BSC considering relocating some schools

As reported by the Boston Public Schools, to the Mass Department Education, for FY2010-2011, Boston Latin Academy had 1,716 Students, 76 Teachers Total.  

The Hyde Park Education Complex, had 1027 students, and 75 Teachers Total

•  Community Academy of Science and Health:  402 students, 29 Teachers
•  Social Justice Academy: 291 Students, 23 Teachers
•  The Engineering School: 334 Students, 22 Teachers

If there are "no delays" (and there always are delays), according to the MBTA website:

Charlestown:  65 minutes from the Community College Train Stop to 655 Metropolitan Ave, Hyde Park.  Two changes then hike 10 minutes!

East Boston:  61 minutes with 3 changes and a 10 minutes hike!From Maverick Station in East Boston to 655 Metropolitan Ave, Hyde Park it is   

Brighton:   91 minutes one way, to 655 Metropolitan Ave, Hyde Park, and  requires 4 changes!

It's not a race issue.  I am white, my child is white, and we want to stay right on Townsend Street.  It seems the only ones to benefit from a move to HPark will be Hyde Park families, and kids attending BAA.   At a community meeting on Monday night (August 22 at BLA) it was very clear to me that this "proposal" hasn't even been researched, no one from the BPS could even answer if the current enrollment of BLA would FIT in the Hyde Park complex.  BLA has 1750 students plus staff, the enrollment figures for the HP complex vary but see to be about 1000 -- it does take a math genius to see that this isn't likely going to be a good fit.

BLA was told, when they moved into Townsend Street, after a half-dozen moves to various locales around the city (a few of them very questionable:  condemned buildings and a parking garage?) -- that Townsend Street would be their permanent home.  Was that just another lie?  I'm 44 and the school has been in 3 different locations in my lifetime alone, they need long-term roots and they need to not be treated differently than BLS.  If anyone ever proposed carting BLS off to Hyde Park the uproar would be deafening.  BLA deserves the same uproar. 

Hyde Park is near NOTHING.  There is currently one bus line that runs from Forest Hills to anywhere near the school, and the school is located on a highly residential street.  The BPS has not done a traffic impact study, they haven't considered the impact of dozens of busses or the influx of nearly double the amount of students previously served.  Further, according to the MBTA the travel time for kids from East Boston and Charlestown should only be an extra 15 minutes -- if you take the T you know that if they quote you 15 minutes, it will take at least 30!  BLA's start time is 7:15 am and many kids leave at or before 6:00 am now to get there -- it is insane to ask a kid to leave for school at 5:30 am (keeping in mind that it is freezing, and pitch dark at 5:30 am in January/February/March).

If the Hyde Park complex is so great, let the smaller Arts Academy move there, and expand slowly -- if expanding is truly in the best interests of so specialized a school.  But leave BLA alone.

The fact that people are trying to make this issue into a matter of race completely disgusts me. I am white, and am from a predominantly white neighborhood. I went to Latin Academy for 6 years and had many friends from many different races, backgrounds, towns, religions, etc. That was one of my favorite parts of going to BLA, that everyone was so different, but could find things in common with one another. This has ZERO to do with race. Roxbury isn't even THAT bad compared to other neighborhoods. I felt much safer going to school there than I would have if I went to my neighborhood's high school (which again has nothing to do with race, but behavioral issues that often occurred at this high school). I do not want the location of the school to change - the Townsend street location is much more centrally located for many of the surrounding Boston neighborhoods. Placing the school in Hyde Park is going to make it practically impossible for students from Dorchester, South Boston, East Boston, Charlestown, and many other neighborhoods to get there in a reasonable amount of time. It took me an hour to commute every morning as it was, since there was no direct line other than the school bus (which you are only technically allowed to take 7th and 8th grade). So much has gone into the Townsend street location - a green house, memorials, lighting, murals - it would be a shame to lose all that... and move to a smaller, less convenient location. People thought it was hard to get into BLA before? Well, it's going to be a lot harder if they go to a location that can house about 1/2 of the students. 

