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Westborough consultant lays out three redistricting options for K–3, urges not to pre-zone new multifamily developments
Summary
Dillinger Research presented three refined scenarios to rebalance enrollment among Westborough’s three K–3 elementary schools, with a recommendation to delay zoning new multifamily developments until student yields are known. The district will host a public meeting Jan. 12 and expects final recommendations Jan. 21.
Nick Sultano of Dillinger Research and Applied Data presented the Westborough School District with three revised K–3 redistricting scenarios on Jan. 7, saying the plan’s central aim is to better utilize space at the new Fales Elementary School and promote enrollment stability over the next five to ten years.
Sultano said community engagement to date included two public forums, two school-committee presentations, a month-long follow-up survey and targeted outreach to multifamily housing. The consultant reported 95 responses to a districtwide survey and 21 responses from multifamily housing residents, and said awareness of the project was high overall but lower among multifamily respondents. Common concerns included separating children from friends and the need for clear bus-route and implementation logistics.
He outlined three scenarios: one that shifts several large multifamily complexes (including Arrive and Homestead) to Fales and would raise Fales utilization toward the high‑80s; a second that mixes multifamily moves with nearby downtown neighborhoods to achieve similar utilization while diversifying housing types; and a third that keeps Homestead zoned to Hastings and produces only modest utilization gains (about 81% at Fales).
Committee members pressed Sultano on trade-offs. One member asked whether moving Arrive, a single large complex, would create a sharp demographic shift at Armstrong; Sultano said splitting some units between Armstrong and Fales could be considered, and emphasized that moving large, contiguous groups is more likely to create usable instructional space than moving a few students here and there. Concerns about perceived gerrymandering of downtown neighborhoods were raised; Sultano said the scenario boundaries were drawn around housing patterns and natural neighborhood divides rather than to target or isolate households.
The consultant addressed transportation questions with specific travel estimates: for example, travel from Arrive to Armstrong was estimated at about six minutes (roughly 2.2 miles) and to Fales about nine minutes (3.7 miles), and he said additional bus time for most students would be measured in minutes, not tens of minutes. He also recommended the committee explicitly decline to pre-zone the four approved new multifamily developments until actual student yields are observed.
The committee urged robust outreach to multifamily residents and multilingual families, and staff agreed to use ParentSquare’s translation tools plus in-person translators at the Jan. 12 community meeting at Fales. The consultant will present three narrowed options with implementation detail and modeling on Jan. 21.
The school committee did not take a final redistricting vote at the Jan. 7 meeting; the next steps are the Jan. 12 public meeting and the Jan. 21 recommendation to the committee.
