Transition Plan

Goals of this plan:

Minimize student disruption/damage
Allow for slower roll out of new programming
Allow students to complete Elem, Middle, or High school in their current program
Reduce attrition
Fiscal feasibility

Overarching concept:

Move students and start new programming one grade at a time at each tier (Elem, Middle, High school), one per year.
Allow existing kids to (mostly) finish their grade tier out at their current location and current programming
Implement new programming at new locations each year and all new incoming students to that grade start in that location/program.

Benefits:

Gives most students ability to finish out the program they like through end of their grade tier
Slower rollout allows us to learn from what is good and what was not so good, and adapt before rolling out the next grades
More time for teacher training, etc
Less attrition, more time for most families to have a long runway into the new system
More time to do rolling renovation work on buildings that are increasing in enrollment during the transition period - work on an area, shift classrooms etc, work on next area. This might avoid moving a school out of a building for renovations and then moving it back in with careful planning - large scale work over summer, rolling smaller work inside the building during school year could be feasible.

Challenges:

Staffing could be split across locations during transition
School within a school model during transition is not ideal
May be some transportation challenges at first, especially for existing magnet students
Transition costs could be a bit higher - staffing, transportation, utils/maintenance on buildings slated to close

The concept is to roll out our new system slowly - in most cases one grade at a time in each grade level: Elem, Middle, and High School. So the first year of implementation, you would roll out new programming in probably Kindergarten and 1st simultaneously, 6th, and 9th grades. This would happen in the new school building where that programming will be located in the long run. The existing program in all buildings will remain for all other grades. In year 2, those trailblazer kids move up into the new programming at grades 2, 7, and 10. While developing that programming leading up to the year, we can implement changes based on what worked well and what did not in the first year. This would continue until all grades have made the switch.

There is a slightly different pattern for schools that are closing entirely. In order to not just have 1 or two classes left in a closing building, you would move the rest of the current programming classes, teachers, students, etc to an available building to finish out that level. This also allows us to repurpose that closing building sooner.

For an example: A North Region family that has a 3rd grader would stay where they are at Manchester and finish elementary school under the existing program - meanwhile K and 6th grade would end at Manchester as it is a closing school without an incoming class. Work could commence on converting it to the regional community hub. Their incoming Kindergartener would go through the new regions of choice model and say they pick King - they would start there with all the other kids who picked King at that grade level, while the older kids finished up at King under the existing program. Their incoming 6th grader picks Sterrett and starts there under its new thematic model, while the 7th and 8th graders there finish out the current program. Their incoming 9th grader picks Obama and starts their new programming there - meanwhile 6th grade at Obama ends, 7th and 8th continue on the old program for the next 2 years while they phase out, and 10-12 would change over the the new programming over the next 3 years.

NOTE: Admin into school buildings somewhere in plan

Feasibility numbers somewhere - our plan is more feasible by ERS/Walters numbers

Email to Erin to reference:

Hi Erin,

I'll try to explain this as best I can, please revise to make it more intelligible etc. - you're good at that :) I'm long winded... buckle up :-P

The concept is to roll out the new plan one grade at a time at each education level - Elementary, Middle, and High School, while mostly retaining the current system at the remaining grade levels. This is both in when/how we move students from one building to another, and how we implement new curriculum, programming, etc.

So for an arbitrary example, lets use a component of the ERS original plan: Close Arsenal K-5 and move them to Sunnyside (for simplicity I'm going to just do Arsenal to Sunnyside, not both it and Liberty), and Woolslair closes and goes to Liberty. Obama 6-8 goes to Arsenal. In that little situation, year 1 we would move Arsenal K to Sunnyside building, and start all new K programming under the new model for Sunnyside school. Remainder of Sunnyside and Arsenal would stay where they are, on the same programming track they already had. Same for Woolslair to Liberty. Simultaneously, Obama 6 would move to Arsenal, and all Arsenal 6 programming would start with the new Arsenal emphasis etc, but Arsenal 7 and 8 would remain on old program. Obama 9 would begin its new focuses, etc and remain in place. Year 2, move Arsenal 1 and Woolslair 1 to their new homes and start programming at Sunnyside and Liberty. Rest of all 4 elementary schools remain the same location and programing as before. Obama 7 moves to Arsenal and Arsenal begins its new 7 programming for the entire school. Obama starts 10 programming. Year 3 completes middle school transition, high school does 11th grade, and elem does 3rd grade.

