School committee approves limited school-choice seats after debate over small class sizes

The Berlin-Boylston Regional School Committee voted June 10 to open one kindergarten school-choice seat at Berlin Memorial School with sibling preference and to add four school-choice seats in grade 7 and three in grade 10 for the 2025–26 school year. The motions passed unanimously, 6–0.

Committee members debated the impact of small class sizes on course offerings and extracurricular opportunities. Elisabeth Mancini proposed an amendment to instead add four seats to ninth grade and two to eleventh grade; that amendment failed on a 1–5 vote. Interim Superintendent Albert G. Ganem Jr. reported the district had received a small number of requests by grade (grade 6: 3; grade 7: 3; grade 8: 2; grade 9: 2), which factored into the administration's recommendation to place seats in grades 7 and 10.

Tahanto Principal Lisa Sequeira told the committee that accepting school-choice students in eleventh grade would not be her preference, citing concerns about integration and program availability. The committee discussed possible solutions including regional expansion and acknowledged trade-offs between maintaining program offerings and managing small cohorts.

The kindergarten seat motion (open one seat with sibling preference) was made by Lori Hart and seconded by Meagan Grill; the motion to add the grade 7 and grade 10 seats was made by Meagan Grill and seconded by Lori Hart. The meeting record shows all votes on those motions as 6–0.

The committee also agreed to reposition Public Comment earlier on future agendas to facilitate community participation, in part to ensure parents advocating for school choice can speak before business votes.