to be included on the warrant. There's also a couple of items of new business, but those are the big key things that we are going to focus on. So, with that, we're going to shift to public participation. Can I see a show of hands of who would like to speak this evening,
please? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Okay, so I see seven. We're going to go with um two minutes because I know that this uh tends to grow as people walk in as well. Um and I'm just going to let
everybody know that I will I will cut us off when we reach 15 minutes because as you heard, we have a pretty busy agenda. In the event that somebody wants to speak who doesn't get an opportunity to speak, please send a note to the school committee email. We will all see that. And with that, um whoever wants to lead us off, step up, introduce yourself, and
we will get things going. Good. Hi there. I'm Paul Noitzky. Uh I'm the father of a second grader in Mariam and a preschooler who's going to be going into Huner. Um I wanted to thank everyone. I mean, I
know this is a very difficult situation. Um, my concern is specifically with moving the yellow um north of Route Two pocket to Blanchard, which I believe conflicts with the um district's principles.
Although this area appears contiguous on the map, it functions as a satellite. It is separated from Boxboro by Route 2, commercial development and conservation land. Um, families must travel through Littleton to get to Boxboro and
Blanchard. Um, this is visual continuity continuity, not a lived community. This pocket is also smallest and least cohesive group under consideration with the declining population and students
who are not already socially connected to each of the existing Boxware community. moving them furthest dis the furthest distance into a highly established school community concentrates disruption on the least able to absorb it.
This also conflicts with enrollment logic north of Route 2 is low growth while dense while denser more cohesive areas exist that better align with Blanchard. I urge uh the committee the committee to reconsider including the
yellow pocket and apply AB forward principles uh consistently and transparently. Uh >> 30 seconds. >> The map um is reminiscent of like gerrymandering where uh a neighborhood is connected to another neighborhood by
a highway or something like that. Um thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Okay. Hi there. I'm Ally Gilman. I have two kids in Actton schools and we live in West Actton. Um when we were first when
our oldest was able to uh eligible for kindergarten, we traveled across and did our due diligence and went to every single kindergartenformational night. We quickly learned that the schools were more similar than different. And so we
very carefully made the decision that we wanted our child to attend a neighborhood school. Um now West Actton is one of those uh communities that has uh been considered to go to Blanchard. Right now we go to Douglas and my kids
can walk there in 10 minutes. If they take the bus home from school it is 40 minutes. Uh, I really appreciate some of the stated values uh about keeping neighborhoods together and uh
prioritizing walkability. And I um just want to thank you for continuing to consider those as you make some difficult decisions. Thank you. >> Thank you. I always have this problem. I don't know
how you Hold on one second. Thank you. Perfect. Thanks. Um I I sent this in an email, but I feel like I want to say it again in public here because I'm speaking on behalf of many fifth grade, rising sixth grade parents. um and that
it is so important for us to consider our fifth graders. Um as a parents of a rising sixth grader for next year, I'm writing to express my full support of the legacy/grandfathering for all rising sixth graders. The current fifth grade class started in the
fall of 2020, the height of the pandemic. Many of these kids also lost the opportunity to have closure and an ending to their um preschool experience because of the shutdown in March of 2020. Many families chose remote schooling for
the start of their child's kindergarten experience, while others chose to send their child to school. The children who attended school in person were required to sit at desks 6 feet apart and went for approximately three hours. Thus, they had limited social interactions. The children who went for remote also
had limited um social interactions with peers. I'm not saying that CO affected the current fifth graders more than other kids. Everyone was certainly affected. However, in the context of this decision, I think the current fifth graders um and the school assignments is
very relevant. The proposed reassignment effectively effectively breaks up friend groups like my daughter's wonderful friend group. While I know she and/we will make the best of it and she'll make new friends and work to keep the old friends is an unnecessary challenge being put on our fifth graders at a time
when they are all trying to find their place. And let's be frank. Let's seeing your friends in a different um outside of school and a different place is not the same as going to school with those same friends. These kids in fifth grade have challenges such as navigating intense peer pressure, puberty related
changes, developing a unique identity and social dynamics and so on. This route requires support to build confidence and independence while managing all of those issues. It feels like the fifth grade class is being swept up in this comprehensive change without fully recognizing what impact
might be what the impact might be to this particular group of students. I really hope that you will consider this. Thank you again for your service as well. >> Thank you. Oh, okay. Thanks. >> I'm actually going to read this time.
Uh, my name is Arnon. I'm a parent of two kids in Marti town. And I'm going to use this opportunity to argue that now that we know much more about geo enrollment, we should go back and reconsider this against the existing open enrollment. Now as you know the geo
enrollment does not have any significant financial effect on the budget. So this is not related to the budget. At the same time it has a lot of uh negative effects. I'm going to just mention the significant emotional distress it's going to cause to our children. I think
that many of your assumptions going into this decision with geo um distribution and have been proven wrong. For example, you're speaking about the formation of new communities from scratch. The fact is the principles are staying where they are. The teachers are staying where they
are. The only people moving are the kids. So what you'll have up end up having is the same communities, the same cultures, but with a lot of frustrated parents and a lot of miserable kids. Now speaking with many of this in this community, I think you have lost the
trust of many of us and the confidence in you leading this change. You're speaking about a tax override. Given that the previous override barely passed, I don't think you have any chance of getting the new one to get passed, which means we'll be uh facing ongoing
financial stress and ongoing cuts in the foreseeable future. The only way I think to avoid this outcome is to bring this back to the public. Give the community a chance to vote on the question of enrollment. I think this would
>> restore the trust. I started a petition earlier today publishing uh this to again allow people to support this call. If anyone listening to this is interested in signing this petition, you can find us in Facebook in acton parents or email me. The email is non@yahoo.com.
Again, a r nyahoo.com. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi, my name is Caitlyn Durance. I emailed you all this morning. So, um, happy to be in front of you to talk to you again this evening. Um, I'm here tonight as a parent of a rising kindergartener and as a resident of
Minaman Ridge, a neighborhood of 88 homes in a deeply close-knit community to express serious concern about the designation of our neighborhood as a flex zone. At this point, the school committee has not clearly defined flex zones in this policy and this lack of clarity introduces significant
uncertainties for our families. MMR is a de is is directly connected to the Parker Damon building by walking path through our neighborhood. Kids meet each morning and walk together. Older kids guiding younger ones, parents following closely behind. This is the definition of a neighborhood school. You have said
repeatedly that you want to strengthen neighborhoods. So, I don't understand dividing one of the most connected ones. Um, later tonight, Nick is going to show you some statistics on MMR. Um, and you will see that there's some lack of cons consensus and the current school choice
between the two campuses. I want to remind you that those were choices and not mandates. family could choose to attend a campus under open enrollment knowing that a neighborhood was already there or ch or a neighborhood friend was already there or choose a spec specific
teaching methodology that aligned best for them. These choic choices happened all over town. So I'm not sure why Minute Man bridg is being targeted in this way. I'm um I feel like the data is being misapplied in this way. I want to
remind you that as members of school committee, you're in charge of setting the priorities and representing us. Yet, there's a clear lack of guidance here. The one thing that has been consistent is you have said over and over that you want to strengthen communities and I um
I don't understand how flex zones do that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi, my name is Julia Day. I live at 169 Nog Hill Road. I have a second grader, a kindergartener, and a 2-year-old in daycare. This change in scenario 7 is a huge
impact to my family. Um, I work as an essential worker and I have very strict job requirements including being on site. My husband also has requirements for his job. We're a two-working parent family. We do not
have family nearby. This change, which is noted, is based on visual continuity and not travel continuity would take away all the flex that I have in my schedule. And these types of logistical challenges are disproportionately born
by women like me. And I cannot believe that I'm the only woman in my neighborhood that would have this kind of problem with her job. I'm going to be forced out of my job if this is the ultimate scenario. And the change that and the impact that'll have on my family
is massive. And I don't think I can manage it before the school year starts. So I want to strongly encourage you to consider the impact of the different scenarios on families including mine. Thank you.
>> Thank you. I think I might be the last um folk to person to speak. Um want to thank you all for your time and your dedication. Um, I also have a uh fifth grader at Miriam. Um, I I do, you know, strongly
support what uh the previous person uh parent had said about consideration for um this particular group of of children. Um but after hearing what most uh all the other folks and their concerns, I do
think that there has to be some sort of um you know, maybe that's what the flex zone is, but um some sort of uh pathway for families that can't uh abide by the the regional restrictions, at least to
begin with. Um, you know, for the for the fifth graders, as as um Sarah noted, the the burden on them to to make two massive transitions in two years. um you
know, one to um go from going to Miriam to uh um to another school um and then to uh to junior high is I think is overly
burdensome to them um and will have some long-term negative impacts on on their um well-being. So I I would just ask the committee in all in in their best possible way to uh to to allow some
venue to to to uh make exceptions for folks that can't um can't manage the change. >> Thank you. >> All right. This is going to be our last speaker. This is if you have if you have not gotten an
opportunity to speak and you have things you want to say, please email us. I have been in town for 19 years now. I counted it out. I have seen neighborhoods come and go in terms of the ch uh number of children in it. People rise up, retire, eventually move. It fills up with kids.
Um so I have the somewhat less popular argument for flex zones. I think it's going to be a lot easier for families to handle moving in somewhere and having their kids in a school. I'm in a system right now where my kids, all of our neighbors have gone to different schools and it's been fine. It's been great. I think that's going to be a lot easier
for us going forward than having to redistrict say 10 years in the future or something when we've had a significant shift. So next year's going to be hard for everyone. We've got just a hard time coming forward. I would love to see you all plan kind of more for the longer
term future to avoid this sort of thing again as much as possible. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, we're going to move to the superintendent's update. Peter, you ready for us? >> All right, good evening everyone. Um, first I want to just offer some
congratulations to um a number of our educators who are completing their 20th year of service um with the school district. 20 years in one place is really, you know, quite a feat and a lot of dedication and a lot of students and families that they've served over that
time. So, our educators um this year who are being recognized for their 20 years of service, Becky Aerson, Chris Baird, Timothy Basset, Kathleen Balo, Vanessa Bergman, Kristen Irvick, Dan Goldner, Robert Graham, Brendan Hearn, Melissa
Hubble, Lena Yarischek, Raymond Calagher, Kristen Kelly, Kimberly Landry, Kristen Lucari, Timothy Murphy, Christine Neielen, Pamela Reeves, Nicole Ross, and Jessica Sand. So, congratulations to all of them and a huge thank you.
I thought that would be a good one to change the tone. Yeah. Um, I also want to congratulate some of our high school student artists whose work was selected uh by jury for the 2026 Massachusetts amazing emerging artists recognition exhibit. So we have uh Nathaniel Kim,
Esther Song, Bella Khesi, Maria Ddier, and Ayah Flancer. So congratulations to our students as well. Um want to give the school committee and our community just a heads up at our next school committee meeting. Um I'm going to be coming to you with a request for a
modification to the current year's calendar as we proceed to the end of the year. Um, as we've gone through the AB forward process, um, I've had an opportunity to go to all of the schools, meet with groups of educators. Um, we've done some educator surveys around, you
know, what their thinking is, needs, priorities, things like that. Um, and I think the other thing that stood out to me was one of the top things that our families wanted in surveys through the AB forward process to make sure our educators were getting what they need.
Um, we would like to request some additional half days at the elementary level only. So, I'm going to come forward with more details on this for next time, but we're looking for a couple of things. May 22nd is the day before Memorial Day weekend. It's a Friday. Um, we're going to see if that
would work as a half day for you. uh we would actually like to dedicate that to student class placement and we can actually have all our educators working together across schools and grade levels on this if we actually have a really significant chunk of time that we can dedicate to that. So we believe that that would be really student impactful
um as we head into next year to make sure all of our educators can collaborate with each other across schools and grade levels to place students thoughtfully into cohorts for next year. The other one thinking about how educators have to move at the end of the year um and all of the work that's going to go into that given the amount of change that's happening across all of
our schools with teaching. Um the last day of school is always a half day. Um and that is Thursday the 25th. Um we also the day before that is a Wednesday um which is an early release day for educators. We would like consideration for the Monday and Tuesday
as well to potentially be considered as half days. I just don't want to surprise you with this. you know, we're certainly open to discussion on that from the school committee and want to, you know, get that on the radar of the the community as well. Uh, but I think educators in particular really need a lot of support and I think when we talk
about what educators really need when we when they hear support is they need time to be able to do their jobs. And I think student placement and making sure that educators have what they need as they get ready to go into summer and into next year is going to be critical. So, I just want to give you a heads up. I will come to you with a more formal request
as we get there. I also hope to come to you with potential child care options um that we are able to provide on those days as well. So I'll I'll have more information for you and please stay tuned for next meeting. The last one uh because I know we have a lot to do. I just want to recognize that
this is Women's History Month. Um I won't say the same thing I do every year which that means that it's from the first of the month to the end of the month. Um but it in all seriousness I I do want to share this is a significant month because um throughout our history
I think women have been a group that have sometimes been overlooked when you look at the history not only of you know kind of the nation that we live in and the world but actually in our community as well when we actually look at who gets recognized for making history in our own communities. So um just want to
recognize that this is an important month. Thank you to all of the women who serve um serve on this committee uh because that's a significant undertaking and thank you to all the women out there because uh you make an incredible contribution that has been oft overlooked.
