Boston Public Schools officials are proposing closing four schools and merging others as part of a larger plan for the future of the district.
Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper and Mayor Michelle Wu presented the plan to the media on Tuesday. They will be formally recommended to the school committee on Jan. 22.
The proposal is part of their long-term facilities plan that they first introduced in 2023, which aims to ensure BPS students and staff have high-quality, modern and sustainable buildings to work in.
Four schools would be closed based on the plan, Skipper said. They include Excel High School in South Boston, the Dever Elementary School in Dorchester, the 9-12 portion of the Mary Lyon Pilot in Brighton, and Community Academy.
Excel and Dever will be straight closures, Skipper said, while the other two school buildings will be reconfigured. Mary Lyon would become a pre-K through sixth grade facility, while Community Academy will close its degree-baring portion of the school to focus on creating a clinical support and transition program for students who need those services.
The plan also includes mergers, including combining Winthrop Elementary and Clap Elementary and bringing them into the Grove Hall facility. Some schools would also see a grade reconfiguration; Young Achievers Pilot and Boston Teachers Union Pilot School would change from serving pre-K through eighth grade students to pre-K through sixth grade, while the Dearborn Academy would change from sixth grade through 12 to seventh through 12.
These changes are targeted for the end of the 2025-2026 school year, if the plan moves forward.
Skipper and Wu said the plans came together with community input and based on real-time, publicly available data on the current state of the existing facilities.
“I know as a BPS mom and mayor the magic that is happening in every single one of our classrooms across the system every single day, but I also have seen far too often that is happening….despite the condition of the buildings they are in, not being empowered by the facilities," Wu said.
Skipper said they were committed to working closely with students, families and staff through the proposed transitions.
The Boston Teachers Union, though, is critical of the plan, calling the closures disruptive. In a letter, the union wrote that since 2000, only seven new school buildings have been constructed. In that same time, they said that Boston has closed at least 35 schools.
The union did, however, highlight the need for more updated buildings.
