boston public schools

With each superintendent and mayor comes the fabricated commitments of “transparency,” “community engagement” and “equity.” As we approach Superintendent Skipper’s eighth month on the job and only three short months from the end of the school year, BPS families have continued to wait for quality BPS leadership, visionary goals and transparency.

In 2002, when Mary Skipper was appointed headmaster at Tech Boston, the former Dorchester High School building housed two other schools: Noonan Business Academy and Academy of Public Service. When she left 11 years later, Tech Boston was the only community left. Her tenure at the helm of the schools gave her hands-on experience with school closures and mergers.

A recent paper from MIT Blueprint Labs relies on MCAS results in arguing for what would be a historic policy change: a full return to neighborhood schools.

Mayor Michelle Wu announced plans to create a new planning department that would be separate from the Boston Planning and Development Agency, streamline the city’s development processes and use the bulk of the city’s share of federal recovery funds to accelerate the production of affordable housing as part of a set of ambitious goals outlined in her Jan. 25 State of the City address.

The Council of the Great City Schools last Wednesday released a report on school safety recommending among other things that Boston Public Schools convene a focus group of stakeholders and administrators to consider whether the district should form an internal police department.yawu

During an Oct. 27 City Council hearing on violence in the Boston Public Schools, Councilors Michael Flaherty, Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn questioned BPS officials on increased reports of violence in the schools.

A letter signed by four Boston City Council members calling for more police officers and “non-invasive” measures like metal detectors in Boston Public Schools is drawing criticism from advocates who are striving to reduce police and law enforcement presence in schools.

Public health experts, teachers and families of Boston area students are calling for increased public health measures — namely, heightened masking practices, especially in schools — as the region sees increased rates of COVID-19, influenza and other respiratory illnesses.

Within months of the Boston Public Schools instituting a new teacher evaluation system in 2013, the Boston Teachers Union pushed back with claims the system produced discriminatory results, with Black teachers more likely to receive unsatisfactory evaluations than their white counterparts.

Founded in 1821, English High School was created by the Boston School Committee, who had the novel idea that education should be free and accessible in the Commonwealth capitol, and who wanted an alternative to existing Latin schools offering a religious and classical curriculum to students.

Among the concerns voiced by parents active with Families for COVID Safety are lingering questions on what measures the district will undertake to protect students, teachers and school staff against COVID outbreaks