>> Thank you, Peter. >> Did Nick sneak in here? >> He did. All right. Um in that case, as we uh transition, first of all, I just want to say thank you to everybody who has taken the opportunity to step up to the mic. That's not an easy thing to do,
especially when you're sharing a personal story and all of those emails that we have received as well. We are reading them. There are a lot of them and I'm just going to acknowledge that that I haven't gotten to responding to all of them. So, we really appreciate that. Um, as Nick's getting set up here,
um, you know, we start out with overarching goals back in our our elevator speech that we wrote together of sustainability, affordability, and excellent quality of education. and my sense is that we're going to have some conversations tonight that relate to that. Um, as well as the many things
that have been raised from our community. Um, so Nick and and his team have brought forward some considerations for scenario development that's been based on community input and we started out in our iterations looking at how do we take those and then go back and check
ourselves on some of the other goals that we're looking for. So, how do we look at education quality in terms of utilization, in terms of demographics, of setting these schools up for success? And that's really been what scenarios one through five looked at. And then as we hit five, we sort of felt like we
were getting some of that in line. So, five, six, and seven. Um, we've been looking at refinements that have policy imple implications. And we've heard some about that tonight, right? Walkability, neighborhood integrity, hometown preference. Um, and also looking at transition experience. How does that
layer on top? So, grandfathering, what exceptions might there be? Um, so that's been kind of scenarios 5 through 7. And our task tonight is to make sure that we give enough clarity to Nick and Peter to focus so that they can test all of the
flex zone policy and the transition ideas that we've come up with and figure out if they're feasible. So tonight we're looking at um some consensus on how we're prioritizing our areas of actin that will be assigned to Blanchard to balance our utilization and class sizes across schools. We are looking for
consensus on our approach to flex or buffer zones, whatever you want to call them. Um and Nick's going to talk about that further as we go. And then we are looking at prioritizing the policies that we want to have evaluated, including anything that um might require some sort of limited polling of families
because I think Peter's going to address this later, but to make this happen in a timely manner so that it can actually be useful information, we actually have to give them enough guidance that they can turn around and do that next week. So with that, I will turn it over to Nick
to lead us through this. >> And thank you very much and good evening everybody. Uh happy to be back. Um I am going to jump right into it because um I do want to get through a lot of what I have to present to you all but then uh priority wise is to as uh Tori mentioned would love to hear your discussion and
your consensus around a couple key topics. So uh my name is Nick. I am from Dylan Derd a Connecticut based nonprofit and we're here uh over the past two months to help uh design sustainable elementary attendance boundaries uh to help operationalize the vision of AB forward. Uh we'll quickly go through um
project to date uh talk uh a couple two pieces of additional data that we just want to incorporate into the conversation and then dive into uh the process of building the scenario and ultimately in terms of and I'm going to reiterate this the three key areas I absolutely positively need from you all
in terms of guidance around the Blanchard uh boundary or expanded zone transition policies and flex zones. All right. In terms of project to date, uh again, we're regularly meeting with you all uh and we uh did host the March 10th uh parent webinar. We've been
meeting with the district team on a weekly basis. Um this is slightly outdated. We've had now over 220 email conversations uh with the community. Uh have participated and collected um well participated in the part uh parent webinar, collected a lot of different
input from uh surveys as well as the interactive web app. uh we've continued to conduct uh a lot of the different data analyses that have been brought to bear and then ultimately we're in the process of uh developing uh multiple iterative scenarios. So in terms of the interactive web app
um that has been extremely helpful in regards to again providing context around neighborhood uh different various neighborhoods, how people define neighborhoods, what uh individuals have felt was important in terms of moving uh individual neighborhoods to actin or not
actin. And so what we wanted to do is just could provide you with a really quick breakdown in regards to the the percentage of responses that we're getting. And so uh ultimately in terms of uh the area in regards to what uh brought I would say the most uh
interactivity and and input uh was the upper uh Arlington area, the general reasonzoning suggestions and then ultimately general geographic context. So again, a lot of different pieces of the puzzle have been uh informed. I do want to emphasize to a lot of folks, we are listening and reading through each of these and really trying to
incorporate them into iterative aspects of the scenario. Uh, a couple different uh, emails that were brought to our attention around medium housing prices. Um, I did want to sort of kind of flag this for folks when we're thinking about um, the idea of zoning uh, a section of
Actton uh, to go to the elementary school in uh, Boxboro. So, a couple different key aspects here in terms of thinking about the medium housing prices across both Boxboro and Actton. Um, in general, Boxboro prices are slightly lower, but I would say very comparable
to uh different areas within Actton. Obviously, there's the northeastern section that has a significant higher level of medium housing prices. But then I would say the rest of uh Actton and Boxboro are like I said comparable in regards to to pricing. If you do look at
research, uh research shows that property values are primarily driven by school quality, not just location. Um and so given that uh basically all of the elementary schools are very high performing. Um that's number one. Number two, not only would the students be going to elementary school, they will
also be going to the middle school and high school, which is exceedingly uh high quality. So for those folks uh generally from my opinion um that are concerned that their medium house prizes will uh be hit, I I find that probably not a huge concern given again it's tied
to the entire educational system uh and not just the one uh elementary school. All right. So I did struggle. I knew that going into today's meeting I needed to get clarity around the three areas that we talked about. And so initially I was not going to introduce a new scenario and we were just going to kind
of jump into it. However, I thought it was really important to kind of walk us through the process of developing a scenario so that you can understand where these individual components that I'm going to ask you to weigh in on where they fit into the whole process.
So, in terms of the objectives, um again I I do want to emphasize uh it was an iterative progress uh in terms of how we've been developing the seven scenarios. Um we are attempting to optimize or what we like to say the best fit model around demographics, utilization, walkability and future
growth. A lot of people I do want to emphasize feel like we are picking on them or uh identifying a neighborhood that is completely isolating them out. That is not the case. Uh we have you know the pie is the pie as they say and so Actton is only so big and so as we look to optimize and prioritize
different areas these are trade-offs. Um and ultimately at the end of the day uh that that responsibility falls on you all to determine like we had decided when we were going through the decision points what need what is worthwhile of a trade-off and what are we trying to prioritize as a community and what we
are not trying to prioritize. So, in terms of that, in regards to where we're going, you know, before April vacation, uh I need uh we obviously want to or you all want to vote on a uh uh a final plan or a final scenario um that will bring at least
some level of understanding to the community in regards to a path forward, which I think for a lot of districts that are going through this, that is a very critical component is uh understanding that a decision has been made and uh folks can sort of move forward and plan accordingly. So to do that, we're going to talk about scenario
7, but to do that, um, I need guidance in regards to how you want to prioritize the Blanchard zone expansion, which I'll dive into in a minute, the legacy option, and then ultimately the flex zones. So when we think about building a scenario, it really starts with, I would say, the base foundation as I talked
about it in terms of thinking about the east west versus north south uh boundary. Uh we did look at both the earlier scenarios really did kind of try to unpack a little bit of that north south boundary and at the end of the day given what we've seen the east west
boundary is by far a superior uh foundation for a couple different reasons. One um it does I think do a far better job at balancing uh demographic or student demographics across all of the schools. um given how we know the distribution of various student
demographics are across Actton when you have the north south it really is a tale of two cities so to speak which is I know a priority that we're trying to avoid. Um in regards to some of the analysis that we did about future growth again splitting it on the um having east and west uh really balances out the
potential future growth and I think could help manage uh the uncertainty of how you know neighborhoods are going to change going forward. So in regards to that we always look at these two pieces. we we generally will choose east west because the north south just uh in our opinion doesn't work. Then through these
iterations we've had a lot of conversations about walk zones. Um ultimately and as have you heard from uh various community members right those communities that are within about a onem uh walking distance of each school feels that they are extremely both uh
tight-knit communities and tied to the schools themselves. Again, from what we've heard and how we've or reordered uh the decision points, uh the walk zones generally are a high priority. As you can see, based on uh scenario 7, we have endeavored to basically stick very
closely to uh the walk zone boundaries so that if you're within one mile, you're to that school, and if you're out outside of that mile, sort of anything's fair game. I would say the biggest thing we have heard of is around the Jefferson Street uh area, which is tied to uh Patriots Hill. Uh we've heard you loud
and clear and uh ultimately given the level of input around Jefferson City um I'm sorry Jefferson Street uh that would probably be the exception to the rule that we're thinking about in regards to the onem walk zone.
Um I do so this again sorry jump in the case was the Patriots Hill. uh our decision again this is a kind of a key trade-off right you can Patriots Hill which is just north of the walk zone is zoned to boardwalk whereas within the walk zone it's zoned to Parker Damon um
so as we think about keeping uh the different neighborhood continuity together you would have to sacrifice uh the onem walk zone we've heard loud and clear like I've said it's a small section of uh the the the area that one they deem is not walkable and two is
tied to Patriots Hill. And so those are the types of trade-offs and and I will say tweaking around the margins that we can do around the base foundation when it comes to some of these things. All right. So now we get to the fun part which is the Blanchard expansion zone. Um, as we have sort of dictated and uh
detailed before, um, the overall number of students that live in Actton and live in Boxboro, uh, really do max out the entirety of the elementary school system with the five remaining schools. So, for that to work, there is going to be a
subset of Actton students that need to go to Blanchard uh, annually to make sure that we're balancing out the utilization. So a decision point could be made from you all uh that basically says we want to send as few Actton kids as possible which is a totally a good
decision. I mean it's totally a decision you could make. The trade-off is you're going to have higher utilization in Actton schools versus Blanchard schools or I'm sorry versus Boxboro schools. Um that is a trade-off. You can totally do that. Uh we've heard loud and clear from a lot of parents that they don't feel
like that that is uh a valuable or worthwhile trade-off. So now that leaves us with the idea that there is a set of students about a hundred that we need to identify in Actton to send to Blanchard. There are ways to mitigate the
transition. I will put I'm going to anytime that gets brought up, I'm going to say that's a transition policy. Going forward for the next I'm going to say 10 to 15 years. You need to have an area identified whether it's used or not. you need to have an ident future generations of kids can be zoned
to uh Blanchard even if it's not the case. So as we had sort of worked through this we did try to identify all of the I would say possible options that both fit in terms of total enrollment and general logistical
possibility. Um I'm acknowledging the fact that some of these I think are not very logistically feasible. um and don't really fit with some of the values that you had identified before. So, we started off just to kind of walk down memory lane. We started off with the green and the blue. Um there was a lot
of push back in regards to the blue given that it's a walk zone. So, then we went to the red. Uh again, the the proximity to the walk zone and in terms of feeling like they were isolated, we wanted to entertain and identify other areas. There's the purple area which is
the Stow Street region. um that gets farther away from Blanchard talking about being on the bus a long time. And uh the trickiest part and I do want to kind of flag even though visually we do we are trying to create a visual zone um some of these are really driven by
transportation. We've been working closely with the transportation department at the district and some of these do make more sense than others. Uh there's usually about one or two entrances to the purple zone which does complicate uh the transportation process. Um, you can notice the orange,
you know, the orange has a nice uh size in terms of students. However, they are tight-knit community that is within the walk zone that uh creates complications and also creates uh busing issues. You have uh again the teal, the yellow, and then very far up north you have uh
Avalon as well. So, we've detailed out sort of how or what uh could be possible. Um, we have given you our two cents in regards to what we think would be a recommendation, but at the end of the day, it comes down to what you all
value and what you all want to prioritize. Um, and I do want to emphasize, I gave you the total numbers. I I will kind of cut to the chase. The demographics is not going to change horrendously by school with whatever you choose. So in regards to that, the conversation really needs to stick to do
you how do you prioritize walk zones, transportation challenges, what you deem to be community or neighborhood continuity, and ultimately how you think um you know again back to the satellite zones versus uh keeping the zone one
kind of big chunk. Those are the types of things that sort of play out as uh decision points. So this is our first um I believe school committee decision right. Does the school school committee feel there are any other better options besides the green and the yellow which
we are sort of recommending that we should utilize going forward >> Adam I'll kick it off. Um, over the past what, two weeks, every time a new color is identified on the map, we get another round of emails from families saying that you're,
you know, expressing their concern with their area being identified as one that is being shipped off to Boxboro. Um, and like I I I recognize that. I think a lot of people
in the community also recognize we've got a difficult challenge ahead of us. Um, as a resident of Boxboro, first of all, I want to say that Boxboro is a wonderful town. Um, and that being able to go to Blanchard is a an an opportunity as well as possibly a challenge for some people. The other thing I want to point out is that um,
we've gotten emails from people that say, "I moved to Actton so my kids could go to the Actton schools and I don't ever want to leave Actton." Um, and I do want to point out that every resident of Boxboro goes to an Actton school when they go to the junior high or the high school. Um, and so I just I want to make
sure that those things are said. None of it is a value statement. I just think it's something that needs to be sort of shared publicly. Um, this isn't an easy decision and I appreciate, Nick, the work that you and the team have done to sort of identify different pockets. And um, I I think that the I I guess the the
question I would have I'm leaning towards your recommendation of Ethan Allen and north of Route 2. The question I have around north of Route 2 is have we talked with the transportation department and have they provided any feedback around the transportation possibilities challenges for that cluster?
>> Yeah, that's actually I mean outside of the green and blue which I think is the most logical for bus transportation uh given its proximity uh the green and the yellow work the best for transportation for busing. uh you would think purple
might be, but given uh again uh the layout of how routes are constructed, the proximity of the different um neighborhoods, and ultimately how different areas can be accessed via routing systems, the yellow and the green were the next best basically.
>> Thanks. Yeah, I I then I don't want to say I like your recommendation, but I think your recommendation is the best option that we've got. um particularly when we're looking in the long term about how we want to manage this. >> So I will I will be completely content if nobody says I like your recommendation. Uh this is truly a you
know you have to pick you have to pick one and they all come with a weight uh that will have to be borne and that is a decision obviously that is a very difficult one to make. >> Ben, >> so out of all the colors which is the
worst for transportation? we've talked about the best, but which would impact students the the worst? >> Uh, I think generally speaking, Avalon given its uh distance. Um, and I'll I'll sort of toss out with Avalon as well. Um, it's a satellite. So, the satellite
zone aspect is also problematic given a lot of the conversations we've had about the potential move, you know, one house or two houses down kind of thing. So um those are aspects that are considered but yeah from a transportation perspective I do feel it's a avalon >> Nick can I add to that because I've
talked to our transportation department as well that Stow road area that is challenging as well that it's if you know when you go through it's all conservation land around there and the neighborhoods are kind of in and out um and because there's no you can't
actually get directly to Boxboro from there it would provide a longer bus route for students is what they were were sharing with me. >> Lakshmi >> uh hi thanks for the research uh and analysis. I'm wondering I mean for each
of these the only difference is how much time it is between the actton schools and Boxboro right I mean whatever time it takes to pick up the kids in the neighborhood it's going to be the same whichever school they go to right if uh
if it's yellow let's say it takes about 15 minutes to pick up all the kids it takes as much they go to either Parker Damon or Bo boardwalk or Blanchard so the difference is how much time it takes from one school to
another. It's not about um how far they are. They have to come down to that space anyway, right? That area of the towns >> I think so given what you're saying. Yes. >> So what's the difference? What's the
time difference when an Actton district when an Actton school um school bus comes? What's the what's how much time does it add to come to Boxboro? >> It depends I think on the route. So for instance uh there's the main
thoroughfare that runs east west into Blanchard >> and so the closer you are I would imagine the more efficient time it takes to get in there. The one other piece I will sort of flag too is that um it's the time to collect up the students but
it's also the number of buses and um I like so for instance right 45 and 46 create a slight complication uh because of how spread out they are whereas the other areas are more geographically you
know isolated or rather u focused and so again creates a little bit more of a strategy. But to your point, I would want to confirm with the transportation department, but I think we're talking an additional I I would guess 5 to 10 minutes going from Boardwalk to uh Blanchard.
>> Okay. So >> assuming assuming you're driving past, you know, Boardwalk to go there, but there are other routes to get to Blanchard without having to drive past the two schools. >> Okay. So you said 85 this the Stow Street, you had issues because of the constraints on entry and exit. Those are
there no matter whether they go to Actton school or Boxboro school. Right. >> That is true. >> So they have to come out onto the other street that lets them navigate to whichever school. So we are talking about 10 minutes for any bus that has picked up kids to come to either Actton
school or Boxboro school. We talking about 10 minutes. >> That is true. Peter, would you agree with that? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Say that one more time. It's basically if if for instance the
the downfall of uh Purple is that we're probably adding 5 to 10 minutes of a bus ride, the same kids will have to get picked up by the bus and go to uh Parker Damon in this case or go to Blanchard which would be an additional 10 minutes. I think
I drove this the other day just to take a look. Um, I think one of the the things I found in that area is as you get in one, there's there's no sidewalks around there, so it's tough to get back to and from, which is typical of many of the areas of our towns. Um,
but to get in and out of those areas for the buses from talking to Jen Lashman, transportation was particularly challenging. Um, but it connects into Actton in a more direct way than it connects over to
Boxboro. Uh, because in order to to get to Blanchard, you're actually kind of winding up through that area toward Boardwalk and then heading over. Um, I mean, you can go Summer Street, too, but that is also traveling through a couple of different zones. You know, I'm not
the actin maps expert certainly, but I I I can see what transportation was talking about when I I heard that as a challenge. >> Okay. But but would you would you agree that 10 minutes live is the addition? >> I couldn't estimate I I don't know how I
wouldn't be able to estimate that. Well, >> okay. Thank you, >> Andrew. A little bit of context on that. I live in near that area and it will take if I'm in my car and don't have to pick anybody up every three or four houses uh 20 15 minutes 18 minutes to
get from where I am to just past Blanchard. Um that's without being in a bus without having to stop on railroads. That's without having to um manage a bus in act in traffic. It's once you pick up
the kids and that in itself is you got what 85 people there. You probably have I don't know three dozen four dozen stops because we have a tendency of our buses stopping at people's homes rather than stopping at consolidated bus stops.
