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District consultants present revised elementary plan and two middle-school zoning options
Summary
Dillinger Research presented a refined elementary scenario and two initial middle‑school zoning options. The consultants recommended one middle‑school model that balances enrollments across the three middle schools; committee members asked for another elementary variant and for more public input before a March decision.
Dillinger Research and Applied Data, the district’s redistricting consultant, presented a revised elementary scenario and two initial middle‑school zoning options to the Andover School Committee on Thursday as part of the district’s redistricting process.
Consultant Nick (Dillinger Research) said the team released an earlier “scenario 4” on Jan. 16, collected public feedback through an interactive mapping tool and refined the plan into “scenario 5.” Scenario 5 preserves Sanborn’s current residential boundary (it was not necessary to expand into populated neighborhoods), expands West Elementary to include the eastern side of Route 93 (High Plains area) and adjusts Bancroft and South boundaries in modest ways. The consultant said the revisions reduce the number of students who would be reassigned compared with earlier options.
The consultants also presented two initial middle‑school zoning proposals. Middle‑school scenario 1 keeps elementary-school cohorts intact (for example, most students from a single elementary would proceed to the same middle school) but produces an uneven distribution of utilization: one middle school (Doherty) could approach high utilization while others would be under capacity. Middle‑school scenario 2 splits some elementary cohorts across middle schools so that the three middle schools are more evenly balanced (roughly 68%–77% utilization across the three buildings in the draft model).
Committee members raised several recurring concerns: the downtown Andover neighborhood has dense housing and was repeatedly identified by residents as sensitive to rezoning; parents asked whether students assigned to a different middle school would still be able to walk safely and whether the district had data on how many students currently walk versus ride buses. Consultants and staff said bus-ridership numbers can be provided easily but precise door‑to‑door walk/drop-off patterns are harder to track and are often anecdotal.
Members asked for an additional elementary scenario variant that would keep a downtown pocket with Bancroft rather than assigning it to West; the consultant agreed to model that as “scenario 6” to show how the change would affect middle‑school utilization. Staff and consultants also said they will continue to refine maps and data for public meetings: a virtual community session on Feb. 13 will review middle‑school scenarios, the Redistricting Advisory Committee will meet Feb. 25, and the district plans an in-person implementation-focused session March 8. The School Committee expects to consider final recommendations at its March 20 meeting.
Consultants stressed that any final rezoning would be accompanied by discussions about reallocating resources, including special-education and other support services, to account for changes in student composition at affected schools.
No vote was taken on map scenarios at Thursday’s meeting; consultants said they will post interactive maps and accept public input in the coming weeks.
