A drastic new plan for Boston Public Schools is raising some concerns. With fewer students enrolling in the city’s schools, the district is now planning to close more buildings — potentially dozens of them.
A new vision for Boston Public Schools could mean cutting the number of schools in the district in half.
Currently, the district has nearly 120 schools. But a report released Wednesday includes a proposal to reduce that number to as a few as 59.
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"I don't think we need that many schools. But as long as they're making improvements to the older ones, I don’' think it really matters," said Boston English senior Arianna Johnson, ":If they don't make improvements, then it's like what was the point of closing them down."
The state's largest district has seen enrollment drop more than 13% since 2006, and has been plagued with infrastructure issues at many school buildings.
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"It's like very old in there, like you can tell there's no renovation or anything in there, like, something needs to be done," said Boston English senior Dakayla Miles-Cooper.
As CEO of the independent organization the Boston Schools Fund, Will Austin said this plan acknowledges what students, parents and school staff have known for a long time.
"Most of our buildings in the city are old and built before World War II," Austin said. "But we also have too many and in some places not the right places where kids are."
The report does not detail which schools could be shuttered and when, leaving parents and teachers with a lot of concerns.
"When you have big buildings with a lot of people, it — number one, is a safety issue because sometimes adults don't know the kids, so it's hard to redirect or there's power and control issues that break out," said BPS teacher and parent Jennifer Dines.
"I'd say it's disappointing that they spent a considerable amount of time gathering information, saying they were going to come up with a plan and the plan's not, unfortunately, including very much detail," said BPS parent Jess Hamilton.
The only timeline given is that over the next 18 months, new proposals will be submitted to the school committee each spring.
