Hey, there! Log in / Register
BPS kills plan to move O'Bryant to West Roxbury
By adamg on Wed, 02/28/2024 - 1:37pm
WBUR reports Mayor Wu and Boston Public Schools have "indefinitely" put on hold plans to rebuild the crumbling former West Roxbury High School into a new state-of-the-art home for the John D. O'Bryant School, after parents, students and teachers raised objections to a school on the side of a swamp about as far away from the rest of the city as one could get.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Good
This was the right decision.
Right decision
Now that O’Bryant is not heading to 1205 VFW Park Way it is time to renovate the old West Roxbury High School. I suggest that graduates of West Roxbury and Roslindale K/8 s be guaranteed seats at the new school. There is precedent for such a student assignment policy as the exact policy exists for the Dearborn STEM Academy.
But, But, But
The Globe said it was about race and that current parents didn't want a high school with all those Westies.
It wasn't about is being 2 hours by the T from East Boston or Charlestown at all. No siree per the Globe's political direction of school coverage from Atlantic Avenue. It was about West Roxbury should not get anything. Yesiree.
FFS - How the trail balloon of putting a high school closer to Canton High than City Hall as a magnet school ever went beyond the "Perhaps That's a Dumb Idea" phase of a conversation at City Hall is beyond me.
Rebuild O'Bryant on site and within easier reach from nearly all of the City and the T.
Specifically on the lot across from BPD HQ
The pipe dream project of housing and a Target and life sciences and whatever else sounds cool didn't get built when money was cheap. Now it's expensive so use it for a badly needed school.
This was never a good idea
Something should be done with that former high school campus, but not this.
Boston Pickleball Center?
Take it all inside and free up tennis courts all across the city for, well, tennis.
Exam School
They need to wipe away the names of the exam schools and just call them 1, 2 and 3. This was a good location for an exam school. Close to dense neighborhoods that don't have one nearby. Would have freed up exam school spots at the other two locations because WR/Rozzy would have just stayed local. and made use of an underutilized site.
Not just a swamp
It would be nice to use it for something that benefits public recreation and takes advantage of the proximity to the Charles River and parkland. There is nearby access for canoeing/kayaking, mountain-biking, and walking trails.
Millennium Park
Is just right there, and it doesn't get nearly as much use as it deserves.
Again students of color have to work harder, and travel more
I love the current site of the OBryant. Right next to that brutalist architectural wonder, MPHS. Easy to get to from buses and trains, and in the middle of a neighborhood that is majority minority.
Now into the suburb in Boston they must go. It is so wrong on so many levels.
Decisions seem to be made based on how little they will have to spend vs. placing schools where students live.
This breaks my heart
Huh?
The O'Bryant is staying put -- in a place that is far more accessible to minority students.
The argument about proximity to athletic fields was always bonkers. Not to lean too hard on stereotypes, but generally students interested in math/science/engineering programs are putting those way above athletic programs.
A BPS High School in Roslindale, Hyde Park or Westie is needed
With BPS keeping the O'Bryant where it is today and not moving it to West Roxbury , in addition to reducing the # of seats from West Roxbury and Roslindale at the exam schools ( in a neighborhood where a historically high percentage of kids attend exam schools) they should create a large new high quality HS in the Roslindale, Hyde Park or West Roxbury so kids from that area have a local high Quality High School! Currently Hyde Park has the New Mission and another Course to College, both are small and not open enrollment schools. I don't believe Roslindale or West Roxbury has a BPS High School?
Did you read the article? Or the headline?
They are leaving the O'Bryant where it is, not moving it.
One of the good things about that site
is there are plenty of parking spots to accommodate all the staff and students who are transportation self efficient
the cost
Do not ignore that this all would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars all in. All while the storm clouds gather around the city's future revenue projections. The administration may pretend that everything is hunky dory from a fiscal perspective. But this would've been a massive white elephant for BPS facilities that they would not ultimately have had the funds to pull off. The politics + the cost killed this very poorly thought out proposal
Funny, it was good enough for
Funny, it was good enough for us in 1986!
maybe 37 years ago
and the building had been allowed to crumble by prior administrations and it was in serious need of upgrades even before it was decommissioned.
The Mayor makes
compulsive controversial decisions constantly then backtracks when public opinion blows up in her face. Then she deflects criticism by placing the blame on others. The School Superintendent does nothing without prior approval from the puppet master.
So she's human?
You've never said or done something controversial and then regretted it?
No? You must be a supreme being then.
Just admit it that you don't like her because she's Asian. cuz thats what your comment is really about. Grasping at straws because you don't like her race, but you're too afraid to say it.
Now, now
Let's not assume. Anon might not hate her because she's Asian; he might hate her because she's female.
Controversial decisions announced and rolled back by Mayor Wu
Centre St. road diet
2022 vaccine mandate
Squares & Streets zoning overhaul
Fare free bus routes
Fossil fuel disinvestment
Electeds of color dinner
yes a long string of controversial decisions where — wait, no — Mayor Wu has not backed down, given in or blamed others.
Don't forget the North End on-street dining
Didn't back down from those North Shore residents that filed a lawsuit about it, which of course they dropped :P
That's acutally a good thing!
A leader who isn't afraid to throw a bunch of ideas in to the conversation, and is also willing to reject those ideas based on feedback is exactly the type of person I want on the fifth floor of city hall.
And the BPS race to the
And the BPS race to the bottom still uuwinds.