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Councilor: BPS could build a brand-new school with all the money it wants to spend to move several schools around
By adamg on Thu, 05/17/2012 - 8:19pm
Jackson: Not happyA skeptical group of city councilors urged school officials today to reconsider a school-moving plan that would send a Mission Hill elementary school to Jamaica Plain. The full council could vote on the issue at its regular meeting next week.
At a hearing on the proposal today, City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) said the $19 million school BPS wants the city council to approve for loans - down from an earlier $21-million estimate - could be used to leverage additional state school construction money to simply build a brand-new school, reducing the number of students in 19th and early 20th-century buildings. State officials are currently sitting on payments for the renovation of Hyde Park High School, because BPS shut the school not long after renovating it.
"It really makes me angry that we've been given miserable choices amongst horrible options," Jackson said of the plan, in which Fenway High School would move to the Mission Hill K-8 building, the Boston Arts Academy would take over the Ipswich Street space it now shares with Fenway, the New Mission High School and Boston Community Leadership Academy would move to Hyde Park and a new Margarita Muniz Academy would move into the Agassiz School in JP along with Mission Hill.
"For the second year in a row, we have put some of the most engaged parent communities against one another," he said, referring to the previous year's decision to shut 10 schools. He added he's concerned city officials will have to have the same exact discussion next year, after the mayor and Superintendent Carol Johnson release yet another proposal for revamping school assignment.
Johnson acknowledged a small group of students would be adversely affected but said a far large number of students would benefit from this "Access to Excellence" plan, in which schools that have done well - and have the waiting lists to prove it - would be allowed to expand. She said her staff had looked at alternatives - such as moving Fenway High to JP instead of Mission Hill K-8 - but they just didn't work.
Nearly half the money in the plan would go to expand and retrofit the Mission Hill School for uses as high school. Johnson and Fenway Headmaster Peggy Kemp said Fenway needs to stay near the Longwood Medical Area, where its students can take classes at colleges there, such as Emmanuel. Moving the school to the Agassiz - proposed by Councilor Mike Ross (Mission Hill) would jeopardize that because it's too far away.
But Councilor Mike Ross (Mission Hill) urged Johnson not to strip the elementary school out of its neighborhood, warning officials would ultimately be judged on how they treated "the least among us." He called on his fellow councilors to resist lobbying from the mayor's office.
Several Mission Hill parents attended the hearing to urge councilors to reject the funding plan.
Councilors Felix Arroyo (at large), Ayanna Pressley (at large) and Charles Yancey (Dorchester) also expressed concerns. Councilor Mark Ciommo (Allston/Brighton) said he sympathized with the parents, but said a similar series of moves in his district a few years back wound up to have worked out well.
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Comments
I think I'm missing the bottom line here.
Maybe someone can help me out.
So I'm getting the idea that there are some schools now which are doing so well, they want to find a way to get more kids onto those schools. They can't physically fit any more students in the actual buildings, so they want to move all the students and teachers from the old schools into physically bigger schools in other areas of Boston?
And they want to borrow money to renovate those new schools?
Not that simple
Mission Hill School K8 has ample room to expand in its current location and in its current community. But BPS has decided instead to uproot it from its home building and its Roxbury community. More information here:
http://chn.ge/SaveMission
The reason that there are some buildings to move into is due to the massive wave of school closures in 2010. This has given BPS a free hand to shuffle, consolidate, relocate as they see fit to do, as if schools are fungible entities that have no natural ties to the communities that support them.
If that's the case (that there is room to expand there)
Why not add seats there and just bus kids from JP to that school?
Because that leaves Fenway/BAA in a pickle
They share an old building (an old postal facility?) in the Fenway. There's no room to expand there and the building is a piece of crap.
So why not move Fenway to JP instead of the little kids? That's where the issue of being close to the colleges in the Longwood area comes in.
Won't the building still be a piece of crap after Fenway moves out and BAA stays? Why yes, but now BAA will have more room there.
Ok thanks
(sorry but I have some more bottom line questions, and it seems like people have strong opinions both ways but aren't really being realistic/truthful with their opinions)
I'm terms of the Ipswitch St location, I thought there are only two high schools there, Fenway, and the BAA, where do the little kids come in?
And I assume the BAA isn't a neighborhood school because of the speciality there, and the Fenway school shouldn't be either because you have to apply and it is a charter, so are people upset about moving just because they don't want to move? (which I can understand)
I thought the college thing only mattered because the BAA has many special programs which are basically run by these colleges. This would tell me there would be no reason to move the baa? Or was there no plan to move it anyway?
The above poster seems to think there is room to expand at the Ipswitch location, or is this just someone who doesn't want to move and feels like the location isn't a problem? (edit: disregard, they were talking about another school)
I always assumed that the Ipswitch property isn't ideal for any school, and was a temporary fix for lack of space for charter schools. This makes me want to side with the school system and their plans to move the school for the overall good of the school system long term.
