We, the undersigned parents, caregivers, residents, and community members, respectfully request greater transparency, investment, and concrete educational commitments regarding the Forward 2040 plans affecting Peyton Forest, Beecher Hills, and West Manor Elementary Schools.

Peyton Forest's challenge is not a lack of children in the community.
APS's own planning data show that hundreds of elementary-age students live within the Peyton Forest attendance zone, including many children who currently attend charter or other schools rather than their zoned neighborhood school.

This distinction matters.

Low enrollment in a neighborhood school is not necessarily the same as an insufficient number of children living in the neighborhood to sustain that school. Before closure became the solution, we believe a strengths-based approach should have asked a different question:

What investments would make Peyton Forest the school that more neighborhood families choose?

A strengths-based strategy could have invested earlier in Peyton Forest's academic programming, staffing, enrichment, distinctive educational offerings, family engagement, and recruitment of neighborhood families. Increasing the percentage of neighborhood children choosing Peyton Forest could have increased enrollment and potentially reduced or eliminated the perceived need for closure.

We believe APS should acknowledge this distinction and explain what efforts were made to attract neighborhood families back to Peyton Forest before determining that closure was necessary.

However, if APS proceeds with the closure of Peyton Forest, we request the following commitments before a final boundary scenario is approved:

1. Give families the information necessary to compare scenarios. A boundary map alone is not sufficient for families to understand the educational consequences of each proposal. For each scenario, APS should publicly provide:

• Clear neighborhood and street-level boundary changes;
• Number of students reassigned to each welcoming school;
• Projected enrollment by grade;
• Projected average and maximum class size by grade;
• Projected staffing and building utilization;
• Transportation and travel-time implications;
• Expected demographic changes; and
• Implications for academic programs, special education, gifted services, intervention, enrichment, and student supports. 

2. Establish a transparent process for changing scenarios. We support APS using community input to improve its proposals. However, when scenarios are substantively amended—including changes proposed right before public community meetings, like the scenario presented on September 24—families should be told what changed, why it changed, what information informed the change, and how the revised scenario affects students and schools. Updated scenarios and their corresponding analyses should be made publicly available so that families who cannot attend a particular meeting have the same opportunity to understand and respond to a revised proposal as those who are present.

3. Protect academic excellence at Beecher Hills and West Manor for the Benefit of Existing and Future Students.  Beecher Hills and West Manor have both earned Silver School recognition. As welcoming schools, they should emerge from Forward 2040 stronger—not simply larger. Physical building capacity is not the same as educational capacity. Therefore, we oppose any  scenario in which Beecher Hills is at or above 100% utilization.  APS also should provide concrete staffing plans for each scenario, including,  projected classroom teachers, interventionists, special education staff, gifted services, counselors, instructional coaches, enrichment staff, and actual class sizes by grade.  Peer-reviewed research supports the importance of smaller elementary classes, particularly in the early grades and for students attending high-minority urban schools. We therefore ask APS to establish and publicly report class-size targets that protect individualized instruction as enrollment increases.

4. Reinvest consolidation savings in the children and schools experiencing the transition.
Consolidation is projected to save APS $20 million to $25 million annually. Families deserve to know how those savings will benefit the communities being asked to undergo the consolidation. We request a publicly available Mays Cluster Transition and Reinvestment Plan identifying how a meaningful portion of consolidation savings will be reinvested in Peyton Forest students and the welcoming schools.  If families are being asked to accept consolidation in the name of efficiency, they should be able to see a direct connection between those efficiencies and better educational opportunities for their children.

This investment should include:

• Transition supports for Peyton Forest students, families, and staff;
• Staffing necessary to maintain small class sizes;
• Expanded intervention and gifted services;
• Expanded arts, STEM, extracurricular, and enrichment opportunities;
• Leveraging existing International Baccalaureate (IB) certification, programming, and expertise; and
• Preserving successful programs, traditions, staff expertise, and community assets from Peyton Forest.

5. Explain how changes to transfer enrollment will affect Beecher Hills. Transfer students represent a substantial part of the current Beecher Hills community, with approximately 148 students reportedly attending through transfers.  APS should explain how existing transfer students are incorporated into scenario projections, whether current transfer students will be permitted to remain through fifth grade, and how newly zoned students will affect enrollment and class size.  APS should also analyze the educational implications of eliminating or substantially reducing transfer enrollment at Beecher Hills. Reducing transfers should not simply be treated as a mechanism for creating seats. Changes in enrollment can affect academic performance, intervention services, gifted programming, specials, extracurricular and enrichment opportunities, and other school resources. Therefore, APS needs to provide families with the following information:

• Current enrollment by zoned versus transfer status;
• Projected transfer enrollment under each scenario;
• Assumptions regarding continuation and attrition of current transfer students;
• Effects of transfer reductions on test scores; staffing, programming, and resources; and
• APS's long-term vision for whether Beecher Hills will continue functioning partly as a school of choice or primarily serve an expanded attendance zone.
• Existing transfer students and their families are part of the Beecher Hills community and should be included in transition planning.

6. Establish public measures of success. For Beecher Hills and West Manor, APS should establish an explicit goal of maintaining or improving the academic performance that contributed to their Silver School recognition. Before implementation, APS should establish clear measures for determining whether Forward 2040 actually improves educational opportunities. These should include:

• Academic achievement and growth;
• Class size by grade;
• Teacher retention and vacancies;
• Attendance and chronic absenteeism;
• School climate and family satisfaction;
• Transportation time; and
• Access to intervention, gifted, special education, IB, language, arts, STEM, extracurricular, and enrichment opportunities.

Our Request
We believe a strengths-based approach to school improvement begins by investing in the assets already present within a community—including its children, educators, families, and neighborhood institutions.

Peyton Forest has children in its attendance area. Its enrollment challenges should therefore be understood not only as a question of building utilization, but also as a question of why neighborhood families have chosen other educational options and what investments might have changed those choices.

If APS nevertheless determines that closure must proceed, consolidation should represent an investment in educational excellence—not simply a reduction in operating costs.

Before a final scenario is approved, we respectfully request:

• Full transparency about scenarios;
• A transparent process for changing those scenarios;
• Clear class-size and staffing protections;
• A plan for existing transfer students and the educational effects of reducing transfers;
• A public plan for reinvesting consolidation savings in Peyton Forest students, Beecher Hills, and West Manor; and
• Measurable commitments to maintaining and improving academic excellence.

Peyton Forest, Beecher Hills, and West Manor are more than buildings and utilization percentages. They are communities of children, educators, and families.  If Forward 2040 requires these communities to change, that change should result in demonstrably greater educational opportunities for the children who live within them.

Respectfully submitted by the undersigned parents, caregivers, residents, educators, alumni, and community members of the Mays Cluster.