building. The Kona community has not been meaningfully engaged in this decision. As someone who served on the steering committee for months, it's frustrating to see such a significant decision made without collaboration. If option four is considered, it should only move forward with plans to keep the connections program with the Kona community. If option five, version two is selected, it must be implemented in a way that is truly student centered and geographic enrollment is the only way to do that. Please keep our most vulnerable students front of mind. Thank you. Hello, my name is Abby Jaffy and I'm an AB parent with kids currently at Miriam. Option 4 does not deliver the operational efficiencies we need for long-term stability. It maintains five separate schools with distributed resources rather than creating consolidated

092structures that actually achieve financial stability. We risk having to restructure again in a few years. Beyond the financial concerns, option four concentrates significant disruption on two school communities, dissol dissolving both and redistributing hundreds of students while largely preserving others. This sends a message about whose stability matters and whose does not. Every option creates disruption, but the question is whether we make decisions that benefit the entire community long term or protect some at the expense of others. Option four asks specific communities to bear the burden so others don't have to. And this does not reflect the values that we hold consistently across our district. Whatever option is chosen, we need concrete plans for preserving researchbacked educational practices across any configuration, not just asurances that will build cultures together. I urge you all to choose an option

093that achieves genuine financial stability, distributes impact equitably, and benefits the entire community. Thank you. >> Thank you. My name is Taylor Luke and I am a third grade teacher in my sixth year at Conan school. The biggest [snorts] thing that I want to say is that there is no Conan without the connections program. Every aspect of my practice as a general education teacher is informed by that program because what it means that is what it means to be truly inclusive. in option four to claim that the Conan community would stay together while simultaneously excising the connections program makes the option not only unappealing but unacceptable. I reiterate there is no Conan without connections. It feels frankly insulting to drop this information this late in the process and to expect everyone to just accept it. As

094an educator, I feel it is my job to say something on behalf of those 28 students who make up the connections program and who are arguably the most vulnerable among us. The words equality and equity have been tossed around a lot in regard to this process. And I feel that ripping only the students in the connections program away from the rest of their peers is neither of those things. Short-term disruption still has long-term implications. To be honest, both of the remaining options make me feel sick to my stomach. And yet, a decision will have to be made. I urge you to think to truly think about the students when you are making this decision and especially our most vulnerable students. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi. Um, my name is Kate and I'm a parent

095of three elementary age kids who love their school just like every other kid in the district. Um, their lives will be shaped obviously by the choices that are made in this room. Um, I have to admit I don't know what the right thing to do is. Um, but this is an opportunity not just to make changes but to build a new future for our kids. One that continues to be centered on their social emotional well-being, potential and sense of community. At my kids's bus stop, 15 kids get on the bus spanning four different schools. Um, AB Ford is obviously a recurring topic among parents at the stop. And despite the worry and frustration, everybody just wants what's best for their kid, but change is necessary, and I'm asking that the impact of these changes be

096shared by all. Um, one suggestion is, um, a way that we could have all families go back into the lottery. um giving the most impacted families priority and first choice to give those students a chance to keep some of their similar community together or to redistribute students through a thoughtful geographic placement. Our kids are watching how adults solve hard problems right now. My kids were freaking out about this before I came to this meeting today with tears and all that. We should put aside our differences and come together to build a stronger, better future for all our kids. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Katie Puquin. I'm a mom of a fourth grader at AB Elementary. Um, and I've been following this for the past 5 months or so, and it's been a journey.

097And, um, I just wanted to thank all of you and the subcommittee for your incredible work. Um, I hear from the other people that have commented today, there's still a lot of work to do, and I appreciate each of us having the opportunity to give up to come up and have these comments. So, thank you for that. Um, I guess I just want to say that, um, I know that every parent here wants the very best for their kid. I know that I want the best for my kid, too. And I think we need to do what's right in the long run. And we don't want to be back here again doing this again. So, I'm encouraging you to take the step of retiring open enrollment and moving to a more geo-based enrollment. Um, and

098it's red, so I think I need to stop talking. [laughter] >> You're doing fine. Keep going. >> Okay. Um, sorry. Um, [laughter] and I'm nervous as usual. Um, so I guess that's all I'm going to say and thank you for your work. Um, yep. >> Thank you. Hang on a sec. Let's get this functioning. All right, we're going to keep going and I will give you more warning than 15 seconds. Go ahead. >> Excellent. Thank you. Uh, hi, my name is Tippet and I'm currently on a leave of absence from my position as a fifth grade teacher at McCarthy Town. In the interest of time, I'm just going to list my comments. Something that's gotten lost in these conversations is that the cost savings from either option come from laying off even more staff in

099our district. Whether you choose option four or 5v2, I urge you not to choose class size model C, which eliminates 11 classroom teachers and would lead to class sizes exceeding 25 students in grades 5 and six. We know that students needs have changed. Please stop telling us to do more with less. Choose model B instead. MCT has the highest percentage of low-income families, Hispanic students, and black or African-American students in our district. It's also historically been the top choice for many two mom families in the district. >> 45 seconds. >> I am in favor of dis disrupting as few students, families, and staff as possible, especially those who are members of marginalized communities already under attack in this country. Should you move forward with option 5V2, I urge you to allow next year's fifth and

100sixth graders to remain with their current cohort and assigned to a familiar teacher to the maximum extent possible. I recommend giving the upper schools two years to determine what the future will look like and provide as much stability and consistency as possible for our oldest students. The district frequently talks about making decisions based on what students need first. What's rarely named is that teachers almost always feel that we come last. >> Thank you. Hi, my name is Natasha Sagors Yonan. I'm an AB parent and I have two kids at uh Douglas. When considering the path forward, I urge you to return to one of the initial stated goals and that was of minimizing disruption. While it is true that children are resilient, fully redistributing almost 200 students is an unnecessary test of that resilience. Many

101community members have noted they changed schools frequently as a child and it was fine. I think what is left out of that statement is that it was fine because they were able to find comfort and stability in the friends, classrooms, teachers, and administrators who'd welcome them and were able to share their insights, experiences, helping them to helping to provide that calm transition. Regardless of which path forward is chosen, changes will be felt by every one of the students, teachers, and administrators. What is before you is a question of that order of magnitude, one that ranges from transition transitions for many to chaos for all. And I say chaos not because of a lack of effort or professionalism. I say chaos because of the extent of unsettling that will be experienced by our children despite the

102best efforts by our faculty and administrators. The loss of academic time that will result from the need to reaclimatize half if not more of the student populations at these campuses will have an impact that will be felt for years to come and will leave these kids in this district playing catch-up. I urge you to recognize and remember that minimizing disruption will have a positive impact for all of the children in our district. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Uh my name is Ann Dens. I'm an AB parent and I have a third grader at Douglas and a new one coming in uh next year. And I just wanted to sort of I've noticed that everybody's talking about geographic relocation and I feel like we've sort of skipped a step and we're not really talking about what

103we actually want the schools to be. we're going to have multiple buildings. If we're going to do school choice, it doesn't make a ton of sense if we're going to make everything homogeneous, but it may make sense to do it geographically. Um I I do want to say I believe um at this point we are already turning things over if we're going to go with V5 V2 um or V52. uh we're already changing build changing the buildings and to add additional change with the geographic does concern me and I do I encourage you to try to preserve some of the legacy um families and staff within the buildings that we already have. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Palvig Golicha. I'm a mother of a third grader at Gates. The current

104proposal rais serious concerns. First, they disrupt every single student stability. Children who have worked hard to build friendships and have adjusted well will face unnecessarily upheaval. Second, they create challenge for educators who will need to manage entire class of disoriented students. Third, geographic based enrollment introduces inequities and even impact property values. In towns like Sharon, homes near top school sell for anywhere between a million to 2 million and uh rest of the town medians around 950,000. Um this impacts community beyond school and not just our school students and families. Most importantly, these changes offer no additional academic or financial benefits. There are options that achieve the same financial goals without wide widespread disruptions. I respectfully oppose any plan requiring a full reauthor reassignment. instead keep current students in their schools, exhaust less disruptive options like

105weight list and volunteers and offer choices to um the unfortunate displaced families. Over 800 community members have signed a petition in solidarity. Student stability and educator readiness must remain our top priority. Thank you. Thank you. >> Uh hi, my name is Lynch and I'm Jay's father. Uh I want to respectfully but clearly object to any approach that redistribute the currently enrolled elementary students to in order to transition to a new enrollment model no matter it's continue open enrollment or a new lottery or geographic based assignment because changing environment model system may be necessary going forward but moving the students who are already placed will create disruptions immediately far beyond what's required to implement AB forward for current students reassignment means immediate instability uncertain for families changing to daily routines and transportation and so on so

106on in our family simply discussing of possibly changing our daughter might have to leave her school classmates and teachers cause her to cry right away I'm confident that reaction is not unique to us because there are about 786 people who already express same thing on on the Google form already we signed many many children across across the district depend on consistency of their current environment and many families have built childare and different thing around their exist existing placement. If the district is moving towards a different enrollment system, the most reasonable and least disruptive path is to grandfather currently enrolled students where feasible and and apply any new assignments model only to the incoming students starting from kindergarten. And so I urge the community to make that principle explicit protect continuity for current students and implement

107any new enrollment model in for the future students. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Andrea Drowis. Under each of the remaining options, there will be disruption. Your job is to decide how many and which students will be disrupted. And what you're doing there is making a value judgment. You are imposing the values of which students and how many. Right now, for the first time this week, we learned that option four, as previously explained, is inaccurate. If McI and Miriam are merged together, Conan does not occupy the space. Part of Conan occupies the space. The connections program will be in the boardwalk building. Conan is connections. Connections is Conan. So what this does, it takes children on the spectrum who are inherently biologically uh have difficulties forming social relationships

108and ripping them apart from all of their social relationships. This targets disproportion this disproportionately targets children with a disability. That is not a value that you want to impose on this community. How do you support these children? What you can do is create new communities. What you cannot do is expect autistic children who again are biologically challenged in creating new friendships breaking into established social hierarchies. With respect to disruption, I implore you to reject the no disruption. I implore you to urge everyone to have minimal disruption for the greater good of the community. It is for the benefit of the students. >> Thank you. >> Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Uh I'm father of a corner student. uh uh I would like to uh uh uh emphasize uh that in any scenario it is

109important to ensure that no single community beers a disproportionate share of disruption. Distributing individual students into multiple established schools can create emotional and academic challenges uh particularly for younger learners and students who rely on pure continuity. If this reorg moves forward in a way that intermixes students, then students for from all schools should be intermixed so that experience is shared equitably rather than creating a uniquely difficult experience for students from only one school community. Uh I recognize that geographic assignment will also impact students in existing schools but uh it is important uh that we provide all students equal opportunity and a shared responsibility for a change. For this reason, I support option 5 V2 uh with geographic assignment along with an intentional approach to create classrooms that include a mix of students from different schools

110ensuring children from all schools have an equal opportunity and experience. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hello. Uh my name is Aronazi. I'm a father of two kids in Kan in MCI. I'm hearing too many people here. Um, I think whatever you choose and it sounds very likely that you'll choose 52, enrollment is going to be a major question and you're not going to make a decision that will make everyone happy. Whatever you choose about the enrollment policy, you'll have a lot of people angry after that. I think the only solution to that is to actually put this to vote to the community the same way you did with the 13 programs. So, what I'm asking you to do is to have an option for the community to choose which enrollment uh policy to go

111with. Maybe narrow it to two options to make this more feasible. Don't wait until January 22nd. Do it tomorrow so people have enough time to vote. This way people would have to accept whatever is chosen because this is a choice of the community itself. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Axit. I'm a coent parent. I uh I'm here to strongly support option 5 V2 with geographic assignment. Option 5 V2 should use geographic assignment to ensure quality equity for all students not just Conent families. Moving only Conent children into established Douglas and Gate schools doesn't create stability. It creates outsiders. Kids walking into pre-formed friend groups face both institutional and social disadvantages from day one. when all students start together on equal footing real community forms. About teaching methods, the district plans

112to wait until winter 2027 to define teaching approaches. But why the delay? The reorganization is a chance to implement one proven model now. Geographic distribution lets us build that unified culture from day one and ensuring every student gets the same excellent education no matter which school they're in. This is about building something better together. Let's not waste this opportunity by preserving old systems. Let's use this moment to build the foundation for schools that excel year over year. So I urge to choose uh option 52. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hello Kevin Gagnen. Um I've got a kid in Miriam kid coming into the district uh next year. Um I I'm struggling with the understanding of what the geographic distribution actually looks like. um seen one map I think and Actton is not a geographically

113distributed town right we have neighborhoods that have very different socioeconomic statuses we have ownership we have lack of ownership and given the rushed nature of every other data analytic that's happened in this process and what I would consider to be significant failure in those data analyses I don't trust that you've made that decision very well that those lines are drawn in a equitable way or even a really thoughtful way. Um, so I'd like to hear commentary on that because the reality is this group of people was not put into this position by people who knew this was a decision that was going to be made, right? And none of you will own the accountability of this decision long term. The kids in this district are going to have to own whatever this decision is. So

114find an opportunity to take the time to actually make this right. If you want to choose a ge geographic enrollment model, >> I actually echo what was said earlier. Make this a lottery for everyone who's in the system right now and transition into a geographic model once one that actually works for the weird geography of Actton where our schools are exists. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Uh thank you for the opportunity um Conan parent and um I think what I wanted to comment on was the open open enrollment choice based option which has caused so much division in the community online and offline. It's been really painful to see and um through all the talks that I've had within the opponent parents Miriam and Mccerti all the parents I see that the best option going

115forward which is stable equitable and will provide us more opportunities to improve upon is only geographic based you know uh distributing the kids that way because that way you'll have exchange of cultures between different families coming from different parts of the countries you will have exchange of you know uh ways of methodologies of learning coming from Miriam Makerti or any other schools and I think that will provide us more um uh more ways for our kids to learn and adapt and grow uh in the future. So my as I mean as a parent of conant I'm very sad that it's going away. I'm also sad for Miriam and McCarthy and all the other uh schools. But I think the hard thing to a right thing to do is take the hard decisions right now. >>

11615 seconds >> and make sure that our community is set for success and for the kids as well. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Kavia. I'm 15 years old and I'm a freshman at the high school and I go to I used to go to Kon and my brother went to Conan and I just want to talk about how as much as I'm really sad to see any of the schools go if we are going to change this then we all have to change because I was in gold in 8th grade and that was the team that had one less um adult and that made it harder for us and we instead of like in the um like we would get mocked for like not having enough and that's really mean.

