Displacement, Disruption, and Operational Impact Across Reorganization Options
1. Introduction and Purpose
The School Committee requested this memorandum to detail the student and community disruption and displacement caused by the four final elementary school reorganization options. These options were developed by the AB Forward Steering Committee after extensive data review and community engagement over several months. The purpose of this analysis is to establish a clear, consistent framework for evaluating the specific human and structural consequences of each proposed path. A crucial first step is to define the key terms used in this analysis to ensure a shared understanding of these impacts.
2. Defining a Framework for Disruption
To fairly compare each choice, we need to use clear, shared definitions for how they might affect our students and schools. The following words are used throughout this report:
● Displaced: A student having to move to a new school because their current school is closing or merging with another. In these cases, the student's original school community is dissolved and reformed.
● Disrupted: A change that alters a school's makeup or how it operates, but the school stays open and keeps its main identity. An example is a school building that closes, but the school community moves to a new building and stays together. ● Impacted : A change that leaves a school largely intact without disruption, but recognizes that there will be an impact on how the school has historically operated. For example, a school might receive a new group of students from a closed school. This changes the size and makeup of the school but doesn't end the existing community.
Also, the "Rubric for Evaluating Options" created during the AB Forward process gives us two important ways to judge the size of the change:
● Breadth: This measures how much an option affects a small, contained group versus most or all students, staff, and families across the district. A narrow breadth means the change is focused on a small group, while a wide breadth means it's spread out. ● Intensity: This measures whether the impact is a small adjustment or a change that fundamentally alters the experience, routines, and programs for the people affected. High intensity means the change is significant and deeply felt by the communities involved.
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