School Committee hears the closure plan as the council sends its Charlestown High hearing to committee

Superintendent Mary Skipper presented the district's plan to close three schools to the Boston School Committee on Wednesday night, Nov. 4, while students, teachers and parents packed the meeting to ask the committee to reject it, Boston 25 News reported. Nearly 100 people signed up to speak against the proposal, the station reported. Earlier that day, the City Council sent its own request for a hearing on Charlestown High School to the Education Committee.

The plan would close Charlestown High School, Greater Egleston High School in Roxbury and the East Boston Early Education Center in June 2028. The School Committee is scheduled to vote Dec. 2. For families, that leaves four weeks of public comment before a vote that would shape where hundreds of students go to school.

What was said Wednesday night

According to Boston 25:

• Skipper said long-term enrollment projections mean the district must "reduce the number of schools we operate." She said this year's incoming K-2 class is about 3,000 students, more than 1,000 fewer than a decade ago.
• Mayor Michelle Wu said the city has been "kicking the can down the road" while paying to keep underused buildings open.
• Boston Teachers Union President Erik Berg said four weeks is "far too little time" to review a decision this large.

WBUR reported that Charlestown High lost nearly a third of its students in three years. About 650 attended last year in a building that holds more than 1,000. Greater Egleston has 76 students. Another school could move into the Charlestown building as early as 2028-29, and Wu told WBUR, "There would be no empty school year in that building." With these closures, BPS would go from 119 schools in 2023 to 97 by 2028, WBUR reported.

What happened at the council

A hearing order with 12 sponsors. City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, whose district includes Charlestown, filed for a hearing on the proposed closure and the future of secondary education in Charlestown (docket 2097). It was referred to the Education Committee, chaired by City Councilor Julia Mejia. Our records list every councilor but City Councilor Sharon Durkan as a sponsor. Coletta Zapata told Boston 25 she is "particularly concerned about the life skills program" at the school.

A resolution to delay the vote. Mejia's resolution asks the School Committee to postpone its Dec. 2 vote on Charlestown High, and any vote on other closures the public has not been told about (docket 2106). The Boston 25 report quoted her at the meeting saying councilors want the administration and the School Committee "to start respecting Boston City Councilors." As of Thursday morning, the city's record did not show whether the resolution was adopted. A resolution is non-binding: the School Committee, appointed by the mayor, decides closures.

The mayor's answer on timing. Wu told Boston 25 the December vote is "quite precise," because student registration starts in January.

What our records add

• Hearings that would come first. The Education Committee has several school-building items pending. Our Nov. 1 story lists them. The committee had already scheduled a Nov. 9 hearing on special education, which our schedule story covers. No date has been posted for the Charlestown hearing.
• The council doesn't vote on closures, but it votes on the school budget each spring and on money for school buildings. On Wednesday it sent a $787,501 appropriation for the BPS custodians' contract to the Ways and Means Committee (docket 2081).
• Our Nov. 3 story covers the full list of 10 schools the plan would change.

What's next

• The coming weeks: BPS says it will gather community input. Meeting dates will be posted on the School Committee's page.
• Nov. 18: The School Committee's next regular meeting, at 5:30 p.m. at the Bolling Building, according to the city's Legistar calendar.
• Dec. 2: The School Committee's scheduled vote on the three closures.