Moving from Open Enrollment to a Geography-based Model
As part of the AB Forward strategic plan and the elementary reorganization, the Acton- Boxborough Regional School District is transitioning from a "School Choice" model to a Geography-Based Enrollment model . For decades, the district allowed families to rank their preferred elementary schools regardless of where they lived. While this offered flexibility, it created significant operational challenges that are no longer sustainable given the district's current financial and enrollment trends. The new model focused on having students attend school with other students based on their neighborhood.
Why the District is Moving to a Geography-Based Model:
● Building Community: A neighborhood-based model fosters stronger local communities, allowing students who live near one another to attend the same school, play on the same playgrounds, and walk to school together. ● Balancing Student Needs: Over time, the open enrollment system led to significant disparities in students' needs across schools. The new geographic zones are being created to better balance our students' needs across schools now and into the future. ● Operational Efficiency: Under the choice model, school buses often had to crisscross the entire town to pick up students for different schools. By assigning students to schools based on where they live (neighborhood zones), the district can create much shorter, more efficient bus routes. This reduces transportation costs and time spent by students on buses.
Strategic Reorganization and Long-Term Savings
Through the AB Forward initiative, we have redesigned our elementary staffing and school structure to align with our current student population. By consolidating resources and closing a school building, we are avoiding $1,879,369 in costs that would have otherwise been spent on 20 positions, including elementary classroom teachers, a principal, and an assistant principal. We are immediately reinvesting a portion of those savings—approximately $413,683 —back into the district to hire essential staff, such as mental health counselors, nurses, and office support. This reorganization results in a net avoided cost of $1,465,686 in personnel alone. We anticipate as much as $1M in one-time costs associated with this reorganization, so there will be lower NET avoided costs in year one than in future years. More importantly, this is not a one-time fix; these savings will compound over time. We project that this plan will save the district $6,978,388 over the next five years and a cumulative $16,802,549 over the next decade, providing the long-term financial stability necessary to protect our students' education.
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