Superintendent David Luff on Wednesday outlined the district's current redistricting work, saying he will not make final neighborhood-line changes until kindergarten registration numbers are confirmed in January and that any immediate adjustments would be limited to individual student assignments under existing policy.

Luff said the district has identified students for the 2026'2027 school year based on current addresses and is maintaining a working spreadsheet that will be updated as registrations come in. "We do not have kindergarten numbers yet," he said, noting that the kindergarten census historically grows by about 50 students between the November census and January registrations. He added that he has surveyed elementary teachers about interest in transfers and received 68 responses, which will inform staffing moves at Willett when it opens as a K'4 school.

Luff shared capacity figures derived from the consultant's Scenario 1 and current student-address data: Balch projected at roughly 73'84 percent capacity (Scenario 1: 83 percent), Callahan about 76 percent, Cleveland about 73 percent, Oldham about 55 percent, Prescott near 88 percent (higher than projected), and Willett about 67 percent. He said his class-size goal remains to keep classes under 23 students where possible and that he does not plan wholesale neighborhood-line changes at this time.

Parent Julia Leone, who identified herself as the parent of two Norwood elementary students, urged the committee to require school-committee approval for any map changes and cited sections JC and JCA of the committee's policy manual that she said limit superintendent authority to exceptions for individual children. "The school committee should be approving any district map changes for attendance areas," she told the committee during public comment.

Committee members asked how the district could draft and share scenarios before final kindergarten counts were available. Luff replied that he needed preliminary section and staffing projections to communicate with teachers and principals and to begin transfer conversations; he repeated that he would not make final determinations until January when kindergarten registrations are complete. Several committee members, including policy subcommittee chair Joan, asked the policy subcommittee to review JC and JCA and recommend whether recurring or neighborhood-level adjustments should return to the full committee for a vote.

Luff announced a public family forum on redistricting for Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m. and agreed to provide a brief implementation update on Dec. 17 and a fuller review with January's kindergarten numbers at the committee's January meetings. He also said principals would form a task force to address classroom furniture, paraprofessional assignments, kindergarten step-up events, and other transition details.

What this means: No neighborhood lines will be changed tonight. Parents should expect continued community outreach, a public forum on Nov. 17, and a final round of decisions after January kindergarten registrations are complete. Any individual student reassignments the superintendent makes under his delegation will be reported back to the committee.