Boston Public Schools is planning to drop 17 schools by 2030 through closures and mergers, district officials announced — delivering a long-awaited facilities plan based on enrollment trends and aging buildings.
“Based on the best information available today, by 2030 we plan to have approximately 95 schools,” said BPS Chief of Capital Planning Delavern Stanislaus. “That would mean, over the next five years, we would close or merge five to seven elementary schools and three to seven high schools. This would shift more schools towards ideal size range and will match our enrollment projections.”
The district, which currently includes 112 schools, would decrease the number of facilities by 17% over five years under the new plan. Stanislaus presented data to the school committee showing while BPS enrollment has declined over the last decade, it has stabilized in the last four year.
In the 2014-15 school year, BPS enrollment sat just under 57,000 students, and now is hovering around 48,500. In all their projection scenarios though, district officials said Wednesday, it is “clear” BPS will see a further decline over the “next few years.”
BPS officials announced plans to close of Excel High School in South Boston, Dever Elementary School in Dorchester, Community Academy in Jamaica Plain and the Mary Lyon Pilot High School in Allston/Brighton by end of the 2025-26 year in early January. A merger of Winthrop and Clap Elementary Schools was announced at the same time, bringing the district down to 104 schools by the 2026-27 school year.
The School Committee is expected to vote on the four closures and merger in March.
Parents, teachers and community members came to the public comment section with a number of concerns regarding the planned closures, including losing neighborhood staples and services, feeling left out of the changes and more.
“While there are, of course, areas where the Dever can and will improve, a structure is in place unlike any other school at BPS, and that is worth fighting for,” said Dever Elementary School teacher Madison Morley, saying she was “shocked” by the news. … “BPS now has an opportunity to do the right thing here, to do the hard thing, to keep the Dever community together.”
Among the metrics considered for school closures, Stanislaus outlined, the buildings rank for how well it can support a “high quality student experience,” how well it provides a “full continuum of services” and whether the school is over or under enrolled.
Also considered were factors like the weather the school was a high choice for students, specialized programs at the school, and proximity to student populations, according to the district’s presentation.
School Committee members questioned details of the plan including the robust engagement with school communities, methodology of the plan, enrollment projections. Member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez asked if the enrollment decline projections were “aggressive enough,” noting the effect of immigration on leveling enrollment trends in recent years.
“We’ve seen a small uptick, but it’s not rocket science to know that the situation with immigration in this country is drastically changing, unfortunately, and that will be the life cycle of this five-year plan in many ways,” said Cardet-Hernandez.
BPS is planning to look at the data “year over year” with consultation of the planning and analysis team as decisions are made, Stanislaus said.
District officials said they have planned to close schools over the course of 18-month cycles to provide time to support students and school communities through the transition.
Stanislaus added the district will providing a number of supports for students and staff transitioning schools, including priority application support and welcome service teams on-site for students and job application services for staff. Central office staff “welcome feedback directly from the BPS community on how they would like to see their community transition in this process,” she added.
“It’s about students,” said BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper. “It’s not about seats. Our goal is high-quality learning environments for every child and high-quality teaching environments for every educator to have the physical space to support those environments.”