That's probably a 40inut pickup. And add that 40-minute pickup from the beginning of that to the time they get, you're talking clo probably closer to an hour or more. For the folks that are in this the 85 the sto the Stow area to get to Blanchard. It's not as easy as any of
the other places that are closer. It's not as easy anybody inside of Blanchard. Traversing down central to Massav to get to Blanchard or central to summer to then cut over is not an easy way to go. So it's it's not a comparable
um travel time. >> Lakshmi, >> I I understand the neighborhoods and the times my kids have dealt with an hour even within Boxboro because of their bus roads, but I'm trying to get an
assessment of on the decisions we make. What is the impact to the kids? Right? I think that that's something that we want to we we I've lived here for 30 years. I know how these streets work, how much time it takes based on the day and which street we are talking about whether
you're stuck behind a school bus or not. But we're trying to compare boardwalk/parker Damon versus Blanchard. So we just want to get a proper kind of assessment. >> So yeah. Well, let me So you I don't need to tell you the answer. You just tell me you want to minimize the time
kid stays on the bus and then I'll pick the one that that wins. >> But then let me ask you this. If I can if I say the blue and the green is the shortest time on the bus. >> No. >> Do you don't don't sacrifice walk zones. >> No, no, no, no. I'm not saying that. I'm saying it needs to be reasonable. I'm
just saying it needs to be reasonable. >> So I need to know, right? Like is that is that the priority? Is an extra 15 minutes on the bus reasonable? >> I think so, but I people may differ. Yeah, >> Liz.
>> Um, I would think that it is reasonable and I do want to um but I I might not be answering this properly. Sorry. Um I would rather prioritize the like neighborhood schools, you know, being close to the school that you are right
next to. Um, and essentially, and I do want to thank you because the um the yellow and green scenario was sort of like what I specifically asked for. Um, and I think that while it's not perfect and I think that there's always going to be trade-offs, um, I tend to agree and
that's what I'm leaning most toward as the better option. >> So, just to reiterate, geographical proximity seem Okay. Yum. Um I think uh after you know upending the lives and friend groups of over thousands of kids as well as their
families and to really extreme degrees as as we're now learning um I think the very least that we could do is give these kids the shortest bus ride possible. And I think that was part of the idea of doing this in the first
place. Um so it seems to me uh so one question I have is coming from Avalon. uh it seems looking that it seems almost equidistant to the three schools but you can see that the road directly goes down to Parker Damon so it makes it fast for them for the same way you know coming
from Stow Street Parker Damon makes it quick for them as well in fact you can see there's a direct line a direct shot if you will from uh from Stow right to Parker Damon and then it's about 2/3 longer over to Blanchard right in the middle of rush hour right and slow zones
and all sorts of stuff so uh I I think it would just just, you know, on the other hand, as much damage we're doing all these children, right? What's a little bit more, right? They're they'll get they'll get over it, I think, is what everybody says. >> My concern with Avalon is it's a tiny
little neighborhood. Um, and as was brought up before, satellites up in that area can be problematic, especially for high mobility uh individuals. So, I'm hearing some frustration and I'm just going to remind us that um
we have some agreements about how we want to work together and I I hear your frustration and let's focus on trying to do trying to do the best for our students that we can. Um
I'm okay with the green and the yellow. I think the piece that I was thinking about the hardest, um, which I don't even see up here anymore, I just have a really hard time justifying
asking people who are blocks away from a school to take a bus to go to another school. Um, I think it's really important that we empower kids and we empower families to help kids be as independent as they can. So, um, I was
I'm I was came in prepared to kind of argue against putting the blue zone into this and it's not even here. So, um, I'm I'd like to continue this conversation if other people have other input into it. Lisa,
I just had a quick question and this might be a Nick or a Peter question about the buses. So for whether it's this uh the purple area or the yellow area, is there a difference in the number of buses based on the number of
kids that are estimated to be in there using the bus? Like could it be one or two whole buses that could get that area and then take them to Blanchard hypothetically if they were zoned for Blanchard or >> Yeah. I mean I think >> I'm just trying to figure out >> generally speaking in this case you'd probably have one bus for green, one bus
for yellow and two for purple. >> Okay. >> That's how it would work out. Yeah, that's that's helpful. Thank you, >> Andrew. >> It would be nice to get to that level of operationalism with this uh knowing the number of buses, knowing the number of students per buses, knowing the amount
of time that it takes from these rough areas to get to the schools and being able to compare them like that. I feel like, you know, we we're seeing a map that doesn't have streets not listed on except for main roads. And we're seeing a map that has numbers, but not necessarily numbers that talk to upper
lower or talk to um ages or even contiguous students inside of homes. And I just feel like there's it's like we have a vibe for what you're suggesting, but we don't have all the details. And I feel like I'm at a loss with some of that. >> So, I'm at a loss because you guys aren't telling me what you want to
value. Like at the end of the day, I I hear you, but like tell So I I can't if you tell me like to your point about what you're trying to get at, right, which is I think time on the bus. >> That's a part. Have you driven these roads? >> Yes. You know, it can it can take a lot
of time to go back and forth. So having is that the high priority? Like if that's the case, I can give you an answer. >> I think it's data helpful for us to determine whether it's a priority. >> I have given you guys a lot of data. I need I need values for which to make a decision.
>> Okay, I'm going to take a stab at this. >> Good. Please. >> Um, if you're within walking zone of a school, I think that should be a priority. And then I think we should try and keep our bus rides short because shorter bus rides are better. Um, and
then I think we should be looking at long-term sustainability. We've got to build something that that doesn't bring us back to doing this again. So that's my stab. Am I missing something that's up there? That should be neighborhoods. Um,
so yeah, just to be So that eliminates the blue, the orange, and the teal. I would say the Avalon. And so what we're coming down to is a choice between the green, the yellow, the red, or the purple. >> Okay. So >> and generally speaking, I would have to do some math, but the purple's kind of
out there. So, it really comes down to the red, the green, the yellow, and that's it. >> Okay. So, that's my stab at it. Does somebody have something different? Vic, >> I'm sorry. I I didn't quite understand why why Avalon would be taken out of that. I didn't understand the rationale.
>> I just in terms of the satellite boundary like there's a lot. So, yes, I I think and I would have to run from a distance perspective. I hear you. It's almost the same, but I would have to check on that. I don't think it is the same. But two, from a satellite perspective, that to me is setting up
problems for those kids up in that area. >> I I would like to know two things. One actually, what is the bus ride time? I guess just from transportation probably be best. The the ride time from Avalon to each of the three schools. Um, and also I'd like to know how the how the
community in Avalon feels about this either way. Um, because that seems that that might be uh a a viable solution. But I I want to hear feedback on those two things. Understood. Does somebody else have a different take
on um how to wait these? Okay. So, um Adam, >> sorry, I do. Um I I want to be careful with the the um Arlington lower red zone. Um if we're respecting the Patriots Hill touching
that walk zone, Arlington uh the the Arlington lower also touches a bit of the walk zone. Um so I just want to be consistent. Um so again, for me that that's where you get to the green and the yellow. Um, I I
also recognize that Stow Street may have the numbers and to Lakshmi's point, picking up the kids inside that region and is is a set amount of time. I'm not going to say regardless of where they go because if they're not part of
the satellite zone to Blanchard, then transportation could reroute differently with neighboring streets. And so it may actually result in shorter bus times if they're going to Park or Damon or um Boardwalk. So I Yeah, I I I
it's why I'm still leaning towards north of Route Two in the um Ethan Allen >> Vicin. >> Um another thing is to Andrew's point, the these are sort of I don't know uh nebulous fuzzy I think is probably a good way to put it. So we don't have
actually clear street delineation. Uh I'm in agreement with Adam that that I'm leaning towards uh Ethan Allen and North of Two. Um there is significant push back from the north of Two community. Um but that's why it'd be important to nail this down and perhaps we can alter that
region to a way in which they're okay with it, you know, and maybe then that would allow us to lock it down. Um we haven't heard much from Ethan Allen. Forgive me if I'm wrong about that. Um but I think really a a lot of information you know a lot of feedback has come back from the north of two
region but if we could sort of morph that slightly to where they're content to a large degree then perhaps that would make it more more viable >> could sorry could you define what you mean by morph that area for them >> well I mean here we see a just a yellow blob number 46 we don't actually see
streets or houses and all these kinds of things and we're getting feedback from people saying well this is dividing this in in these areas is if we find out specifically what those are and drill those down, perhaps we could alter that to everybody's liking in that area and that would make it more palatable.
>> So that's unlikely uh just given the fact we spent a lot of time especially with the department of trans the transportation department to kind of create that. We acknowledge that the yellow area is a very difficult area to kind of cut out and because there again it's widespread and it's open. So I respect that. I think a better solution
potentially is around the transition policy um that we can talk to in a couple minutes. Um but ultimately at the end of the day um yeah that is a a tricky area given the the sprawl of the entire you know the entire neighborhood. So we could sort of work around the
margins but we do need about 46 uh families to move. >> But do you feel that that's something that could be investigated? >> I mean yes but unlikely anything to be coming of it but I can certainly look at it again. >> All right, >> Adam. I I guess um Nick, if we come to
you with the consensus that green and yellow um are the ones that we want more in-depth information, we want to do the um interactive map. We want transportation to run the numbers on. My my sense is we maybe get one shot and
so if we want more information, we're going to get more information on on one shot because we don't have a lot of time left. >> Yeah, let's let's put it this way. I I have a better better solution for you. What would have to be true for purple to win out over green and yellow? >> Don't ask me. I'm not voting for purple.
>> Lisa, >> I think I touched the thing. >> Yeah, you touched it. >> I think two things. I think when I was asking my bus question, I didn't ask it exactly the way that I um meant to ask it. um not just with number of buses but
it would be the difference in the amount of time that they spend on the bus. And so to the point that the others have made, if they get if that neighborhood gets its own, whichever one we choose, whether it's, you know, the green and the yellow or the purple, would they
because they're going all the way to Blanchard, would they get their dedicated bus to that neighborhood, ensuring that it cuts down on the bus time because it's not picking up other neighborhoods and not going or meandering anywhere else? So, I think that's what I was trying to get at, just trying to figure out because I I just
don't want to see kids on the bus longer. And I also like I'm thinking about those commute times. >> Yeah, totally. So, if I could say back um ideally one question one is if it's an over I think it might be a slightly oversimplification, but we have one bus
for green, one bus for yellow, and two for purple. What's the difference in travel times? >> Okay, >> Andrew. We know what bus stops we have inside these areas you're suggesting. We know the timing of those bus stops currently. We know how long it takes to
collect the kids. We know how long it takes to get to those schools. And we have kids probably going to Blanchard from there. You asked what it would take to say yes to purple. Place that data on top of this map and come back to us so we know. And that will alleviate some of
the concerns that we have regarding the amount of time that it'll take on the bus. And that'll allow us to be able to balance the bus time with some of the stuff Tori said like walkability and the >> So I'm asking what would you have to see? >> I would have to see that to know. So but
I could tell you purple is going to take longer to get to Blanchard than the other two. >> Does that mean So you're not giving me time, Nick. I'm just asking for data and you're giving me pictures >> and I'm giving you data, but you're also you are not telling me what you value. We have spoken because I can answer that
question for you. >> I would like that answer. We've spoken here about how we want to minimize the amount of time for kids on the bus. We've spoken here that we don't know the time to get there. We know roughly takes longer to get from here to there. We know we get stuck in traffic, but we
also know we have data about buses that currently run, >> right? >> And that you have a map that suggests the spaces that we're going to. So why so the data? If I can tell you which one is quicker, why do you need to see the data? Just tell me that I want the one that's quicker.
>> We're here to make a decision as informed as we can. I'm asking you for more information. >> I'd like that more information. How do I value that information? I think that's part of our deliberation based on the the data you present to us. I'm sorry that I'm asking for something you don't want to do, but we need to know how long
this is going to take. >> So and and I'm telling you, we are running out of time. And so if you tell me what your decision-making process would be, I can get that answer without having to come back. >> I don't know if we have consensus on any of these right now. And I know that I've heard four people ask how much time does it take to do these things. Not what
takes more. How much does it because that could change as well. And all I've seen from you coming back to us is I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to answer your question. Answer the question, man. You've got the data. Plug it in. So So I'm going to ask you a question, though. If it takes longer for
purple to get to Blanchard than green and yellow, will that change your decision? >> It will inform my decision. So, yes, sure. Of course. So, then so I'm going to come with that data and then you're going to ask for something else. And so, that's why I'm asking. I need guidance in regards to how to help make these
decisions. The guidance I'm requesting right now is for us to have the data for how long it takes to get inside that place to pick up all those kids to how long it takes to go from that place to where they're going and what the return is. That's all I'm asking for. >> Okay, it's Glenn's turn.
>> I think we have enough data. I don't think we should be going road by road here. People feel strongly about this. The green and yellow zones look good to me. I think we should move on to the rest of the agenda. Walk zones, shorten bus times, and balance utilization rates are good values to me.
Um just to follow up on the point Andrew is making um that uh Hello um Nick. So the point is if you are traveling if you you've been to New York City >> Yes. >> So you're traveling from like 14th Street to 23rd Street, right? It takes X
amount of time, right? If you're traveling to 25th Street, it takes X amount of time. You're going 125th Street, it takes X amount of time, right? It's different 14 to 23rd than 23rd, right? So the point is okay we know that going to Blanchard is going to take longer. The question is how much
longer? We can see those numbers and say okay well if it's 2 minutes well that's reasonable. If it's 20 minutes well that's a much bigger deal. And that's why well if it's longer or shorter that's why we need the detail. >> Okay so what would So if I if I show you
so this is the point though. >> Yellow yellow and green is quicker than purple. >> How much? >> Okay. So tell me how much you tell me before I tell you the data. How much would it take to change your mind? >> We need to look at the data to determine because I can tell you it's between 0 and 20 minutes. So is 5 minutes going to
change your mind? Is 10 minutes going to change your mind? What's it going to take? >> Well, it depends on what >> it depends because I want to see for all three schools. I mean park dam boardwalks blanchard and I want to see the time differences because actually I live 10 minutes. Is that I live here and I
drive on these roads all the time. >> I get that. No, I know. I don't think you really do, Nick. I don't think you really do because we're asking you for this data. It's available. Please just give it to us so we can make our decision cuz that's our job. Your job is not to tell us what we need, what we don't. We want enough.
