6.0 Conclusion: The Central Strategic Choice The final decision before the School Committee is not primarily financial, as the cost savings are comparable across all viable options. Instead, the committee faces a philosophical choice between two fundamentally different paths for managing necessary change. The first path, represented by Targeted Disruption (Options 3v2 & 4) , preserves stability for the majority of the district by concentrating a high-intensity, disruptive impact on one or two specific school communities. This approach carries the significant risk of creating long-term division, resentment, and a perception of inequity among those most affected. The second path, Systemic Reorganization (Option 5v2) , embraces broad disruption as an opportunity for an equitable "collective reset." It is the option overwhelmingly endorsed by the district's Senior Leadership Team as the most strategic, sustainable, and instructionally sound path forward. Leadership views this model as the only way to create truly inclusive, high-functioning school communities by creating a unified "fresh start" that avoids the "lasting harm" of targeting specific communities. While Option 6 is also systemic, it was largely dismissed by leadership as operationally and humanly unsustainable due to the extreme scale of the proposed schools.
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