Education Commissioner Jeff Reilly blasted the proposal by Boston Public schools to move the highly rated O’Bryant School to West Roxbury, saying state officials were “blindsided” by the announcement.
Riley ticked off a host of issues the district is grappling with under a mandatory improvement plan signed with the state and said the best grade he could offer on those agreed upon goals would be an “incomplete.”
“Well, we were candidly blindsided by a major plan for high schools that seemed half-baked at best,” Reilly told the state Education Board. “Worse, it seems that neither DESE nor relevant stakeholders and that includes parents, teachers and some School Committee members were given any heads up about it before it was announced.”
Riley delivered the animated comments during said his commissioner’s update at Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The remarks come three weeks after Mayor Michelle Wu and School Superintendent Mary Skipper announced they’re looking to relocate the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics from the Roxbury campus it shares with Madison Park Technical Vocational High School to the West Roxbury Education Complex.
The plan, which requires approval from the Boston School Committee, would create a “state-of-the-art” science, technology, engineering and mathematics facility for grades 7-12 at the new O’Bryant campus. It would expand vocational offerings at Madison Park and allow seventh- and eighth-grade students to study there as well.
Families and staff have raised major concerns about the district’s communication around the idea and how transportation, student diversity and other logistics could be affected by the plan.
Riley raised issues around the infrastructure at the West Roxbury Education Complex, which officials closed four years ago for safety reasons, and just how much it may cost for the district to implement the plan, which he estimated could be more than $1 billion.
“While the overall plan may have merit,” Reilly said, “it’s hard to support it without understanding the financials, and let me be clear, I believe that Madison Park needs to be fixed. I also believe that building could cost up to $800 million to a billion dollars … as well as probably another $300- to $400 million for West Roxbury High School.”
Transportation is one of the components in the multi-layered state-supervised improvement plan that BPS has been following for the past year. Though the city has hired more bus drivers and monitors, the district is still falling short of the state’s goal of 95% of buses being on time, Riley said.
Like parents and educators, Riley is questioning the feasibility of transporting O’Bryant students to West Roxbury. District officials have previously said the move would come with extra shuttle buses for students and discussed use of the commuter rail to minimize the transportation burden.
“Many of the kids at the O’Bryant School are from where the current O’Bryant sits,” Riley said. “A trip to West Roxbury is long, and I am not convinced that I have seen a transportation plan that will meet the needs and get the kids where they need to be.”
BPS signed onto what Riley referred to as a state “systemic improvement plan” exactly a year ago today in an effort to avoid a state takeover. It outlines steps the district needs to take to improve its schools, including in special education, transportation, security and services for English language learners.
State officials have met with those at the city level over the past year to provide assistance and receive feedback.
A BPS spokesperson declined to comment specifically on Riley’s Madison Park/O’Bryant stance.
“The work of the SIP is addressing the long-standing broken systems that have persisted for decades in Boston,” the spokesperson told the Herald. “We recognize that we must act with urgency and engage with key stakeholders as we develop our plans. We cannot do this work overnight or alone if we truly want to create the lasting change that our students, families, and staff deserve.”