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The chess game that could make a Mattapan High School possible
By adamg on Mon, 11/03/2014 - 7:55am
Lawrence Harmon ponders Councilor Charles Yancey's pursuit of a new high school in Mattapan and says the idea could work - if the city converts the current West Roxbury Education Complex into a K-8 school.
Yancey and Mattapan would get a state-of-the-art high school (open to students from across the city), even as secondary enrollment across the city drops, while West Roxbury parents would get the extra K-8 seats they've been arguing for for years, he writes.
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Comments
Does this make any sense?
Sure, more K-8 seats would be welcome in West Roxbury, but I have trouble imagining this actually happening. Is there any political will to add more educational services to West Roxbury parents who already doing the city a financial favor by paying taxes and then not using the schools? Right now it kind of works out in favor of the city.
No
But not much that goes on in BPS makes any sense, so not making sense wouldn't exclude it from happening.
I do wonder how much use 1000 elementary school kids would make of the new football field etc.
In terms of perceptions of favors being done, etc., nobody important cares that parkway parents pay taxes and don't use the schools. Public schools are a social service, aren't they?
I would expect a very complicated kind of craziness if the WREC were used to meet local K-8 demand, with requests for set-asides for the historically served population, and grandstanding about the need for a new K-8 in Mattapan to compensate for the favoritism being shown to West Rox, etc.
taxes as "favor" - riiiight
All the public schools in WR are already k-8s. Just to compare - Roslindale, right next door, has none (Unless you count the Haley - and seriously, that's not really a Rosi school anymore - it's mostly filled with Jamaica Plain kids now and the reason it was made a K-8 is because the former principal pulled strings from inside Court St so the JP parents wouldn't have to let their kids 'slum it' at the Irving).
West Roxers may pay more taxes, but they have more police and emergency services, not nearly as many potholes or dead streetlights, and easier new business generation. I think they get a decent return on their taxes.
Haley
That Haley K-8 conversion is one of the primary tipping point reasons why I lost interest in getting more involved in the BPS. I put in a ton of time at various school meetings, assignment reform meetings, etc... and that was the most perfect example that community involvement is nothing compared to access to the levers of power.
Most schools have a great core group of parent volunteers who run the bake sales, auctions, attend the dreary SSC meetings, etc... but it's unfortunately just window dressing compared to the meaningful change that insiders can get done through behind doors favoritism.
Clarification
My 'favor' comment was specifically referring to the fact that every time someone who pays property tax or market rent opts out of the school system, they are saving the city the expense of that kid's education more or less. If every kid who's eligible suddenly started signing up for BPS, there would be a huge budget crisis. It's not West Roxbury specific.
You might want to double check some things
The Sumner and the Conley are feeders to the Irving. Yes, it's not a single facility, but still, the concept is there.