Redistricting Information

• What is the exact date, or current target date, for the final School Committee vote on the 2027 redistricting plan? 
• There is no exact date set for the final vote on the 2027-2028 school year redistricting plan. However, as School Committee Chairperson Amy Vogel mentioned at the August 27th meeting, conversations will be ongoing until around February or March 2027, with a final decision in February or March 2027. 
• Has that vote already been scheduled?
• No. Please see the above response. 
• Which upcoming School Committee meetings will include redistricting on the agenda? 
• As Ms. Vogel stated at the August 27th meeting, redistricting will be a recurring item on the school committee agenda at least once per month.
• When will the final proposed maps be released? 
• The map released on August 27th is the proposal that Transpar presented to best support the goal of the district. As the committee moves through the process, the map may change. A final map and affected street list will be shared once a final vote is taken. 
• When will the supporting enrollment/capacity and transportation analysis be made publicly available? 
• Capacities for our elementary schools are as follows: Community and B.F. Norton (at completion of the new building) will be 575 students, Ashton. Garvin & JJ McLaughlin Cumberland Hill are 432 students each. Middle school capacities are 690 students each. The latest Enrollment numbers can be found here and are available in the consent agenda folder in the public Google Drive for the first school committee meeting of each month.  The public drive is located on the Cumberland School District website under the “Minutes and Agendas” tab within the “School Committee” section. 
• Will there be a formal public hearing or community forum before the final vote? 
• Public comments are welcome and on the agenda at every school committee meeting.
• What is the deadline for written public comments?
• The deadline is when the final decision is made. Ideally, a decision would be reached in time to give families ample notice for the start of the 2027/2028 school year. 

The current proposal can be found here. A list of more specific street information will be forthcoming. 

• When did the district first identify the need for redistricting, and why were families not made aware sooner?
• The discussion regarding redistricting for 2027/2028 was first brought up in 2023. As our school construction projects complete, there is a need to shift boundaries to meet the growing needs of the town. 
• Who specifically will be participating in making this decision, and what opportunities will be provided for meaningful parent and community input before this proposal is developed? 
• The Cumberland School Committee, with input from district leaders, will ultimately make the decision regarding redistricting. 
• Are the elementary and middle school assignments considered as separate decisions or as one overall configuration?
• Middle School and Elementary School boundary maps are considered separately.

• Current enrollment by school and grade. 
• The latest enrollment information can be found here, and as stated above, is updated and available in the consent agenda in the public Google Drive for the first school committee meeting of each month. The public drive is located in the “Minutes and Agendas” section within the “School Committee” section.
• Projected enrollment by school and grade for 2027, 2028, 2030, and longer term. 
• The Cumberland School Department relies on NESDEC to complete enrollment projections for the district. Historically, they have been accurate within 2% of our actual numbers. 
• The assumptions underlying those projections include housing development, birth rates, historical enrollment trends, transfers, and other relevant factors. 
• See NESDEC Report pages 11 and 12  for these metrics.
• Current and projected capacity at each school. 
• Current capacities for our elementary schools are as follows: Community and B.F. Norton (at completion of new building) will be 575 students, Ashton. Garvin & JJ McLaughlin Cumberland Hill are 432 students each. 
• The specific capacity problem the proposed boundary change is intended to solve. 
• At this time, some schools in Cumberland are over capacity, and some are underutilized, as seen in our enrollment worksheet.  For example, Garvin Memorial School has a capacity of 432 students; as of August 27th, they have 472 students enrolled, while B.F. Norton’s current enrollment is 365 students. North Cumberland Middle School currently has 662 students enrolled, compared to 481 enrolled students at Joseph L. McCourt Middle School. Student populations in areas throughout town change naturally as people move into, out of, and around Cumberland. Over time, these moves can create enrollment imbalances within schools. One goal of the redistricting is to correct the imbalance, which will assist in creating more balanced classroom sizes throughout all schools in the district.   
• Why my neighborhood?
• Numbers of students in various neighborhoods throughout town were considered; no neighborhoods were specifically targeted; it is about population numbers. 

