boston public schools

Angered at what they say is the Boston Public Schools’ refusal to honor a promise to provide them a new building, students from Boston Community Leadership Academy met last week with Superintendent Brenda Cassellius in an attempt to obtain a guarantee they would not be moved from their existing building.

The Boston School Committee voted last Wednesday in favor of a new policy for entrance to the city’s three exam schools in which students will be selected from eight tiers, divided by socio economic factors including income of families in a student’s census tract, the number of households in which a language other than English is spoken and the educational attainment of individuals in the tract.

Citing wait lists for summer programs and school buildings with no air conditioning, District 4 City Councilor Andrea Campbell held a press conference last Wednesday calling on the Boston Public Schools to accelerate their release of millions of dollars in federal COVID relief funding.

With three city councilors and an acting mayor locked in a competition to lead the city, a group of white and Asian parents making a last-ditch effort to overturn a policy aimed at diversifying admissions to the city’s three exam schools and acting Mayor Kim Janey’s $3.6 billion city budget hanging in the balance at the bitter end of the fiscal year, what could possibly go wrong?

Boston Public Schools officials promised students 21st century schools in their BuildBPS document, but Boston Community Leadership Academy students say the district’s scaled back renovation of the McCormack school building will leave them with too little space for their new high school.

During a June 2 meeting, the Boston School Committee heard a proposal from the administration for a new approach. If the Committee agrees, part of the new grading system will be incorporated in a new elementary school report card next fall.

In the last 20 years, the district has closed, moved or merged 70% of its schools, according to research by Boston Latin Academy history teacher Jose Valenzuela.

Build BPS, released in 2017, was supposed to be Mayor Walsh’s investment in new schools, repair of aging facilities, and creation of 21st century classrooms. But many schools lack basic facilities and staff, including libraries, social workers and family liaisons.

Twelve of the 49 members of the Boston Student Advisory Council resigned last week amid charges that the head of the nonprofit which administers the group engaged in emotionally abusive behavior and sought to stifle the voices of students challenging the administration of Boston Public Schools.

Our elected officials must commit themselves to ending systemic racism which creates the current segregated system in which some students receive a quality education and others do not. We need leadership to narrow opportunity gaps and focus on the residents who are experiencing the worst of the pandemic, not just in the Boston Public Schools but in all our neighborhoods.

Boston Public Schools unveiled its budget $1.3 billion Feb. 3 at a virtual press conference, and later that night, at the school committee meeting. BPS is banking on $36 million in new funding in the city’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget.