BPS to boost middle schools
Proposal would add sixth-graders to 17 district elementary schools
Boston Public Schools is doubling down on its efforts to revamp the school district with a series of proposed changes.
The district faces persistent declining enrollment at stand-alone middle schools that serve grades six to eight. Laura Perille, interim superintendent of BPS, said the district will add sixth-graders to 17 elementary schools, which includes five schools in South Boston and Dorchester.
BPS middle school enrollment “has declined by about 1,800 students over the past six years, and that’s after the number of middle schools dropped from 18 to six in about a 10year period,” Perille said.
“The way middle schools collapsed in Boston is that Boston dramatically expanded its K-8 over the past 10 to 15 years, without paying attention to the enrollment impact on middle schools,” Perille continued. “At the same time … outside the district’s control, that same period saw the rapid growth of the charter sector — those schools generally open in fourth, fifth and sixth. So basically, families could go in two different directions around our middle schools, and they have consistently chosen that, which is why you’ve seen the dramatic decline in enrollment across middle schools. So BuildBPS is essentially recognizing the pattern that has already occurred.”
Among the other changes: The current McCormack Middle School in Dorchester will combine with Boston Community Leadership Academy, a high school in Hyde Park. The newly renovated school will open in fall 2022 and will serve BPS students in grades 7 to 12.
“Historically, concerns have been that if you take two low-performing schools and put them together, why would you expect different results,” Perille said during a press roundtable Tuesday. “What we’re doing is putting, yes, a struggling school, but with a really strong team of educators together with a higher-performing high school with that track record.”
Perille said the changes will meet key goals of Mayor Martin Walsh’s BuildBPS program — a 10-year, $1 billion educational and facilities plan to modernize BPS schools — by reducing the number of times students transition between schools.
The city of Boston last week purchased property in East Boston for a new $3.8 million elementary school, BPS said. Perille said the district is also moving forward on the planned construction of a new Josiah Quincy Upper School in Chinatown.