On January 8, the School Committee hosted their final informational session on school reorganization. The four-hour meeting included a 75-minute public listening session that drew a record crowd as community members continued to weigh in on the two reorganization options under consideration and the proposed options for school reassignment, options 4 and 5.2.
A final vote is scheduled for the School Committee’s next meeting on January 22. According to the meeting’s agenda, “There will be a 20-minute public comment period with speakers allotted up to 3 minutes, based on the number of people indicating a desire to make a comment, and at the discretion of the chair. This will be the only public comment period during this meeting. Individuals are encouraged to submit public comments in advance of this meeting at this link.”
Option 4 would reduce the number of elementary schools by merging the Merriam and McCarthy-Towne school programs, retaining the K-6 grade structure of all five remaining elementary school communities. Option 5.2 would consolidate all elementary schools into three school buildings, creating two grade-banded K-3 “lower schools” and 4-6 “upper schools” in Acton and maintaining the Blanchard Memorial School in Boxborough as a K-6 school. Both options require the closure of the Conant Elementary School building and the reassignment of students to new schools based on building capacity.
No clear consensus has emerged based on aggregated community input, and there continue to be deep divisions among Committee members on which path to choose.
Option 5.2 has the support of the District leadership, members of the Acton Finance Committee and Acton Select Board, and the Acton-Boxborough Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC).
A separate vote, also scheduled for January 22, will determine how students will be reassigned to schools. Deputy Superintendent Andrew Shen released a series of memos on January 16 outlining a preliminary process with key decision points and policy recommendations for the School Committee to keep in mind as they consider reassignment scenarios.
The votes on January 22 will determine if the District will continue with a longstanding, lottery-based open-enrollment practice where students are assigned to a school based on family rankings of preferred schools or move to neighborhood schools based on geographic proximity.
The January 8 meeting included presentations by Gabby Abrams, the district’s assistant superintendent for teaching and learning and Natalia Kierul, the director of special education, that compared the two remaining reorganization options from the perspectives of teaching and learning and special education and clarified how the District intends to maintain continuity and coherence of the elementary educational experience and support transitions.
Superintendent of Schools Peter Light reported that “as we move into spring, we are thinking about classroom placements of students in either model. Heather Stouch, our coordinator of social emotional learning and mental and behavioral health, is putting together a community wellness working group which will lead the work on the transition phase once a decision is made. We’d like to bring grade-level educators together across elementary schools to collaborate around creating classrooms with student cohorts that know each other and can also be welcoming to new students. I want to talk through some ideas with principals about how we can give our teachers more agency and voice in how to thoughtfully move students around and how this transition will work to support students through this change.”
Abrams noted that “there has been a lot of hard work since regionalization to shift towards consistency and coherence across elementary schools that has resulted in a very strong K-6 system District-wide. Common, shared practices are much more numerous than our differences,” Abrams said.
Abrams’ report enumerated the ways that the unique educational approaches that once prevailed in Acton’s elementary schools have gradually given way to common, shared curriculum for core instruction in mathematics, English language arts, and for students learning English. A gradual phase-in of an open-source, inquiry-based social studies curriculum is also underway. All elementary schools are now using evidence-based, high-quality instructional materials and a common social and emotional skill building curriculum which includes a bullying prevention unit. K-6 screening tools and common assessments are used across elementary schools and a multi-tiered system of support was recently put in place to monitor student achievement and track the effectiveness of instruction.
Abrams addressed concerns voiced by Member Liz Fowlks and echoed by community members about the impending loss, under both options 4 and 5.2, of the innovative pedagogical approaches used at the Merriam Elementary School which teaches core content through project-based learning, and the McCarthy-Towne Elementary School, which centers art-integration into their core instructional program. “What are potential options to maintain these approaches and have them be available to our students?” asked Fowlks. Abrams responded that “the idea of spreading these ideas and practices of excellence is exciting to me. The commitment these schools have made to professional learning around these pedagogies is something I’d be willing to offer educators.”
Abrams also addressed concerns expressed by Member Lakshmi Kaja that “under 5.2 we blend different schools, different philosophies and different styles. How do we leverage the new structure in option 5.2 to make targeted support more efficient?” Abrams responded that the elementary schools are already providing targeted support. “We do our best to group students with similar needs together. In option 5.2 you have more sections across every grade level which provides more opportunities to pull from more classrooms and create larger groups. Targeted intervention is the goal in all of our programs and schools, and we are going to make it work no matter which option the Committee chooses, but we have the ability to make it more efficient in option 5.2.”
Special Education Director Natalia Kierul’s presentation focused on the impact of reorganization on the District’s four elementary special education programs: Connections, Pathways, Compass and the Language and Beyond program (LAB).
Under option 4, all programs would remain intact in their current locations with the exception of the Connections program which would be relocated to the Boardwalk Campus building due to the closure of the Conant School building.
Should the School Committee move forward with option 5.2, the District’s elementary special education programs would be co-located in “hubs” in each of the three elementary school buildings. Kierul explained that this change would align with the District’s longstanding practice of creating a continuum of programming for students with disabilities so that their needs can be more effectively met as they move through the grades.
The hubs are intended to group programs together that serve similar populations of students, consolidate resources, and minimize transitions. The hubs would include Connections and Pathways, which would be co-located at the Boardwalk campus and support elementary students on the autism spectrum; and Compass and LAB, which would be co-located in the Parker-Damon Building, allowing staff to work more closely to provide language-based, therapeutic, executive function, and inclusion supports to students in these programs. A third hub at Blanchard Elementary School in Boxborough would include two classrooms run by the Concord Area Special Education (CASE) Collaborative, and an elementary program called Specialist Teaching for Emerging Progress (STEP), a program with a life skills and functional academics focus.
Kierul told the Committee that, through this reconfiguration, “we have an opportunity to think carefully about where specialized programs will be located, how students and staff are supported throughout the process, and how we ensure equity, consistency, and strong outcomes across schools. The decision to relocate these programs was based on how to best support a continuum of services for this population for the long-term, fully recognizing the short-term challenges.”
As soon as a decision is made, Kierul reported that she will focus on planning for professional learning at the Boardwalk Campus focused on supporting children with autism. The Special Education Department has also reached out to the non-profit Understand Our Differences (UOD) that works with schools and communities to support disability awareness and build inclusive mindsets.
Kierul is currently holding a series of webinars with members of her team to keep parents informed as the process unfolds and to answer questions. At a recent webinar on January 16, Hillary Bonnell, the elementary counseling chair, told attendees that she is working with department heads to ensure that services are not interrupted and that teams are working with families to support the transition. The Special Education Department is also developing resources including book lists, guides, and videos for parents on how to support their child through transitions. Kierul reported that these resources will be shared with the Acton-Boxborough Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC).
Diane Baum is the School Committee beat reporter for the Acton Exchange.