Pete- You missed so many
Pete- You missed so many points and confused others. Fenway works with local colleges- they are being moved from the Ipswich Building to make room for BAA to expand. Fenway is being moved into the building that currently is the home of The Mission Hill School K-8, Mission Hill is being moved to Jamaica Plain to The Aggazzi which was closed last year. Last year the BPS closed a bunch of schools, 2 of which (The Aggazi and Hyde Park High) had been renovated with funding from the State- the state pays the funding over a number of years. After those schools were shut the state stopped paying the money to the BPS. The BPS needed that money so originally they said they would move Boston Latin Academy(BLA) to Hyde Park, BAA to Boston Latin's Building and Fenway could expand in the Ipswich location. It turned out that BLA's student body wouldn't fit in Hyde Park High so then the BPS hatched this plan above. All of the plans were not well though out nor did they include input from the school communities until after they were presented.
Ipswitch Street Building
I'm not sure if it was ever an postal facility, but in the 70s and early 80s the Ipswitch Street building in the Fenway housed classes for the now defunct Boston State College. I went there and more of my classes were at the Ipswitch Street building than at the better known Huntington Avenue location which now houses the Mass College of Art and Design. Getting to classes between the two locations was a bit of a challenge in the six or so minutes they allowed us, believe me. They ran a shuttle, but it wasn't reliable and got stuck in traffic, so most of us would just cut across the Fens and a very old and rickety bridge that used to be there. When I was at Boston State I used to hear that the Ipswitch building had once been a parking garage, but I am not sure how accurate that it. The building was a piece of junk when I was there over 30 years ago, so I can only imagine how it is now.
Yes, the BPS wants to uproot
Yes, the BPS wants to uproot children, teachers, and families from a few schools to accommodate growth and access to excellent education throughout Boston. They are asking the city for 20M to execute their plan.
Some schools will benefit by relocating to better facilities. Unfortunately, one school in particular would not benefit at all. That school wants to remain but instead will be forced out of their own community and sent 2 miles away to another community and into a lousy building. This move is particularly in-efficient because 60% of its students are currently in the walk zone. Those parents, teachers, and children are getting the shaft.
It’s particularly sad for people who know this is dead wrong and that there are other ways to achieve access to excellent education without hurting so many families.
This is very general but you might think the BPS plan is good if you:
a) knew that some schools will be happier and better accommodated in their new locations
b) believed that this shift will give more kids access to excellent education
c) believed that the price tag of 20M is a reasonable amount to spend
d) believed that unhappiness and discontent and inconvenience of one school and it’s community is an acceptable compromise
Personally, I think that the BPS needed to address growth and expansion issues on a school by school basis. They should also be spending a great deal more time working with underperforming schools so more parents will enroll children at those locations. They should never even have considered forcing a school out against its will. This is how that conversation should have gone:
BPS: Do you mind moving?
Happy, High Achieving School: No thanks.
BPS: Okay, thanks, we will continue looking for a solution. BTW thank you for doing such a great job.
Anyway, the City Councilors are not happy with the way BPS handled this plan because there are no good choices. Unfortunately, some of them might go ahead and approve the budget anyway. If they do approve then I say they send another message that bullying teachers, kindergarteners, and family’s is acceptable. The even bigger problem is that this is typical to how too many people in our government/private sector operate and it’s why America is failing in so many ways.
If I were the Mayor I would open up a can of (bully free) whoopass on BPS. I would tell the BPS to stop, sit down, and re-think their plan to improve education. I would tell them their planning would have to involve many students, parents, and teachers and it would need to have at least a 95% approval rating among its participants before going to city council for budget approval. Very importantly, I would give them ample time to perform such a crucial task. If I were feeling particularly strong I might even demand their plan include performance guarantees and put jobs on the line if promises were not met.
Then again if I weren’t feeling so bold and/or had too many things on my mind then I might approve the BPS plan as is and hope it works - which is most likely what will happen next week. I would probably not worry about the people in Mission Hill too much because after all life is tough. Wait a second – I’m a parent living in Mission Hill. I should just relax and take a chill pill..right?
Yeah, that's the basic idea
And they want to borrow money to pay for the upgrades needed.
As the person above notes, there are more things involved. For example, the whole thing seemed to be triggered when BPS realized, OMG, the state was going to withhold millions of dollars that was supposed to pay for renovations to Hyde Park High School on the grounds that the state damn well wasn't going to reimburse the city for renovations to a school shut a couple years later.
Yes, they want to uproot
Yes, they want to uproot children, teachers, and families from a few schools to accommodate growth of others. One school being forced to move is a small yet successful K-8. It’s a beloved community school and the families and teachers there are very sad.
This costly and disruptive BPS solution (?) is called Access to Excellence. The bully tactic they are using would not be necessary if they explored more intelligent options such as allowing schools to expand in place, or building a new school in the precise location where one is needed, or securing an available building in close proximity to where one is needed, or fixing failing schools so more parents will put their children in them and reduce enrollment at the few and far between high achieving schools.