117Like we have bigger problems and when you go into a school, people like will categorize you by what which school uh elementary school you went to, which is unfair. We don't need to think about that. High school was and middle school are just such big jumps and it's not fair that like one school gets changed and none of the others do. Um, I just want to like express that geography helps because I have friends who go to other districts and they don't have this competition between schools. It's like only this place because if we're going to change like we can't affect one tiny population because I went through that. I know people who have went through that. It's just not fair at all. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Kalpna Vishnadan

118and she's my daughter. Um, I didn't coach her. I just wanted to let you know um and she wanted to come and hear what's out there. Um I also have a son who is currently a fifth grader at Conand. Um I would have loved for him to graduate from Conan. But given that and I also heard that sixth grade is going to be affected the most in this transition. But that's fine because if he had been in a different district, he would have been going to middle school by now and he would have had the challenges. But I wanted to echo the challenges that my daughter has faced where you know you are singled out because you are from a a different elementary school and if you don't end up in a cohort where you

119are you have other friends in the same cohort then you have a very tough time and I think middle schoolers should not be dealing with that in addition to you know a lot of other changes that they are going through and I feel like the school choice or open enrollment has led to bitterness and competition unnecessary competition and I think the kids should not be at least middle schoolers and beyond on where they all congregate at the same location. They should not be going through this. Uh in addition to the other challenges, they have to be worried about the education, you know, making new friends and such things like that. Um so, you know, kids already have to absorb a lot and adjust to the transition to middle school. Um I think the public school

120system is for equitable purposes, right? So, we don't want uh uh other challenges being done. Um I as noted we don't want to distribute uh disperse or uh whatever I'm not able to speak today disrupt other families but I think geographic based uh thing is the best way to go because um you know >> sorry who can speak today. >> Uh hi my name is Susie Tommpkins and I'm a citizen of Actton. Um, Actton Boxboro is a small community and everyone in this room is friends and neighbors with families at children at Miam McTates, RJ Gray, and the high school with the uncert I'm I had prepared remarks and I'm just not even going to do it. We are all here because we care so much. Everyone here is in tears. We care so much.

121We are the people who are building our district going forward. We do not know what is going to be decided. We do not know what version it's going to look like. But we are the people who are going to weather the transition with our kids to set the stage for the future of the district. We are the parents ushering in the first grade kids. Sorry, I'm shaking. So, I hope this comes off in the right way and acknowledges all the beautiful prepared remarks that people made because they were very thoughtful and I appreciate everyone who is focused on moving forward. This is AB Forward. [sighs] Miam Elementary has a night out planned at Sanctuary on February 12th. Our very talented principal is in a band which will be performing. It was a night out for

122our school. We will be extending the invitation to the entire district and we hope that all parents can come and join together in an organic conversation about our future together because we will all be in different communities together moving forward. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Okay. Okay. Thanks. Hi, I'm Sisha Kandela. Uh I have a kid in elementary uh fourth grade conant and a kid in RJ Gray. Thanks to Kavi. I really appreciated her taking time from a busy schedule. We should just listen to kids. They know the best. Um I in my mind the choice is clearly between targeted disruption which is both option four and 52 just distributing conent kids and the other option is systemic reset either open enrollment or geographical alignment right so though it is hard I I really urge

123the parents and school committee here please use this opportunity to do do the right thing for the town future right um I'm truly hoping that in 5e2 the two new schools will be more alike than different and it shouldn't matter which school kids get assigned. The 52 systemic reset with geographical uh assignment that seems to be the most sustainable equitable way to organize the new schools. Um open enrollment made sense when schools had different teaching styles and cultures but we pay the price too in um transportation overhead. So, um I'm truly hoping um again that the two new schools will be more alike than different and we use this opportunity to future proof our schools that we're not having the same conversation few years down the lake again. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Barat

124parent of a conant fourth grader. >> Um it's a difficult situation to opt a choice among none none I prefer. Um however since we have reached this point it is an opportunity to restructure the school system to a uniform schooling philosophy while ensuring no specific student group or community feel solely targeted. I believe option 5v2 with geographical assignment will be the right step in creating a uniform format and culture across the district. The committee can build a renewed educational model including positives from the current individual schools to benefit all the students of the town. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, my name is Colin Jackson. I'm the parent of two elementary school kids. Um, I want to thank you all for the care and deliberation you've put into this and for really quickly narrowing down

125the options that are under consideration so we can focus on them. As context for my comment, I would like to put forward that the way the initial options were presented that many models singled out two specific schools as the ones at risk for closure created an unfortunate us versus them dynamic. Rather than allowing this difficult change to bring us together as a district, it felt at times that it actually fractured us into six competing factions. It is hard to come together after being told by another parent that they do not care what happens to my child as long as theirs is not affected. At this point, the only path forward that can begin to heal the divisions created by this process is choosing option 5v2. and when aortioning students to the new banded schools to

126be thoughtful about how it builds community at a district level rather than at the schools individually. Removing the affiliation with specific elementary schools will allow parents to move away from what I'm hearing which is the how can I avoid disruption to my child by forcing it onto other families and focus on how we can come together as a district in order not to just survive this transition but to use it to make our district better for all of us. Thank you. >> The discussion we're having tonight boils down to two questions. What level of disruption is acceptable and who should bear it? As a MCT parent whose school will close next year, regardless of the option chosen, I feel that increasing the scope of disruption and inflicting that pain across the entire district is not

127more fair. Even if it's logistically easier, it will unnecessarily strain support systems that will need to provide assistance to what would amount to a larger population. We need a way forward that minimizes long-term disruption and provides adequate support, both stated goals of AB forward. It is through that lens that I ask the committee to choose option 5v2 and soundly reject the idea of a geographic reallocation of existing students. Option 52 disrupts fewer students than option four. More children will remain in familiar spaces that they have come to know and depend upon. More parents will retain a level of continuity for their families who have painstakingly configured their entire lives around their current situations, work schedules, home routines, transportation, after school care. Similar uh similarly, excuse me, geographic re reallocation for existing students provides a far

128higher level of negative impact that disrupts entirely too many people. However, that option should and can remain open for new students while uh still keeping sibling pairings and special education considerations in place. Thank you. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Shauna. I'm a parent of a Douglas kid. I advocate for limiting disruption and displacement along with over 750 people who have signed a petition for this. At this point, I support option four. That said, my request now is that a lot more information is pulled together and shared and quickly. I'm alarmed at the lack of data that has been shared thus far, which has caused discussion about this to be based on opinion and feelings more than anything else. This is not the right way to make decisions like this. We are talking about

129how we want to do what's best for students while also balancing a budget, but there's a real lack of transparency around what both of these things truly mean. What I've heard so far is how 5v2 is easier for adults and administrators to manage in some ways, but I really haven't heard how it's better for the kids. So, here's the information we need. Pros and cons of K through 6 versus banded schools. What are the risks and benefits to student outcomes and emotional social well-being? Two, in regards to open enrollment, what are the pros and cons of it versus other options? It's hard for me to wrap my head around how we're viewing something that brings diversity of thought to our community as a bad thing. As someone said earlier, just because it's hard doesn't mean

130it's wrong. We also need a lot more information about the plan to revision schools in option 5v2. I'm alarmed by the current plan, which is to launch the reorg in the fall before revisioning happens. The plan at current risks anxiety resistance, poor outcomes, and overall community unrest. Lastly, I want to say it's often said that children are so resilient and therefore we don't need to worry as much about the impact of change on them. I would urge us to consider that children often have less ability to articulate stress and anxiety. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Andrea Blades. Um my my kids go to Douglas. Um I appreciate the work that has gone in to everything that you guys have done and I've read every document. Um I'm I'm not opposed to change. Um

131I I am opposed to not representing um an you know an embracing of all change at once in a chaotic way as being opposed to change which I think has happened quite a bit. Um I think that uh I'm deeply dismayed by how the focus of the process has shift has shifted where it started as a crisis that we all needed to come together and it shifted into every idea that we've had many of which sound wonderful but are all being implemented incredibly quickly. As an operator, as an executive, I would never take an approach like this for an organization. Too much change doesn't go well. I don't want that for my kids. None of us want that for our kids. And while it makes us feel better to say that we can all come

132together in practice, I don't know how that works. I think that it goes badly. I've looked at how Franklin implemented, which is where you came from, superintendent. They took 3 to four years to implement the kind of change that we're talking about doing in 3 to four months. This is not a wise approach. There are nearly 800 people that do not agree on much, but do agree on one thing that have signed a position petition. massive disruption, reauation, however you approach it. It's not good for our kids. Thank you. Hi. Uh my name is Renee Coburn and my kids go to Marryiam Elementary School. Um I'm speaking to you tonight as leaders of our school district and want to acknowledge that you likely also wear multiple hats. This process has been emotional and taxing and

133all the feelings articulated in this room tonight are valid. However, you have a responsibility as district leaders to make decisions that are strategic and sustainable and result in the long-term health of our district. As illustrated in tonight's presentation, option 4's primary benefit is that it minimizes disruption, while option 5 V2 provides a strategic, equitable, and sustainable path forward for our district. The challenge AB Forward was put in place to solve is a districtwide problem, not an individual school problem. And I ask you to remain laser focused on that decision. that will support all students in the district. Option five, version two with a thoughtful, equitable, and um strategic geographic enrollment plan. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Uh I'm Vishal. Uh I'm I'm a AB community parent. uh as we are approaching the last

134stretch of this process uh I would like to reiterate that the primary reason for district reorganization is not the cost of maintenance of the Conan building as some of the members of the community are still thinking if you go back and look at all the documentation that has been shared by the committee that's just 1% of the total district's budget so just wanted to put it out there to clear all the confusion in the community um moving on all along we have been saying that option 5v2 is is a progressive systematic reset. It cannot be a systematic reset if it's implemented in a way that does not uh align with the same ideology. So if we go with implementation plan uh that is other than geographic distribution it's going to bring us back to the

135square one where we were a few months ago and uh and took all this time that people have spent uh to to you know do all this effort and uh research and come back with options that really make district financially sustainable for the foreseeable future. So uh I I really urge the district or you guys to really consider geographic distribution based approach that will allow us to rebuild the community from the scratch and will allow us to bring all the uh strength from every school together to make a district that that is successful. Thank you. >> Thank you. As a heads up, we have about 21 minutes remaining in our comment period. Go ahead. >> Hello, I'm Martin. >> Sorry. Sorry about that. It was already Okay. Hello, I'm Michelle Horitz Martin. I am first

136and foremost an AB parent. I have a first grader at Conan and a three-year-old for the past decade. Ever since I moved to this town and heard about open enrollment, I've been a huge supporter. However, with this reorg, open enrollment clearly does not work. Whether it ever worked is a question that's a that for for another time, but right now we're dealing with what whether open enrollment is going to is going to work now and moving forward. We simply can no longer afford it without placing hundreds of students at a distinct disadvantage, forcing them into environments that are the wrong fit for them. That defeats the very purpose of open enrollment. And that would be the result of both 5v2 without geographic distribution and of option four, particularly with the connections program moved out of

137Conan. This is not about saying if I break my arm, you need to break yours too. It's about shared compromise so that no one is forced to sacrifice everything. 5B2 with geographic distribution gives us the opportunity to move forward together as a district so that we are not facing the same crisis next year or five years from now. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Pandian AB parent. I would like to join forces with several other parents here calling for uh selecting option 5e2 with a geographical reenrollment. This is the only plan that would give us long-term fiscal stability, fairness across neighborhoods, and a path to unify our schools. It ends the harmful competition that has been created in the past few months. It provides predictable access to all families and also to design new

138schools that can be blend best practices from all the existing schools. Uh, choose the right option and not the easy one and choose the fair option that unites our community and please don't create further divisions. We we are already too deep in it. So this is the time is ripe to take the right decision. Right now Conan families are actually calling to move forward together and build new schools that are stronger. This isn't an eye for an eye and this is not for calling widespread disruption because we get impacted. This is a a district-wide problem and needs a district-wide solution. That I for an I was called out even in this group last week and that was very insensitive to do that because this is not a Conan problem. What is actually selfish is folks

139banding together to shove off the financial burden of the entire district on 400 conent so that your families can walk away untouched. Very thoughtful. >> Thank you. >> Um hi, my name Alexa and uh I'd like to thank you for your work. I'm sure you will make the best uh most informed decision for all of us. Um I'm here to support option uh four and ask you to minimize the changes. We have district with schools like gates that is number eight in Massachusetts and corner number 33. Closing them could significantly impact not only students but also property values across the town. Uh please minimize the distribution and preserve one of the best um school districts in in the state. Uh please vote option four. Um I know many here support geographical school assignment. I I

140think that's uh that's not such a good idea. Imagine in four years you have two schools and one of them much better than another one. That basically will cause um town two towns with two different sets of property values because the property values will depend on what kind of school you have. Uh if you pick option five, redistribute with all kids but keep lottery in place to preserve existing brand, you know, property values across the across the >> 15 seconds. >> Thank you. >> My name is Jody Brownberg and I live in Actton and have three children in the AB schools. People have pointed to a petition that several hundred people have signed as evidence of what should happen next. But the petition just underscores what you already know. Our community is divided on this

141issue. They may continue to be whatever the result. That's up to all of us community members and our ability to model a growth mindset and flexible thinking. Something my kids learned and are learning at MCT and I know their friends at Conan and other elementary schools are learning too. Your job is to make the decision that is best for the district overall. and that is 5v2 with geographic enrollment with close attention paid to existing relationships among students, faculty, and staff. The district currently does have a version of this in the transition from elementary schools to R.J. Gray. The AB professional leadership team have told you this in many different ways that 5B2 is the right option moving forward. It allows the district to align student supports and special education programs that it can't otherwise do.

