Consulting firms pitch services to study Green Bay school boundaries, equity
The boundary and equity study is part of GBAPS 10-Year Facilities Master Plan
GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Tuesday evening’s Green Bay Area Public School District’s Board of Education special meeting welcomed two consulting firms via Zoom for presentations on what they would do when it comes to studying the district’s boundaries and equity.
MGT Consulting and Cooperative Strategies had 45 minutes to present why the Board should choose them to study the district’s boundaries and equity.
Both firms promoted having multiple chances for community involvement throughout the process; however, each firm had a different approach to the planning process.
MGT Consulting would create an attendance matrix to see if schools have outgrown their boundaries plus forecast future children coming into the district based on birth rates in recent years.
Cooperating Solutions would provide a closest school analysis where, depending on findings, some children could get a choice of what school they attend based on distance.
Board Vice President James Lyerly said Green Bay has seen a rapid change of demographics in the community and questioned whether providing three to four years of data is enough to project demographic changes in the future.
“As we look at the diversity of the population one of our key concerns is making sure as we make changes in the District that we aim towards more diversity versus not right and trying to balance that,” Lyerly said.
Both firms confirm they don’t want to go back too far in the data since numbers are always changing.
Lyerly said the Board is still working on a charter for the Community Advisory Committee, which outlines the committee’s mission, membership qualifications, and responsibilities.
He said the purpose of the committee is to take the data collected from the consulting firm and personalize it, bringing it to a local setting and making sure the boundaries are equitable and do not impact one population over another.
The Board will decide which consulting firm they will work with at its next meeting, on Monday, September 25. They will also take a final vote on the fate of the Leonardo da Vinci School for Gifted Learners. On September 11, the Board recommended Leonardo da Vinci School for Gifted Learners be removed from the closing resolution.
Wequiock Elementary School will not be a part of the study as the Board voted unanimously on August 28 to close the school next year.
If you missed the meeting and would like to hear the presentations, click here.
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