Oh BTW – the BPS closed 10 schools last year.
Thanks again.
And what do they plan on doing with the alleghny st property? Anything wrong with that building?
Duh. Never mind.
They were going to move Fenway to the old mission (building), and move the little kids from that school to JP with high school kids, and then move the new mission high kids to Hyde park but still call them new mission kids.
Yea, pretty confusing stuff if you aren't paying close attention.
Classic BPS wastefulness!
This plan is beyond ridiculous, BPS just closed so many schools and now they need to displace a thriving school? Where is the master plan? And what about the Ferragut school, just on Huntington ave up the street from Longwood? It has been empty since BPS closed it and is also in mission hill. And there is an entire empty lot next door to it if it isn't big enough for Fenway. Why play musical chairs with these schools? Move only those schools that need new spaces into the empty school buildings. Don't displace schools that are doing just fine. This will make the school unstable and there is no extra money to support that kind of adjustment in the budget. It is an unnecessary expenditure.
BPS likes to pit one school against another. . I hope we can get some rational thinking and planning going at BPS and stop this crazy business. It is a waste of money and breaks down the community.
HHMMmmmmm
Stop forced busing and our city could afford to build a new school every 3 months.
BPS budget= Aprox. $800mm
10% of the budget is spent on bussing
kid populations vs. school buildings
The buildings aren't all close to the kids. Unless a solid percentage of the kids are going to levitate or use a transporter beam, there will still be a need for buses.
BPS Must Stop Staging Dogfights
Thanks, Adam, for stepping in with important coverage when the major papers are turning a blind eye.
To recap for those trying to make sense of the plan, it involves a great many schools. The most controversial segment of the plan involves 3 of those schools, the Boston Arts Academy high school, Fenway High, and Mission Hill School K-8.
For BAA to expand in place, Fenway High must move out of their shared building. Fenway High protested at first, but then agreed to move and expand in the Mission Hill School building. The Fenway High expansion will require the ouster of Mission Hill School K-8, a high-performing, in-demand Roxbury elementary school with 60% walk-zone students. The plan aims to replant the Roxbury school in JP, despite school-community and neighborhood outcry. The MHS petition can be found here: http://chn.ge/SaveMission
As a MHS parent, of special relevance to me in the Universal Hub report are the testimonies of the Fenway High headmaster, and that of a fellow MHS mother, to whom this is the second crisis of this sort in a single school year; she is also the mother of a child at Boston Latin Academy, a school also threatened recently by an ill-considered relocation plan, in order to make way for BAA. These testimonies bear eloquent witness to the miserable position in which the BPS plan has placed good people. Guardians of city children, educators and parents, have been forced to advocate against each other for the needs of their children and communities. Councilors present at yesterday’s hearing who spoke out against this irresponsible, damaging element of the plan include Tito Jackson, Felix Arroyo, Frank Baker, and Mike Ross, and I thank them again for taking that important stand.
One saving grace of this situation is that, while clearly charged with desperation, the advocacy has practically never devolved into direct confrontations between members of the different groups, which would take an already heartbreaking situation to a new and unnecessary level of conflict. I have been heartened, furthermore, by a very different message from the Boston Arts Academy community, on behalf of parents who also deplore the situation in which we have all been put, and see the great harm to our city in the way the plan positions one community’s interests as negating the other’s.
Council prepares to vote on this issue as early as next Wednesday, 5.23. Boston residents ought to consider writing our Mayor and Council. Their email addresses follow. Please urge them to reject the school relocation plan and demand a revised school expansion plan that looks after the needs of every school, rather than forcing successful school communities to compete against each other for survival.
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What a complete and total sh*tshow
This would be unbelievable, except that with BPS nothing is ridiculous enough to fall into that category. This entire situation is emblematic of such a failure of leadership and long-term thinking that I can't even begin to work through all of the problems with this "plan."
Suffice it to say that this is exactly why I will not be staying in the city much longer. I will be moving my family to the 'burbs in hopes of better public education. I know nothing is Shangri La, but I am reasonably certain that it won't be this bad.
I was starting to think this comment would never come.
I have been wondering how long it would be before someone said something to the effect of "this is why people move to the suburbs".
Frankly, I was beginning to wonder whether that would happen - it took a lot longer than I expected. Now, I'm eagerly anticipating the blowback.
Fire at will, UHubbers (I'm also waiting to see how long it is before an argument erupts over which is more off-putting - the "saga" in Wellesley or this)!
Why not move Fenway to a college campus?
Listening to The Fenway's principal I wonder why the BPS can't work out a deal with one of the colleges that Fenway works with to host the high school? Isn't there another solution then moving Mission Hill School?
Colleges don't have enough
Colleges don't have enough space for their own students let alone to be hosting any outside students in any larger numbers than currently in partnership programs.