This works pretty well where we're just shifting around the grade configurations, but not closing schools. It has challenges, headaches, expenses, etc, but I think they are worth the challenge to make the transition smoother. We do need to consider schools that are totally closing differently. So we can't move out Woolslair one grade at a time for 6 years and leave only one or two classes in the building. This might require a couple modifications. I'd suggest 2 things. First, move both K and 1 first year and start new programming for both, then do one class per year from then. That will be minimal disruption and things aren't that specific yet in K for the shift to be difficult for students etc. It allows us to take a year off the transition of the larger number of elementary grades. As we get to year 3 or 4, we can consider moving all remaining grades of a closing school to the new location, but still rolling out the new programming one year at a time in that new location. This way we don't end up with just a couple grades left in a building. This could potentially also be implemented in other schools that are not closing if that makes more sense, space allows, etc.

Benefits:

Slower transition gives time to develop the new programming one grade at a time and address issues that will arise in any new plan before they affect all grades.

Easier on timing, teacher training, etc.

Allows almost all students/families that like their current program to finish out the education level (elem, mid, high) that they're currently in, in mostly the same school, format, teachers, etc that they have. Many many people have expressed strong desire for this. In the meantime, they can have input shaping what the new programs will be, and hopefully be convinced with that extra time that they are good and worth staying for rather than leave the district.

More time to do rolling renovation work on buildings that are increasing in enrollment during the transition period - work on an area, shift classrooms etc, work on next area. This might avoid moving a school out of a building for renovations and then moving it back in with careful planning - large scale work over summer, rolling smaller work inside the building during school year could be feasible.

Challenges:

Transportation difficulties might be greater at first, but not sure. More study needed.

Costs could be higher during transition: probably a little more staffing (can't consolidate admin/janitorial/etc staff for closing buildings in particular), utilities costs etc for building remaining open a couple years longer.

Essentially a school within a school until transition is completed - but not by splitting grades into 2 tracks, just entire grades are on a different education model than the other grades. Mostly only affects cross grade teachers. Some staff might need to straddle 2 buildings during transition years.

Still to think out:

Do you allow people to start opting into any of their regional options right away? These schools would not have the programming established yet other than the transitioned years, but can they opt to go to Liberty as a 4th grader in current Woolslair district. My instinct is to say no, it might make things too complicated and hard to predict/plan around, but might be good reasons to go either way.

Below are 2 emails I sent to Sarah as I was brainstorming this concept a while back, if that helps at all.

Rather than close and shuffle schools to do the drastic rearrange all at once, or at whatever phased plan they suggest, what if we implement new programs at the "staying" schools one grade at a time, kinda like how Woolslair implemented steam iirc, but also change the feeder zone one grade at a time with those changes? Basically would slow down the transition a bit and allow most kids to finish out K5, 6-8, or 9-12 at their current schools, while more slowly growing the new programs. It could allow for some tweaks to the feeder zones each year if necessary along the way to adjust for unexpectedly high/low attendance from one area along the way before it becomes too big of an issue.

That might not be explained well, so for example if we were to do the ERS plan: Arsenal K moves to Sunnyside and Liberty year one, with any new K programming starting at Sunnyside and Liberty simultaneously. At the same time, Arsenal takes in it's new 6th graders from Obama, and starts it's new 6th grade programming. Following year Arsenal 1 moves over and new 1 programming commences at those schools, while 7 comes in from Obama, and new arsenal 7 programming commences.

I heard a lot of people wanting their kids to be able to finish out at least the K5, 6-8, or 9-12 where they are, this could accommodate that for most/all students, while allowing the new programming to get built and develop, before closing schools down. Adjustments to feeders, building closures, etc could be made if enrollment changes along the way. Creating new programming can be done 3 grades per year at first (K, 6, and 9 year one, and so forth) tapering off in year 4 and 5. That's a little easier lift I think than trying to do entire schools at once, and having kids trying to integrate into it without having had the prior years of that program.

