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Council approves school-relocation plan, but warns BPS: No more
By adamg on Wed, 05/23/2012 - 1:32pm
Ross: "Irresponsible" to make kids pay for superintendent's mistakes.
A divided City Council today approved a plan that moves seven schools around and creates two new schools, but even councilors who voted in favor told School Superintendent Carol Johnson and School Committee Chairman Gregory Groover they're skating on thin ice.
Councilor Ayanna Pressley (at large) said the $20-million plan, which will mean 1,400 new seats in what BPS says are high-performing schools, forced her to vote for a plan that moves the Mission Hill K-8 School to Jamaica Plain. But she said she will never again vote for a BPS capital request unless officials pair it with a comprehensive five or ten-year plan. The council has final say over borrowing for large-scale capital projects.
Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury), said he was outraged that BPS proposed musical chairs a year after it shut ten schools and as it's beginning to study a new school-assignment plan.
Jackson voted with councilors Frank Baker (Dorchester), Charles Yancey (Dorchester) and Felix Arroyo (at large) in supporting a proposal by Councilor Mike Ross (Mission Hill) to block the Mission Hill move and the corresponding Fenway High School move into the Mission Hill building. Ross said that while the other moves, which will mean new seats for several high schools, a new bilingual high-school and a new elementary school, are great, he could not support the destruction of the Mission Hill K-8 community.
The other eight councilors, however, voted against his proposal, as Johnson and Groover looked on.
After Ross's proposal died, the council voted 12-1 - with Ross casting the lone "no" vote - to approve the BPS plan.
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Comments
Shocked, I tell you
Just shocked.
Well - at least Ross voted against it as he promised. Now he's down to one elementary school in his entire district - at least until they redistrict. That's a whole other matter - sounds like his district may not even include Mission Hill where he lives once the dust settles on the new districting plan.
I'm more convinced than ever that the goal of BPS is to keep growing the budget at 3% a year and shrinking the number of students in the system by scaring parents out of Boston. All this other stuff about less busing and more neighborhood schools is little more than a dog and pony show. Time to put up or shut up and close up more schools. Pretty soon we'll be a town of METCO, charters and privates, which will at least and at last be a win for the kids.
Pretty soon we'll be a town
BPS is no longer about educating children, it's all about ensuring the pay and benefits of certain staff members. How else can anyone explain that the budget keeps increasing despite FEWER SCHOOL BUILDINGS, TEACHERS, AND STUDENTS, being part of the system? The citizens of Boston are getting scammed and families driven away by a hopelessly corrupt school system.
Yancey on the move to Dudley
He's said it before (actually, he says it pretty much all the time), but Yancey did bring up the fact the city is spending tons of money to give BPS a state-of-the-art headquarters in Dudley Square while continuing to shoehorn students into old warehouses and the like.
One problem with that cynical assessment - school pop is growing
I share your (and nearly all other Bostonians) frustration with the ham-handed (and I think deliberately confounding) shell-shuffling going on at Court Street. But unfortunately, the last few years demographics run directly contrary to your claim that as a group, parents are leaving the city and the public school system. BPS enrollment at the K-5 level has been growing for almost a decade, and has significantly accelerated in the last couple years. And Metco, charters and privates all together make up a small percentage of the seats available to Boston students.
It may make you feel righteous Stevil, but a cynical, just-screw-the-BPS reaction is not going to work, even under the most far-fetched of scenarios. Somehow, we Bostonians have to find a way to hold the leadership (mayor, council and superintendent) really accountable for their policies and actions.
Jeff I couldn't agree more.
Jeff I couldn't agree more. We need to clean house and re-organize court street. I'm not quite sure how to do that, but I'm sure gonna try.
Don't get me wrong
I was being sarcastic - except that's the direction we are going in. I believe we should have a strong public school system for EVERY kid in the city (thus my strong support for better and more conveniently located public elementary schools for downtown kids).
One correction -BPS population is steadily decreasing -in 2008 (last year I checked but I know it was around 60,000 in 2000) population had decreased to 56,168, including 2223 Pre-K. By 2012 it declined further to 55,027, despite the addition of 350 Pre-k seats (those are optional for the city and they have been adding pre-k seats as the school population declines to hold the total number around 55k). It was only this year at the very bottom levels that they had an unexpected surged of a few hundred applicants which is what you are probably thinking of. However, with more charters opening - I fully expect BPS to shrink to around 50k students over the next 5 years, fully offset by new seats in charters.
I agree - screw the BPS and we just screw ourselves. However, based on what I'm seeing this is now beyond incompetence and reeks of a strategy to drive kids (or more their parents) out of the schools. If you don't know from one year to the next where your kid will be in school, you are in limbo and for most parents, especially those with the financial means, that just means moving out like most of my friends with kids have done over the years.
City Council puts on show, caves to Menino
It's always the same. No news here.
.sgstn stenograph stenonote record of the public meeting
-------- Forwarded message ----------
Sent-From: Braga, Ann Hess Ann.Braga at cityofboston.gov
Date: Wed, May 23, 2012 at 9:27 AM
Subject: .sgstn stenograph stenonote record of the last public meeting of Boston City Council.
To: "City Archivist John McColgan" John.McColgan at cityofboston.gov
Good morning –
Attached please find the stenographic file of the last Council meeting. [ Or email city.council at cityofboston.gov ]
Ann
Have a great day!
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