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Parents, residents urge clearer plans and review after Steps program move and Ashby closure
Summary
Residents and authors of public emails urged changes to the district's retirement-of-facilities policy and pressed for a plan after the district moved the Steps special‑education program from Pepperell to Townsend without detailed transition steps. A parent asked the committee for impact analyses, supports and a meeting with affected families.
Mark Gorham, a Pepperell resident with a second‑grade child in the Steps program, told the North Middlesex Regional School District school committee that parents were surprised and concerned when the administration announced in February that the district would move the Steps program from Pepperell to Townsend. "This decision was quietly made," Gorham said, asking what studies and impact analyses had been done, whether extra supports or a transition plan exist, and whether the district had considered academic and behavioral regression.
Committee staff read several written public comments into the record from…
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