It seems like a much more palatable transition for students and parents. Down sides would be longer implementation period, so more expensive on buildings etc. The transitions would be a little challenging as many schools would essentially have 2 schools operating in the same building for 3-5 years... That probably means more expensive staffing etc as well during that time. It might make some renovations harder to accomplish (probably mostly over summer), or require temporary relocation of entire schools to accomplish major renovations (they already said they'll need to do that in their plan anyway). We could add AC to buildings that are staying over summers etc, and potentially section off parts of buildings to be renovated during school as the shuffle happens, since most of them likely won't be at near-full capacity yet. It's also a little odd for closing K5 schools for example, as year 5 they would only have 5th grade left in the building... Would need to figure out some way to make that more feasible/functional. Also would be challenging for specialized teachers (art/music/etc) as less and less students were in the program. Possibly combine a couple schools for years 4/5 into one building to finish out? And have non-grade teachers straddle their new and old school buildings for the transition period?

Main thing, I think it could allow a lot more buy in from parents, so hopefully much lower exodus from the district, and hopefully building these new programs into the curriculum can help to bring some new people into the district, or lost people back, in a less tumultuous transition. It also allows for creating a feeder district change over time rather than just consolidating 2 schools, which over time can help with the bussing problems more than just combining 2 schools, and can balance population/enrollment with building size rather than doing as many additions etc. I think getting the programming and shuffle mostly done first would be ideal anyway, then each new school can have more input on what exactly their new organization needs from the buildings. We can save those costs while the extra costs of implementation occur, then as that stabilizes and we can offload old buildings etc, we can spend the money on more substantial renovations then. And potentially use some of the now vacant buildings if temp relocations are necessary.

I'm sure there are some major challenges with this that I might not be considering, but I also think it would help a ton with community buy in.

Specific to our school... If Woolslair was forced to close and merge into other schools, this model could help preserve a lot of what is great about the program. Nix the splitting it between Sunnyside and Liberty, say it were to go to Liberty only for example. We could move the entire K programming there, staff and all, and expand it to the entire new Liberty K. Not ideal for us, but better than their proposal and would allow us to build from what's already working at Woolslair.

Sorry to bombard you, I get tunnel vision and have to put it out there, haha. A couple modifications/alternatives to above concept... again working from the ERS proposal as a baseline (which we of course don't need to do, but its a reference point to work from). To make that transition a little faster and address some of the awkward parts where there's only one grade left in a building etc, I think this might be a feasible adjustment. Do as described above for years 1 and 2, so move K, 6, and 9 as needed in year one, then 1, 7, and 10 year two. In both cases, we start the new programming for those grades simultaneously with the moves.

Year 3 we consider moving more classes at one time, but still only adding the new programming for one additional grade at each level - so for the very few 9-12 programs that are planned to move buildings (most of the plan is shifting K-8, not 9-12), both 11 and 12 would move to finish the building transition, but only 11 would start new programming that year. 8 would complete the 6-8 middle school transitions and programming. For K-5, we'd need to consider if its worth moving the remaining 4 classes (2-5) all at once, or maybe just move grade 2 and then do 3-5 following year, or whatever makes sense. Again, only switching the programming one class at a time at each level, but physically move students and staff at the accelerated pace so that we don't end up with just one or two classes left in a closing building, and the specialty teachers can shift more quickly and regain stability instead of bouncing between buildings for so long.

Potentially could also consider moving and starting programming for K and 1 in year one, as K programming is probably not as prerequisite for 1 programming as at other grade levels, so that first class of 1st graders could catch up and clean up the transition schedule a bit, moving 3-5 in year 3.

For Woolslair or any other schools totally closing... if it was to be moved to its own building, just move it all at once and then adjust feeder patterns year by year and phase out magnet (if we're going along with that goal). If merging it into another school, could either move it one class at a time like above plan, or if the new building is already capable, move the entire program in, continuing the STEAM programming as a separate set of classrooms in the new building, but adding in the neighborhood feeder kids to the programming one grade at a time like above.