142Make the right decision and set the district up for success going forward. It will be hard and many of us will be with you and those that aren't currently maybe eventually. Move forward with 5B2, the plan that gives the district the best chance at maintaining the high quality of an AP education. Lastly, I want to thank the superintendent and the rest of the district team that has been working tirelessly. I trust you and I'm grateful for the way that you have shown up in this process. And I want to thank all of you, school committee, and all of you who showed up tonight. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Um, my name is Nicole Jorgensson. Uh, I have a son at MCT and a daughter who's in the Carol Hubin program currently. Um, I would like

143to voice my support of 52. And honestly, when I came here, I was uh opposed to reinrollment and now I am a little bit in more of a gray area. I think one of the questions that I have is if we have considered the limited resources that we have in terms of counselors and other support staff to navigate a huge disruption across the entire elementary school population. And I wonder if those resources could be better targeted if a smaller number of students is or manages a bigger disruption. And I know that that's not an ideal solution for anybody, but I do wonder if that has been considered when we um talk about disrupting everybody um in terms of their physical space at least. Um I know that you are not answering questions right now, but

144I am hoping that maybe some of these can be talked through. Um, it's unclear to me if both the model for reorganization and enrollment is going to be voted on in the next committee meeting or just the reorganization model and enrollment will um continue to be discussed. And if geographic um enrollment is decided on um >> I hope that there is a lot of time and thought put into that. I used to teach in a district where um people did move to certain areas of town and not others because of schools and I would hate to see that happen here. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Amanda Toby. I'm an a parent of two elementary age students and I will take the chair's advice and say I agree with uh option 5b2 geographical redistribution. Ditto ditto

145ditto ditto. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Um, I'm Adi Romesh and I have a kindergartener in Conan and I'm trying to meaningfully evaluate and digest the remaining AB forward reorg options based not only on logistics and fiscal stability but also on the educational structure our children will experience over the coming years. Um, during today's meeting I appreciated the acknowledgement that teaching ideology and instructional approach will be considered as a part of any reorg. However, based on the materials that have been publicly shared so far, there is still no clear information available to families about how instructional models across schools will be aligned or organized under either remaining option. Each elementary school currently has its own instructional culture and pedagogical emphasis, particularly in the early grades. For parents, these differences matter greatly. At this time,

146families are being asked to weigh significant structural changes without sufficient clarity on questions such as what instructional framework will guide reorganized schools? How will differences in teaching approaches be aligned or standardized? What supports will be in place to ensure continuity of learning for students who may transition schools. simply stating that teaching ideology will be looked at or um does not yet provide parents with enough information to understand how our children's day-to-day learning experience will be affected. From a family perspective, educational structure and instructional consistency are just as important as physical placement. As the district moves forward to a final decision, I urge the school committee to provide clearer publicly available information about the educational model that will underpin any reorg. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Shrea Natu. I am act resident and a parent of

147two elementary school students at Conand. I understand the district has stated that equity is a guiding principle in this process. However, the proposed plan is not equitable for Conan students because both my children ask me why Conan, why my school? And having being able to explain to them a very fair reasonable explanation is difficult because this pro proposal is not equitable for Conan student. Closing their school would force students to lose their building, separate them from their peers and disrupt their academic and social stability. It's almost indirectly forcing them to the insecurities of and disrup causing more disruption both in academics and social stability. Also, this does not reflect the fairness that we are talking about and closing one of the district's high performing schools also might send a negative message at the state level

148and may harm the district's long-term reputation. Also in today's presentation, we do not see any clear evidence or any supporting evidence on how this either of the options is going to help district savings or any financial benefits are going to help students feel more secure or motivated. So I respectfully urge the school committee to make judicious decision where we should be able to explain our kids not why Conan but why why as a school district. >> Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my [clears throat] name is Jacob Mcrenle. I have a new student at uh kindergarten and we'll have two more going through AB. Um you have an incredibly hard decision between either of these and and not everybody's going to be happy. But what I wanted to address more was that this all could have

149been avoided. This is not a news new problem that the district has just learned about. My understanding is that this has been persisting for some time and that unfortunately this committee and this community has punted this down the road. uh each time and that is concerning where we are now being as all these parents have expressed to you at other meetings that I've attended uh that this is not clear what is going to happen. You cannot articulate exactly how each approach will benefit uh the school long term and it's not clear from a financial aspect uh approach that this is actually going to fix the long-term problems in either both preser uh present some cost savings that are pretty similar to one another. Uh my concern is whatever your decision is it needs to be

150a decision that is going to be sustainable long term. This cannot happen again. It is troubling to say the least that this committee didn't prioritize this years ago when they knew it could have been prevented and chose to punt it down the road so that new generations of students have to deal with this. Whatever you choose, it has to be sustainable as it is clear to this community, you cannot put this community and its children and its teachers through this again. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, my name is Leia Risyner. I'm a AB parent with two kids in the um at Blanchard. And first of all, I just want to thank you all for all of your time and effort. And I do not envy you this decision. Um, as you are

151making the decision about the the model and the enrollment, what I would just um ask is to think a little bit more in more concrete terms about disruption. I'm hearing it spoken about in abstract terms but sort of broken down into those types that loss those the loss of building the loss of school and the loss of cohort. And it would be my I mean for any kid that they're not going to lose all three of those. And so any intentionality that can be done or had in in bringing kids together with people that they know whether it's teachers or at least some small peer groups I think would go such a long way. Um, and some of these options, uh, because they're just across the board, some of those, um, there are options where

152I think kids would be in a new school, in a new building, and and with no not uh, faces around. So, um, thank you in advance, and uh, I wish you luck. >> Thank you. >> Uh, do you want to restart my time? Okay. Um, my name is Heather Sheen. I have a um a Douglas kindergartener and um a student RJ Gray as well. Um someone mentioned earlier this evening that we are um here because of circumstance and not choice. Um agreed. Um so but when you're dealt with a less than desirable circumstance, you then have choices. Um how to move forward, what matters most. So, I urge the committee to choose less upheaval, choose stability, choose peer relationships that are familiar and in place, choose our kids social emotional well-being. We can also not

153expect our teachers to once again have to pivot and adapt and to carry the burden of a crazy timeline to get an entirely new educational model for this district off the ground in 5 months. And you also will simultaneously ask of them to support an entire class going through a major life disruption. It's it's insane. It's impossible. And we're also cutting budgets. So, how are you also increasing the support for these students? Approximately 750 members and counting of this community have signed a petition to minimize disruption, opposing a lottery, keeping kids where they are to the greatest extent possible. Um, I also want to mention quickly, we keep discussing doing the right thing and making the hard decisions now with the future in mind. And yet, you have not identified the costs associated with these

154options. This is too much change without data for this to be a a success. Thank you. >> Sorry. Hi, I'm Joanna. I'm a Marian parent. Um, I like many people tonight do agree that 52 is probably the most equitable. Um, I do have concerns about the geographic redistribution and I would just urge the committee to think outside the box and perhaps adopt some sort of hybrid solution and start geographic redistribution perhaps next year and do a one-time reau to preserve social circles to the greatest extent possible and kind of just level the playing field for everyone. Um I I know that care would be taken to attempt to preserve uh communities uh for our kids, but it is difficult to do that um with geographic distribution. Like for example, we could have um walked to

155the boardwalk campus. We chose Miam for its model and many of my son's friends are within walking distance of Parker. Almost all of them are within walking distance of Parker Demon. So even if you attempt to maintain social circles, he's definitely going to boardwalk and his friends are probably not. Um so I would just um hope that um the redistribution piece is thought of very thoughtfully and um think about those different dynamics and situations that could arise. And I think a onetime reau I know no one trending away from the school choice model which I understand and I do think 5v2 is more equitable but a one-time reau would I think solve the problem. >> Thank you. >> Hi. So I'm here as a parent. Um I'm here as a business consultant and I'm here

156as a um as a taxpayer. Um, I've been following this as it's evolved over time and I'm I'm struggling to sort of understand how we got here, but basically, you know, from a community standpoint, the district is in a budget crisis right now. And the solutions that we are entertaining, as many of you have reiterated, do not solve our budget problem. We don't have a building problem. We don't have an imminent reorder problem. And yet, we're trying to solve it with this. Um the timeline is rushed. Doing this in a very short period of time, the probability of that going well is very low. The reorg has many negative outcomes socially, staffwise on education um in a for a solution that again doesn't solve our budget problem. So um not to mention the increase in

157class size and just the disruption overall for everyone. um to only end up back here again with overrides with the same problem. So in in closing, I think one of the things that we can do is we could slow this timeline. Frankly, there is no reason this decision needs to be made in two weeks. We can make it well. We can make it with details. We're all trying to make choices with no information. and we can make it so that we can actually save money, have something sustainable, and have a great school district in one of the best towns in this area. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, I am showing a whopping three minutes. Anybody else want to come up here and uh give us some thoughts? Okay, nice job, everybody. I

158want to just appreciate all of you for coming and doing this. It's hard to get up in front of a microphone and talk about this stuff, especially when I think we've all acknowledged just just how tense things are in our community. Um, you know, I think there's a really there there are two themes here that that I'm hearing echoing very much in the community. On the one hand, we're looking at how do we minimize transition for our students by limiting how many children we ask to move and by concentrating change within the smallest group. And at the same time, we're also looking at how do we avoid singling out any single community and instead approach change in a way that feels shared and equitable and collective across the district. And I'm just going to acknowledge

159that these are both deeply held things. They're both very important and they are in complete tension with each other. Um there is there is no good solution here that is going to make everybody satisfied and you're going to hear us wrestle with this a lot. Um because either either way we end up figuring those things out is necessarily going to affect the other one. Um, I also want to just highlight that, you know, as this as this discussion transitions to all of us talking to each other. Um, this isn't this isn't a popular vote. It's not how many people we can get lined up behind any one thing. Um, it's a conversation about what is best for us as a district, what is going to be most sustainable, what does solve our budget problem in

160the immediate future and also sets us up for success down the way, but also and always what takes care of our students, what takes care of our educators, our families, what makes this magic that is AB and keeps us going. So, thank you everybody for sharing all of your thoughtful comments and just recognizing the the depth of care and the depth of emotion that's involved here and we really appreciate you. So, as we move now to this this discussion where the public is observing us but the discussion with is is within the group. We're talking to each other at this point. Um, this is kind of our final meeting to have a conversation and I'm just going to acknowledge that our agenda says 30 minutes. We're probably going to go over that and Adam's going

161to give me trouble about that later and that's okay. We're just we're going to take the time that we need to have this conversation. Um, and so kind of the way that I think we should be structuring this is take a minute for everybody to just give kind of their opening thoughts, whatever whatever opening thoughts it is that we have. And then we're going to start out by focusing on the question of structure. Which which option what what are the conversations we want to have about the options? And that also gives us the opportunity to ask questions that we might still have um of any of our very talented administrators who've been here helping us understand all of this. um when that kind of peters out and when we feel like we've we've exhausted that

162let's shift to having the conversation about what are we thinking about with respect to enrollment models um and then you know I suspect that we're going to find that some of this stuff is interlin we can kind of wrap ourselves back and forth and then when we've all kind of declared that we've had enough and we're getting crosseyed and we're too tired to continue go with a minute of closing comment so there are 11 of us that means when we do that we got to give ourselves like 11 minutes and oh by the way we have a bunch of stuff we have to vote after So, sound like fun. Okay. Um, Adam's going to help us out. Just kind of trying to keep our keep ourselves on track here time-wise. Um, because I mean I

163do it, too. It's easy to lose track of time. So, um, anyone want to start with some with an opening comment? All right, Lisa, we'll start down here. So, we know why we're here. Rising cost and declining enrollment. While that is a gross oversimplification, we know the resources must be used wisely and our talented staff can only be spread so thin, especially when we look at what open enrollment has done to imbalance needs across the schools in the district and with so few sections in each and balanced general classrooms in each of those schools. When touring the buildings, my group happened upon a class with all girls and one boy. Teachers have given us feedback that many general classrooms have more students with needs than others. This self- selection has resulted in disparities across the

164district and difficulty allocating staff in ways that evenly address it. 5v2 better serves all our students. Geographic distribution makes sense if we are thinking long term. We don't just move one group of students because it's easier. We think about the future. We follow the data and we build something new with each and every student in mind together. All right, who's next? Vicram. >> So, we on the school committee were elected by the current populations of Actton Boxboro and not by future parents and residents. As such, we should abide by the wishes of current residents. As our candid survey results with over 2200 entries overwhelmingly show, as does a recent poll that have been going around, which contains over 750 signatures, the people who elected us to this committee clearly do not advocate for the 100%

165disruption of option five. They overwhelmingly prefer option four, which minimizes disruption and maintains a small K through six schools for which Actton Boxboro is famous, along with our top 10 standing in the state, as well as our three blue ribbon schools. Currently, one-third of our grade schools are blue ribbon schools. Despite what some may be dismissive of, being a blue blue ribbon school is a very big deal. And if you don't believe that, you can look it up. Um, it's important to note the law of unexpected results. Large projects with few exceptions always have unintended negative unforeseen consequences, especially when they're not planned properly and forced into tight time frames. Realistically, option five, which boasts 100% disruption, would take 18 to 24 months to fully disrupt and rebuild. The next school year begins in about

1665 months. >> Vicram. >> Okay. Who's up next? [laughter] We will come around. We will talk more. We're just starting small. Who's next? >> I'll go. I I'll attempt to time myself, which was not easy. You got it right in front. >> I do. Um, you know, as I've been thinking about this, what I've really been thinking about is how did we get to this? Not the financial part, which is not just a school district issue. It is a town issue, both Actton and Boxboro. But we sat in a workshop last year around April, and we talked about what we wanted to do to make our district better and what our vision was. And our vision wasn't about solving a problem for tomorrow or for the next five or six years. We were talking about

167visioning what does the future of our district look like? Um, and you know, one of the things that we wrote was a a simple narrative, and I'm just going to pull up a little bit of it because I don't have enough time on my own. We know this process brings uncertainty. That can be scary, but we're committed to designing a sustainable, innovative structure that allows us to rise together to meet the challenges of the next 50 years. We need your voice in this conversation. We can't do this alone. Clearly, we've been getting everybody's voice. We agreed before we wanted to division something for the next 50 years. And as much as I appreciate everybody's input, the next six years can't drive what the next 50 years of our schools look like. >> Oh, nice. >>

168Yen, >> just to piggyback on Adam's comments, old world dies, newborn. >> All right, Andrew. >> So, we entered this AB forward thing to manage costs. It's important to remember that costs cut both ways. There's the cost of running the district and there's the cost to the district of how we choose to respond. As I've said before, budget's a moral document. It reflects not only what we can afford, but how we translate our values into actions. We're told that the closure will allow us to manage our upcoming budgets. And closing the school would be our solution to our current budget issue. Now, we have a community of students without a home. We've got two different versions of what we can address. One, both of which address fiscal pressure, but they do so differently. Option four

169manages costs while preserving social communities. Option five achieves efficiency through consolidation and large-scale restructuring. We haven't heard much from the students and most likely that's because we're talking to kids about adult problems. Adult problems that consequences they have to live with. It's important to remember that quality education isn't a constant. It's a result of parents and teachers and staff and friends and teams and plays and art and book buddies and festivals and recess and the day-to-day and year-to-year growth that live in our schools. We aren't just talking about buildings. We're talking about these kids entire lives. >> Bam. Nice. [laughter] >> All right. Who's up next? Glenn. >> So, I I I think it's great that we heard so much input. I took 14 pages of notes in my notebook as people were talking and