>> All right. Demonstrate professional and collegial relations at all time. Vic, you signed this shutting someone off. >> Hey guys, take a breath. >> It's disrespectful. >> We're We're getting disrespectful. >> All of us take a breath. We're getting heated here. Leela hasn't had a chance
to talk yet. Let's hear what she has to say. >> Wild timing. Um, all I was going to say is like I I think that there is an opportunity to disagree here and I feel like um it is incumbent upon us to treat
people who are here working with us like they are humans with like feelings and that that that they're here as as equals with us. Um, and I think he was like taking notes when you were like Nick. And so I I just am offering us an opportunity to
reflect on how we're acting in this meeting. >> Okay. Thanks for all the information and I really apologize for the tone. Um, so I think that was the reason why I asked the question I asked the first first
time. What's the difference? I don't think we need to go into every house to school mapping. I don't think that is going to serve our um as any good. The goal is approximately how much more does it add? And I think we have established
10 to 15 minutes. I don't think we need more than that. My kids having lived within a mile of Bob Blanchard have gone from 10 minutes to school to 1 hour to school in the same bus route because they have been picked up in a certain order. I think that goes to the
transportation department that goes to the school the administration later. I don't think that those those decisions lay here. We know how much it is and I think we can figure out the bus routes later. My one last point on this is I I hear
you and I will get you the time and I when I present you the final and here's the thing the next meeting it's the final set of scenarios. So if I'm going to come if you could tell me right if it's more than 15 minutes more from purple than the green the yellow don't bother bringing it that saves us a lot
of time to come up with other solutions but if you guys cannot provide me with that then I'm going to come with other you know like I'm I'm wasting time doing other things that I guess you will probably shoot down but it would be nice to know now >> do we have a time >> just quickly I just want to say I thank
you for that I I just want to say that if we because the numbers we know were available it's not like we have to research them. So if we can see those quickly, we can turn around and say, "Okay, this is what reasonable when when we see that." Does that sound fair? >> That's at the next meeting, though. I can't understand. No. Yeah. If I could send you guys that information tomorrow
and you email me back and be like, "Yep, that's let's cancel that." I would totally do that. I can't do that because I have to come back to your school committee meeting, >> right? But but we can individually say what we think about it. Is that is that fair to do? >> So, I think what we can do here is let's just decide what what time is too much,
right? Let's give let's give Nick that guidance and then he knows that as he's doing the analysis if it busts that timeline stop because he's already exceeded something that we think is too much. Um I heard 10 to 15 minutes to so
do we have okay do I hear 10 or do I hear 15? Um can I just to because actually I have two kids who are in the school and they take the bus I drop them in the morning because if the morning they took the bus it would be like 45 minutes when I drop them it's 5 minutes in the morning you know in the evening
they come back they're like the second or third stop and so there it takes them 10 minutes right so there's a big difference between the morning evening drop offs so 15 minutes that depends on the morning even there there's some variables that come into play here so saying that 15 minutes are we talking 15
minutes in total for the you know even handback So difference >> so I'm saying that it's not it's not just oh well 15 minutes that that mean that's meaningless in the larger scheme if you actually boil it down >> Vicram we're talking about the delta so the delta between green and yellow and
purple right so if it is more than >> 15 minutes difference between so let's just say it's a 30-minute bus ride to green and yellow and purple is 46 minutes so we're over 15
then Yeah, both ways. >> So if you go to and from if it's that total time that takes so many and even added together that difference, >> Vicram, >> I'm I'm just trying to be clear. >> No, that's not what I'm saying. >> Okay, >> I'm talking about the difference between
so whatever the total time is X. Oh gosh, we're going to do algebra. How many of us have algebra 1 students right now? Total time to to green or to yellow is X. If purple exceeds x + 15, stop developing purple. >> I'm I'm just saying there's a difference
to and from and from and two. >> Okay. So now we have an x and a y, >> right? So we have to take >> longest ride. Let's go longest ride. That work. Whichever one of those two is the longest is now x. And if if purple exceeds that by it's over x + 15, we stop.
>> Can we take the total time to and from for each individual school and and use that because I think that's going to be more accurate because it varies so much. But total round trip I think is going to be more accurate representation of bus time. >> Okay. So you want to add >> A to B and B to A.
>> We just added A and B in to get our exits. Okay. >> Well, I mean from like purple to Parker and Parker to purple, >> right? Just to thinking about how we would calculate this. We currently have no routes in our system that would model
what the bus time is in any of these zones based on the new geographic model. Because right now we can we can pick a bus and go by its travel time, but it's picking up students in all sorts of different places right now and going to different
parts of the community. So there is no existing data set that's actually going to provide us an accurate answer. And there's going to be wide variance between the first student that's picked up and the last student that's picked up. The first student that's picked up on a bus is going to have a significantly longer bus ride than the
last student who's picked up before they get to school. And so I think one of the challenges that we're going to come back with is, you know, is there a specific house we're modeling to? Is there first student on the bus, last student on the
bus? You know what? We don't have the specific bus stops planned. I I know I've met with Jen Lashon multiple times in the transportation office. From the time we give her one scenario, it will take between two and 3 weeks to produce accurate routes.
So, a and I mean we asked her to do this like I I asked her to model what would it take to grandfather all the sixth grade? What would it take to grandfather, you know, acting students in Blanchard? And you know, 3 days later, she said, "Well, I've gotten through two Blanchard buses and one of
them has 102 students on the bus or something. I forget what it wasn't, but it was over a 100 students on the bus, which meant that it doesn't work." Like, she had too many kids on the bus. So, it's it's going to be a really timeconsuming process. I just want to make sure that the value we get out of
doing that research is going to make sure that that's the decision we need. Um because I think it's going to end up being highly variable and and I think we can give an estimate, but I don't think it's going to be a much better estimate than going on Google Maps and putting in a starting address
and an ending address and figuring out what the drive time is. Um just one point to that the the to and from what happens is if you're student A right at the top of the list you're dropped off first and then you're picked up last there. So it depends the morning evening the order is reversed. So it so
it balances out sort of somewhat right. So if you have entire total trip you have the shortest plus the longest and that that's pro you know as a and all the other things we do have the the bus rate app which has all the data and all the pickups and drop offs historical data for you know since the beginning of
the year. It it does based on our current routes, not these because we don't we don't have any one route now that goes through either this area cuz this is essentially a this is a large I don't want to call it a sorry,
it's not a circle, but it's a circle that has a series of like housing developments on either side of it. Um we don't have one bus route in our system that I can point to right now that says here's what that route is going to take for time. And I similarly don't just have one bus route that's going to pick up all these students that I can point
to because right now the students in both of these are going to different places. And so that's that is the the the piece that I'm worried will be unreliable data even if we bring you some number that that's and I we can go try and happy to do that. I just worry
that it's not going to feel like it's really reliable data in the end. >> And I I think that's a great point. So here would be my you we could either calculate I think what would be an approximate average time on the bus or we could calculate the average
additional time on the bus. Which do you find to be more compelling? >> I I I think it's the additional time of the bus. So here my So my problem with I'll just throw it out here with Stow Street is I I would just I would feel
horrible if those kids suddenly have this really long bus ride to Blanchard, right? It it's like adding insult to injury after we've like beaten them up and then kicked them in the head. Now we'll do that on top of it. It just seems wrong to me. So that's my concern. I don't want them to have overly long bus rides and it seems that sending them
to Blanchard based on this would certainly do that. Also myself having driven those times literally thousands of times. I would know, you know. So, uh, that's my concern. So, I'd like some data that would mitigate my fears. >> So, your concern is not the how much additional time, it's the overall length of time,
>> which is what you said. Well, this is why I'm sorry like I I I'm I'm beating a dead horse here and I apologize. Tell me what you're concerned with and I can alleviate that. That remember in terms of the pre-eread, identify the problem, then we can come up with a solution. You tell me the problem that you want to
solve and I will do the solution. right now some of you guys aren't telling me the problem and that's the problem. >> My concern is over the long bus routes from from 85. >> That's helpful. I can I can fix that or address that. >> Liz, >> um so sort of >> got that clear >> but sort of hearing that concern and
also knowing how pressed we are for time. I still feel like purple is not feasible and that's literally all we're talking about is the green and yellow ver and purple. Do we want to model both of them out or do we just stick to green and yellow and really get more granular with the details? And I would like to propose that we just stick with the
green and yellow and don't even look at purple because it's going to be longer. We've heard that it's going to be more difficult in terms of transportation. Um, and I just want to see what we're all feeling on that. >> All right. Can I kind of get a Can I kind of get a sense of the committee on
how you feel about what Liz just said? Lakshmi, >> are we proposing to kind of make a shorter list of the options we want to consider? I think what she's it's a valid point. We don't want to be all over the place. We really want to focus what matters. And I think given the
amount of time we can spare, I think we should narrow it down. >> Um I'd like to make a motion to remove um >> we're not we're not we're not voting on anything. This doesn't require a motion. We're I'm just getting a sense of the committee. Is there anybody who sees another viable option besides yellow and
green that they want to pursue? Okay, there vicram >> possibly possibly Avalon but that that depends on what that community thinks about it and also >> I will I will run I will calculate that >> but that that's but yeah other than that as far as I'm concerned all the others
are out >> okay any can I ask a question is anybody else interested in Avalon >> uh Vicram I'm hearing nobody else on the committee is interested in looking at that >> about I'm sorry about Avalon. >> Yeah, >> come on. Avalon.
All right. Of course. Once again. Okay, that's fine. >> Thanks. I would propose that we move this on to let's >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Uh All right. So, that gets us to
scenario seven. um as we had sort of detailed before and in terms of scenario 7 there are some problems when it comes to this um and I do want to kind of keep this at a high level at the moment to keep it consistent in regards to the other scenarios that we looked at the
biggest issue with this scenario is utilization at Parker Damon upper as you can see it's using 102% utilization now the trick with this and I did not want to seem like I'm trying to trick anybody is this is this year's enrollment uh we have started to model out next year's
enrollment and that drastically changes the utilization, but I did not want to introduce that as a new way to look at it and that I'm giving you it upfront in regards to how we're looking at it. Some people did ask about Boardwalk. Why is Boardwalk so low in comparison to Parker Damon? Boardwalk is so low because we
needed to keep space for the special education uh sections. So again, the next time we show you scenario 8 or whatever the case may be, we are going to metriculate all of the students into next year's grade levels along with move the special education to give you a more
accurate picture of what next year's utilization will be. I do want to sort of flag um and I had it and I lost it. M Oh, this year's sixth grade class, which I can show you in the appendix, is quite bigger than most other classes. And so you are seeing that general trend
downwards as we had talked about in terms of overall enrollment. Scenario seven just really quickly it does have consistent boundaries. It does not have satellite school capacity. Bad hometown guarantee again yellow for uh achieved for Boxboro. It does balance the student
demographics extremely well. It does keep the recognized neighborhoods together to include the walk zones. It does include walk zones and it takes into account the future enrollment trends in contiguous zones. So um and I did not update this but the uh interactive web app is live and so I
encourage folks uh who are um interested it if you go back to the old link the old link is now hosting the new scenario 7 and we encourage excuse me people to uh provide your feedback. All right so building a scenario uh we now move to the transition policy. So if we're
focused kind of on the the Blanchard zone and we know generally speaking the foundation and the walk zones again you know not taking into account some of the additional on the margin changes that we'll do the transition policy is our last is one of the last two
things we need to sort of align on a perfect world um I think everybody would love for every kid to finish out their time in their building move out and then new kids come in um given the state of a K346 modeling that's uh near
impossible. We know I think the two areas that we could potentially entertain a transition policy on is the um sixth graders as was mentioned as well as the Blanchard extended zone. And so by that I mean if we take the extended Blanchard zone that we've
identified and say those kids will go to their campus that they're on. I say that right not their building but their campus. they finished out their time. Any new incoming kindergarten kids that come into the extended zones would go to Blanchard. We've sort of started to run
those numbers and try to play it out. Generally speaking, if we try to um and I should say, I'm sorry, the Blanchard expanded zone and any Actton kid who is going to Blanchard. So, we would and so let me try to say this one more time. The grandfather options that seemingly
could work are any Actton student who is currently going to Blanchard, they continue to go to Blanchard and finish out their time. Any kid who is in the extended Blanchard zone in Actton would go to their previous campus. They kind of marry each other up. It would
probably result in a slightly lower uh Blanchard zone initially or utilization initially, but we think generally speaking the numbers could potentially work. The sixth grade legacy is highly unlikely given the spread at which they
are around the entire Actton area. The only way, and I know a couple people were not too pleased with me tossing this out there, is if you chose to remove busing for the students who lived within the walk zones, that would potentially open up busing routes to
help with the sixth grade uh grandfathering. So what I'm asking for here is I need to understand from a priority perspective what you would want to prioritize. Is it
walk zones? My my recommendation in terms of feasibility would be and given what I know to be true, prioritize the walk zones to receive busing. Prioritize the Blanchard expanded zone and acting kids going to Blanchard transition policy with the sixth grade more than
likely not happening, but could be a potential. That is sort of what we're recommending, but I would love to hear from you all in terms of what you would want. All right, I'm going to start down here and just work around because I see lots of hands. I just had a quick question about if um
we had the transition policy enacted to allow act and families to continue at Blanchard. Um you mentioned that how that would impact the utilization numbers. So I think I just want to have some clarification on my end. Does that
mean if that were done on top of a Blanchard zone or having that Blanchard zone potentially later discussion being a flex zone like which way that would push the numbers in Blanchard for utilization? >> So yeah, I think if I understand it
correctly, I would say the flex zone is separate, right? This would just be a complete um just transition policy over the next five years. And so Boxboro kids would go to Blanchard, acting kids going to Blanchard would go to Blanchard, and then incoming
kindergarten kids in the expanded zone would go to Blanchard. Everybody else would not go to Blanchard. >> Got it. Okay. Just And then that would bring the utilization of Blanchard to like 96%. What was the percent
>> potentially? So this is where if you want to do transition policies and there's two ways to now think about utilization. Um utilization can be thinking about in the capacity of the building but it's also as what uh many community members have brought up as the average class size which is what they're
really interested in. So we've started to model Yeah. Do you want to >> Yes. >> Sorry. Sorry. Real quick. >> So this Lisa your question was a good in because at some point I wanted to get to this. I've taken data from Nick's scenario 7 and I've actually put that
into class sizes because utilization rates, you know, Nick uses them. I don't. And I'm going to be honest, like utilization rates don't mean anything to me. What I what I care about as a superintendent is can my buildings fit the number of classrooms that I need in
them and what what's the impact on class sizes, right? And I so I actually worked yesterday and today with Nick's data to put in how would we program for sections and what are the resulting class sizes for that. So I actually think it might be helpful before you talk about
transitional policies to understand how that impacts classrooms. Um this is not my prettiest slideshow. Um I will say that we were more concerned with the data than making something that that looks nice. Um, this is illustrative purposes only and I will
say this is accounting for every current elementary student in the district and having evenly divided the NESDC enrollment projections for next year's kindergarten class across the school. So, what we did is, and Nick said this,
he was basing his scenarios on this year's data. This actually bases what you're looking at for class sizes, projects all of our current students up a grade and inserts kindergarten at the NZDC enrollment number. Um, and so I just want to go through and make sure we're tracking the history of this a
little bit. On the left column are the school committee class size guidelines. All right, kindergarten 18 to 20, kindergarten first, excuse me, second and third grade 20 to 22, fourth, fifth, and sixth 22 to 24. Our current class
sizes are right here and that was based on our October 1st enrollment report. Okay. When we modeled out throughout the entire budget process and all of the AB forward work, we modeled we remember we
modeled multiple enrollment scenarios and budget scenarios and we settled on model C was what we were projecting forward and what we have budgeted for that projected these average class sizes here. And when I move this forward districtwide,
what you will see is we ended roughly here. All right. Based on our current students, we will add some students between now and the start of next year. We'll also lose some, but typically we end up going up a little bit, not not necessarily down as time
goes on. So, I just want to put that caveat there. I think our original projections were reasonable based on what we're seeing now. This is from the AB forward work and what school committee voted on when we looked at how are we thinking class the
number of sections per school might play out. So we had Blanchard programmed we essentially had you know and we were guessing at kindergarten because we really don't know kindergarten at all. Um but roughly 22 23 sections in Blanchard overall. What we're not as
concerned about lower and upper Parker Damon and Boardwalk. What we're concerned about is the total number of sections with our appropriate classrooms for our multilingual learners, students with disabilities, students who receive instructional support um who may not have a disability but need other types
of support. We know that the target for these two buildings is between 42 and 43 sections is what we're really looking for and that's what our principles have been working on in terms of how they build things out. And that is what we were projecting and that's what we we were working toward and Nick has been
working toward that. So when you see lines that go different ways, it's because he's trying to make hit what we needed for our overall enrollment projections and do it in a way that can be durable over time, not just for one year.
