$1B investment planned over decade in Build BPS

The city wants to invest $1 billion over the next 10 years to upgrade aging school buildings as part of its Build BPS plan that will look at both building capacity and educational programs, city officials announced.

They did not rule out school closures or consolidations in the future as they prepare to release the highly anticipated Build BPS plan, a 10-year facilities master plan.

“There are many schools, especially elementary schools, that don’t have the art and science spaces that they require,” Chief of Education Rahn Dorsey said. “We have bathroom problems across a number of schools. We have to modernize those systems. There will be a menu of early repair, early project recommendations ... Capacity is very unevenly distributed across BPS.”

Dorsey did not rule out the potential for school closings in the future, stating that the plan will include a set of options for the city to consider.

“We’re going to have to talk to stakeholders about what are the instances and conditions under which school closure or consolidation might be justified versus another less-disruptive strategy,” Dorsey said. “We’re going to have to have this conversation neighborhood by neighborhood.”

While city officials were mute on the specifics of the proposal, they indicated that the Build BPS plan, developed over the past 18 months with Symmes Maini & McKee Associates, would examine how to modernize buildings and assess school programs, capacity and demographics. They also said it did not look at school performance.

Chief Financial Officer David Sweeney said the city would rely on $700 million from the city’s existing capital plan and aim to receive at least $300 million from the Massachusetts School Building Authority to cover the costs.

The plan comes as BPS is facing declining K-12 enrollment, which has dropped by more than 1,000, from 54,678 in 2006 to 53,591 in 2015. A controversial review last year by McKinsey & Co. found that more than half of school buildings are under capacity.

The future of school buildings — with 60 percent of them built before World War II — has been a controversial issue among parents who have pushed back against any plans to shutter schools.