170my hand is very sore. But I I think just a couple of thoughts off the top of my head and just I I really do think that the more we can highlight that as a community we have each other's back on this I think the better like the there is a strain that I think is from a genuine hurt feeling place where some where people there is there's division there's hurt feelings I get that the more we can highlight that we're moving this forward together it's in the name I think the better with this. I really do think open enrollment it's its time has come. I think it should go away. It increases division. It highlights our differences. It makes it feel zero sum when we can't be having that mindset. I don't want us

171to be back here again in 3, four, 5 years. I think if we don't go big, we're punting and we can't punt again. I have a headshake from Liz Leela. Yeah. Um, as I was thinking about this, um, I was thinking a lot about how I've felt throughout this process. There's been a lot of data and I've certainly read everything. Um, but I think I'm holding how painful this has felt. Um, both for people in this moment, but also what they project to come in the future. Um, I also just wanted to mention that I feel particularly compelled by the people who work for this district who've reached out to us to share the impact of this process. Um, their concerns around the implication um, of these decisions for the future and their hopes for

172the opportunities that might present itself and also their concerns um, for their colleagues but also students. I can't see there's oh shoot. Um, [laughter] and um, I was really grateful to hear from a student tonight. Um, and I'm thinking about how much work needs to happen between now and, uh, next school year. Um, so I'm really excited to dig into the implications and the nuance. All right, Adam is going to hold me accountable. And I was laughing earlier be Thank you, Adam. Big thing right here. I was laughing earlier because we went to the same document. So imagine a future where our schools are designed to meet the needs of the community from our taxpayers to our students. A place where teachers feel supported, not overwhelmed, and where students thrive in the best possible learning

173environment. Picture community that celebrates its outstanding sustainable schools. What would that look like and feel like for your family, for all of us? Everything is on the table. We're taking this on because we believe in our students and our community. Our goal is to build something sustainable that will endure for decades, not just patchwork solutions for another budget cycle. Our everchanging world demands more from both our educators and our graduates. We are committed to ensuring every student has the opportunity to reach their full potential and that our educators have the resources they need to support that goal. At the same time, we recognize our community must be able to afford our schools. This isn't just about saving money. It's about being smart with the resources we have. We wrote this in April and we are

174doing this now. And so just in case you forgot, I'll pass around copies. Okay. So let's talk options. Um a little bit more free flowing. I just ask that people look back at me is so that we don't get stuck in a back and forth and you know not get around everybody. Um who wants to kick this off? Lakshmi, >> could you elaborate what what do you mean by options? >> So, we've got two two options to look at. We have option four, which >> and we've got 5v2. That's where we're at. So, let's talk about weighing those and um where we think we're leaning >> and what questions we have. >> You might want to clarify that you're not trying to talk, >> right? Yeah. So, not talking about the enrollment piece of this

175right now. just how are we structuring our schools? That does that answer your question? >> Okay, [laughter] fair enough. Liz, I guess I'll be the first one to kind of, you know, state sort of where I'm thinking at this point. Based on reading through all of the emails, getting all of the community feedback, and going through all of the data that, you know, we were provided and have made public, it feels to me like version option 5 v2 is the best compromise that we could do for the district. Andrew, >> before I talk about my personal preference, I do want to talk about the inherent bias in all the documentation we've seen. The idea of one being targeted versus one being systemic. A lot of the ways we see things have been presented to us

176has not been pure data. It's not been like this is the numbers. It's been the interpretation of it. and even down to the way that um like Natalia when you were showing the various hubs and the ways that we were going to be showing things. One was an old looking map of Massachusetts that had our space there and the other was this kind of vibrant way of showing things. I think that we've had a disservice as we've gone through this and that there's been a bias that's been placed upon this by the presentation that it's in some respects I think 52 is a very um pro administration great way to help manage the organization and I think that the excitement of being able to more clearly manage the organization has overshadowed some of the information

177that's come through to us. That's not to talk about what you folks have said. That's to talk simply about the way that this information has been been presented to us from the beginning. And Peter, I've talked with you about this in the past. As we've gone through this, we've not had a clean way of looking at all the information. And it's troubled me for a while. I had to bring it up now because I think it's important to know that when you're seeing all of this, some of it's coming through a lens that is more interested in one side than the other. Luxury >> I I hold a different view. I don't think the information was biased from my perspective and I I don't have a biased view because I've as I as you all

178know I my I don't have kids in this system. So my concern is that the district views or [snorts] the the community with the school children view their certain ranking in the of the schools and that is what is playing into the divisiveness the blue ribbon schools whatever I I'm I love all those titles but do as a school committee do we need to play into that do we need to worry about how we lose a certain ranking in the recognition at the state level or a blue ribbon status. Shouldn't we be delivering it for our kids? What is best for our kids rather than these superficial recognitions? And I think we if we can go in that direction, I I do recognize that it is disruptive and it is probably going to be hard

179for some students losing their peers and from what Natalia said, they are actually proactively putting plans in place on how to support. So maybe we can put more of our energies into e with either option going into supporting those rather than talking about which school is better, how we disrupt one versus 10. I think we should do what's good for the school system in the long run. And going into this, I never thought we were going in for kind of getting our getting out of our budget troubles like Peter laid out last time. Either way you look, we are in the same problem. We are going to need more money or we have to lay off. It's just that we still kind of organize ourselves to work better. When I said targeted support, I was

180actually more thinking about social and emotional targeted support, right? Does this leverage provide us leverage to do that rather than just the pedagogical support? Right? So I was hoping that we can channel our energies into which option provides benefits in those rather than how much money does it save, which school does it destroy, which community does it destroy. I think for us as a all kids in the community are safe. I don't think we should we should have all that bias. Leela, >> yeah, I just wanted to respond to what you said, Andrew. Um, and I respect you immensely. And so this is said with all of that respect. I think one of the first things I learned working in research and evaluation was that bias was inherent in anytime that you share data. Um,

181and I think one of the things that I felt like is weird about school committees um, is that the vast majority of us are not educators governing a school district. Um, that being said, I I think that's why I am grateful for when the professionals that are here to kind of oversee a school district are sharing their professional judgment about the information that we're receiving. And I think it's incumbent upon us to be critical of what we're receiving given what we do have access to. Um, and I think that's the same reason that I'm grateful for folks who are in classrooms every day sharing their perspectives and their concerns and their um, hopes for the future, but I I just wanted to push back a little bit against that kind of there is a problem

182with the way and maybe, you know, I totally respect that that could have felt weird for you. Um, but I think there's actually no way that we could have received information that was not inherently biased. >> All right, I'm going to work my way down that way. There come >> um let's see. So many different things to say here. Um, I I too felt that it was that there was there's inherent bias in it. Um, I have I've done a lot of work, a lot of research. I was a researcher myself. I was a research assistant at Harvard. Um it was very clear that things did seem tilted very deliberately to one side. I I have to agree with Andrew on that. Um uh the other thing I want to say is I I feel

183that our mandate is to one of the main things is actually causing the least amount disruption possible. Uh, and thirdly, I want to say that if we're making a decision that's going to be in place for 50 years, why are we rushing it? And we have like one week to decide what's going to be there for 50 years, and we haven't really decided how things are going to really unfold if we choose this drastic action of completely turning the current school district, which is top 10 in the state, blue ribbons, and a third of our, you know, of our schools. That's in fact a really big deal. This is not just sort of a pie in the sky thing. These are actual rankings based on what we've produced here and the students and the quality

184of education we produce here. A lot of people move here for specifically for the school district and for the way that it is structured. This structure has been in place for a long time and it has done nothing doing but producing excellence across the board. Right. And we're looking at completely disrupting it. Absolutely. With no clear financial gain. uh it's it's not really clear what the gains are by completely turning everything on its head. Um and and I think talking about you know I mean if your power goes out in your house right and you call the electric company they don't say oh well let's turn off the power for everybody else they work to turn your power back on. So similarly if we're closing a building and children are disrupted we do our best

185to accommodate those children into places that are still secure and safe and not disrupted themselves. Right. Um, yeah, I'll stop there for now. >> Adam. >> All right. I got a lot. Um, you know, I think the the first thing of the the why now, why quick. Um, I've sat on the committee for eight years. The first four years or so have were fine. Um, we made cuts, we made additions, things worked fine. For the past 5 years, we have had to cut staff. Um, and again, not the fault of the district, not the fault of the town, the realities of the financial situation of the two communities. Why now? If we don't act now, we will have to make more drastic cuts. And not only that, we will be going to at least one

186town next year for an override, if not both. And I don't feel right going to them and saying, since we've won with very low margins previously in Actton, we need more money without saying that we've done everything. So why now is so that we can stand with our heads held high to say we did everything we could. We have made we have looked around under every couch cushion. we even had to do major disruption. This needs to pass as an override. So that's that's the urgency. If I think about the two options, the part that I'm really struggling with um is sort of the inherent way we've always done things which has provided for immensely passionate school communities. Nowhere else in the Commonwealth do you get to choose the elementary school that you go to.

187And that is an amazing opportunity for that school community to have a group of like-minded people there who advocate passionately for that school, who fund extracurricular activities and enrichments for that school. But that only works for about 50 maybe 70% of the students. Some of those students don't get a choice at all. Some of those students may actually have to get moved during their time there because they require extra supports. Some of those families move in after the fact. That's not to say that they don't join an extremely vibrant community that supports their school, but we do that differently from everybody else. And what it ends up doing is landing us where we are now. I'm thinking about, you know, as you hear about Boston City Schools having to close a school. They get a

188lot of push back for sure, but they're not getting the push back because this was my school. They're getting the push back because you're closing the school in my neighborhood. If we were up against this and we had already had um geographic enrollment, Conent would still be the school that closes. Not because it's been underfunded, not because it's an amazing blue ribbon school, but because we don't have the enrollment to support an additional school. It is the only facility in the district that is a single school in a town that already has schools. You can't close Blanchard because it's the only school there. So Conan is not singled out because it's amazing performance or its poor facilities. It's singled out because it is a single school. So if we were in a geographic region, that

189building would close already and we would geographically redistribute all of those students and we would catch hell from the community as a whole still. Let me be very clear. We would still be in the same situation. But what we have is this unique program where people choose their elementary school. They are passionate about that elementary school. They may have kids in multiple elementary schools. They're passionate about both of them. Where I struggle is, is that something we want to continue in the future? Is that something that we think is a valuable addition to our community or is that something that's potentially divisive? Or is there an option somewhere in the between where we can have a um equitable distribution of resources, we can have a baseline of geography, and we can have some constrained choice.

190And I really like that word constrained choice that we saw. and some of the literature in today's packet. I I will say that I'm leaning towards option five, not because I want to disassemble these amazing communities that we have, but when I look at the opportunities it provides us in a way of providing longevity and sustainability for the future, to be able to have a larger cohort of kids together in a building at the same grade level, to be able to support our educators with targeted professional development, to be able to support our kids with targeted interventions for a larger cohort of kids that feels more sustainable for the future. I don't think we're going to be out of a budget problem next year. So, I'd much rather have something in place that allows us

191to support it as we have to continue to cut into the bone. But I struggle with again, do I want to, you know, how do you manage this passionate community that has passion for their schools? There is a visioning process that was laid out. What will happen after this? Will it be the same? No. because people may or may not have had the choice of the facility that they're in. Uh ultimately what I will say is um everyone I've ever talked to about an elementary school loves their elementary school, thinks it's the absolute best. Some of those didn't have a choice to make that school. Some of them did. I think that six years from now when all of you who are in the building have had at least one student get to the junior

192high and to the high school and if we're all lucky graduated in college, this is going to feel different. And that's what I'm looking for is what is it outside of the disruption of the next six to eight years. That's where my head's at >> Glenn. >> So I I have a lot with what Adam just said that I wholeheartedly agree with and I want to touch upon those points too. And I mean just one thing I've been thinking about. So I'm I'm 30 years old. I don't have a kid. And maybe someday I will, but if if I did have a kid, I would want them to go to AB. And I'd be pretty comfortable with pretty much all I tooured the schools. They were all wonderful. I'd be okay if I had a

193kid. I'd be okay if with any if they were in any of the schools here. And that's that's what I hope we can all that's the kind of mindset I'm hoping that we can cultivate with this is that we we want this to be supported for everyone in a way that this doesn't feel zero sum. This doesn't feel divisive. This doesn't feel like that oh you're oh well I want my kid to go here and if your kid's going there then that just stop it. [laughter] Perhaps there's a more eloquent way to do that and I could put on my politician hat for that, I guess. But really, like, so that's one thing. And I mean, another thing that I I bicycled around town for weeks to sit here and I I I talked a

194lot about how like I I was in I had a terrible time in for a good chunk of my K through 12 education. Um I school was one of the worst if sometimes it felt like one of the worst places for me and I eventually got to a point where it wasn't and a lot of what helped with that was the staff and the educators that got me to that point. So I So like that's really paramount in my mind because I don't think that if we're not pulling out all the stops, exhausting every possible option that we can do to be like, okay, you're an educator, you're low, you're you're already carrying a lot. What can we do to help to help make this less burdensome? How how can we help give you the

195resources that you need? If we're not pulling out all absolutely all of the stops, I think that's a disservice. cuz I think about kids that were not that different than me. What like we're talking about the special education programs and making sure that they can that they're maintained well. Like if we're not giving the staff the resources they need, that's a big problem in my mind. And so one thing that I heard about so like what exactly is the benefit of V 5V2 if like if the money's not even that different then why are we even looking at this? Um couple of points. Um I mentioned I asked I asked last time like is it the case that if we go with the option where there's a more efficient allocation of staffing resources where you

196can clump more where you can have more of the kids gathered in this scenario where they're behind in for instance if they're behind in reading in the same way then if you have more of the kids that are in behind in the same way grouped together you can administer you can administer the services to them faster. It was like what Gabby said earlier about making sure that you target the quote unquote same muscle group like maybe you're going over division and like the more you can target that specifically I think the better it's more efficient. Um I think that applies to literacy rates too. Um so those are those are hope at least are some points. Um I don't think that this is sustainable lurching every year from staffing cuts to staffing cuts. This is

197what year five. I don't and we're not even at the end of the road of this yet. And frankly, the fact that we're not getting the support we need from the federal government and the state government on this, that's something we should all be in complete unity about. I don't want this energy to go away when this scenario is over. So, I I see glances from Tori. I see I can read a room. But those are the main points. And the very last thing I still want tuitionfree full day kindergarten, right? So here here so like whatever we and I'm pretty I can say with pretty solid confidence that 5v2 is the mechanism where the foundation we have there that god god willing someday this horrible crunch dissipates and we actually get more funding. We

