5Future Ready6 facilities plan aims to reduce bus trips, rebalance enrollment and limit closures

Director of Public Relations Ebony Pew and district staff presented the Future Ready feasibility update and implementation plan, describing the plan as an "education-first, not building-first" approach that couples targeted capital investments with feeder-pattern and transportation redesigns meant to improve equity and reduce operating inefficiency.

Pew said the district's student-level routing model projects a reduction in daily bus trips from 986 to 402 and a fall in average ride time from 35.6 minutes to 16.9 minutes by aligning neighborhood attendance zones and streamlining feeder patterns. She emphasized those savings depend on careful rollout and noted risks including driver availability and walking-zone safety that will require partnership with city agencies. "These are manageable challenges, but they require proactive planning and transparency," she said.

The plan also outlines feeder-pattern and boundary adjustments intended to reduce both overcrowding and underutilized space, with actions such as aligning Lincoln-Belmore students, shifting portions of Garfield to Sunnyside, expanding Lincoln's boundary to relieve pressure at Faison, and creating temporary centers to manage near-term enrollment pressures while Northview opens. Pew said one school, Alagenia King, will temporarily enroll approximately 809 students and that implementation will use phased timelines to limit disruption.

Pew highlighted measures to protect students with specialized needs: door-to-door transportation and accessible vehicles will continue, and the plan preserves IEP-required services. She also described proposed investments in school culture, extracurricular access, and health and wellness partnerships, and said the district will phase capital work over seven years to prioritize buildings that remain in use.

Board members asked specific questions about community schools and early childhood capacity. Pew said eight of nine designated community schools will remain in place; Arsenal (PreK–5) is slated for closure under the plan and the district expects that population to shift toward Sunnyside, with the school able to apply separately for community-school designation. Pew later reported that the Alagenia Annex will house five early-childhood classrooms with up to 20 students per classroom.

Pew and directors acknowledged the plan would not immediately eliminate structural deficits but would reduce year-end operating deficits beginning in 2027 and improve fund-balance projections as early as 2026; the district projects some increased deficits in later years tied to strategic investments. Pew said detailed financial charts and an updated dashboard are available on the district's Future Ready website.

Next steps: the implementation plan and financial comparison will be available on the Future Ready dashboard; staffing positions (two project managers) have been posted and additional hires (including a planned deputy superintendent) were discussed as part of capacity planning.