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School department to keep schools open, cut busing, staff

Yawu Miller
Yawu Miller is the former senior editor of the Bay State Banner. He has written for the Banner since 1988.... VIEW BIO
School department to keep schools open, cut busing, staff
City councilors Tito Jackson and Timothy McCarthy spoke during a School Committee meeting at English High School.

Students and parents who packed the auditorium at English High School last week wearing “Save Our Schools” stickers scored a partial victory: three of the five schools the school department proposed closing will remain open next year.

West Roxbury Academy, Community Academy in Jamaica Plain, and Middle School Academy in South Boston will remain open. The Elihu Greenwood School and the William B. Rogers Middle School, both in Hyde Park, will close.

Students from West Roxbury, Community Academy and Middle School Academy erupted in applause when Interim School Superintendent John McDonough announced their schools would remain open. But McDonough said more school closings could be likely in coming years, given what he characterized as an ongoing problem of revenues that are not keeping pace with the department’s rising costs.

In addition to the school closures, the BPS will move forward with plans to end yellow bus service for 7th graders and will reduce central staff by 20 percent, cutting 134 of the 671 positions at the department’s headquarters in the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building.

These staffing reductions will generate $13 million in savings, according to a BPS presentation, which will go toward closing a projected $42 million gap in this year’s overall budget of more than $1 billion. Speaking to several hundred students, parents and education activists, McDonough, who will be replaced by incoming Superintendent Tommy Chang July 1, said the city needs to develop a long-term strategy to stay ahead of what he termed a structural deficit fueled by personnel costs, along with costs associated with maintaining undersubscribed school buildings, transportation and food.

“The intent behind these proposals has been to take a first step toward fixing these structural imbalances,” he said. “So long as we spread our resources so thin, we as a district will not be in a position to strengthen our schools and support our students.”

McDonough said the department’s stated goals of closing the achievement gap between white students and student of color and providing a quality education for all students will remain unmet as long as the system is financially over-extended.

McDonough said ending 7th grader bus service will result in 80 fewer buses. He added that bus stop consolidation could lead to further savings in the department’s transportation budget, which accounts for 10 percent of the BPS budget.

The department ended busing for 8th graders last year, instead providing them with MBTA student passes.

Parent Monica Cannon, who has a daughter entering the 7th grade next year, said she opposes putting 7th graders on the MBTA.

“It’s unsafe because walking through our community is not safe,” said Cannon, whose daughter attends the Frederick Pilot School on Columbia Road.

Cannon noted that groping and cell phone theft are among the top crimes on the MBTA.

“There’s no safety and there aren’t enough Transit Police,” she said before the meeting.

City councilors Tito Jackson and Tim McCarthy spoke out against the cuts. McCarthy, who lives in Hyde Park, said his father and wife both attended the Rogers school. Jackson objected to proposed cuts of $1.5 million to the Madison Park Vocational Technical High School.

While many protested cuts, others in attendance at the meeting acknowledged the fiscal challenges facing the Boston schools.

“They have to basically right-size the school system,” said Ayele Shakur, a co-chair of the NAACP Boston Branch’s Education Committee, speaking after the meeting.

Shakur noted that the schools are facing rising health care costs for its workforce at the same time that state aid is declining and the system is losing funding to charter schools.

“If five students leave a classroom for a charter school, the costs of running that classroom don’t go down just because $50,000 just left the classroom,” she said. “You still have to pay the teacher. The district has a lot of empty seats.”

Shakur echoed McDonough’s call for a wider conversation about school funding.

“You have to start the conversation in November,” she said “Not in March when you have three weeks to make the decisions.”

The School Committee was expected to vote on the budget at this week’s Wednesday meeting.