Could white Western Middle School families opting for Central trigger forced redistricting?

The debate over the new Central Middle School (CMS) has shifted from blueprints to an uncomfortable reality: the town built a school too big for the current neighborhood. The new facility is sized for 660 students, but the local neighborhood currently provides only 450-500 students.

Open Enrollment?

Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones recently recommended "Open Enrollment" to fill the seats and the response was immediate. Of the 21 students raising their hands to move in the initial wave (which closed January 15, 2026), nearly all of them are coming from Western Middle School (WMS)—and most of them are white/non-minority students.

Why the Rush to Leave Western?

The Facility Gap: The town is spending $112 million on a state-of-the-art CMS. Western families, who have dealt with aging infrastructure and years of field closures due to soil contamination (not to mention fields recently used for emergency parking of 60+ school buses), naturally want their children to have the "best" the town offers.

Preserving Team Standards. For WMS families, transferring to Central is a strategic choice to secure a superior learning environment. These additional families could help Central maintain the staffing status quo, preventing a diluted model where teachers must cover multiple subjects. As a result, their students could benefit from a full teaching team with exceptionally small class sizes—currently projected as low as 12–15.

The Racial Imbalance Trap.

The core of the problem is the Connecticut Racial Imbalance Law. This 1969 statute mandates that no school’s minority population can deviate more than 25% from the district-wide average.

The Math: Western Middle School is already in the "impending imbalance" zone (roughly 56% minority). If 20-30 white students leave WMS, that percentage could hit the 66% state threshold.

The Forced Redistricting Threat. Once a school crosses that line, the state can intervene. At that point, Greenwich families across the entire town could find their children bused to different schools to fix the numbers—a loss of local control the town has fought for decades to avoid.

Well-to-do Drivers

Since the district doesn't provide buses for Open Enrollment, this "choice" is only available to families with the time and resources to drive their kids across town every morning. This risks creating a "two-tier" system: a brand-new less-diverse "choice" school at Central, while the older Western Middle School becomes increasingly isolated and racially imbalanced.

Between the Lines: The Board of Education is now stuck in a classic "Catch-22." Do they fill the seats to justify the $112 million investment and protect Central's staffing, or do they keep the seats empty to prevent a state-mandated racial imbalance crisis at Western?

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