• How many boundary configurations were modeled?
• The boundary scenario development process is iterative by its nature, and rather than a set number of novel scenarios, TransPar worked closely with Cumberland’s Administrative team and Transportation Stakeholder Committee to make numerous changes to achieve the ideal number of students at each building to balance enrollment at each school.
• Were scenarios evaluated that would allow our neighborhood to remain at our school?
• TransPar did not model scenarios with the expressed goal of keeping or moving specific neighborhoods to or from NCMS or MMS or to another elementary school. The priority was balancing student enrollment within all five elementary schools and each of the middle schools. Additionally, it was important that if a neighborhood was being impacted, that an entire neighborhood was highlighted, not just a portion of the neighborhood, so students could remain together.  And finally, if a street was impacted as a new boundary line, the entire street was included within the boundary line so that both sides of the street were together.
• What criteria were used to compare the alternatives, including capacity, transportation, neighborhood continuity, walkability, projected growth, student outcomes, and cost? 
• TransPar utilized the New England School Development Council’s Enrollment Projections Report to account for projected growth along with architectural and practical building capacities and current enrollment when evaluating potential redistricting scenarios. Additionally, TransPar worked closely with Cumberland’s Administrative team and Transportation Stakeholder Committee to establish the constraints, parameters, and non-negotiables that guided this phase of the project. Parameters included avoiding increases in transportation costs and ensuring that boundaries are contiguous.
• Whether the alternative scenarios and the rationale for rejecting them can be made public.
• General maps of alternative scenarios can be shared, but not every iteration, as they may have student or other sensitive information used in the analysis. 
• What plan was selected, and why it was selected over reasonable alternatives?
• 2027/2028 redistricting is a work in progress; a plan will not be finalized until early winter.

• What is the current number of requests for placement outside of a student’s designated attendance area? 
• For the 2026/2027 school year, we were able to grant 53 of the 64 transfer requests throughout the district. 
• The basis/policy under which they are permitted to attend Community. 
• The CSD Policy J-18 Student School Attendance Areas _ Boundary Lines outlines the process for requesting a student transfer to an elementary school or middle school outside of a student’s assigned school boundary. 
• Whether those students are included in the enrollment and capacity projections being used for redistricting. 
• Per the J-18 Policy, the transfer requests need to be submitted on a year-to-year basis. As these transfer requests are not guaranteed, when considering redistricting, all students are counted in their school of origin.  
• Whether currently approved exceptions will be exempted after 2027. 
• Per the J-18 Policy, requests for placement outside of the student’s designated attendance area are never approved for more than one year and are considered yearly on a first-come, first-served basis.
• How future exception requests will be handled. 
• Per the J-18 policy, requests will still be considered on a year-to-year basis as space allows. Transfer requests are not considered until August, once the majority of enrollments have been received.

• Why does the proposed elementary configuration require or support changing our neighborhood’s middle-school assignment? 
• There is no correlation between the proposed elementary and middle school redistricting plans. Both topics were considered independently. 
• What will projected 6–8 enrollment be at NCMS and McCourt under the proposed boundaries?
• Current enrollment at NCMS is 662 students and current enrollment at JLMMS is 481 students. According to the Transpar Report,  with 62 students estimated to move from NCMS to JLMMS, the new estimated enrollments will be: NCMS: 599 students, JLMMS: 536 students.
• What will class sizes and student/teacher ratios look like at each school? 
• Class sizes would decrease at NCMS from 29 students per class to an estimated 25 students per class. Where numbers may increase at Joseph L. McCourt MS from around 20 students per class to an estimated 23 students per class.
• Can the district provide comparable current data on staffing, special education, counseling, psychology, nursing, electives, extracurriculars, and other student supports?
• In Cumberland, both of our middle schools staff special education, counseling, psychology, nursing, electives, extracurriculars, and other student supports. For the 2026/2027 school year, North Cumberland Middle School and Joseph L. McCourt Middle School as follows: 