Regarding the comments of guru...this is not at all a racial issue. I am white and am against the move to HPH. My son (also white) is very happy at the Townsend St. Location. He has friends of all races and religions. Most of us who are against this move happen to be white. It is about BLA not having it's own home and repeatedly being moved. Never has it been moved to a new facility but always to one that has been vacated by another school. Sloppy seconds if you will. The HPH facility does not meet the needs of the BLA community. I agree this has all been a bit underhanded. If this is such a great deal for BLA,why all the secretiveness? Do the repairs and upgrades at BLA for the students,teachers and families at BLA. BLS would never tolerate such treatment!!! Again,no racial issues involved here. Most of us want BLA to stay on Townsend St.!

Let’s address the real issue.  I grew up on Humboldt Avenue and know that White parents are scared to have their children travel to Roxbury to get an education.  Hyde Park is a lot more race friendly and White families feel more comfortable sending their kids there.  There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with the current Townsend street property it’s just a Black and White issue.  Think about it, why move Boston Latin Academy at the expense of closing Hyde Park High School and trying to sugarcoat things by conveniently adding Boston Arts Academy into the mix? What does next summer have in store for bps?  Maybe moving the O' Bryant out of Roxbury and into Charlestown in place of Charlestown High School.  Thoughts anyone?

This proposal does not make sense.  According to the Massachusetts School Building Authorities website, Hyde Park has 186,000 square feet.  Trying to fit 1759 Boston Latin Academy students in Hyde Park does not work.  Each student would barely have 100 square feet.  By comparison, Fenway and Boston Arts Academy each currently have close to 200 square feet of space per student and are in need of more space.   

     Boston Arts Academy and Fenway Pilot School are supposed to be “small boutique schools,” they are not supposed to “expand capacity!”  That is why they are “pilot schools” with admission applications that lend themselves to selected populations!  Earlier this year the pilot school network agreed to take students from the closing Hyde Park Complex to fill vacant seats.  Rumor has it, that only those students who met the criteria of a “B+ or better” and had “NO behavior problems” on record were accepted.  In the spirit of transparency, the BPS needs to make the GPA scores, of those displaced students moving from closing schools, to pilot schools known.   

     I went to those appointed school committee meetings and saw many frustrated, taxpaying, stakeholders, who had devoted hours to their BPS schools, being ignored.  These people had made a commitment, an investment really, in their school, only to find out that it did not matter!  Their children and their teachers were just chattel to be moved and replaced to reduce “surplus capacity!”  Now we are told those closed schools are going to be populated by exam, Horace Mann Charter, and pilot schools.  

     This is especially relevant to the Emerson School Community, one of 12 schools closed to “eliminate surplus capacity” in the BPS.  Now BPS is planning to open a Boston Teacher Residency “Horace Mann Charter School” in that building!  Where are they going to get students?  Students that went to the Emerson are salted around the city, in schools with available seats.  Is BPS going to move “selected” (see chattel above) students back?  The schools sending them back will have “surplus capacity” again…not very cost effective.  What school committee member has a conflict of interest in this project and used the unaware and trusting Emerson parents, students, and teachers to fulfill those personal interests?

     Many of us find it incomprehensible that Dr. Johnson was not told about the Hyde Park High Building Agreement with the State.  Obviously, the BPS Legal Department “does not meet expectations” and should be fired!  The BPS solution is to move Boston Latin Academy, an exam school, to the Hyde Park Complex.  Are BLA students going to be given the opportunity to transfer to O’Bryant or Boston Latin? 

     Perhaps BLA students, who do not want to travel to Hyde Park, will join students from Social Justice Academy and The Engineering School at the Burke and English High Schools.  Maybe this is the secret BPS plan to “turnaround” those two underperforming schools!  Just how many students from the Hyde Park High Complex are ending up at the Burke and English?  

     What about the Regular Ed students who live in Hyde Park?  Is the punishment for not passing the BPS exam school requirements, traveling to a high school outside of your community for four years?  Did BPS forget that Hyde Park does not have a Public High School for Regular Ed kids! 

     In addition, to a schools high school graduation rate, one question that needs to be addressed is, “high school graduation rate by community!”  Is a student, who has to travel to school 3 +/- hours a day, using public transportation, more likely to graduate from high school or not graduate? 

     Again, in the spirit of transparency, the BPS needs to release data on where all the children, who were displaced from the closing schools, landed in September.