New schools for Mattahunt kids

With Mattahunt Elementary School teetering on the brink of entering state receivership, school officials moved to shutter the facility at the end of this academic year. That decision, approved by the Boston School Committee last fall, came over the protest of many parents and community members, but Boston Public Schools officials promised that displaced Mattahunt children would receive a better education.

During a November 2016 meeting at the Mattahunt in which he made public plans to close the school and convert the facility into an early education center, BPS Superintendent Tommy Chang told parents that their children were guaranteed better educational options next year, with every other school in the district regarded as higher performing under the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s ranking system. One parent said at the November meeting her child had been sent to the Mattahunt to escape a failing school and sought assurance that the next assignment genuinely would be an improvement.

Now many parents have next year’s school assignments in hand and start to assess how relocating is playing out.

New schools, new DESE levels

Elica Hector-Varrs is the co-chair of Mattahunt’s school site council. Her son attends second grade at the Mattahunt and is among the 18 percent of departing students who was administratively assigned after not receiving a seat at any of the family’s school choices.

For Hector-Varrs, her son’s assignment to the P.A. Shaw Elementary School plunges him into an unknown.

The now-closing Mattahunt was ranked by DESE as “Level 4 -under review,” after a turnaround plan failed to achieve sufficient change. Schools rated Level 3, 4, or 5 performed among the bottom 20 percent statewide.

While BPS official say no Mattahunt child is sent to a Level 4 school, some students, like Hector-Varrs’ son, are sent to schools without any DESE ranking. She says this unclear status leaves her with scant information on the quality of her son’s new placement.

“I’m not happy about it. The P.A. Shaw was closed and reopened. Nobody determined why it was closed,” Hector-Varrs told the Banner. “If the school hasn’t been ranked yet, how do I know my child will go to a better school?”

Information also is lacking about her son’s year: he will be in the first third grade class offered at the Shaw since the school’s reopening.

Of the 595 children leaving the Mattahunt who received their school placement by March 22 this year, 23 percent, or 134 children, are to attend Level 1 schools, according to BPS data. Another 40 percent of these students (239 children) will attend Level 2 schools, 23 percent (138) will attend Level 3 schools, and 13 percent (75 children) will attend schools with no DESE levels.

Hector-Varrs said that while she is concerned about the Shaw, she fears it will be too disruptive for her son to move him yet again, should the new school not prove a good fit.

“What, I send my kids in there just to pull them out again because the school is underprepared?” She asked. “What does that do to my child?”

School choice

BPS officials gave priority in school selection to Mattahunt children, above even sibling preference — something that several Mattahunt parents had requested during the November meeting. Most, but not all, Mattahunt students received one of their choices.

Of the 595 re-assigned Mattahunt children, 48 percent received their top choice. Twenty percent received their second choice, 9 percent their third, 3 percent their fourth and 1 percent their fifth choice.

In some cases, children already had spots secured for them, regardless of preference. Fifty-five children will remain at the Mattahunt in its new form as an early education center, and 32 children who will attend grade 5 at the Mildred Avenue K-8 School already were guaranteed a seat there under normal feeder patterns.

Meanwhile, 18 percent of displaced Mattahunt children received none of their choices and were assigned. This could be on par for BPS averages: of the 3,593 new students enrolling between January and September 2016, about 17.5 percent (631 children) were administratively re-assigned, according to BPS data. In contrast, of the 7,883 new students participating in the first enrollment round for school year 2010-2011, 5 percent (407 children) were administratively assigned.

“This [administrative assignment] occurred for one of two reasons: The families of these students did not make a school choice, or the family made choices for schools in which seats were not available,” BPS officials said in a statement to the Banner.

Peggy Weisenberg, member of Quality Education for Every Student, told the Banner that, given some parents’ lack of access to computers and the high number of homeless students at the school, she was concerned that in some cases, families or students had not completed their school selections because they had not received information that the school was closing.