• Whether and how academic outcomes were considered in the redistricting analysis?
• Academic outcomes are not a part of the analysis when working on balancing school enrollment numbers. The district is committed to ensuring curriculum integrity, fidelity, and consistent implementation across both schools. Both schools use the same district curriculum, instructional resources, and learning expectations. The Curriculum Office provides structures and resources to support this consistency, including districtwide curriculum mapping, instructional coaching cycles, MTSS meetings, regular data review, and opportunities for collaborative planning across schools. Cross-school collaboration allows teachers to align instructional practices, share effective strategies and resources, examine student learning data, and ensure consistent expectations for student learning. Together, these systems provide ongoing support and monitoring to ensure that students receive a consistent, high-quality educational experience regardless of school assignment.

• Projected bus routes and ride times. 
• Once the final decision is made, the bus company will map the bus routes accordingly. 
• The number of students who would newly require transportation. 
• An effort was made to avoid students within walking distance to schools, per policy E-2, to maintain the current bus fleet. However, some students who live within the policy’s designated walking distance currently receive bus transportation due to road safety concerns. These areas were therefore treated as bus-riding areas when considering redistricting, since the students in these areas are already accounted for in the district’s existing bus fleet.   
• The number of students who would become walkers. 
• There is no evidence to support that more students would “become walkers” based on the proposed plan. 
• The walking routes considered for affected neighborhoods.
• The walking distance and parameters have not changed and are outlined in policy E-2.
• Any traffic or pedestrian-safety analysis conducted as part of the proposal.
• In all 9 schools in Cumberland, there are students transported by school bus and students who walk to school; any proposed redistricting would not change this. The Cumberland School Department regularly consults with the Cumberland Police Department regarding the safety of bus stops and walking routes, as well as help with traffic flow patterns entering and exiting school campuses.   
• The projected transportation cost impact.
• The goal of this redistricting is to maintain transportation efficiencies and not add to the already rising cost of education.

• Will current students be allowed to remain at their current schools if they are districted to another school? 
• It is too early in the process to determine if any students would be able to remain at their current school. Per policy J-18 Student School Attendance Areas _ Boundary Lines, families can submit a request to enroll in a school outside of their assigned boundary lines on a year-to-year basis beginning in January. 
• Will siblings be permitted to remain together?
• When addresses are redistricted, it is for the whole family; siblings typically remain together. Based on our current enrollment numbers, different grade-level classrooms reach capacity at different schools, which can result in situations where siblings who register later are unable to attend the same school. With the proposed redistricting and the more balanced student enrollment across buildings, I would hope this situation could be avoided.
• Will rising 5th graders have an option to remain with their existing cohort into middle school? 
• Middle School schedules are based on student need. Classrooms will contain students from all sending elementary schools within their boundary lines. 
• How will students receiving IEP/504 services, counseling, or other supports be transitioned if their assignment changes? 
• Through communication and collaboration between sending and receiving staff, the relevant plans, accommodations, services, and student needs will be shared to ensure continuity of these supports. For students with IEPs or 504 Plans, services and accommodations will continue in accordance with the student’s current plan.
• Do we forecast redistricting happening again within the next 5 – 10 years?
• Given the current growth in Cumberland, it is a possibility. It is not uncommon for districts across the nation to look at redistricting every 5-10 years. 

• How did the School Committee go about hiring Transpar to do the important work of redistricting the students of Cumberland? 
• The Rhode Island Department of Education went out to bid for an Independent Route Review + Transportation Consolidation Study in early 2025 and offered districts the opportunity to get on board. Cumberland participated in the initial RIDE study, which was about inter-district transportation efficiencies. Cumberland expanded their contract with Transpar to include a bell tie study and school boundary analysis and recommendation.
• RIDE RFP
• Transpar Proposal for Cumberland

• Are property values considered as part of the redistricting process?
• At this time, redistricting is about balancing enrollment; property values are not considered as part of this process.