The US Supreme Court today formally declined to consider a lawsuit by White and Asian-American parents against the way BPS now uses Zip codes as part of its algorithm for determining who gets offered admission to Boston's three exam schools. Read more.
A group of white and Asian-American parents - and their California-based law firm - this week asked the US Supreme Court to overturn rulings by federal courts in Boston that the School Committee did nothing wrong when it changed the way students are accepted to the three exam schools by including Zip codes in addition to grades as a criterion. Read more.
Councilor Coletta presents proclamation to Charlestown Coach Hugh Colman
The Boston City Council today officially honored the city's four state-championship teams with proclamations - and pizza: Charlestown High School, whose boys basketball team won the Division 3 state championship, New Mission High School, whose boys basketball team won the Division 5 championship, the Josiah Quincy Upper School's girls wrestling team brought home medals in Division 2 and Boston Latin School, whose hockey team won the Division 2 championship. Read more.
The Supreme Court today declined to hear a case involving allegations of racial discrimination by an exam school in Virginia that had its admissions policies changed in 2020 to try to increase Black and Hispanic enrollment through a new selection process that takes into account which neighborhoods applicants live in. Read more.
GBH interviews a couple of Ayo Edebiri's teachers at Boston Latin School on her award for her role in "The Bear."
A federal appeals court yesterday rejected, again, a bid to block Boston Public Schools from changing its previous grades-and-test-score criteria for admissions to Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and the O'Bryant School. Read more.
Boston Latin School Head of School Jason Gallagher alerted parents today that a student discovered "a small swastika" etched into a gym door - even as the school was planning to launch programs "related to antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab discrimination." Read more.
In e-mail tonight, BPS told parents of prospective exam-school students that neither BPS nor an outside auditor initially caught the error at first in the way seventh-grade eligibility is calculated, but that they still expect to send out actual invitations in early May - still on schedule for BPS, but later than other area schools with selection policies. Read more.
Image of armed man distributed by police; turned out to be a student in a costume.
Mass Art and the neighboring Wentworth Institute of Technology went into lockdown, and Boston Latin School went into "safe" mode this afternoon after somebody reported a man with a gun walking around a Mass Art dorm. Read more.
Jason Gallagher, current principal at the Harvard-Kent Elementary School in Charlestown, will take over as new head of school at Boston Latin School, outgoing Superintendent Brenda Cassellius told the school community today. Read more.
Update: South Boston description posted.
An attempt to teach eighth graders at Boston Latin School how to deal with stereotypes ended today with school officials apologizing to students, parents and school staffers from two heavily White neighborhoods. Read more.
Jonathan Mulhern, associate head of school of Boston Latin School, is leaving to become a middle-school principal in Canton.
Read more.
Rachel Skerritt today announced her resignation at the end of the school year as Boston Latin School head of school.
In e-mail to BLS students, families and staff this afternoon, Skerritt wrote, first of the challenges of Covid-19 atop the challenges of life at the exam school, then continued: Read more.
The Patriot-Bridge in Charlestown, home to Charlestown High School, which Eliot School parents want to remake as an innovation school reports that parents are now upset because of a BPS plan to penalize their kids 10 points on their GPAs to try to level exam-school admissions across the entire BPS district. Read more.
Boston Latin School notified parents tonight of a recent spike in Covid-19 cases - 36 over the past week, with most of them being reported just today. Read more.
Yes, three Boston School Committee members got all racist. And, yes, city attorneys screwed up in trying to withhold evidence of racially-tinged texts by two of them from a parents group suing over the way kids got invited to the exam schools this year. But no, the plan used to invite students without exams was not racist, a federal judge ruled today - again. Read more.
School Committee members discussing the new plan.
The Boston School Committee today unanimously approved a new policy for admissions to the city's three exam schools that relies less on a test and more on grades - and on socioeconomic data that will benefit students in public housing, are homeless or attend schools with a high number of poor families. Read more.
A federal judge today withdrew his approval of the system BPS used to offer admission to the three exam schools, saying he was misled by a transcript of text messages by School Committee members that left out the "Westie whites" comments. Read more.
A School Committee lawyer argued today that leaving out the "Westie whites" exchange from text messages handed over to the Globe and a woman who turned out to be a secret member of the parents group suing over exam-school admissions was an innocent mistake, not part of some nefarious scheme to hide racial hatred by School Committee members. Read more.
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