198should we should be talking about hiring more staff. Instead, we here we are. If we have more solid foundation, then the potential for expanding to full day full day kindergarten, full day prek, that is more that is more plausible. I don't care if it takes 10 years, we should get there. So, >> okay, I'm going to go Yensin and then I'll go Lisa. >> Thank you, Tori. Um, I'm going to keep it brief. I'm actually working through a migrant. So, thank you for all your mints and water supply. Um, a couple things. Number one, that um in the spring we actually had a uh subcommittee. It's not a subcommittee was a division of graduates. So, Leela and I both were serving on it working closely with the educators from the district and Gabby. Um I

199remember towards the end of the process many high school teachers had voiced that they really enjoyed the experience even though it was every Tuesday after school we were together in a meeting room because they really appreciate the opportunity to get to um talk about education hearing about students experience from their colleagues from the lower schools which is junior high and elementary school. Um, fast forward four months and Adam, Tori and I are also all served on the AB forward and that process started with put the vision of graduates in the very center of it. We worked through a couple meetings just focused on our our district's mission, vision, value. Lots of discussions we have heard from all the educators, principles and senior leadership. So this really and I remember sitting those meetings thinking where are

200we going from there. So the options on the table right now really came from who do we want to see in our graduates and that is our mission and I think many of us sit here right now we have said during our campaigns that we're here to advocate for every student not some but many. Um, I'm going to keep my opinion and my preference on the options private until next week, but I just want to let everybody know that we have done research. We have really focused on the students development and their outcome. Thank you, >> Lisa. So, I'm going to piggyback off of a few things that several of you have said because a lot of people made uh great comments. I really love that you referenced the vision of a graduate work and

201um especially when I'm looking at the adaptability, communication, collaboration, integrity, intellectual curiosity and I think about the adaptability piece and this is where I'm going to piggyback off of Adam and Lakshmi talking about the reason that there's a preference for me personally for 5v2 is because of that adaptability piece because it gives us the greatest flexibility. Yes, a lot of people have noted that there's not a huge difference. There's not a difference in the in the money when we're looking at what we're saving in terms of cost between the two options as it's all been laid out. However, it's about the flexibility and preparing as we know that this is the fifth year of cuts that we've had and thinking about if we have to make cuts in the future, don't we want to organize

202ourselves in such a way that it makes sense to mitigate those cuts or mitigate the impact of those cuts later on? So, it's again, it's making sure for me that I'm not being shortsighted in all of this and thinking about long term because again, this will impact students 50 years from now and we're really thinking long term. And this is somebody who, again, just as a reminder, has a kindergartener. So, you know, I know that this will go well beyond her um academic experience as an elementary school student. And my final thought on this are for people who think that what we have right now is currently working. Um I just want to point to the grade three English language arts uh MCCAST scores that have dropped. I want to point to the rising needs

203of our learners. Um having a 1.7 uh increase in multilingual learners um four times the amount of economically disadvantaged students. um our students do not look the same as they looked before. They have more needs. We have to support them. And as we're making these changes and we're thinking, we're thinking about the changes that we want to make and thinking about flexibility. At the heart of all of this for us has to be how do we best serve our students with what we have? And it goes back to my opening statement about being as wise as we can with the incredibly talented people that we are so lucky to have. >> So, I'm going to call on myself next. My turn. Um, and I want to kind of build off of what Lisa was talking

204about. Um, so even a year before this, we did the elementary budget task force and we looked hard at our elementary schools and how we were organized and what might we be able to do differently. And um something that I carried away from that was as we talked about sharing staff across schools, the frustration that we heard from our educators of how hard it is to have different leaders, even if you're on the same schedule, to have to work for two different two different communities with, you know, different cultures, different leaders. I mean, it's it's hard to have two bosses. It's really hard to have 11. [snorts] Um, but like they there was a lot of frustration about that. And so that's one of the things that has kind of come back to me as

205I've looked at option 5v2 is when we talk about um when we talk about how do we make sure that at any given moment when a student in a classroom needs something, how do we best have the ability to flex whatever that is in their direction? It feels like having more sections at a grade level under the same leadership offers some opportunities there. And so, you know, we've heard questions about what are what are outcomes for students. Um, you know, you can't necessarily put like, well, it's going to, you know, raise their test scores by this amount or it's going to make them feel this much more comfortable in their learning or whatever it's going to be. But we can give them more supports in this framework. And I think that's really important because two

206educator voices that have really stuck out to me. Um, one, you know, Yensin, as you mentioned, uh, in AB Ford and and Adam, I'm sure you remember the, uh, the conversation where we talked about, you know, the teacher with the table that, you know, to begin with was strong and could support everything. And every year we keep putting more on it and more on it until it's about ready to break and there's nobody there to hap to help out. And then that was followed by, you know, asking an educator because the things that we were originally talking about, how is this going to help? And, you know, the educators in the room were getting frustrated. They're like, you're not addressing the root problem. And I was finally like, what is it? And somebody said, flexibility.

207It is that the depth and the breadth of my students needs are so great, I can't meet all of them. And so that that not only affects like that the student that you're trying to meet at that moment where they are, it affects everybody else in the room too. And so if we have a way to build a structure that gives our educators a better opportunity to meet our students needs, I think that's really important. And I am struggling with seeing how to do that just based on kind of conversations in elementary budget task force and option four because it's so vertically arranged and it feels like we have better options horizontally. And you know, kind of the final thought there is we got to listen to one of our administrators talking about, you know,

208the difference between, I think it was 28 years ago getting started as as a teacher here in the district and what that class was like and what student needs were like and how those are different today. Um, that's something that that I'm thinking about as I look at at structure because ultimately at the end of the day, yes, we have to do something that works for the budget. Yes, we have to do something that's sustainable, but we also have to keep the academic excellence of our schools and I think that's probably the best way to go about doing it. Okay, so I see lots of hands um up. I'm going to try and work around like this because otherwise I'm going to start getting dizzy trying to keep track of them. So Lakshmi, we'll start

209there. >> I know I haven't talked about the option. Uh I think after it's been going over in my head for a while listening to everybody. Um I think at this point I favor 5v2 for other obvious reasons. For me it's more about taking all the things that Gabby has been talking about all the things that we have been at at the administration level trying to move our education system into kind of uh structuring in the way we want for MTS's whatever extra support our kids need. I think 5v2 helps us. Um, and I also see that it's uh four option four is more divisive. Uh, it doesn't it's not an equitable solution. So, I'm going to go with that. I think I'm tending towards 5B2. Um, couple of things that I wanted to before

210I wrap up. Uh, I want to thank the steering committee for really really appreciate. I appreciate the parents. I'm actually amazed. Uh I think that bodess very well for a district that the parents are so engaged. Um I think that's goes a long way. Um then um one last comment. I have a 30-year-old son and he we moved into this town nurse when he was a year old. We didn't know anything about the school system. But I asked him, his friends came over for Christmas break and I asked him what do you fondly remember of the school system or what do you remember about the school system? The one thing they said is we don't remember much about high school much about great gra junior high but what we remember is elementary school and the

211teachers some of the teachers they were so nice so kind that's all they walked away with and they were very self-critical. Oh my god, how much hard time we gave them. So I think the mentors matter and that's where our focus needs to be. Um I'm not saying it's a revelation. I think a lot of us know that we kind of we are away from these temporary uh recognitions and uh kind of our kids feeling good about certain group they're in. But I think eventually if you want your kids to grow into healthy adults and able to cope with the outside world, we really do need to give them the right support. Uh not kind of make it comfortable at every stage. Change is inevitable but helping them through coping coping with the change is

212more is better than not. Um so I wouldn't that's for another reason why I'm so not into four because minimizing change is not should not be the goal. Uh I think positioning ourselves for long-term helps but at the same time kids who really have a hard time coping we I'm assuming we will focus our um once we decide if we go with 5v2 we would focus on how to help the kids who would have trouble transitioning. That's what that's Thank you, >> Andrew. >> Adam brought up community and the existing communities that are here. We're going to be changing everything as we go into this next phase. And four maintains some communities. Five gets rid of all of them. And you have to think about all of the support structures that exist outside the classrooms

213that help our kids thrive in this district. And it can be things like the PTO's which would be dissolved to then become something else. It could be the families that are part of their lives which are going to be different. It could be going to New England uh to to connect New London pizza on Wednesday afternoons. It could be any number of these smaller things that add to the quality of the educational life these the students have. And I do get concerned when thinking about it's the V 5v2, it's the reenrollment, it's the rearrangement of everything of how many pieces of our current students lives are going to be disrupted. These are kids who've gone through COVID, who've gone through remote schools, some kids who've seen out the window of their new school as their

214old schools have been destroyed. and uh and now a whole new cohort of kids are going to see their other school put down. There's a lot of trauma that's involved in all of this. And I can understand Lakshmi what you're saying that you you know change is change. A lot of people talk about this. One of the parents I I forget which one said it um talked about how kids are resilient and maybe they're resilient, maybe they don't have experience, know things don't always have to be as they are. Maybe they don't have the language to talk about the stress of having to go through things. I just think we're in a position right now where we have a a group of children who've gone through so much that we should be as well I

215don't know considerate of what they've done. Even Lisa D what you said about how the the test scores are getting lower in these cohorts. Part of that is because of the way that they were first brought into education and some of the things that they missed early on and how things had changed with them and not only how they changed if they were separated or remote school or not. Like I've got a a fourth grader who didn't get to go to preschool and they're feral. Um you know uh >> it's true. I know. Fear for my life. Um, but these we're dealing with students who've had who've dealt with things in their lives we didn't deal with and dealt with things in their lives that their predecessors didn't deal with. And I think we have

216to be very considerate about what they're going through. One of the things I keep hearing as we're talking about all this is how much easier things are to manage. We can move this here, we can move that there, we can consolidate this, we can scale that. It's great from an admin administrative point of view. It's great from an execution point of view. We're not here because we want to run a district. We're here because we want our students to be able to thrive. And when we separate like that outcome from our efforts, we move down there's a term in software that I won't say because we've already had our one profanity for the day. [laughter] Um, >> get one. I'll I'll incrap. And the first phase of encraptification is that you focus your product on

217this on on your user and you're going to do everything for your user and make sure everything's great for them. And then after you do that, you realize, wait a second, people want to pay us for stuff. So you shift, you say, the users are going to be fine. We're going to focus on the business. We're going to do everything we can to make sure the business will give us as much money as possible. And the users are fine. We're just making some strong considerations over here. But after a while, the business is doing okay. And you realize, you know, I want I want an island. So, I got to make sure I'm making as much money as possible. And the shift goes over towards, you know, how do we make the business, our business

218run best of all? And I worry when we start thinking about how we're going to make the district run better, we're moving down that line. Not that we're going to have an island. We don't have the money for it. But if we were to focus on remembering our kids are the people that have to deal with the consequences of what we talk about here. And those consequences are going to be how they're going to deal with their friends, how they're going to find their first love, how they're going to deal with homework, how they're going to deal with being able to set up to do whatever they want to do, how they're going to make their parents happy doing whatever. And the community that we've built around them supports them in this. And the way

219that we approach this project, this problem that we're dealing with right now, affects them directly. And I just wanted to make sure we had that as something we're talking about today. I uh I feel for you. Thanks. >> Because my younger son was in kindergarten when CO hit. Um so it's I know as parents, we want to protect our children. Unfortunately, we kind of don't have control over it. Just like our children, they're really really when they were really really little, their schooling were disrupted by a global pandemic. And as they're growing up, we are hit by the financial crisis. We wish they could have the life that some of us had, but now they already have to think about how to compete with AI for jobs. Change is scary. Just like Natalie said, we

220can't protect them from everything. What we can do is help set up an environment where they can thrive. And I just want to note that we I work very closely with our school district's facilities department. Our head of facilities goes around every single morning to all the schools to check them out. The staff here, they put the students first always. And I really think that no matter what we do, some people will be happy, some people will not. But I hope you will trust us that everybody here, including administration, we are putting the students needs first. We are making the hard decisions. So that's it. I'm going to work my way back down here and then around to Glenn and then I'll see if I have anything to say. Adam, >> thanks. Um, you know,

221there was a bit of talk about bias. Um, and I have been thinking about that. You know, I will I will not share, although most people can assume what elementary school my kids went to, but I will share that both of them are now out of elementary school. Um, but I think it's important for us to recognize that we all have our biases. we all have the strong community of elementary schools that we came through. Um, and so I think that's important for us to just hold as we're making this decision. Um, but you know, I I I do want to respond again to that sort of that perceived bias in the pres in the presentation of the information and I I won't argue either way. What I will say is we asked the consultants

222and the administration to design something new and I don't know if we said it explicitly but we said if you knew what we have to deal with now knew the resources that we have available to us what would you design for a system of the future that could be sustainable? Um and so yeah, inherently there's going to be bias in that in the presentation because that is that's the vision of what the administration thinks is um the best way to deal with the needs that we have now and the constraints that we have now. Um but I would argue that it's not just about being easier to manage. I want to be really careful about that because a lot of the presentations we've heard have not been about easier to manage. It's been about better

223ability to serve the needs of our students and to meet the concerns of our educators and to provide them the resources that they need as well. And I think that that tail wags the dog and that if you're providing the best for our students and you're supporting our teachers, it's going to be an easier system to manage. So they they're not mutually exclusive. I think they support each other and maybe something that's easier to manage actually gives you better outcomes for our students. So, I I wanted to sort of respond to that. Um, and then I know we're going to continue around, but I I just wonder if there's, you know, it most of the committee, I believe, has an opinion either way on the option. And so, I just wonder um if there's anything

224anybody might hear that might change their mind. And I'll share that there's probably not anything that I could hear. I mean, we've been hearing this for a long time now. There's probably not anything that I would hear that would help change my position on the option. I'm excited to talk about enroll excited not necessarily the I would prefer to talk about enrollment options because I think there's a lot to figure out there. >> Okay, so let me ask the question. Do you guys want to keep rolling on option or are we ready to talk about enrollment? >> Okay, so show of hands if we need to still be talking about option. Okay, let's go to Vicrim and and wrap that up and then we can shift to enrollment. Um, I I think my concern um

