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Two O'Bryant teachers list reasons that moving the O'Bryant to West Roxbury will harm students
By adamg on Sun, 06/18/2023 - 12:37pm
Schoolyard News posts an essay by Aparna Lakshmi, an O'Bryant history teacher and Robert Comeau, an O'Bryant English teacher on how the drawbacks of moving their school to a site about as close to the middle of nowhere in Boston as you can get will outweigh the potential benefits of expanded, state-of-the-art classrooms and labs.
The district has promised shuttle buses, but the MBTA is already unable to hire enough bus drivers to fill their current routes and the district’s own buses have struggled to meet the desired 95% on-time rate. An East Boston student facing a 90-minute bus ride home will be far less willing to participate in our school’s award-winning robotics team, or play for our championship sports teams, or take college classes at Wentworth. The ripple effects of this on our students’ college and career choices cannot be overstated.
The School Committee could discuss the proposal, along with plans to expand Madison Park into the current O'Bryant building, at its Wednesday meeting.
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Comments
Does anyone know why Wu is pushing this bad idea?
It appears that almost everyone is against it , except Wu. What is the upside to her proposal? I don't see one.
Define "almost everyone"
One of the people who spoke in favor of the proposal at the press conference at which Wu announced it was John D. O'Bryant's son, Richard:
Did they seriously list
Did they seriously list moving the school to Newmarket as a better location than West Roxbury? Yikes.
They wouldn't be alone there
Roxbury Prep, which the good burghers of West Roxbury successfully kept off Belgrade Avenue, is building a campus there.
How many Harvard degrees
How many Harvard degrees between them?
BTU already at work
A brand new state of the art learning center for the students sounds amazing…but our main concern: our (teachers) commute will suck.
If you can't get good teachers to commute
You've wasted a lot of money.
I suspect being a union school, a whole different group may want to teach there due to the commute, or it just being a new facility. The two teachers could get bumped and that's their real motivation for writing.
A better location
Would in in the Aborway bus yard across from Forest Hills station the MBTA has a large abandoned office building that could be converted into a high school.
School Busing
Just a thought here folks.
Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on shuffling poor students from one failing school to another failing school on the other side of town,lets get together on fixing the problems at OBryant and Madison Park.
Start with discipline or the lack of it now.
Safety matters.
Teach these children to read using the tried and true method now known as phonics.
Because it works.
Just these two items will help the Head Start that a lot of these kids get continue well into the rest of their lives...
Filed under: Tell me you know
Filed under: Tell me you know nothing about the O'Bryant without saying "I know nothing about the O'Bryant."
And actually Boston's High Schools in general. 7th grade and up, unless there is an IEP, there is no bussing. They have to either be driven, walk, bike, or take the T.
A little off-topic; but
A little off-topic; but speaking of middle-of-nowhere Boston, a couple of months ago, I jogged to the city of Boston's most southern point. It's actually pretty neat; it's complete wilderness and can only be accessed by the narrowest foot path. It makes the West Roxbury campus look like a very busy urban area. I took a picture of the marker at that location and it may be viewable at the link below.
According to google map (if you just enter "Boston" in google maps, it shows the exact city limits) Boston's most southern point is located near that marker, in the middle of the Neponset river. It also happens to be Milton's most Western point, Dedham's most Eastern point and Canton 's most Northern point. For map nerds like me, this is an exciting place and I got all giddy when I made it there!
Best off all, one can get close enough to it by public transportation: orange line + #32 bus (quite frequent) or commuter rail to Readville station. Then it's a two mile hike along the Neponset river to that marker and there is no chance that you'll run into a motor vehicle or even a bike when you get there. Tick repellant and possibly a machete now that the vegetation has expended may be a good idea.
I agree that moving students to that West Roxbury campus is a terrible idea, but it could have been worse!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vkH3Z6h9JY4Cmf6TA
Good Thinking
I like it.
The three alternate locations would better serve the diverse student body over moving it to an isolated spot that no one can get to easily in West Roxbury. Seriously, what is behind this plan from the Mayor?? Someone must have their eyes on developing the current parcel.
West Roxbury Residents may appreciate it
All the West Roxbury parents that recently sued BPS may view the expansion of an exam school as a possible increase in the seats at exam schools that could result in more going to their kids after the recent change in the exam school admissions that seems to favor kids from Dorchester and Roxbury.
I kind of like it, as I wouldn't send my kids to the current BLS, BLA or O'Bryant schools due to the travel distance from our house but West Roxbury is a much easier trip for us to make.
This plan clearly benefits upper class, mostly white families in the West Roxbury, Roslindale and Hyde Park area so I can understand why it's controversial and will be surprised if it passes through the school committee.
I hope some day Boston will go back to local neighborhood schools and invest more resources in lower income neighborhoods that need the investment because the current system simply isn't working.
The horror
White tax paying Boston families might try and utilize a public resource which they contribute towards.
So strange
All the kids from all over the city the used to go to Westie High seemed to be able to do it.
Simple solutions in a sane country
Extend the orange line along the Needham line to end right there replace the rest of the Needham line with the green line through Newton. Problem solved.
I have a friend who teaches there
And they’re already considering moving.