Editor’s Note: The author’s daughter is a student at South Elementary School who may be affected by the redistricting process.
At last week’s Andover Public Schools redistricting forum, a parent asked if students in the 5th and 8th grades would have to go to a new school when the plan is implemented in the fall of 2026, thereby forcing them to attend new schools in two consecutive years as they matriculate into middle or high school in 2027.
“I can’t promise that everybody will be grandfathered in and that would be a recommendation we’d suggest,” said Nick Stellitano of Dillinger Research and Applied Data Inc., APS’s consultant on the redistricting process. “I think it’s fiscally constrained and logistically challenging, but I think there are possibilities when it comes to either small pockets of kids moving or different scenarios or different areas that have different capabilities.”
As APS wraps up the process of creating new districts for the town’s elementary and middle schools, it will begin to move onto a process that could prove to be just as complex: implementing the redistricting plan at the start of the 2026-27 school year.
The redistricting process, which could affect as many as one-in-five K-8 students, is aimed at evening out the utilization of the schools after the new West Elementary School opened last fall with nearly double the space of the old building. But school officials have stressed redistricting is not as simple as drawing lines on a map. Other factors like demographic balance and transportation also factor into the process.
“That was one of the reasons why we wanted next year as a way to give space and time for the district to be able to sort of account and start to think through this,” Stellitano said. “There’s actually a lot of math that needs to go into that to see is it even possible.”
Other issues raised by parents at last week forum included:
- Concerns about walkability, particularly with students who live near Downtown and would be shifted from Doherty Middle School to West Middle School.
- The impact on kids who are separated from their friends by redistricting. “I want you to think about the impact individually that these kids are going to go through with moving again, especially thinking about the walkability and the safety all wrapped into one,” one parent said. “I don’t see the risk reward of moving half of a bus of kids to another school district.”
- There were differing viewpoints on keeping elementary school cohorts together when they transition to middle school. While some appreciate the continuity and familiarity this provides, others said mixing up student populations — as APS currently does — can offer a more diverse experience.
- Concerns over the division of established neighborhoods when assigning students to different schools. “Our neighborhood’s been Woodhill [Elementary School] for a while, so I just don’t see why we need to pull from areas of West Elementary to potentially go to Woodhill and take this historically Woodhill neighborhood and switch it back to West,” one parent said.
While earlier forums and school committee meetings have focused on the boundaries of the new school districts, last week’s forum marked a shift to focus on implementation. Dillinger is working on additional scenarios for elementary and middle school redistricting ahead of next month, when the school committee is expected to vote on a final plan.