So with in scenario 7, I only reason I did this is because it was the new scenario when it was up on the board. We could certainly run this for other scenarios given enough time. Um but if in pure geographic enrollment with yellow and green zones, we're not
grandfathering anyone in either between Actton and Boxboro. We're not trying to grandfather six. This is just a pure geographic enrollment. This is roughly how the class sizes play out. And so you can see the overall school capacity of Blanchard. You can see the number of sections is pretty much where
we want Blanchard to be. Um, and you can see what the class sizes are. Overall, they're pretty good. Third grade is problematic for us, right? Uh, fifth grade, sorry, I don't I saw three sections. Thank you. Um, so fifth grade is the one that's that's
more problematic and not where we'd want it. That said, it's not that far off of what we said it would be, right? But I'm not saying we like it. I'm just saying it's it's within a student of what we had
originally projected. At Boardwalk, we end up with 42 sections and you can see what the class sizes come out to be. And at Parker Damon, we end up with 42 sections and you can see where the class sizes end up. This is a
great way. This does not um include any flex or buffer type zones, right? So, this is purely just based on the geography. And when you have a purely geographical enrollment, you will have fluctuations between schools in terms of average class size. One of the reasons
to consider buffer zones and why communities like Arlington, Newton, Welsley, you know, a lot of our comparable communities have buffer zones is it allows them to control more closely the class sizes across schools. I understand that that's a community
decision about how to move forward with that, but that is the reasoning and that's why you're seeing some disparity between the the different buildings. There are 107 total sections that we programmed and Andrew and I sat down and went through this today multiple times just to make sure we were sure about it.
Um, we budgeted for 106 sections and I came to you at the last meeting and said we need we're holding one section in obeyance to be able to do I have programmed that in and there were I forget where it was but there was one
place that ended up with like 27 or 28 students in a class and adding that section in allowed me to bring that back down and keep most of them within reason. It doesn't solve grade five here but it does get to much of the other areas. I'm sorry, Peter. Is that is that current date or that would be next year? >> This will be next year. This this is
actually looking forward. Yeah. I took every student this year, promoted them. So, sixth graders here are actually our current fifth graders. This now is another iteration of that. And this goes to what Nick is trying to to talk about with you now is like what is the transitional policy? So, this
still it's scenario seven. So, it's still the yellow and green zones. And in this one, um, what did I write? Holy cow, I was doing this quickly. The the heading came in last. Um, but this, um,
oh, this, excuse, yeah, this this did two things. And we're not actually suggesting that this should be a scenario. I want to be clear about that. But I wanted to show you how I looked for problems, which is why I included this on this one. What this does is it grandfathers in the Actton students who
are currently attending Blanchard but does not grandfather any students in the yellow and green zones. So what you get is all of the Actton students still going to Blanchard and all of the students in the yellow and green zones moving to Blanchard as well which means I mean on face value it's too big but I
wanted to go in a database reason as to why I say that's too big. What happens essentially in order to manage Boxboro's class size at that point, it comes to 25 sections at Blanchard. Overall, it's still 107 sections, which fits within the school district's budget, but I
cannot fit 25 students at BL 25 sections at Blanchard. I need 24 maximum because that is what the teaching contract is for our art, music, fizzed, library, things like that in those unified arts. So, I can't go over that. And it's not
practical to try and send a 0.1 of something from another building to this. We'd lose a lot of money just on the transitional time and it's not not worth it. So 24 sections is really the the max for Blanchard to be able to do. 22 and 23 is better.
24 would be the absolute max. Over at Boardwalk now, you see some discrepancies in terms of utilization here. Um, and I think that's primarily because we were talking about the yellow and two all the students in the yellow and green zones which likely would have been at Boardwalk campus get moved over
to Blanchard, but there's no backfill from that. So that's why you're now seeing different utilization. It changes how I would program sections in there because, you know, adding one section or removing a section is a fluctuation of
about three to four students depending on how many sections I start with. So, it really is a delicate balancing act about programming the right number of sections to get to reasonable class sizes, but this essentially gets us there. But, as I said, it really doesn't work because that's just too many
students at Blanchard. The next one was a purely geographical scenario for everyone. So, everyone's in a geographic zone, but grandfathers in are sixth graders to where they are. Um, I know
our transportation department has expressed some concerns. They're just really worried about it and they don't have a good way of modeling it out until they have one scenario to model. So, I think I I understand that and I just want to represent because otherwise Jen Lashon will yell at me tomorrow and say, "You weren't clear." But, um, Blanchard,
you can see what happens. There's a couple of things in fifth and sixth grade, but I can't add a fourth section to that. It brings the class size down to like 18. Um and that's not we don't have the resources to be able to do that. So that becomes challenging
boardwalk campus actually you know it's okay but the utilization is still relatively low below the 4243 which means though that that gets pushed to Parker Damon building and we end up at 44.
We have good utilization maps that provide for appropriate programming for all of our students at 42 and 43 sections. We can do that. When we get to 44, it starts to become more problematic. I will not tell you it's impossible. I'll tell you it's problematic. And it means that the
programming in that building will not be commensurate with programming in other places. That could be solved potentially by applying a buffer zone or something like that and trying to move students around. the more complexity we add in, the harder it is to build the scenario. And by harder, I don't mean it takes more
time. Harder I mean I'm less sure that we can get to a good answer. Um is the the challenge there. So that is when Nick said sixth grade is problematic for us. It I'm not telling you it's impossible. I'm telling you it's problematic. Right? And that's so that's
why and and in this one again it's option seven. This grandfathers all of the Actton students who are currently at Blanchard, so they continue to stay at Blanchard and all of the students who are currently in the green and yellow zones
continue to be grandfathered into the act in schools. This does not apply to future students. We cannot get this to apply to siblings. We just we don't have a mechanism for that. Our transportation system will not be able to support that. That's going to be the challenge. But it does grandfather in our current
students. And what you can see fourth grade, so we it actually shifts by one grade where the the problem at Blanchard ends up, but fourth grade is challenging here. Boardwalk actually looks very good and it's right at our overall unit
utilization rate. And Parker Damon generally looks good. This is bigger in sixth grade, but it's also well within what we were targeting based on model C. So this this gets pretty close. But so like
Nick has to use utilization rates because that's how he does his work. That's I'm not questioning that. That has to happen. And what I'm hoping is as you see how scenarios play out. I'm trying to do the modeling on the back end because not only is this important to we have to now account for every
student in the district. This is not about estimating anymore. It's about these are going to be kids in seats that have to go to school. Um, and we're also trying to place educators. And the longer we're working with varying section sizes between schools, the
harder it is to finalize educator placements for all of this. So you can see these are not the same models. Just look at Parker Dam and Upper 6, seven, and five on this one. 576.
Right now that you'd say, well, isn't that the same? It's actually not the same because educators have grade levels they teach and things like that and that's required movement for people and then like 67 67 down there. Wow, bad year for that. Yeah, I know. I said it every, you know, kids at home can watch
this. Um, but it actually loses a section over here. And so that means that the educators we're trying to place right now, we need to get to certainty around that in order to to be able to provide certainty for educators. just there there is a chain of events that
happens and I didn't mean to go too long with this but I wanted you to really understand how all of the transitional policies will actually impact what we do in our classrooms. >> I just had a quick question. How many how many students are we talking about for the grandfathering from ACT and Box?
Is that about 200 right? Um it is from we we had to go really carefully with this because we had to account for all of any students in pathways but also siblings and things like that. It's 67 students
>> um that I know I know I didn't make that up. It's actually true. Uh there are 67 students who >> in Actton >> are in Actton and scheduled to attend Blanchard next year. There are more than that. There's actually I think a hundred
or something like that right now, but some sixth graders, right? And then you have students who are in pathways who will be moving, right? Because it does not grandfather certain groups in. Like I need to be clear, grandfathering sounds good because it's everyone, but it actually isn't everyone, right? Um because Conan students, there's no way
to grandfather Conan students and there's no way to grandfather students in our special education program. So, um those are two caveats that we just have to keep in mind. >> So, I know Victor also Yeah, I >> that was that was my question.
>> Okay. Um Liz, >> um honestly, in the interest of time, I'm just going to come out and answer the question that you actually asked. For me, priority A sinks to the bottom. I would like to see um sixth graders in Blanchard. And I think that by not
offering, you know, I was worried that we wouldn't be able to provide that even with so much feedback that we've been hearing that people want um both the Blanchard um ability, you know, the acting kids to come to Blanchard and to grandfather for the uh rising sixth graders to stay in their buildings. Uh
but it sounds like this is actually a really good way to make that happen. And it's just a trade-off of we've prioritized the walking zones for people to have those schools. it would make sense that, you know, we're unable to bust them to a different school. >> And so, I'm sorry, when you say
Blanchard, um, just the acting kids currently going to Blanchard, keep them and not worried about the expanded zone. >> Correct. The one that because I was going to say I was looking at one and it said if we did both of those things. If we do not bust the walkers the then we
can do both the Blanchard expanded zone and the current sixth grade. >> Okay. Yep. Got it. >> Adam. >> Hi. Well, one of my questions was for Peter. Maybe if he comes back, I'll ask it. But, um, I have first a sort of a technical question around busing, and I'm going to
look to Sher because maybe she can answer it. Do we have an obligation to bus kindergarteners regardless of their distance from the school? >> Yes, I'm seeing nods. >> Yes, we do. >> Okay. So, my my concern would be
>> Oh, maybe there's not a consensus. We're going to look into it. It sounds like my my concern would be if we if we are and I would also feel like we probably should have options for kindergarteners um to have a bus even if they're within the mile of the school
that that kind of it goes against some of the savings that we're proposing to see on not busing walkers. Um, and I also want to recognize that, you know, we live in New England and there are snowy, cold days and there could be a
hardship for folks who um may not be able to walk to school as much as I would love for them to be able to have that opportunity. And so my worry is that if we're making stops for kindergarteners, if we're making stops for um folks who have challenges that prohibit them from being able to make
that walk, then more and more people are going to want to take advantage of that um bus service even if they're in the onem walking zone. So I want to be careful with that gray area. Um because it it to me it says it's black and white. you do not bus anybody within a mile and they're all responsible for
either providing their own parent transportation or walking or you provide busing as we have in the past for everybody. >> So I think I must have misunderstood because I thought that it was you know if we're going to do the sixth grade legacy then we just wouldn't be able to
provide busing for the sixth grade legacies that are within a walk. >> Oh no, I'm sorry. >> This is just standard. >> That's every every walking kid. >> Oh then I retract that. >> Okay. >> Sorry. when he was talking, I was about to follow back up to clarify. So, okay. >> Um, my question for you, Peter,
was um in these models, have you placed all of the special education students who are in um specialized programs. So, when we're looking at say Boardwalk upper um with 403 students, that includes anyone who may be in connections or pathways
who would be classified as an fourth, fifth or sixth grader. >> Connections, pathways, lab, compass. Yep. and siblings. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um, my statement to just close this off is I would choose that we do bus walkers and
that we provide the Blanchard expanded zone um and uh sort of not be able to do the sixth grade legacy. There's no good choices here, but I think that's the one that probably solves um a couple problems and provides access for the most people.
Um, I would love to look at whether once we get these exact numbers out whether we can do both the um the Actton students continuing at Blanchard and not and phasing in the the yellow green zone with kindergarten and the sixth grade
grandfathering. If we can't do both, I would prioritize uh the Blanchard. Andrew, >> uh, two questions. Um, regarding the sixth grade, are we talking all sixth graders or just the Blanchard sixth graders? >> I think it's all sixth graders acknowledging that our Conan sixth
graders >> obviously. Yeah. Right. I mean, all the ones that have the opportunity to. >> And to clarify, they would go with the the campus, not not obvious. >> Um, other thing actually is probably more of a a Sher and Peter question. I know that we are reimbursed for
transportation for buses for everything outside of that onem zone. Um how does this scenario that we're talking about affect the um the funding that we get back, the reimbursement we get back or um even impact the decision of busing
within that one mile? >> It's actually a mile and a half. We're reimbursed a mile and a half and over >> outside a mile and a half or inside. Okay. Anything outside a mile and a half we get reimbured for by the state >> for the students that are transported? Yes.