225with option five is the potential disruption of 2400 students and their and their families and all the teachers and administrations that have spent years building up relationships, right? And to just break all of that and say, "Oh, we're going to this new way and this new way is going to be better." I find that inherently frightening. If I was convinced that these established groups and relationships, there was going to be an emphasis on keeping those together, that might sway me in that direction. But I'm I'm deeply frightened and concerned over saying we're going to disrupt all the lives of 2400 students because we can't displace 300. It's not fair. We have to absolutely disrupt absolutely everybody. And that I I just find uh really frightening that. And also uh it seems that a lot of

226people are drawn to this district because there are these differing schools. That seems to be like the main draw to this uh school district. So I think tossing that out I also find deeply concerning. I don't I mean I think you know if if kids are going to largely remain in the same building, they'll see the same faces and the same friend groups. Um I think that's that's somewhat palatable to me. But I I think disrupting the lives of absolutely everybody in the community and disrupting all friend groups, I think to me is just a a hard note. >> And with that, I think we've solidly moved into talking about enrollment. Um Vicram, can I get you to pass that container back around? Let's send it to the other side, please. You know, you can't

227have all the cookies. [laughter] Thank you, by the way. Was it Was it Greg who brought us cookies? Thank you. >> Thanks, Greg. >> Cookie for me, too. that around. Okay. Um shall we just keep rolling around? I'll come back here because we jumped over Liz and then go to Lisa and then go around like that. Do you have any enrollment com comments? Um the one comment that I wanted to make because I had, you know, from email feedback and everything, I was pretty solidly in the geographical um enrollment option if we went to the 5v2. After hearing so many of these comments, I'm sort of leaning toward more of like a hybrid if we can um flesh that out. And I'd be interested to see what potential options for that could be because I

228know that that's a lot of logistics. It's a lot of like, you know, we're not necessarily going to go into every class and say like, okay, who are your three top, you know, three friends? But I'm just wondering how feasible that even is to, you know, do more of a graduated option and then have the kids coming in be at geographic. >> Andrew, would you like to comment on that? >> Sure. Um yeah, been thinking a lot about this just because obviously if we did shift to a geographic uh system, it would have been it'll be more dramatic of a change than than what we're used to. So a couple things. one is before we get into your question, I do want to try and offer some clarification about some of the steps that we

229anticipate taking if we did shift this cuz I I heard some questions and assumptions in um in the comments from the public. One is um that map that we sort of showed that I think Peter drew that was just for illustrative purposes. It was it's not the map, okay? Um it's just simply to demonstrate that it's um that that this idea that you could create sort of zones that would be assigned to specific schools. Um what would happen is we would with your sort of blessing and I hope you do give it we would enlist the services of an organization a company that actually does this professionally. Um that's what most uh school districts that do ge geographic systems do especially when they have to change their boundaries. So, for example, I grew up in

230Andover. Andover has been going through it for a couple years with their changes. Westboro is currently doing it right now. Um, and so we would enlist their services. So, we would have professionals actually building lines. I don't we're not walking around the neighborhoods trying to trying to create lines. Um, in addition to that, what we are very sensitive to is and and I'm appreciative of other people's thoughts is creating um geographic assignments that offer diversity at least in terms of socioeconomics. Um, and so you can do that in a variety of ways because we clearly would want to be mindful of that. Um, knowing what some districts do, there's a couple things. One is there's flex zones. uh and two you actually can create specifically based on the geography and the demographics of certain areas

231assign certain areas based on certain density of of demographics to specific schools to try and uh maximize that diversity. I think what I heard anecdotally is that for example like Westboro they're creating like satellite neighborhoods that may be assigned to different schools to try and address that. So how how we do that will depend on the specifics that um that we create and some of the criteria that we establish. But to be sure uh we would view that process to be done uh professionally um and thoughtfully and by people who know and have experience doing that. All right, that being said, a couple of things with uh ge geography been thinking about a little bit. I I don't know. I'm going to end this by saying I do think I'm thinking right now of something

232that offers a little bit of softening of the edges. That being said, in some of the things where we talk about could we start just with kindergarten and and sort of graduate it up. I I don't think that that's practical. I totally understand why we'd want to consider it. I don't think that's practical. I've even been wondering can you do geography for, you know, K through five and then keep six. I think even again that will be difficult for a variety of reasons both in terms of transportation as well as some other logistics that we can talk about whether it's you know special ed program placement siblings things like that. Um but what we have thought about and actually is based on um an email that we got from one of our parent comments. So

233hopefully parents out there you actually can be convinced that we are reading all of your emails. Um this is something that was suggested and it sort of piqued our interest was just this idea of a two-step system with geography. Uh and basically in a nutshell is you you base initially every assignment on geography. You create the zones. We create zones, flex zones, all that other stuff and you assign everybody to a school and they get their assignment. After that you you do a stage two which we'll call right now sort of controlled flexibility. And then you give individual families the ability to say, "I know what my assignment is. I would love to be considered or I'd love my child to be considered for one of the other schools." And so they there's a process

234where you say, "I'm in school A. I'd love to be considered for school B or C." And what we do is we sort of collect that information. Um, and there's some details to this, but in general, if you have sort of students and families with these sort of features, I'm in grade three, I'm in grade five, I'm whatever in this school, and then you have a you have corresponding families who would love to go to your school who have similar features that would allow for basically an equal swap. Do we allow for some of that where there's some controlled flexibility? That being said, I think we have to control for a couple of things in terms of not just class sizes and seats, but also, you know, if you are on an IEP, if you'd

235receive certain services in a learning center or multilingual uh services, we wouldn't be able to do things where you'd all of a sudden sort of lean too heavily in terms of case loads in one school or another, but you can sort of control for that and and and address that. That is an idea of some limited controlled sort of choice, not choice, but sort of flexibility that that I think we could um present to you as as an option to consider. One of the things that we do have to clarify is that as a regional school district, we're obligated to provide transportation. One of the things that I think we'd have to clarify is if you were able to opt for the ability to change schools from your geographic school and given the choice, if

236you accept that choice, I think you'd have to wave transportation. You'd have to provide the transportation. We're not quite sure if we can actually require that yet because we're obligated to provide transportation. So, we're asking DESIE if that's something that we can say is we'll provide transportation for your assigned school. If we give you the the ability to choose a different school, can we um require you to wave the ability to get transportation? The other piece that would have to be implemented based on my initial thinking is if your if one of your children gets the ability to swap to a different school, you don't automatically get to bring your sibling with you. that you would actually every individual sibling would have to go into that system uh and receive it on their own just

237because you can't say, "Oh, my fifth grader got it, so we're bringing the second grader along with you." So potentially, you could be in a situation where you'd have to choose, "My fifth grader got school B. My second grader is still in school A and didn't get to go to school B. Do I want to do that or not?" So there's some there's some choice involved. You can't just sort of bring them with you. That's some initial thinking around offering a little bit of softening of the edges, especially my sense is at the beginning where we're transitioning and where potentially families may be interested in considering a different school. One theory that may or may not come to fruition is as if if we do a geography system that later on after four or five

238years and your peers are in your neighborhood, will there be sort of a continued interest in potentially going to one of the different schools? Maybe, maybe not. So it may or may not be something that um is as necessary or as desirable um down the road, but certainly I think at the beginning it may offer some flexibility, not guaranteed flexibility, but some flexibility um that softens kind of the transition to a geographic system in a nutshell. >> Thank you, Andrew. Um so Vicram, I was going to go to Lisa. We'll come back around. Yeah. So go ahead, Lisa. So when thinking about geographic distribution, it was really interesting when the enrollment options first came out because I really took a lot of time to think about it. I wanted to reach out and do a

239lot of perspective building as I've only been in living in Actton for 4 and a half years and I wanted to ask people who have been here for a lot longer, [snorts] you know, what does the distribution look like? Is there a vast disparity in um you know wealth between north and south actton and you know so I looked at census.gov I looked at Zillow I you know house sales in the last 5 years and there's definitely an outlier uh neighborhood in North Actton but if you were to remove that uh the median for you know both sides are look to me to be you know not too far from each other. So, I wanted to um ask um if there was somebody, you know, in leadership that wanted to um address this question, too,

240because I spoke with a select board member. I spoke with a finance committee member. I've been trying to, you know, perspective build, but I would like to hear from somebody that'd be willing to speak to this because I think there are concerns about um economic disparity between um potential geographic zones. you want. >> Basically, I think we as we develop zones that are assigned to schools, we can control for that. So, especially since given the way that our schools were bu uh sort of built geographically, they aren't built in neighborhood schools. You know, again, where I grew up, San Elementary was over here and South, you know, West was over here. So, right now, our schools are within a mile of each other. So we can say let us look at the map of Actton

241and Boxboro. To be sure, I think there is some logic to say if you are within walking distance of say the boardwalk campus, there's some logic to say let's not take somebody who's living next door on Spruce Street and put them over to Parker Damon. But that being said, you can still control and say whether it's a satellite neighborhood or whether you sort of draw a very creative map, you can easily account for that. And that's where we would take those um sort of professional organizations that do this for a living and say here's the criteria. This is how we want you to build it and the flex zones. So that's the other piece that we've been encouraged is to really think about sort of very generous areas where um if you live in a

242particular zone, you could be asked to attend one of two schools. Not one of three, but one of two schools. And that based on class size, based on a variety of other factors, you could be assigned to one or the other. Clearly once you go in your sibling would probably go to that school but before you have any siblings we would the district would have the flexibility to again control for the things that we want to control for. >> Thank you. And I had one more question. Should I save it for the next round? That'd be great because maybe somebody else has the same question. Thanks >> Glenn you're up. So I I'm leaning towards the geographical based enrollment but one question I had with so with the lottery system how often would that happen?

243So it like if instead of geography instead of geographic there's another option lottery based system but can I have c can we just expand on that a little bit? I was I I read into it a little bit, but there's how Yeah. >> you know, um I think I think you know there might be two things kind of coming into play here. One, in the geography based system, a pure geography based system, there is no lottery. Um that there's no more lottery in the district. Um it's just where you live is kind of where you get assigned. And if you're in the flex zone, you know, um I think what Andrew just said is if you have a sibling, you're going where your sibling was already assigned. If you don't have a sibling, the district

244has some control over keeping class sizes balanced between schools, things like that. Um which is one of the strengths of what we currently have. What I think Andrew was just talking about was this idea is if we had some controlled choice um within a geographical assignment, then there would have to be a process to collect, you know, information for families who want their students to be considered for other schools. And that would be might might be more where you get into I don't know if I would call it a pure lottery. It's more about trying to match up transfers Lakshmi. Okay, Andrew. >> I don't think there's a better opportunity for us to induce trauma in our students than to reallocate them everywhere. Can we do it to the teachers, too? Can we make them

245all go to different schools also? Um, I'm concerned about the geography because I think that it's going to not just affect enrollment, it's going to have an impact on the towns themselves outside of our schools. Because as you build out um these you know say we've got the two buildings as you build out the draws for the two buildings and the people that are going to these buildings the socioeconomic matrix inside this community varies and even though we can create opportunity areas and other opportunity areas will end up with one school that wants that does one thing and one school that does something else in one way or another. I've as an adult with children have lived in three communities, this being the third, um that have undergone some kind of geographic reallocation. I lived

246in Cincinnati. We lived in not we lived in a great part of town, but we were a block away from a really not great part of town. And the school that was in this not really great part of town is where our kids would have gone. And we moved um because we didn't want them to go there. We wanted them to be able to have a better opportunity. We came here and found ourselves in uh Waltham where they also did a redistricting. It wasn't so impactful for us, but the people that we knew that were there um ended up like petitioning their superintendent yelling and and and uh fighting and some people moved two blocks over to be in the right neighborhood to be go to the right school that they wanted to go to.

247Um the impact of reenrollment based on geography goes outside the lifespan of kids in schools and goes into the property values, the methods of people developing in the area and what happens inside this town and also creates a different kind of schism that will exist between the people that live in this area and live in that area. And also, you know, Boxboro is not part of this and that creates another kind of barrier with those folks. I just I'm I you know, you mentioned soft, you mentioned something. Um it would be great to find a different way than pure geography to look at this because I think that solving our problem creates more problems in the community that we live in. I actually have two questions. Number one is should we choose reau? What happens

248to the families who chose a school the school's over capac like it's over the school's capacity which happens now right? Um I guess that's going to be like a second sec second time to be disappointed. The other question I have is that if we go to geographically um assign schools does that mean we're going to cut down the bus routes? I won't be like Yes. >> So your first one is if we did a an initial complete reauatter. Yes. That that is you're you're preserving sort of the open enrollment system and you're just saying because we have these we're going down to schools and we want to for whatever reason ask everyone to participate in that. You're saying please you know rank the schools that still exist. Um and my prediction is that similar to

249what we have now is you will have some families who get their preferred choice and then you'll have a number of families who who don't. Um and so it's just simply another m and again are we are we preserving things like um walking distance preferences things like that. So so some have a little bit of of additional weight. That was one option. Um, in terms of the geography, I think presumably because we can actually control for the actual areas, um, I think the prediction comfortably is that transportation routes would be would be cut down. >> Right. Just to follow up really quickly. So for reau, the students who will be placed in specific programs, they won't be able to choose anyways. Correct. >> Correct. So if if I'm a if you have a student who

250still um is ass receives services through the connections program or through pathways whatever school um is attached to that program would be assigned there. Correct. >> Thank you. >> I'm going to Lakshmi's got a hand up. I'm going to circle back to her and then I'll come come to you next Leela. >> Okay. So couple of things. Um, so our goal as a school committee is to maintain all five elementary schools at pretty much about the same, right? We're not talking about one school being better than the other. But there are external factors like Andrew mentioned that some neighborhoods can cause a school to be depressed if you have neighborhood. So Andrew, when you look at your statistics, is it possible by any kind of algorithm you use that we would look at one school

251being in a kind of a such a bad place like you see them them in cities, right? But is it possible in an actton? Do we have to worry? >> I I don't have the data to tell you how you would draw the map and if that's possible. I think that again we would speak to the fact that there's organizations that do this. I would I would like to think that as Andrew Schwarz mentioned we're not unique in the sense that you know communities develop in ways where there's probably clusters where there's certain you know higher higher affluence areas and and other areas where um it's more rental properties and things like that. Um and so I think we would seek speak to seek out advice to say what is the best method of trying

252to mitigate that. >> Okay. I can't guarantee that they'll say, "Yep, this is how you do it." But I'd like to think that we're not unique in in that expectation, >> but given given where we are, I don't think that should be a concern. So, I just wanted to make sure we lay it on the table that that is not something that we have to be worried about that by giving a geographic uh allocation to students, we would be in that scenario where we have one school being better than the others naturally. The other one is property values. We care about schools, not property values. And if all the schools are performing well, why do we have to worry about property values? Our goal is schools, right? Schools and kids. Um, so I lost my

