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Committee considers rotating-town waiting list for freshman admissions
Summary
The committee reviewed a proposed revision to the admissions policy that would keep waiting lists by town and allocate remaining freshman seats by rotating through towns at random, aiming to distribute seats more equitably without changing total seat counts.
The school committee reviewed a proposed admissions‑policy change that would alter how the district fills remaining seats for rising ninth graders.
Under the draft (Document 7), rather than merging applicants from all nine towns into a single ranked list, the district would maintain town‑level ranked waiting lists and allocate remaining seats by rotating through towns in a randomly determined order. Presenters said the change is intended to control for differences in grading and discipline practices across sending districts and to allow the district and towns to forecast enrollment and budget impacts more predictably.
The change would apply primarily to incoming freshmen; waiting lists for upperclassmen would remain merged and handled by rank order because the number of available seats by grade is smaller. Presenters said the policy would not change the total number of seats available; it only changes the order in which remaining seats are offered once the first round of admissions is complete.
Committee members asked whether other schools use a similar method; presenters replied that most schools offer seats regardless of ZIP code and that the proposed approach is intended to reduce year‑to‑year enrollment volatility for towns and improve forecasting.
The committee will review a more detailed simulation of the two methods before the next meeting and take up possible formal action in October.