>> Okay. Can So I is it 80%. Just uh that's what I thought. Or is it full? >> Okay. But beyond that too because I think he brought up a a good point uh or keyed my memory in terms of talking with the transportation department. It's not
only cuz cuz I was thinking the same thing. Just add more buses and given the challenge of getting actual more literal buses given uh bell times and bus drivers. Um that is also a constraint uh that your district deals with as well. >> Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't actually about adding more buses, but it was that now
that we have like centered buses and centered geographically, there's now a hard point of 1.5 miles from each place that could decrease the amount of funds that we get from the state because we're no longer sharing buses that go around. And that was really where the question
was coming from. What's the delta between what we would have been able to get this year versus what we can get through the models that are coming through with that Walker zone now specifically tied to both the students who are attending the school and the schools themselves. And I just think
it's an interesting question to try to figure out as we're going through all of this. So out of the 67 students if I mean these are the if if scenarios. So Peter said 67 students from actton come to blanched uh next year if we if we do it
right continue. So those 67 students what's the distribution across the grades and the geographic distance and what that the reason I ask is that complicates our transportation right so how many extra bus routes do we need to
run to accommodate those students to be transported to Blancher and for how many years? >> Uh so all very good questions of which I don't necessarily have on the tip of my tongue. Um I would say generally speaking um just anecdotally
uh there is a high propensity of Blanchard Actton students who are going to Blanchard to be close to Blanchard. Uh meaning for instance the green section that we were looking at um 12 kids out of the oh wait no it's uh it's like about 10 to 12 kids out of the 20
that would go to Blanchard already go to Blanchard if that gives you an indication. So there is that propensity in terms of uh closeness. The grade spans do span across um all the grades. And there was one other question. You you asked a couple. Um
>> yeah. So how many buses do we need to co run cover this >> that fell into the bus uh transportation department. She felt that was doable without making any big city changes so to speak. Um it was the the sixth grade complicates the issue a lot more. Um,
and that's that was the extent of the information that I got, but I can try to get more information on that. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> Lisa, >> I just wanted to voice um support for the Blanchard expanded zone and uh that
legacy for that. And then also um prioritizing uh safe uh bus rides for all students. Um, I do understand a lot of, you know, the desire for some for the sixth grade legacy, but, um, I'm really interested in making sure everybody has a bus ride because it's
not always safe. >> Yep. >> Um, just I I find that a really interesting piece of information coming. I had no idea that we are now on the hook for any bus rides that are less than a mile from someone's house to school. That that's a very interesting development. I'm curious about the cost
of that. that that seems to me that's going to certainly be a lot more next year. Um, regarding uh not busing walkers with the onem policy. Um, I can't think of any sixth grade legacy student who would say, "Oh, yeah, I want to stay at my school at the expense of
kindergarteners and first graders walking in the cold and the rain uh to school." I can't see that. I think that we absolutely have to uh provide busing to the onem radius in my opinion. Vicram, just to clarify, did so were you
saying that you said something about additional costs? What did you think that was from? >> Right. I I thought for transportation costs, if it's less than a mile, the district pays for it. If it's more than a mile, the state pays for it. Or a mile and a half. Is that right, Sherry? >> Yeah. So, that's actually true now. That
>> right. But the thing is now we have longer bus routes. So, now having short more shorter bus routes means that we'll be paying more because more of those bus routes will be a mile and a half or less. Not entirely because Conan what you were not saving on Conan will
now be saved. And I I hear what you're saying in terms of cost variation. I don't know if it's necessarily a guarantee that it'll be more or less. It might work itself out evenly. >> It would be nice to see those numbers, but that that's surprising because I I had no idea about that. I'm not sure other people did either. I will make
sure to tell the district because that's not my job. >> No, no, I know. >> Sounds like a good a good sub discussion for next year when we actually have some data. >> Okay. Anything else on this one, Liz? >> So, I have another question that is
really more of a question for Peter. Um, since it seems that logistically we wouldn't necessarily be able to offer the sixth grade legacy, is there a mechanism where we could offer that as an opt-in but opting out of busing? like we can't provide the buses for it, but allow families to potentially be able
to, like I say, just this one grade, this one batch of kids. >> Yeah, I've I've thought about that and I know the committee went back and forth on that early. I think if you look at these numbers, right,
like the these are students when we talk about grandfathering, it's not who wants to be grandfathered, it's where like everyone's grandfathered, right? and and it's not optional whether you're grandfathered or not. I think the challenge will potentially be as we ask
families who might either opt out of busing or not or who wants to be grandfathered somewhere or not, these numbers are going to shift on us with students that go back and forth. And I I think it's possible we will not be
able to control for class sizes anymore. Um because I think once a certain number of families say if more families wanted to go from boardwalk to Parker Damon or Parker Dam either way, one of those buildings class sizes is going to get
skewed. Um or similarly it doesn't it it doesn't matter. And so I am worried about any options for that. What I you know we've now with principles detailed out a very clear
timeline of what needs to happen almost like you know to the day between April vacation and the end of the year to do this. We can't we cannot do anything that extends the known placement of students beyond April vacation. Right?
like we we have to have locked in every student in our district by April vacation in order to do everything else that needs to get done and communicate with people and and make sure everyone knows what's happening before the end of the school year. So, I think,
you know, I'm not saying it's impossible to ask. I think I'm I would be very hesitant. I think especially with the sixth grade, it either needs to be your grandfathering the sixth grade or not. Um I think the transportation piece would likely skew
it even more. >> Could you just put back the other slide? >> Which one? >> Uh the one that >> one is that No. >> This one. Yeah. that seems to >> Can you put on the microphone?
>> The the the one that everybody seemed to be uh more in agreement with. I think I think I believe that one. Yes. Thank you. >> This is the one like I have the like I and I'm I want to be careful because everything in me would love to grandfather sixth graders, right? like I
I'm empathetic to that and I understand the reasons for it and professionally I'm far more confident in this than I am in our ability like when I see grandfathering sixth what I'm also worried about is now what happens if we
try to do this and this at the same time. Um we I'm actually open to trying to model it just to see what it looks like and bring it back for the next meeting. Um we can certainly model that. We have the data. It's just a matter of us getting together and trying to see what it looks like. And if it works,
that would be wonderful. But I'm very cautious about layering choice on top of that for people. >> So, is this something we want to ask Peter to do? >> I personally feel comfortable with this. I I I'm feel unfortunate about the the
sixth grade legacy, but it seems that's a really really difficult thing to do based on busing and a number of things. It seems a really uphill climb and possibly at the expense of busing very young children. Um this seems to also make a lot of people happy because they do get to stay where they where they
want to stay and they're grandfathered in. Uh you know, the next generation coming up would then of course adhere to the the yellow and green zones. Um, this looks to me like the greatest win of all uh of of our choices that are limited. >> Anybody have a different take on this
that they want to share? >> So, I think what I'm hearing, Peter, is that we want you to finish modeling this out with whatever changes we come up with. I think I'm hearing that we don't think we can pull the sixth grade off. Do we? Okay, I see head nodding there.
and that we want to bust everybody. >> And so just to qualify because I do want to stick to how I kind of asked that, right? We will attempt to do the sixth graders, but that is the third priority, right? Keep walkers um bust focus on the
Blanchard uh expand um legacy and then sixth grade if possible. >> Yeah. If a miracle occurs, that would be awesome. Go for it. >> Awesome. Thank you. Uh Peter, could you switch the presentation back? So, one more conversation and I think we'll be within uh the time limit for you to
switch. All right. All right. Finally, flex zones. Um, yeah, this hasn't changed too too much given the the nuance of what uh Peter was showing in terms of the uh average
class sizes, right? The idea of the flex zone would be on a year-to-year basis being able to shift um a certain number of students from going to one school to another school and then remaining at that school. Um this obviously and I've sort of said from the beginning I would
try to avoid using flex zones as much as possible but I appreciate the fact you want to establish them uh going forward. So generally speaking, um we can sort of I think come back with much like what we did with uh the expanded Blanchard zone, we can come back. I mean the entire
district in essence could be a flex zone. I think what's more important is establishing the governing rules that you all feel are very important when it comes to the flex zones themselves. So I proposed a set of governing rules. I would love for you to nyx them, add to
them. Um, this is, you know, just your principles on how a flex zone needs to be run. >> Adam, >> I have a clarifying question because I just came to this realization as you were mentioning it, Nick. You're proposing three flex zones, the green,
the yellow, and the hashed zone >> as an initial idea for uh geographical zones. Yes. And then those three zones could each have their own base school decided and then the option to flex to either one or both of the other schools
if needed. >> So so to to that point well let's let's say the reason why we chose Minute Man is because of the geographical proximity. Somebody did bring up like well there's only like one or two kindergarten kids coming in and sometimes that's all you need in terms of shifting uh to it. So yes, there is
that case. There is that sort of division happening at this moment in time in terms of a few number of kids going to either which way. I feel we could again certainly choose other areas within Actton to be a geographical flex zones. the I would focus on making sure that the Blanchard extended zone is also
determined to be a flex zone because if the enrollment trends do continue as you would expect there could be a world where at some point you're like oh we can start to phase kids back to boardwalk or and that's an or boardwalk or uh Parker uh Damon building for the
sake of the fact that it space is opening up so let's start moving kids in so we're keeping people consistent. All right. And the the last point of clarification, we do have the option and I because I think we got some feedback on this from Minute Man Ridge and I had the same question as well. We could say Minute Man Ridge
>> is defaulted I think right now to Parker Damon. >> It is. >> But we could say it's a flex to only Boardwalk and not necessarily Blanch because it may not make sense for that small group between these two zones to go all the way over there. >> Yep. >> Thank you. Um so regarding uh making these flex
zones um my concern is that uh kids who may be in third grade suddenly say okay well no now we're sending you to a different school um and this would go for Ethern and north of two as well as a Minman Ridge that could we somehow
guarantee that kids who have started one building would remain at that building and not transfer to a different building. >> Yes. You'll see is it the fourth bullet uh or fifth be subject >> to you saying fourth one down for the second section. >> Yep. Exact again these are proposed. I
tried to cover what feedback I had. Yeah. So I mean I would make it >> you want to make it loose so it's easy for the district to move kids but given the the I think concern a lot of parents have I would also want to add a lot of restrictions. So you'll notice right only may be activated when a school
reaches 95% capacity. doesn't say it will be activated. It's just that there has to be a compelling reason why and then the district can choose or not to choose to do it. >> And sorry, just to follow up, uh based on what you're seeing in terms of data trends of of growth in various areas, do
you see that flipping anytime soon? Any any of these flex zones being flexed as it were in the next day, five, 10 years or I mean do you have any like you know years out that this may occur of flipping? Uh, not off the top of my head. No, I really
>> Nick one. Oh, >> a word. >> Yeah, say that again. >> Yeah. No, I said uh no, not like I said, I would love for you never to use the flex zone. That would be my goal in life until potentially shifting back to actton uh schools. >> Nick, can I just add on to that? I think
one of the things and maybe you can jump in here if this isn't what you were talking about because I know we've talked about maybe this idea before. The goal eventually is because actton enrollment is projected to continue to decline. I think the goal eventually is to be able to return both the green and
yellow zones into actin schools once the act and enrollment declines. So you're it's essentially treating that as one of these flex zones. But right now we know with certainty that it has to be at at Blanchard because of what the enrollment is. So that's so I think that would be
the place where I think maybe over time there's some capacity to do that. Uh but initially no and then I think the other one I think right now I don't know I don't have a forecast for that uh out a number
of years. Um I think that's going to be I think that's really hard to predict over time. >> Not anytime. Apparently, I'm the only one who gets to talk. That's disturbing. >> Yours is dead, too. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Something happened on your side.
>> Yeah. All of them. >> Come over here. >> No, it's only yours. >> Try it. >> Testing one, two, three. Ah yes, as as I was saying. Um, no. So, so Peter, in your estimation, it's not
anything that would be happening in the in the relatively near future. I mean, not next year or two years or something. >> Yeah. I mean, you would have to I mean, I would say no earlier than three years.
That's being conservative. That's >> putting on my big picture hat. Um I agree with this you know sort of um the ceiling. If a school reaches 95% capacity then that would trigger um do you think that it would make sense to
also put in a floor whereby and this is me you know fast forwarding 15 20 years if we have moved everybody back to you know the actton students back to Actton you know should we put something in place where you know we don't want Blanchard below 75%. >> I think it's a great idea.
Thanks. Uh, a couple of things and then Nick, a question for you. One, I definitely want to emphasize, well, let me add if if people are interested in seeing how some neighboring school districts use buffer zones. I actually recommend looking at Arlington Public
Schools. They have a great page on not only their procedures, but also the mapping and and how families can understand it. Newton also does it uh as another place. Two, I definitely would strongly recommend uh affirming to
families that once your family is placed in a school, it does not change. So the idea of flex or buffer is not about an individual family's vulnerability to changing if you're in a certain address. It's about for people who actually move in um for the first time and are newly
registered. So, I do think that's important because I appreciate a family saying, "Are we going to get yanked and toggled all over the place?" The answer is no. There is no district that that does that for a variety of reasons. So, I would I would say that the the question I have, and this goes to your point, Peter, when you were talking to
Nick, about utilization versus class size, I'm wondering two things. One is I wonder if the threshold is really about capacity as opposed to class size needs because you could have a scenario where you're under a certain capacity but you're in a certain grade where for
whatever reason just dumb luck or bad luck. You've got a bubble or you've got more kids strangely moving in in that particular grade where you've got a challenge. So that's where I do wonder if it's less about overall utilization. And my worry, my worry is not about
utilization. Just like Peter, my worry is about what happens when all of a sudden we only have three sections of fourth grade. We've got a bunch of kids who move in and now you have class sizes of 27. That's my worry. Even if you're at 90% utilization. So for me, I actually think that there's a chance
that I would want to use um buffer zones even next year to our advantage if for some reason you had some churn which we have every year. You have people moving in and moving out every year. Don't know from where. um that could both benefit
and challenge us when it not comes to utilization but when it comes to class size because in terms of capacity you could let's say you have 10 families who move out of a certain zone and that 10 kids who move out of a certain zone and 10 kids who move in your utilization stays the same but if their grade levels
are different that's where I have a problem so I actually think that buffer zones could be used next year to benefit that piece where the class size issue is the issue with that in mind I am wondering Peter Can you go to the actual like the big picture zone like option seven the
>> Yeah. Or or your Yeah. >> Is there a reason why we wouldn't and I've seen this in Arlington so I don't know if it's apples to apples. They create buffer zones that basically take the actual border between two school zones and say anybody who's within 500 yards this way of this the line and 500
yards that way, you're in the buffer zone. And then depending on if you move in and we need to adjust class sizes appropriately, you you could be placed at one or the other. So that's what I'm wondering. Rather than saying Minute Man Ridge, you are the flex zone, why not take between Boardwalk and Parker Damon,
the green and the blue line, and say, you know, this far this way and this far this way, you're in the buffer. If you are someone who newly moves in, you potentially could be placed at either Boardwalk or Parker Damon depending on the grade level that you're going into
and depending on the class sizes that we have. That doesn't address the the Blanchard >> um Actton question. So, I do appreciate your point about still keeping those zones as flexes the other way, but when we're talking about class size, that's my concern. It's not about utilization,
it's about class size. >> Great idea. >> Yep. Thank you for raising that, Andrew. You I was also wondering about class size, but I think you laid that out better than I could have. Andrew, you're next. >> Uh yeah, utilization and class or
capacity are things I was curious about, too. Capacity seems to be like what the fire marshall says you can have in the building. And utilization ends up being something that's more specific to what the kids have. And also something we haven't really talked about, which would be the student toteer ratio, which you know, there's a delta now. we're going to end up changing that a bit with what
we're doing here, especially with, you know, all the things that are happening. But that's not my question. Um, uh, my my my question has to do with two things that I've been thinking about with regard to this. Um, the first one has to do with the governance, but not the governance from what we're saying, but the governance and the opportunity for
the parents to be able to have some conversation about this. We don't have any way for the parents to have a voice or agency in being part of this. And one of the problems I think that we're going to have as uh we enter into this new era is that we'll have parents who maybe come into the school district who are in
this flex zone who have kids next door to them that are going one place and they're going to be told they're going another place and they want to try to find a way to be able to get back. There's also just the general issue that comes with going to a particular school. I know Peter, you're being very thoughtful in the way that you're looking to place students, but I also
know that there's certain things that um inside our schools now, students have relationships with the support staff of the school to provide them with different types of safe areas for them to be a part of. And being able to have
as a parent some agency in this that could play into the governance here, I think is important. We haven't talked about policy for governance and how we're going to bring parents into the conversation, how we're going to bring students in the conversation. And I think it's important. Um, but the real thing that's been playing in my head is
something you mentioned, three years. Three years from when we start this, only one grade will be in the school that they started in. And that means that, you know, if you you are in, you know, kindergarten, you're going to be in, you know, second grade, whatever. We're only have well, not one grade, two grades, whatever. you're only going to
have a small amount of the population that we're currently configuring for still in the schools that we configured them based off of. That means that while the parents while the families are still in because their their kids are going from upper school to lower or lower school to upper school and from upper
school to the junior high, we still have these properties that are aligned to the schools and we have the schools that are defined by the properties and the kids that are there, but we don't have the kids going there anymore. And you're not going to have parents leaving. You're just going to have kids vacating those
spaces. And the kind of ongoing durability of the geographic planning that you're doing here will either mean that we have to go through something like this every 3 or four years because again populations age out of the schools
that they're in or have some other way of being able to manage a model that encourage that includes that. So my question regarding all of this, and it wasn't something that mapped to the three things you had on the worksheet you gave us, is how do we have this more
strategic version of what we're looking at doing to be able to ensure that we don't have to go through all this stress every four years, every 3 years to be able to maintain the balance we want to have inside the
schools. in regards to well so first I think the geographical zones that we're creating are generally sustainable and what we're trying to get at here is determining the flex zone definitions to be able to move kids across. So that that is your
strategic adjustment lever that you have. >> Nick, I have a question. What's the uh difference between a smaller flex zone versus a larger one in longer term sustainability?
