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Kingston urges study to end sixth-grade middle‑school lottery to trim busing costs
Summary
A school committee member proposed eliminating the middle‑school lottery for incoming sixth‑graders to reduce transportation costs; members asked staff for enrollment and geographic breakdowns and discussed equity and capacity tradeoffs.
At the Feb. 25 Committee of the Whole meeting, committee member John Kingston proposed ending the middle‑school lottery for incoming sixth‑graders so students would attend the middle school closest to home, a change Kingston and others said could reduce long‑term transportation costs.
Kingston framed the proposal as a multi‑year transition, saying initial savings would be small but larger as cohorts progress: "the first year savings would be minimal... but once that filters through... there could be a tremendous cost savings," he said. He estimated the cohort is about 600 sixth‑grade students.
Opponents and…
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