MMSD launches two-year boundary review to plan for Madison's projected growth

Madison Metropolitan School District on Thursday opened a two-year boundary review as part of its Building for the Future planning, saying the work will produce attendance-area scenarios informed by demographic forecasts, school capacities and community input.

"This work is data driven," Sydney Green, the district lead for the Building for the Future initiative, told the operations work group. She framed the effort as a multi-year process that began in July after the board approved a two‑year contract in June and described a timeline that aims for a final set of recommendations around February 2027.

Consultant McKay Larrabee of MGT said the project will combine student-forecasting models, scenario iterations and community engagement, and noted the district received 2,790 survey responses and 721 open-ended comments during an initial outreach phase. "We only found that 43% of respondents were aware of the study," Larrabee said, adding that awareness is highest among district employees and lowest among parents and guardians.

MGT presented a set of draft guiding principles that will serve as decision criteria for modeling boundary scenarios: utilization (balancing building capacity and class size), demographics (considering income and student composition), transportation and neighborhood schools (proximity and walkability), minimizing the number of students affected by changes, and programming (placement and access to specialized programs). Larrabee cautioned these principles are meant to guide trade-offs, not to be ranked as absolute priorities.

Board members pressed presenters on how the review will address historical patterns of segregation, students with individualized education programs (IEPs) and underrepresented voices in the survey. MGT and district staff said demographic detail and program placement are included in the modeling and that the two-year outreach plan will include targeted efforts to reach underrepresented groups, community organizations and families with IEP needs.

Marcy Horner of MGT demonstrated an interactive map showing MMSD's complex attendance areas, including noncontiguous "island" zones, optional areas, extension areas being added to the district and split feeder patterns that send cohorts to different middle and high schools. Presenters urged board members to explore the map on the Building for the Future website to better understand the district's current state before scenario work begins.

What happens next: staff said consultants will finish residential-development research and population forecasts by grade and attendance area, produce utilization and enrollment visualizations, and return to the board with maps and data in March to support further community engagement and scenario work.

The board did not take action on policy tonight; the presentation was an informational update on process, data and outreach plans.