>> So I think there's two pieces to this puzzle. I'll kind of tie in I think a little bit where you were getting at a flex zone. If you are if you have a flex zone with a particular set of students in it for instance I think in my mind kindergarten would be your most logical
sort of move shifting left or right to adjust for various either class sizes or utilization. So a small flex zone would usually move one or two kindergarten kids. Right? Part of the question you have to ask outside of a new kid moving
in at a particular grade level is do you want to move the entire entry of a grade? Right. So if if you have a flex zone that has 10 new kindergarten kids, do you move all 10 kids or do you have to randomly pick? So to your point, you
could add a little bit of a parent flare to this and ask for volunteers. Like do you have somebody who wants to go here or here? We need five. um I would want to not or avoid having the district cherrypick or choose which uh family was to go. So you could put a rule in that basically says if we're moving
kindergarten the entire grade within that flex zone has to move. That doesn't line up with Andrew's sort of like long flex zone. And so then if you have a elongated or a very large flex zone where you actually have too many kids that you want to move and you have to
selectively choose the question then becomes how do you selectively choose? That's where you could in theory have a lottery, right? Where okay for incoming new kindergarten, you tell us where you want to go and we'll kind of move you accordingly.
>> Lakshmi, >> so you said um the governance is kind of self- sustaining when this with this kind of allocation of students, right? Geographic. So I was wondering what are the parameters that you would give them to say I mean
without flex zones without buffer zones how would they do it I mean they have constraints on class sizes maintain class sizes um capacity I mean they have constraints right so we have to give them some flexibility somewhere
>> I mean you do but you don't there's plenty of districts in the United States that don't have flex zones um and they deal with this all the time >> yeah I I agree but What would you give them um >> in terms of the flex zones? >> Yeah. Not not flex zones, but anything to kind of work with all those
constraints and still kind of come up with a model that looks good year by year based on >> Yeah. No, I mean I I I think flex zones could work. Um it's just depending on how you want to make it either incorporating, you know, parent voice or incorporating sort of a logical approach
to the whole thing. So like I said, most districts don't have flex zones. So it's one thing that they generally will manage accordingly in terms of either adding a a section here, taking back a section or adjusting it accordingly. >> Thank you,
>> Lisa. This might be a policy or Peter or possibly a combination uh question. Um, so from what I'm understanding from our discussion on flex zones, would designating the green and the yellow
areas as if it were potentially to be just designated as a flex zone, would it be easier from a policy standpoint to be able to write it in about talking about the floor or talking about the ceiling for either way? Would that make that easier to do if we're trying to
futureproof the scenario? It feels like one of the goals whether we're talking about overall building utilization or whether we're talking about class sizes within grade levels across different buildings, we're actually talking about more around a
range of deviation from the mean than we are a fixed percent. Right? So, you know, if if all of our buildings were at 82%, we'd feel pretty good about that, right? If all of our buildings were at 50%,
we'd be doing this again, right? Um, but I think what we don't want to have is a building at 95% and another building at 70%. Right? So, that's what we're trying to avoid is variation. And I think the same thing on class sizes. So, I actually wonder more if there's a way of and I
don't know how this I'd have to give it some thought. um and we we could team up on it, but I don't know if there's a way of talking about the idea of maintaining a reasonable balance across zones if if that's what I think I'm hearing is a concern that that's coming out.
Yeah. So, if I could build on that just real quick, what I'm hearing, right, is like there's some level of like um it needs to be predictable so parents can see it coming and it needs to be um consistent so that if you join a school, you're staying in that school. I think
the biggest question I have because I think I've gotten a lot of good ideas that I can put together is how much parent choice do you want? So, Andrew, you brought up a great point about that, like what would you want to see? Well, truthfully, um, this is the first time I've gone through this on this side, and I know this is what you do all
the time, and trying to understand how to manage for long-term durability is something I'm really concerned about, and I'm not sure what the answer is. I'm asking for help with this because we need a model that will perform for us in a long-term basis. We need to be able
to have some flexibility in it for a ton of reasons. Um, and you have been very precise in the way that you've tried to build out the scenarios to align this incoming cohort of students to map to
equity and demographics and socioeconomic and and all the other things that will change. That will all change as the kids age out of the schools that they're in. And we do not necessarily have the same demographic and everything following up. It's not
that kind of a train. The people who are living in the places are going to stay where they are. The kids are going to stay in the schools, but they're going to go to other schools. And I hate to have us go through this. I appreciate, you know, your thought. Kindergarters come in, give them, you know, the lottery, give them an option,
give them whatever. But I think it's something that we have to figure out because we're not just, this is not just make a decision and let it go. It's it's a long-term engine. We got to run and try to figure that out is why you're here, man. Vicram,
>> uh, I'm I'm curious about how you chose the Minute Man Ridge area. Um, like why why that in particular? >> Uh, it's in walking distance of both schools and there's a split between the current people going to both schools. So, >> yeah. No, it seems to make sense to me.
>> Yeah. I mean, it was just and and I kind of like you could make the argument kind of what was saying, right? Make the entire walk zone around the two schools of Lex Zone and then >> Okay. And and my other question is is this this means basically um we providing uh school choice to the people
who live in that area. So they would be able to decide which school they want to go to if it comes to it >> if if that is what you want. We're coming back to the I can come up with a flex zone and I have heard from plenty of parents they don't want me to decide, right? And that's fine. And so I can
keep coming with you know I I've gotten some good ideas and and I respect the fact that you know I I am the expert here and but I'm not the expert in your community and I'm not the expert in what you all as a school community want. So when it comes to your that is a great call. Yeah, we can make the flex zone if
if you feel like that. But I know when you guys when I say like the lottery, you guys laugh and be like, "Oh, yeah. We don't want to go back to that." And it's okay. Well, what do you want? >> We're actually here because we moved away from school choice. We That's >> so So yeah. So from the context, if you don't want to touch that with a 10 foot pole, >> I like it. I thought it was great.
>> So yeah, let's do it. >> Okay, we got a couple more people and then I'm going to mention it is 850, which was my mental note of if we go beyond this, we still have to pass a budget. It's going to be a really long night. So I've got Liz, I've got Adam. Is there any I've got Leela. Okay, those are our last three. Go.
>> Right. Thank you. Um, so I want to make some suggestions then to the proposed governing rules. I think the third bullet point, um, >> I would like us to get to to rephrase the activation. >> Going to do that. >> And I think I think the the best way to do it is to
tie it to because I want this to be a durable policy. I want to tie it to our class size policy because if one changes, the other will need to. So, I think um Peter, I sort of I heard you're sort of like referencing sort of the the median class size, but that may change
depending on what our class size policy is. And so, I think I think what I'd like to see is a proposal of um the activation clause around uh you know number of students below and above class sizes recommend school committee recommendations. We'll do and so you
know utilization and and I'm going to do may >> not shall right. Just from a military perspective like you know you don't have to do it but it's up to the district if they want to do it. >> Y and and then the other one um I would like us to codify is that the Minute Man
Ridge is a flex zone only to the two campuses. >> Yes. Okay. Got it. Um, and then the one that I'm kind of toying with and struggling with is I want to provide more consistency for those families in the green and the yellow zone. And so I'm curious if you can identify the
green zone as a flex to boardwalk and the yellow as a flex to Parker Damon just so that it's it's your default is Blanchard and should we need to flex into Parker Damon, this is the group that's going to get flexed there. Um, >> I'm I know I I think what I'd like to
see is the feasibility of that. um just sort of as you sort of look at the trends but the more consistent or more stability or understanding that we can give to the families I think it would be a good idea. Well, I think to that point too, I would go and find some other areas in the Parker Damon so that then
you have a a movement in across two schools that can help balance that. But I I totally hear what you're saying. >> And then the the last comment I would have in relation to the choice, I think we've got in the second to last bullet there, the fact that they're that and I agree with it, is that we're not
looking for this to be a choice. We're looking for this as a um relief valve if we need to a um balance class sizes and those decisions need to be based first on um number of students that we want to put in a class and secondly by the needs
of the students so that we're not um overburdening a specific school with a certain set of needs. Um, so for me, class size would be the first. The second would be the needs of the students. Um, and and balancing demographics. And for me, that precludes
the idea of choice because if I've got 10 kindergarteners, um, and I need to move five, I want to look at the needs of those kindergarteners and balance the the needs and demographics in the school before I go give a choice. >> Got it. >> So, Vicram, it's going to be Liz, it's
going to be Leela. You Vicram, you've gotten to say a lot of stuff tonight. We have to pass a budget yet. >> Uh we we will we will >> Can I offer to just email me? >> That would be great. Can Can we do that? >> Just email. >> Super. Thank you, Liz.
>> Um Adam and uh I would entertain making the the um middle flex zone from um Minute Man Ridge a little bit larger to be able to provide more flexibility. Yeah, that's >> Lea. Well, I think Adam complicated my
thinking a little bit, but I was going to say that um I I feel like this is we are assuming, but it's not explicit here around like if you have a student who needs to be in a specialized program that is building based. Even if you live in a flex zone, that takes precedence
over the fact that you live in a flex zone. Um >> yes I mean uh yes I will make that explicit. >> And then siblings it is that might actually be a place where there is a
choice conversation with a family for our students who are in specialized programs whether or not siblings are staying with or going to their geographical. Right. >> Okay. >> That was hard. Good work everybody. All right, next steps. >> We're going to do this again. Go ahead.
>> All right, so uh it's scenario 7 is uh posted uh for people's feedback. Um let's review. This has been a very productive meeting. Uh I have the priority for the Blanchard expanded zone. I have an idea of how
we're going to try to attack the transfer uh the transition policy and I'm going to add layers of flex zones on top of that. I can come with more than likely two scenarios for your review next uh week that encompass all of these aspects um for your vote. Does that
work? >> That works. And then as well making sure that we get data to Peter so he can do um more class size. >> Yeah. All of that data will come so you can look at the whole thing. The whole shebang. >> All right. >> All right. Thank you all very much. >> Andrew, can it be an email? >> That's that's actually the question. If
we have questions for him, should we email him directly or go through Peter and go to him? CC Peter. >> Perfect. >> Send them to Nick. That work? >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you all very much. >> Thank you. All right. That moves us on to new business. We are on to the select
energy solar pro projects. >> All right. Sher, do you want to Yeah. >> talk a little bit? >> So Kate is here tonight and she can come up if anyone has any questions. She had put a memo in the packet with some pictures and I don't know if anybody has
any questions for her. This can be a first reading or it can be a vote. We have four PPAs on the table with leases that she can talk a little more bit more about. >> Yeah. Can I just do one quick preface in addition to what Sher said? So we have been working behind the scenes on
continuing to try and build out solar opportunities. Um there are three new sites and in addition as you know um we were unable to move forward with the battery storage pack um at Boardwalk campus and so one of the four options is
an alternative to that that is a solar only project. Um and so I just want to thank Kate because she's been doing a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes to get four projects ready to launch that could have some nice benefit back to the district. So thanks Kate.
There you go. >> Why don't I um I'll just take a couple minutes. I'm delighted to be bringing you a pallet cleanser. Um I think you're I I'm I'm uh the team has been working hard on this. I'm proud of being able to put this in front of you. It has taken diligence and focus. The the um
inflation reduction act identified a 10-year runway for solar that got changed last summer. There's a deadline approaching. Um this is a really wonderful window for for u moving on solar and lots of our um colleagues are doing that around the state and there
are um what you have in front of you is are four proposals to do solar installations two parking canopies here on the main campus um with pictures in the memo and Peter's somebody's just pulled up Peter just pulled up this is the rooftop of this building um also
rooftop at boardwalk and then two parking canopies on this campus as well. So the the three uh arrays planned for this campus would provide about a third of the electricity that this campus uses. The boardwalk rooftop would provide about a third as
it happens of the electricity used at Boardwalk as well. Um the price is good. We've had two different we have two different projections. Um and both both projections including the conservative highly professional one we we come out
ahead. Um, budget certainty is tremendously valuable as you will know. Um, and it, you know, also happens to move us forward on our decarbonization goals. I I a piece of, um, information that's
not in the memo is that these contracts also have a 0% escalator. So, the price that you're seeing for um electricity, those actually I don't know that that's in the memo, but the price that we're signing up for is the same for the length of the contract. And
some they're often structured with a 2% escalator to make the first year look better. In this case, it's the same price throughout the throughout the contract. I'm happy to entertain questions. I'm gonna make you two rock paper scissors.
>> Kate, thank you so much for this. Um, uh, two quick questions. Um, the the contract savings that we're seeing here, that's the difference between what we purchase energy from Eversource versus what we would purchase energy for off the solar array, right?
