boston public schools

Each student in Elizabeth DiFranco’s eighth-grade English language arts room at the Joseph Lee school has been assigned a number one through four at the beginning of class. As DiFranco faces the jumble of students seated at wheeled desks, she orders them into groups.

There are about 3,500 Boston public school students who have no fixed address. As incredible as it sounds, 6 percent of Boston’s 56,000 students are homeless. They might live temporarily in a run-down motel, move from shelter to shelter, stay in substandard housing or “couch surf” from house to house.

City councilors heard a multitude of perspectives during a hearing held last week by Education Committee Chairwoman Annissa Essaibi-George that probed the ideal structure for the School Committee.

City councilors sent a letter to the Boston School Committee last week urging them reconsider closing the West Roxbury Academy and Urban Science Academy, as laid out in the city’s controversial BuildBPS plan.

For many in BPS, the past two weeks have been disturbing. The announcement of three school closings from one day to another was a deja-vu experience of irresponsibility that BPS families and staff know all too well.

The Boston School Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday Oct. 10 on who will join the hunt for the next superintendent, while education reformers discuss their ideal candidate for the schools leadership position.

Education, civil rights, and community organizations are demanding that Boston Public Schools Interim Superintendent Laura Perille not be considered for the permanent position, and that a timeline be set to find her successor from a diverse range of experienced candidates.

“[BuildBPS] is about the school system we need and want for the future, one that will meet the needs of all of our students,” Perille told journalists at a sit-down last Wednesday morning at the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, Boston Public Schools’ (BPS) headquarters in Dudley Square.

Once inside the new Dearborn STEM 6-12 school, the building’s most prominent feature is readily apparent: a soaring atrium that begins at the polished concrete floor of the first level and extends through the building’s four levels to its skylight.

Newly-announced Interim Boston Public Schools Superintendent Laura Perille aims to delve into the difficult issues facing the district: the $1 billion BuildBPS plan that after three years remains short on details, the as-yet undefined high school redesign plan and the reworking of school start times that last year sparked a wave of parent outrage.

When Boston Public Schools Superintendent Tommy Chang announced Friday he is stepping down three years into his five-year contract with the city, the news was sudden, but the warning signs were there.

Back in April, when a Boston Public Schools official presented the Boston School Committee with a proposal to sell off a portion of the land adjacent to the McCormack Middle School in Dorchester, the plan was billed as a precursor to future public-private partnerships that could maximize public assets. In the weeks since the proposal was unveiled during an April 11 School Committee meeting, opposition has gained steam and a coalition of civil rights organizations, parent groups and student groups sent a letter to Superintendent Tommy Chang, Mayor Martin Walsh and the School Committee demanding a moratorium on facilities-related decisions.