The November 7 School Committee meeting began with five NPS high school students winning the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Academic/Blumer Book awards:
- Newton North HS: Margo Carmona Born, Kenny Deng, Clara Lake
- Newton South HS: Andrew Hsu, Wasan Rafat
There were eight public commenters, a large amount compared with most public comment periods, addressing NPS’ announcement during the October 27 School Committee meeting that, due to declining enrollment at Bigelow, NPS was considering two changes to the patterns by which elementary students would attend Bigelow Middle School. The two options presented were:
- The Feeder school swap option, which would divert all Lincoln Eliot graduates from Bigelow to Day Middle School, and correspondingly divert all Cabot graduates from Day to Bigelow
- The Reinstate Cabot split option, which would divide Cabot graduates between Day and Bigelow according to whether their residence is on the west (Day) or east (Bigelow) side of the predefined border in this map.
Of the public comments by parents, some advocated for either Option 1 or Option 2, however several cited the concern that Bigelow’s population would not be optimized for several years even by making one of NPS proposed changes. Therefore, it was unclear whether existing students in Grades 5 and 6 affected by these changes would have the best possible educational experience.
Following the public comment period, in a planned segment Bigelow Principal Chassity Coston and Day Principal Jackie Mann addressed specific components of the middle school experience. In the context of social-emotional supports, Principal Coston cited similar caseloads-per-counselor at both schools. Principal Mann stated that teachers are divided into both 2-person and 4-person “teams” at both schools, and likewise students are divided into similarly sized “advisories” in both buildings. Both principals described the breadth of extra-curriculars at both schools. However, the principals did not address the specific problems due to declining enrollment at Bigelow that NPS administrators had previously cited as the catalyst to change feeder school patterns.
After the middle school principals presented, NPS Assistant Superintendent Liam Hurley presented a memo that highlighted a webpage NPS has set up to share information about Bigelow options. Asst. Superintendent Hurley also stated that the NPS administration’s intention is to postpone the School Committee vote on which feeder pattern option to implement from December 5 to December 19. This change would give the NPS administration the opportunity to conduct in-person meetings with the Lincoln-Eliot, Cabot, and Bigelow communities.
NPS has scheduled these additional family meetings to discuss possible changes:
- November 15, 2022 at 7:00PM for Cabot families
- November 21, 2022 at 8:15AM for Lincoln-Eliot families