>> Yes. >> Okay. >> Roughly. I mean, there's a there's some more technical details there, but yes. Um and for all of these um do we have any um not we actually will will um the installers have any um will they have to
wait for interconnection agreements and approvals to be able to start and or energize the projects? >> Yes, of course. And they are those are already applied for they're underway. So engineering is not complete. I don't think they have they have positive
signals back from Eversource but I don't think they have a interconnection permit in hand. Um I also want to mention the there's a 30% federal tax credit still in place. Um there's you know it's been the pathway has been filled with potholes. Uh and so there's some risk
that I should mention that that 30% tax credit doesn't come through but that risk would fall entirely on select. they would cancel the projects if that didn't come through, but there's no risk to the de district and I I think it's unlikely. They this is it's all well established
and these guys are pros. So, >> I have a third bonus question. >> We're we're schedule the the the plan is to start these projects this summer. Is that correct? >> Uh we'll see. They're stacking up projects as fast as they can. Um this the steel for in the parking lots will
can only be done in the summer. I don't know if they'll hit that this summer. They can't order steel until these contracts are signed. Um, and the rooftops they think they can do during the school year with minimal disruption. So, >> awesome. >> To to be determined. >> Thank you for the somewhere between
$964,000 and 3 million and $629,000 in district savings. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's great. Really wonderful. Andrew, >> thanks. I'm thrilled that we're getting solar back. I was concerned we couldn't get the battery going and I know the boardwalk was built um to be with zero
net, right? And I I know this is not going to be the same. What's the difference between what we are anticipating and what we're going to be able to achieve now because we're not using the batteries. >> It's a really good question. Yes, Boardwalk was planned as a net zero building. The triumph of the building, I take every opportunity to say, is that
it was put up right and really well and the and the building envelope is phenomenal. The system inside it is all electric, geothermal, small and highly efficient. The building is was operated built designed to operate at very low energy use. It's operating better than that. Better than designed this year,
even better than last year. It's remarkable. So, you get one shot at putting a building up, right? And we we did a a great job with it. The the team did a great job with it. Where the electricity comes from is a secondary question. The plan was to generate a lot
on site. That hasn't worked out. The most um valuable part of that plan was the rooftop solar, which is cheap, cheap, cheap to put in. Um, so it makes us money. Um, the battery was the next most valuable thing because it's actually a revenue generator. The parking canopy was going to be kind of a
wash. So at this time, it's important to seize this opportunity to at least put rooftop solar up there. >> Uh, the other question, um, because we're not having the battery anymore, which means that we're not gathering solar energy during off- peak hours for
the use of the building. Are we now just pushing this straight through to the grid and that's how we're able to get this? So yes. And how much of this is we're going to be able to use? Well, it's doesn't matter. I'm really thrilled that you're doing this. Thank you for putting in place. >> Yeah, it's less than ideal. We wish we
could put in a battery. And I I uh I don't I think it's entirely possible that 3, four, five years from now, we might entertain another battery proposal. The state is improving its permitting process. We could take a look at that. Um but at this time, that's not
an option. Um, and so what we're doing is using the grid as a giant battery, if you will. We're feeding solar into it when we have too much and then, um, pulling at night from the grid. >> One last thing, and this is actually towards Peter, I mentioned it during budget sub as well. Uh, the boardwalk
building was built with the understanding the parking lot would have a canopy over it. So, we have not only the networking and the wires and everything built into the parking lot, we have giant holes in the parking lot. What's the plan for boardwalk um parking lot if we're not going to have the
canopy over there? >> And I'll just mention we what what's in under the parking lot is empty conduit so there's no no copper. >> Great. >> I think we'll probably just fill it in those those areas. Yeah. >> Yeah. There there's it's all stable. We
put we put sleeves uh on their on their edges and and and put the gravel in that. So, if we get a notion, we could have another vendor come in and plan to try to find the sleeves and put the steel up and put parking canmies over, but it's not cheap. And the 30% federal
tax credit is about to disappear. So, >> Ben, >> real quick question. Do you have a net metering contract with Eversource yet? And what is the risk if you do not get one? >> Um, um, let's see. That's specified in the PPAs
and in the interconnection application. So, we should be fine with that. I the question there's one question about whether it's going to be on bill credit. Um, and that is also in the application that's filed and I've written somebody at Eversource to get a confirmation, but I don't anticipate any problem.
>> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead, Adam. >> I move to approve the power purchase agreements and leases to authorize Superintendent Peter Light to execute these agreements along with any associated necessary or incidental documents. Item one, this it's a very
long one. Item one, lease agreement and power purchase agreement pertaining to the solar project located at R.J. Gay Junior High School, 16 Charter Road and for 441 Massachusetts Avenue, Act in Massachusetts 01720. Item two, lease agreement and power purchase agreement pertaining to the
solar project located at the ABRSD High School senior lot, 36 Charter Road and 108 Hayward Road, rear act, Massachusetts 01720. Item three, lease agreement and power purchase agreement pertaining to the solar project located at the Paul P. Gates Elementary School, 75 Spruce
Street, Actton, Massachusetts 01720. And item four, lease agreement and power purchase agreement pertaining to the solar project located at the Actton Boxboro Regional School District Administration Building, 15 Charter Road, Actton, Massachusetts 01720. For the avoidance of doubt, the PPAs are
approved at the prices stated therein. And if the price is subsequently reduced in accordance with the power options policies and school committee approve, the school committee approves the superintendent to execute the contract amendment to that effect. >> Second. >> All right, that was moved by Adam,
seconded by Ben. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? >> Thank you, Kate. >> Thank you all so much. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> All right. That brings us up to the temporary use of Conan School building by the town of Actton. Um Peter, are you going to speak to that? >> Yeah, sure. So, um the town of Actton I the town manager approached me and we have since received
the letter that's in your packet. Um, essentially a request from the town of Actton if Conan is going to be vacant next year to be able to use the Conan building temporarily um because they are anticipating pending approval at town meeting um that they would move forward
with a massive renovation on the current town hall. Um, you know, we would work out we would obviously need to work out details between the town manager and I because we will need to use Conan for some things next year. There's definitely going to be storage that we need. Um, we anticipate we might need
access to the gym for community education purposes, things like that. But otherwise, it would essentially be a vacant building. Um, I think one of the reasons I wanted to bring this forward was from a a school district benefit. Um, the town would be assuming the costs of operating Conent um, instead of the
school district. Um, we would still probably pay the bills because it would be our building, but we would just build the town and and at least recoup the the utility costs for that. um and they would provide you know the custodial maintenance things like that um while they're using it. So, um, it seemed like a reasonable thing to me to bring
forward. Um, and you know, if you are okay with it, I will start to work toward anou with the town um, and negotiate what we need with the town manager. >> Um, as long as the polar bears are placed where people are happy with them
being placed, I'm okay with it. Let's >> Okay. >> Okay. Net net, please try to get a net net agreement with them where they're paying everything so we don't have to. >> Okay. Awesome. >> Thank you.
>> Well, that brings us to the final budget. >> All right. There have continued to be no changes um to the budget. So, I am just projecting what the the vote language is. Um, you know, just as a reminder, it does
take a 2/3 majority of all members of the school committee in order to pass a budget. Um, which is eight votes. Um, so just want to we do need eight votes in order to pass the budget. That hung us up a couple of years ago and we had to come back a couple times to to get that right. Um,
happy to answer any last questions, but there are no changes to what we've we've been projecting. So, I you know, typical is this meeting. I don't do any new presentations. >> Go for it, Liz. I move that the committee adopt the budget of the Actton Boxboro Regional
School District for the fiscal year July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 as presented in the amount of 122,593,238, which is reduced by estimated receipts and available funds in the following amounts. Anticipated Chapter 70 aid in
the amount of 17,566,746. Anticipated state transportation aid in the amount of $2,619,357. Anticipated state charter school aid in the amount of $75,000. Anticipated Medicaid reimbursement of $200,000. Anticipated investment
earnings of $300,000. Estimated miscellaneous revenues of $23,500 and transfers from the following district reserves. Excess and deficiency fund in the amount of $1,243,850. Capital stabilization fund in the amount of zero dollars for a net amount to be
assessed to member towns in accordance with the education reform law and the terms of the regional agreement and amendments thereto as follows. Actton 82,830,682 consisting of a capital assessment of $4,739,398 and an operating assessment of 78
million 911,284 and Boxro 17,734,13 consisting of a capital assessment of 1,9355 and an operating assessment of $16,724,7 748.
>> Second. >> All right. Well done. Your uh practice reading warrants is clear. Good job. So, that was moved by Liz and seconded by Adam. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions?
All right, that passes. Thank you all. We have our budget done for the year. >> I'm sorry, I have a question. Um the regarding athletic fees, do we do we cover that or do we skip that? It's next. >> Yes. Um,
>> now they're showing underneath the budget. Does Did we have a diligent snafu there? So, Sher, do you want to talk about athletic fees? >> Sure. We're looking for the school committee to vote an increase in the athletic fees for the upcoming 2026
20227 school year. We're looking to increase the per sport amount from $350 to $365. So, a $15 increase. And we're also proposing an increase of the additional fee for the ice hockey or alpine skiing from $250 to 275.
We want to keep the family cap at 1,200. And we also want to keep the junior high and senior high um extracurricular activity fees as the $50 onetime fee.
So, one of the things with the the main part of the athletic fee um and the the reason of the increase, we actually want to add a certified strength and conditioning coach um which is something that most high schools um our size in division one would typically have a
certified strength and conditioning coach um that's accessible to all teams um in the athletic department. um we don't have the money in the budget to be able to add that position, but the increase in the fees um families would essentially be increasing their fees in order to have that benefit for their
students in the the athletic program. It's a significant benefit to students in large division one high schools to be able to have access to that position and where it's budget neutral. We think it's a good good use and I don't think families generally would mind paying a
few dollars more in order to have a significant upgrade to the program. Lakshmi, >> do we have some kind of grant whereas if a student can't afford it, we do step in. >> Do we have scholarships available
for athletic fees? >> We have the whole financial assistance program. So, if somebody fills out the financial assistance, we kind of go through the process and if they're eligible, it is towards athletic fees as well.
>> Okay. Thank you, >> Glenn. Did you have your hand up earlier? >> Strength training has changed my life. This is a good use of it. >> Vicram, >> uh, just regarding the assistance program, there's a way of course that that people are able to do it with, you know, sort of
on I don't know privately. Is that right? There's a method to do that privately. Okay, >> Andrew. >> Thanks. Um, I get a lot of questions about this. I my kids are all over sports and so people talk to me about things but one of the questions that keeps coming up um and is about how each
sport charges 350 or 365 and the question comes is are these fees aligned to the sports themselves? Do they go into where's the money go? How does the money spent? I don't think there's a lot of transparency in the community as to how once we gather the funds together,
how it's dispersed and how it's used. Um because I know like there's outside groups that bring in lots of money to be able to help us with various parts of it. And it's different for sports than it is for clubs. As we say here, $50 onetime fee. Join as many clubs as you
like. $365 per sport, which means that if you play a sport in February or in in fall, spring, and winter, you're at $1,000 underneath the $1,200 fee limit. But still a ton of money. And I know we
upped it the last couple years. Even with the financial assistance, it can be a barrier for kids to be able to get into this. I'm just curious specifically right now, can you talk about where the money goes once it's collected and how it's aligned to either the individual teams or what happens with it?
>> Sure. When Jim Scanland, who's our athletic director, when he puts together his budget, he puts two separate budgets. He does one budget under the general fund and one budget under the athletic revolving fund. All of these funds go into athletic revolving fund.
So it helps fund his overall budget. It's sometimes for coaching, transportation, referees. He has a whole budget process he does. Those combined are our our fees that
come in and our gate receipts that come in. And that money also goes into that revolving account. So between the general fund piece and the revolving fund piece, it funds the whole entire budget for athletics. >> So it's not aligned to the sport. It goes to the department. The department
parses it out to the sports. So if the sports themselves have issues with budgets coming to them, talk to Jim. If we try to have enough money in the revolving account to cover everything, there has been a couple of years where the general fund has had to kind of
supplement some of the revolving account. But no, it is not sports specific. So if the football team had this much money that came in and the tennis team had this much money comes in, it all goes towards the whole entire athletic program.
>> Okay, I see questions. I actually have a quick question. Do you need us to vote this? >> Yes. >> Just another question. Um, is are those numbers public on how he divides that money up? How that money is divided up from that that that fund?
>> It's a public document, our budgeting. >> Okay. So, it's not sort of arbitrarily as someone. Okay. Thank you. >> You know what? I'm going to actually suggest that we come back. We don't need this part tonight because it's independent of the budget, but we do not have a specific vote listed on the agenda for this. So, we'll bring that
back for next meeting. >> Okay, sounds good. All right, that brings us down to subcommittee member reports. And we do actually have one we need to do. Um, does anybody from negotiations, policy, or budget want to
give an update? >> Go for it, Adam. >> Uh, I have a quick one that's related to budget. Last night I attended the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools um sort of policy update. Um there are roughly now 280 districts that
are in what's called hold harmless, which means that their enrollment has declined to the point at which that they're they're only getting that minimum aid that we get now. They recognize that there are districts like ours that have been in hold harmless for decades. Um but there's a growing number of uh schools that are in that um uh
challenging position. Um and so Mars is putting together an advocacy campaign similar to what we did last year asking for um the legislature uh to look at the chapter 70 funding model to look at some of those um extraordinary costs to look at the inflation cap all of those
things. Um, if anybody's interested, I'll I'll happily share the slides um with you, but I know that we're busy. Um, Glenn, as soon as I get them, I will for sure send them to you. But um, not specifically budget sub, but budget related. This continues to be the problem that we're facing continues to
be a problem throughout the Commonwealth. There are a more than I can count number of communities that are going for Proposition two and a half overrides this year and they're all doing the same doomsday planning that we've had to do in the past, which is if this doesn't pass then um what what can
we do? How many people do we have to cut? So, it's it's cold comfort that we're not alone. >> Thanks. >> One thing just if you're watching the news and overrides, I don't know if you saw Brookline's override number. So Brooklyn has 7,000
students, we have 5,000. The Brooklyn proposed override is $25 million. Um that's that's the level of deficit that a lot of the districts are now finding themselves in. Um and most of that is on the schools, they've said. So that is a
you know certainly a significant gap. Um >> okay. All right. I've got an ALG update. Um, so ALG met last Thursday morning. Last Thursday morning. And select board and school committee. We're
at the point that we were we feel like the multi-year financial model is is what we're ready to bring back to our committees and boards for a thumbs up. Um, finance committee is still thinking about it, so they may still have some questions. But with us passing our
budget here, I can say with confidence that the um the net position at the bottom for the town of Actton is a zero. In other words, we have with our our estimated revenues coming in and the budgets that we're going to bring to town meeting, we're not going to have a
fight on the floor for money. Um so that's that is one of the big goals of ALJ is to figure that out. Um the but the model is in your packet if you would like to look at it, but um we don't have any issues with it. Um Leela,
I don't know if there's anything you want to add to this. No, it's been it's been a lot of work. Um everybody doing what they're supposed to do, having these conversations. So um does anybody have any concerns with the model that is shown in the packet that I
need to bring back to ALG? We're all good with that. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Anything else on um subcommittee or liaison reports? We've almost never gotten to do these this year.
All right, that's exciting. In that case, we should move on to the consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda do not usually require discussion and are approved with one vote, unless any member would like to hold an item for discussion and a separate vote. I'll read each item and if a member would like it held, please say hold. Members
do not have to have attended a meeting to vote on the minutes. Item 6A, approval of Actton Boxboro Regional School Committee meeting minutes from March 5th, 2026. Item 6B, recommendation to approve
budget transfers per policy DJB. And item 6 C, approval of warrants as presented in the packet. All right. Given that no items were held, is there a motion to approve the cons? So move. Second. >> That was moved by Adam, I'm going to
give that second to Leela. All in favor? >> Any uh any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you, Ben. With that, we are good there. Um >> move to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Second.
>> That was moved moved by Adam, seconded by the whole committee. All in favor? >> Any oppose? Any abstensions? Great. Thank you all.