Breaking up student groups, class size, and longer bus trips to school were among the concerns parents raised about the Andover Public Schools redistricting plan at a community forum last week.
The district is in the process of collecting community input as it develops the plan, which is aimed at utilizing the additional capacity at the new West Elementary School. The school committee is scheduled to vote on the final plan in February, and the plan would be phased in stages beginning in the 2025-26 school year.
The plan would impact students in grades K-8 as the district looks to take advantage of additional space at the new West Elementary School. Currently, there are about 590 students assigned to the 191,028 square-foot West El. School officials said Bancroft and High Plain Elementary Schools are close to capacity.
“Generally speaking, when a district redistricts, what you’re looking to do is ensure that district-wide resources are balanced across all of the facilities and all of the schools,” Superintendent Magda Parvey said at the Nov. 14 meeting. “We’re looking to balance the enrollments across both elementary and middle school buildings, identify ways to…simplify the overall transportation system that moves kids from their homes to the schools and back again, facilitate optimal programming needs for students and then ensure that each experience or each school is providing the same experience across the entire district for all students from all backgrounds.”
APS last redistricted after the new Bancroft Elementary School opened in 2015. The issue is an emotional one for parents and students, who worry about breaking up friend groups and adjusting to a new school. Parents were particularly concerned about the plan’s impact on middle school students.
“My middle schooler is freaking out,” one parent said. “It’s just hard enough to be a middle schooler without getting switched to a different school midway through.”
Many parents also said they were anxious their child would be the only one from their school or neighborhood in their class if they were moved to a new elementary school. They are also worried about busing and increased traffic around West El when it reaches capacity. Parvey and the district’s consultant on redistricting acknowledged those concerns and that community input would be factored into the final plan when it is presented in January.
You can read an AI-generated transcript of Thursday’s meeting.