253frame of thought. I'll let Lea take. Yeah, [laughter] >> Leela, you didn't put a hand up, but I'm calling on you anyway. It's your your chance. Um yeah, I am having emerging thoughts around this idea of like bad schools and what that might mean for Actton. And um just wanting to explicitly name that often schools that don't perform as well by standard metrics are because they're underfunded or in communities where folks aren't making as much money. Um and so I think that's where the thoughtfulness around how we're creating schools that are intentional around socioeconomic distribution comes in. Um yeah, struggling a little bit with that. Um I am interested in the geographic um enrollment option and yeah I think that there are definitely some questions. um I I think one of the things that stood

254out to me and maybe this is beyond the purview of what the school committee is going to talk about. Um was around how teachers also get distributed. Um, and I don't know what their preference is, and I would be curious um, understanding that teachers are not a monolith, but um, if there was a preference by and large to stay with other educators who they have built relationships with, if that could be an option. Um, if everyone's really excited to meet new people, then like that's great, too. Um, so I'm I'm thinking about that piece and yeah, I mean I think I'm most comfortable with the geographic lottery and also thinking about how we as a school committee given limited resources um are able to adequately fund support systems for the people implementing as well as

255the students experiencing. Um, I'm thinking about the MLK quote that Kira said that Andrew quoted around budgets being moral documents. Um, and wondering how that's going to play out. Um, and I know we're going to talk about our budget at our next meeting. So, those are some of my thoughts. >> Yeah, I could let me um speak to a couple of those things. Um, interestingly, whoever decided that the job description for the deputy superintendent should be both personnel and enrollment [laughter] I'd like to have a conversation with them. Um, >> and public records and policy. >> Um, in no particular order, Leela, thank you for those questions. The the issue with personnel really will depend on a certainly what is our enrollment plan? What is the enrollment plan that you all decide? And then what

256we have to figure out is that that inherent tension of let's say we do geography or we do something that does involve a good a more substantial mixture of students. Then the question that we have to ask ourselves is to what degree does perhaps having staff from the different sending school original schools being at those new schools support and and are in service of that new combination. And so that would probably speak to a more substantial shifting of staff assignments. That being said, and I just wrote to the staff today about it, we also appreciate that from a staff perspective. Individuals may have preferences in terms of an individual teacher may say, I don't for me it doesn't matter what school. I just I I prefer a certain grade. Others may say, I don't care

257what grade. I just would love a particular school. And others might say, I don't care about grade or school. I hope that I can still continue to work with these three individuals with whom I've developed really strong close professional relationships with. So um so there's a variety of those things that we have to weigh as well as which I think have value because you want the teachers to feel empowered in a way that their their surroundings and their work environment um sort of feels like it's in service of their being at their best with the reality that if we do have a more substantial change in student placements is there value which I think that my gut tells me the answer is yes of having individuals from their original schools being present to speak to

258that. The second piece that Peter and I just started talking about is are there things at least this one time spring and summer transition and also the investment involved financially of how we can invest in time and support to give those teachers the ability um to do that transitional work. We haven't really come up with the details yet. it will probably come with a bit of a price tag appropriately so um in terms of if and when we do create those decisions around staff changes that that correspond with student changes what does that look like in terms of of funding that appropriately? Sorry, Peter, if you wanted to add to that. Yeah, I think um you know, one of the things I've been thinking about recently, you know, and I started to talk to Andrew

259about and I started to talk to um Heather Stuck about because Heather is kind of coordinating our community wellness working group that we're we're starting around how we make whatever transition we're coming into. Um, and one of the things I've been thinking about, I I think there might be an opportunity as we go into spring to think really carefully about class placements for next year in either model. And I I I actually want to separate out models for a minute and just talk about thinking about how we place students. Um and to to be able to in a way almost bring you know educators together, you know, within grade levels across the schools to be able to collaborate with each other around creating cohorts within classrooms where there are students who might know each other

260and can benefit. And I that could work in option four, it could work in option five. I I want to be clear that I'm not advocating a a position on this. Uh but I do think there might be an opportunity to think about how we could collaborate to create really intentional classroom groups that kids know each other and they have an opportunity to start to meet some of the new students because in either option there's going to be new students. Um and I think there there's ways we can work on that. Um [clears throat] I think you know in terms of educators you know we're certainly going to need to think about a lot of things in terms of placement of educators again in either option. Um and one is you know I think we

261need to think about certainly what educators are prioritizing themselves for their own professional careers and personal lives and things you know things like that that are that are really important. Um, I also think we're going to need to think about what our students are going to need in terms of transition. And if we have students going into new groups and new schools, um, are there ways to try and make sure that our students have some familiar faces that they know in those schools. Um, who can kind of be that person each day as the transitions taking place to be able to to be the person in the hallway that they see. even if it's not their classroom teacher, it's still someone that they can see on a regular basis who knows them and and recognizes

262them and can kind of be there um as kind of an anchor. Um and then I think the other thing, you know, we're really trying to think about is, you know, the the critical step and you we're going to talk about this when we get into calendar of how do we transition um into the school year in either model um I think is going to be really critical. And so we've built in the proposed calendar, we've built in additional time. Uh it's not a lot because we don't have that much time to to move around, but we did move the traditional November professional day up out of the school year to the beginning of the school year to at least give more professional time to educators to start to form some of the the communities.

263And again, that's independent of options. Uh because the the bottom line is there still will be new communities getting formed. So, um, we're we're at a stage where now that we've narrowed some of the options, we're really trying to think through how can this work where we can and I think one of the things I'm trying to think about is how can we get give our teachers more agency over how this transition works and really thinking through how we need to support students through that change. So, um, you know, I want to talk some ideas through principles before we can give any definitive answers to what that looks like. Um, but I'm hoping we can also get some educator voice and the thinking around how we can move students thoughtfully. Um, I think is going

264to be really important. So, something I'm thinking about is what is it like to build a new school community together? And how does our decision about how we make that composition out of out of where we are today, whatever that move looks like, what does that look like? So, you know, as we look at there are some models that maybe only move a smaller number of students and a smaller number of educators. And a big question I have in that qu in that case would be, you know, if they're moving into an area that has has a lot of students and families and educators and administrators who've been together for a long time. How would the newcomers be received with equal voice in forming a new school? Um, or would they just be asked to

265assimilate into what's already there? Um, that is a real question I have as I'm thinking about what's our next move for for how do we how do we how do we reorganize people to then build the next thing? Um, and then conversely, I think if we do something that touches every single person in the district, what do we do to support that transition? Um, I think there is there's a difference in going through a shared challenge together. Um, it's hard. Um, and I say this as as um somebody who was a military family for a very long time, a dual military family. My husband and I both served and that meant that we deployed together and that we left our kids with my parents for a year. Um, and I think about what that experience

266was like and what that experience was like, you know, for my parents who were 2 and 1 half hours from the base where we were stationed versus the families that were at the base um and went through that deployment together. Um, you know, the military just has very strong networks for that. We got way more practice than we needed for years and years and years. But I do think back to what it's like to be a community that comes together to work through something that's hard. Um, and as much as I know we've had some really hard conversations and that there are, you know, there there are some some relationships that are suffering right now, I also have really strong belief in our ability to do that if we are really thoughtful about how we

267do it and how we resource it. And I know you're already starting to think about it. Um, so those are those are two things that I'm weighing on on how the enrollment piece might play out. Um, those are actually things that I would love to hear people's thoughts on because that's yeah, that's what's been rattling around in my head. >> Um, I I first I I want to talk about transportation quickly. Um, we all remember that 85% of our transportation costs get reimbursed by the state. So, while there may be some financial savings by having um geographic schools because we have fewer bus routes, the savings are not necessarily as significant as one might think because we only we only pay for 15% of the the transportation costs. I think there may be some really

268good potential time savings and obviously reduction of routes. Um so, I think that that's one thing I'm considering around transportation as it pertains to it not necessarily being a panacea of cost savings. Um and then you know thinking between the lottery and the geographic you know when we started this I wouldn't have even thought that a geographic distribution of students would have been something that even the community would have considered and I'm frankly surprised by the number of people who have come out um who support that. So it's got me thinking about it. Um but at the same point as I mentioned before one of the amazing things about the communities that we have now is people choose to be in those communities. Um, and that provides for a different level of passion and ownership

269from those those communities. Um, and that's a positive and a negative, right? We do something wrong, we've got a group of people who are already banded together ready to come and let us know that we did something inappropriate. Um, but at the same point, it it does provide for a really strong cohort of people um to to do what's best for those schools. Um, and I'm thinking about this not just in terms of the depth of disruption again for the next six years, but what does it look like over the next 10, 15, 20 years, 50 years. Um, you know, we are unique in the Commonwealth that we have this. And I don't know if that's good or not. I mean, we could ask some realtors if that's a benefit, and I think some of

270them might say yes. Um, but but we're different and sometimes being more similar makes it easier for people who are transitioning into the community to understand how the system works. And I think we've heard feedback from some parents who say, "Oh, we moved in here, we had no idea what choice was, or we thought we had a choice, but we didn't get a choice." And so there's already some some unhappiness there. Um, you know, a lottery system would allow for even a full reau, which I think feels scary. Um but it does allow for communities to self- select together. Um and so there is some actually greater agency there. So for people who may be concerned that their school has gone away or their school community might be disrupted, there's some agency that allows them

271to say, "Yeah, but you know, hey, I've got this really strong community of people who have already talked to. Let's just pick this building." Um, and so you end up reauing everybody and you probably end up with fairly homogeneous groups today, which I'm curious about because as we saw in the the paperwork, there's another 12 to 18 months of revisioning what these new schools look like. Um, and it may actually be um I don't want to say easier, but you we may actually be able to retain some of those things that we've heard from community members that are special about some of those schools because those people who value those things choose to be together. Um there's the the other side of that which is you then have some selective segregation which we've s sort

272of heard positives and negatives about. Um I'm not as worried about that only because I feel like we're in going to be in much larger communities. You're going to be in a 900 student building as opposed to a 450 student school. Um and so there's there's sort of a a a nice sort of I I think that gets diminished a bit. Um and then the last thing that I think about as someone um who actually moved into Actton originally and then moved to Boxboro after his kids were in the school in that town um one of the greatest things about full regionalization K to2 regionalization is that over the past few years we've really had this US versus them the Boxboro Act divide get diminished and we've blended um the communities really well. Um, and

273so it's really nice to have Actton families at the Blanchard school and it's really nice to have Blanchard kids in the Actton schools. Um, and while that might be possible with geographic constrained choice, all of that, I think there's something to be said about having, you know, retaining that choice and having that um, ability to more intermingle our students between the two towns. That being said, I I also really like just the I don't want to say simplicity, but the standardization of the geographic. So, I'm I'm undecided at this point. Those are the two that I'm weighing. And um I I I am trying to think about these both as sort of the short-term challenges, but then also the long-term what's going to be best for us in the long term. What happens if populations

274increase in some part of town and we have to go in and redistrict and what type of public outrage will we see when we have to redistrict? I I kind of think that having choice, as we've heard from other feedback, you know, having that choice allows us to better balance the populations between our schools. So, there's a benefit there. Um maybe we go longer before we have to do something fairly drastic, but when we do, we have a lot of very passionate parents who love their school. And so, you you have to deal with that. That's where my head is at. And I'll just point out it's 10:16. So, as we're Thank you. >> Thinking about time. Um so uh to Adam's point the transportation is really largely picked up by the state. Right? It's

275we pay 15% which really is really a pit and a rounding error on our overall budget. Right? So essentially transportation is free. So whether we have more routes or fewer routes really makes no difference. So, I'm just curious what problem are we solving by doing things by geographic uh locations? Like what what problem is there that this is purportedly going to resolve? Um that's number one. The second thing is if we do go ahead with this, does that mean all the kids in in box now will that like predominantly go to Blanchard? And isn't that something that you to your point that worked really hard to assimilate act in box? Is this in fact going to have the opposite effect of what we had initially intended by now siloing box children to Blanchard and all

276the Actton kids to Actton? Right? Because if we're doing proximity essentially that will be what happens be Blanchard and then you know and then the boardwalk campus for for box kids and that's it right. Um so could somebody please answer that question and then I'll follow up >> since you want to tackle that? like >> the the second piece of the question I would leave that's actually kind of more your discussion than mine. Um, in terms of, you know, that value in terms of bus service, I think I think you're you're dead on and and we learned this last year in the elementary bud budget task force that, you know, where Date Levenson had told the group, if you want to move away from school choice, move away from school choice for whatever reason, but

277not because it's financial. Uh, because we are getting 85 to 90 cents on the dollar reimbursed by the state for for every dollar we spend. So, it's not a financial thing. I think there is an acknowledged benefit for many students in shortening bus routes uh because you're no longer doing long cross town transports. You're actually when you go geography, even though our schools aren't neighborhood schools, you're taking a quadrant of a community and moving to a school as opposed to trying to pick students up and you're not transporting North Actton students to Blanchard and and things like that. So there there's some benefit in terms of bus routes I think. >> But if we're trying to remove siloing, right, and sort of having these pockets of this is my school and that's that. Is this

278in fact going to have that exact effect? Right? Right now my son has friends coming from different parts of Actton and Boxro to his school and they're all his classmates. They're not all just neighborhood kids. They're coming from, you know, wide uh ranging backgrounds, rich and poor and different, you know, skin colors and so on and so forth. Um, I'm afraid that if if we go towards a geographic thing, then that will just be homogenized. These are like the wealthy houses and they all go to this school and these are all the rental units and they all go to that school and I don't see how that would be avoided uh if we do the geographic thing >> to answer your first question. um having read a lot of letters. [laughter] Um so what I

279was picking up out of an interesting theme I was picking up and it actually came out of box first. So, um, you remember the Veterans Day letters and the question that we asked back about what do you love about your school? And what came back was a very overwhelming conversation about what it meant to have um a school where you went you went to school with largely your neighbors and and I'm I'm hearing you you saying you're an exception to that, but a lot of people wrote back and said, "This is what we love." like it's the the people that live in our town and that are our neighbors that we go to school with and we have this tight relationship with the community. And it was interesting because I started thinking about that cuz

280I'm like, you know, I've actually heard that longing out of a couple of the Actton letters. That's interesting cuz yeah, geographic was not on my mind at all when we started this either. And then as that came out in the packet, that's actually something that's come back is there are there are people who've wrote to us and shared that they find it frustrating that they don't know the other families in their neighborhood because their kids will go to different schools. So, it's a theme that's out there in the letters. I can't speak to it from any personal experience. um my my kids are older, but um I think that's something I could summarize that we've seen as as a reason that people are like this is something that we might be interested in. >> And

