Mattahunt may close, turn into early learning center

BPS Superintendent Tommy Chang spoke to a packed cafeteria. Beside him: Mattahunt Principal Walter Henderson

Efforts to turn around the Mattahunt Elementary School have fallen short. Now the school faces high risk of being taken over by the state. If that happens, the district will lose control of the facility and the state may elect options such as closing the facility, turning it into a charter school or handing control of operations to an outside provider, Boston Public School Superintendent Tommy Chang said at a meeting at the Mattahunt last night.

Boston Public School officials said last night that the only way to keep the facility within district control is to propose a radically different plan. Their idea: close the school at the end of this year, send children in grades 2 through 5 to different BPS schools and then reopen the facility as an early learning center serving children in preK through first grade. Mattahunt children in those grades would continue to be served at this facility.

Under the proposal, those older children displaced from the Mattahunt would have a greater shot of getting into the school they select off their list of options: Students with siblings at a school still would get the highest preference for empty seats there, and Mattahunt students would get the next-highest.

This plan is not final. It must be approved by the Boston Public School Committee, which will vote on the plan on November 16. BPS officials said they are required to present a plan to the state by November 18.

Several meetings open to the public are scheduled, with more to come:

Be there in person

• Proposed plan is presented to the school committee: Tonight, November 2, at 6 p.m. at the Bruce Bolling Building, Roxbury
• Public meeting on the plan: Saturday November 5, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Mattahunt
• Public meeting on the plan: Sunday November 6, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Mattahunt

Submit feedback and get more info

Email BPS office of Engagement: engagement@bostonpublicschools.org

Call BPS Office of Engagement: 617 635 9660