Braintree officials present seven redistricting and consolidation options, seek public feedback

Braintree Public Schools Superintendent Jim Lee and consultants from AppGeo (part of the Sanborn Map Company) presented seven redistricting and consolidation options at a public information meeting designed to gather community feedback. The proposals include permutations that would close one or two elementary schools, reopen the district—s Old South building for elementary use, and reassign students across north and south neighborhoods to address uneven building utilization and class-size disparities.

The presentation focused on three problems the district says the options would address: uneven elementary class sizes across neighborhoods, long-term facility and maintenance costs driven by multiple older buildings, and constrained operating budgets that have already produced cuts. Superintendent Jim Lee said the work is advisory: "This falls to the school committee. They will undergo their own process to vet the information. They have committed to doing a public hearing," and asked the public to submit feedback through the district survey.

Priya Sankalia, project manager for AppGeo, described the consultant—s approach: geocoding student addresses, building 36 geographic "components" as moveable planning units, and assembling more than 30 scenarios into seven options for review. "We are a geospatial consulting firm," Sankalia said, describing how the components are…