281I'll just say this one last thing. I myself went to uh you know, I had I walked to school with 13 kids in my block and everybody's house's parents were my parents and that's how I grew up and I and I really wish that for my kids. Uh however, in our our neighborhood houses are rather far apart. Um, so, uh, I am an advocate for kids, you know, in the neighborhood going to the same school. I think that's a really good thing and I'm I'm a staunch proponent of that. Uh, but I I do fear this this pocketing that that may result from that. So, I think that's something that we need to be cognizant of as we move forward. >> Okay, I'm going to move around here and I'm just going to echo Adam's

282comment, but it is 10:20 and we still have to vote on things. Lakshmi. >> Uh, exactly. That's uh, >> sorry, Lisa. Yep. Sorry. Thank you for Thank you for catching that, Lisa. Go. >> Thank you. Sorry. Yeah. I just to answer what you were asking us to go around and uh think about. I think when I these uh enrollment options initially came out, I did think well initially if you just sprinkle, you know, the bu you know, the students of the building that are shut down into the other schools. I was worried about bullying them being the others and you know and entering these already established uh social groups and this social dynamic that is pre-existing them and then when I was looking at the one-time reau I think my biggest question was and then

283what you know what's what's the long-term solution here because I understand how a lot of people feel compelled to want to have choice if that's what they're accustomed to but we do hear from so many people and I think from my ties with um still remaining active active with ABFN. I hear from people that have young kids who have not yet entered the school system saying this is so overwhelming having all these choices. What does it all mean? And um just to kind of echo the sentiments about going to school with neighbors, um I'm I am a little sad. I have a, you know, really nice neighborhood and, you know, we're friendly with the people across the street and next to us and none of our kids, like a lot of them get on the

284bus together, but they're going to three different schools on those super long bus routes that it would be it would be nice if those bus routes were a little bit shorter. Um, so transportation cost, even if that's not a benefit, I think the shorter times would be great. Um, and I I just think that going back to the real lottery, I think the concern that I had when I was thinking about it is if we're trying to take the best of everything and we're thinking about, you know, taking the best practices and all of that we have, you know, just this um wealth of experiences and best practices from all of our schools and we're truly building something new with option 52 should that be the one that we vote for. Um, essentially what are

285people choosing if you know if we were to keep open enrollment? What would they be really choosing? It might just come down to a building and if all the buildings are centrally located, you know, when we were driving from one building to another doing the tours, it didn't take us very long to go from one building to another. So, it just um to me it seems like it would just come down to a building and then I wonder if people would just pick, oh, I would want the same building where I was before and then wouldn't we just end up getting the same? And um so I think that was my reasoning as I was kind of fleshing it out and looking through all of these different things. And I think the last point I

286want to make on all of that is a lot of people are saying, "Well, if we did geographic distribution, gosh, who would my kids know?" And I would say probably a lot of people. Do your kids do activities? Do your kids do sports around town? Do do you associate with your neighbors or friendly with your neighbors? Your kids will know people. Um I inevit inevitably know a lot of people from our kids different activities. And so it's just um your kids will have people that they know. And especially if it were geographic and I'm thinking about actton students, you know, you have almost like a 50/50 shot. You know, between you're going to either building, you're there's going to be, you know, a high probability you're going to definitely know people in the other building,

287especially because of the grade banding. So, just want people to keep that in mind. >> I'll pause here just in case Glenn wanted to say something before I skip anybody else. >> You're okay. Okay, go for it. Lakshmi, >> do we have to decide the enrollment policy tonight? >> We're not deciding anything tonight. We're we're just talking until we're all completely exhausted >> because because [laughter] I think it's it's getting to the point of diminishing returns. So, I think >> Thanks for that. >> Yeah. >> Okay, let me just kind of look around the room. Andrew, >> um I just want to make sure that we we remember the kids in this because some of the things we're talking about tonight, we're taking away their schools, we're taking away their buildings, we're taking away their

288friends, we're taking away their teachers, we're taking away their libraries, we're taking away their cultures. It's important for us to understand how we fit everybody back together. And yeah, on the second day, on the other side of change, everybody adapts. Everybody adapts. But we have to keep in mind where we can sit here and say geography, satellite towns, this that our kids are the ones right now who need to who need to deal with that change for them. And they are kids and they are not necessarily aware of how quickly things change. They enter into a space they think is going to stick around for a while. There's nothing constant obviously in life. We're adults. We know this. Um we have to be cognizant of that. And the other side of it, the decisions that

289we make right now will impact how the towns we live in are structured outside of the schools. There is a greater weight for this decision than just putting kids in these buildings right now. And I know we have a vendor that we've been talking to about doing some of this stuff and I know there's additional research. I would like to know more about how this decision impacts more than just the schools before we go ahead and make a decision on anything with this. That's all. I just want to say it's uh 10:27 and I once heard a very wise person say if you go ahead and look in the recordings, anything that's said after 10:30 should never have been said. Not yet. >> Accept a motion to do something. >> I will not be accepting

290that motion at this time. >> All right. >> Can Can we just temp check whether folks are ready to keep >> move? Yeah. Okay. [clears throat] So, show of hands of ready to move on. Show of hands of something really pressing. How fast can you say it, Vicram? I can say [snorts] it very quickly. I I just want to finish up with one thing. Um, you know, I saw the movie Home Alone with my kids uh over the over the winter break and uh you know, the mother goes, "Oh, Dennis." And she's going and traveling trying to find, you know, get back to her son, right? Um and then of course along the way she runs into John Candy, right? She says, "I'm such a horrible mother. Have you ever done anything like this to

291your child?" And John Candy says, "Well, once we left our son at a mortuary for the entire day, you know," and he said, "Oh, but kids are resilient." You know, after eight weeks, he started talking again. So, to your point, Andrew. [gasps] >> All right. On that note, it must be time to talk about the first read of the school calendar. Who gets to tell us about that? So the the school calendar is in your packet. Um you know knowing that we need to be considering um how we can at least best situate our educators to to start the school year. We moved the um November professional day to the start of the school year. That was something that ABA had suggested to us as well. Um we were thinking along the same lines. So

292that was that was good. uh ABA, he has reviewed the calendar. There was some feedback from them that's been incorporated. Um there's notably the Friday before Labor Day um in our contract because of our start dates uh needs to be a no school day. Um so that has been incorporated. So you'll see the 4-day long weekend around Labor Day. Um you will also see the traditional holidays um and no school days incorporated onto the calendar. and then the first and last days of the the school year. So outside of that, it's you know, there's no changes in terms of how we develop the calendar. It's the same plan that we've been following for, you know, several years now and with the exception of that one professional day being moved. >> Any comments or questions on

293the calendar? >> Andrew, >> December 23rd. Um, how much what's our absence level on that half day before Christmas? >> Students or teachers? >> Uh, [laughter] either one. Actually, >> I can get that. >> I [clears throat] just wonder because a half day before that, is it better for us to kill that last half day? I know we need to have 11:30. Is it better for us to kill that last half day on the 23rd um rather and have a full day 22nd have that last day on the 23rd gone instead of a half day considering the kind of trends for attendance. >> The the only concern I have is in when how we end the school year um and how late that starts to get. Um you know we're scheduled to end on June

29417th now. Um, if we push that another day, that's the Friday. Um, you know, Junth next year is on a Saturday. So, that's not actually one of the federal I mean, it's a federal holiday, but it's not one of those over Monday. It does not. No. >> Um, and so, but we can we have to plan up to five additional days. And if we ended up with that, we'd be going to June 25th, which is a really really late end of the school year. So, you know, we could certainly do that, but it has an impact on the other side. I would just I'd love to know the value of that day other than to have a day logged in the calendar of being here. >> It's to meet Desi requirements. >> Yeah, >> let's

295be honest. >> Desi. >> All right. Anything else on the calendar? >> When does feedback need to be provided on this so that it can be ready for our next meeting? >> That's a great question, Adam. Uh I would say midweek next week. If you have feedback, we have to we need to post next the next meeting next Friday. So, you know, we Tuesday would be preferable. >> All right. Thanks. Um Peter, elementary bell times, do you want to talk that? Yeah, I'll just briefly say it and I'll turn it over to Sher for details, but um our buses are running late every single day. Um and you know, transportation has been trying everything they can do to get the uh buses to the elementary schools, particularly in the afternoon on time. They cannot do

296it there. It there's just there's no way they can adjust their times. And so, you know, the reality is we've talked a lot before and there was a real push in in this community to move high school and junior high start times later knowing adolescent sleep is is really critical. And so there's had been in the past very little interest about moving secondary times earlier. Um I would concur with that as well. Um but the reality is either we would just move the elementary time 10 minutes later or we would just run our buses 10 minutes late every day and frustrate everyone. So um I there's no other unfortunately there's no other solution we have other than to just move the the time 10 minutes later. The only thing I would add to that is

297just a couple examples. Like when they leave the high school, they can't start the engine until 2:53 and pickup time or dismissal time is 3:20. Right now, we're having a hard time even just on Haywood Street trying to get to the end of Haywood and pull on to sometimes we're not even getting there till 3:00 to pull on to Route 27. And if you have a student that lives just about into Maynard and then you have another student that lives on the other side of like North Actton and you have to get back to the school, we're having a really hard time getting back to those schools on time. The 10 minutes will absolutely help us. So when Peter said there's nothing else changed on the calendar, there really isn't except the bell times are

298changed on the top of the calendar to reflect what we're asking. >> Thanks. Questions or comments? Okay. >> I think it just resolves a source of frustration for everyone, families, schools. We can get this done. >> Yeah, makes sense. [snorts] Okay, next amp. Who gets that one? >> I can talk to that. So, um I'll try and be really brief because I recognize the time. Um as you know, when we designed the boardwalk campus, there was a battery plus solar ar uh array planned for that campus. Um we have been working on that project for the better part of six years, seven years now. Um we learned earlier this fall that it was not going to move forward uh based on permitting at the town of Actton level. Um where the final permit uh was

299not approved and so that was over concerns of the location of the battery just to to be clear and I think we've talked about that before. Um Nex AMP tried to revise pricing for us. Um the pricing actually ended up almost double of what we were going to pay for. We've been working with solar companies on new power purchase agreements to, you know, have add solar on the rooftop here, potentially explore more canopies around campus and try and reduce our electricity costs. Um but the cost of doing that at Boardwalk was prohibitive uh based on what Nexamp was offering. So we need to go ahead and terminate our agreement with them. Um, Nexamp actually has provided feedback to our attorney on this termination agreement. So, you're seeing an agreement that actually includes feedback from both.

300There is a late change that is now uploaded to your packet. Even, you know, with 2:00 today, but that has been thoroughly vetted by both our attorneys and Nexamp attorneys. We don't foresee any challenges um from Nex AMP. They know the cancellation is coming. They're aware of it. They understand. Um, we will pursue new options. Um, I don't have a timeline or horizon for that. Um, we're pretty focused on other things right now. Um, but you know, we certainly want to pursue other options. It just would not include a battery. Um, and we would lose revenue from that. So, that's kind of the story behind that. >> Vick, >> um, is is there hope for battery storage going forward? And wasn't that part of the the deal with the new Border Campus that we would

301have that? And I know there's an issue of where the batter is going to be placed and all that stuff. Could you speak to that just shortly or briefly I guess? >> Yeah, I don't see a path forward on battery unless um permitting requirements come from the state of Massachusetts that would allow it. Um I know that you know the state has talked about granting a lot more flexibility over batteries, but that doesn't exist right now. Um so I don't see a path forward for that. Um that does mean that we likely are not going to end up being the the net zero energy that we had hoped for. Adam. >> Uh, I would like to move to vote to move to terminate the battery storage agreement with Nexamp and request that the administration continue

302to see search out options for renewable energy on the boardwalk camp. >> Second stuck. >> All right. So, that was moved by Adam and Vicram got in there. So, seconded by Vicram. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Nice timing, Lisa. Okay, that motion passes. Okay, before I hit the consent agenda. Next meeting, we are voting. We are voting on an option. We're going to deliberate. We'll talk about it. We are going to vote on which reorganization option we're going to select and then if appropriate, we will talk about um and vote the related enrollment and then we are going to have the budget. It is going to be another very awesome meeting. So, come ready to do that. And also read Julie's email tomorrow. Important information. She keeps us organized. Um, okay. >>

303And hydrated. >> And stay hydrated. Yeah, that's always good. Yes, she does. Yes. Thank you to Julie for taking care of us. Okay. Consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda do not usually require discussion and are approved with one vote unless any member would like to hold an item for discussion in a separate vote. I will read each item and if a member would like it held, please say hold. Members do not have to have attended a meeting to vote on the minutes. Item A, approval of Actton Boxboro Regional School Committee meeting minutes from held. All right, that one is held. Um, you're going to make me you're going to make me follow the rules here. Okay. Item B, Actton Boxboro Friends of Music $2,500 donation to AB Music Department. Okay. Item C, donation of

304$3,696 from Mark Lawrence Photographers to R.J. Gay Junior High School. Item D, recommendation to approve budget transfer per policy DJB. Item E, approval of warrants is presented in the packet on January 8th, 2026. Okay. The following item has been held and will be voted on separately. That would be item A, the approval of our meeting minutes. We will vote the remaining items on consent. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Approve items B through E. >> Thank you, Adam. And um help me with the second. Thank you, Vicram. Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Any abstensions? Great. So, that's unanimous. And let's go back and talk about um meeting minutes. I I just I don't know if it's I'm having tech is technical issues or I'm technically challenged.

305I am not seeing Andrew's letter attached to the minutes. So, it's down at the bottom. Uh documents used and you should see it at the bottom there. >> Oh, okay. Thanks. >> Okay. Yes. Yes. So, and thank you for uh asking that question because we had somebody ask that in an email as well. So, that's how to find it when you're looking for documents. And if you want to read our entire um elevator speech from April, that'll be in this one. Okay. >> Move to approve ABRSC meeting minutes of 121825. >> Second. Second. >> Thank you, Adam. Thank you, Yenshin. All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> That was Leela. >> Leela. Oh, that was Leela. Wow, I didn't even look. And you >> times a charm. >> Yep. >> All in favor? >> I

306>> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Great. >> Somebody >> move second. Okay, I heard a very That was Glenn. Thank you. [laughter] >> Yes, that was Leela. >> All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you everybody.