Monday, June 10, 2013
Boston mayoral candidate John Connolly continues to offer ideas to have a long-term facilities plan for Boston Public Schools.
Boston At-Large City Councilor and mayoral John Connolly proposed allowing a fast track permitting process for large developers, if they agree to build a school or fund any of the $1.8 billion in construction projects identified as needed for Boston Public Schools. "We look at large school development projects and offer an option to developers to give them a fast-track permitting process. Keep it to six months, and still do the full-robust process, but get it done in six months - in exchange for building a new school or the adoption of a major school project," said Connolly during the Boston City Council's Wednesday meeting. He added that projects would still get rejected, and those developers would not have to build a school or adopt a …
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Police said the letters contained "threatening and disturbing content," but contained no dangerous substances.
Boston Police are investigating several suspicious letters sent to different Boston Public Schools today, according to a statement from police. The letters contained "threatening and disturbing" content, said police, but contained no dangerous subtances. Police said the letters were addressed to public schools in different areas of the city and were all postmarked from Texas. Police did not specify which schools received the letters. "Boston Police are collecting the letters and will investigate the source," police said. "We do not know of any credible threat to our schools." Police said that school officials will continue to isolate any letters with a Texas address, and that police will increase their presence at schools in the …
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The outgoing Boston leader cautioned residents not to focus too much on the negative as the mayoral race heats up.
Mayor Tom Menino cautioned Boston residents not to focus on negative portrayals of the Boston Public School system as the city’s mayoral race heats up. Speaking at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new playground at Harvard-Kent Elementary School in Charlestown on May 10, Menino touted the progress public schools have made in recent years and asked residents not to allow anyone to “tear this school system down” in the coming months. “We’ve made a lot of progress in the Boston Public Schools in the last several years. It’s because of a lot of reasons—teachers, principals, the superintendent, the community—and I tell you, the graduation rate is up, dropout rates are down, more kids are going on to college,” Menino said. He spoke of how the …
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Superintendent Carol R. Johnson sent out a letter to staff and student families on Tuesday.
In the aftermath of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing, Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol R. Johnson sent a letter to staff and families of students titled, “Talking with Children about Tragedies,” that was shared via the Warren-Prescott School newsletter on Tuesday morning. In the newsletter, Warren-Prescott Principal Michele Davis wrote: “Our sincere thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by yesterday’s events. Our own Melissa Shea ran the Boston Marathon yesterday and her family was among the spectators. I am relieved to report that Melissa and her family are safe.” Davis asked that anyone with information about other Warren-Prescott families that may have been affected by the bombing to contact her at mdavis@boston…
Monday, March 25, 2013
Even with the North End's promised new school, some Boston neighborhoods still won't have good access to Boston Public Schools: There's more work to be done.
Students from the Eliot K-8 Innovation School sat in an empty office building on March 14, waiting for the arrival of Mayor Thomas Menino and for the cameras to roll. Bouquets of colorful helium balloons livened up the space, which was also filling with expectant adults and news media assembling for an announcement: This North End waterfront building will become the city’s newest Boston Public School. The happy atmosphere was appropriate to an undeniably positive development for families in the northern reaches of Boston. While the city says the new school should open in 2016 to serve about 500 children, Eliot students will be its first beneficiaries, with 585 Commercial Street serving as temporary classrooms during the Eliot’s expansion …
Friday, March 15, 2013
The city will buy a building at 585 Commercial St. The building will become the fifth school in an area that encompasses the North End, the South End and Chinatown.
The North End will be home to another public school after a city purchase of a site formerly used by the Mitt Romney presidential campaign. The city of Boston will purchase the property at 585 Commercial St. and convert it to a K-8 school which will take students from the North End’s Eliot School, according to Boston.com Thursday. The building, which is subject to inspection by the Boston School Committee, will be used as a temporary school until Eliot is renovated. Once that project is completed, the 585 Commercial St. location, after renovation will be used for about 500 students in September 2016, according to Boston.com.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
The new program will use a computer-generated list of six schools for parents to choose from based on a variety of factors.
The Boston School Committee adopted a new assignment policy that does away with a decades-old system at a landmark Wednesday night vote. The new policy will use a computer-generated algorithm to produce a list of six schools for parents to choose from based on distance to school, capacity and MCAS test scores, according to Boston.com. Four of the six schools listed will be of “medium to high quality,” Boston.com reports. The system will be implemented starting in September 2014. “Tonight’s historic vote marks a new day for every child in the City of Boston,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “A more predictable and equitable student assignment system that emphasizes quality and keeps our children close to home has been a long time coming for …
Friday, March 8, 2013
It snowed throughout the night making roads slick and dangerous, and many bus stops and sidewalks are still covered.
Boston Public Schools did not close school today despite the continued snowfall throughout the night and into this afternoon. With sidewalks, streets, bus stops all being needing to be plowed, and with some not being plowed once - should Boston schools have been cancelled today? Boston Public Schools have already said they will forgive all absences today, according to WBZ's Beth Germano. Boston Public Schools posted that school was open today, and a message about buses, "Some school buses are delayed due to heavy traffic in the city. All of our school buses are on the road and will complete their scheduled routes this morning and afternoon. If you have school bus transportation questions, please call our Transportation Hotline at (617) …
Monday, February 25, 2013
In a tribute to everyday kids and teachers, Amika Kemmler-Ernst takes her camera into Boston's classrooms to make images of kids hard at work.
“A student has to be a valedictorian – or bring a gun to school – in order to be considered newsworthy,” says Amika Kemmler-Ernst. An educator for more than 40 years, she’s talking about our tendency to focus on either the great or the horrible, while paying less attention to everything in between. A teacher of children and a mentor to teachers, Dr. Kemmler-Ernst is now officially retired. But in an ongoing visual ethnography project, she’s been visiting Boston Public Schools (BPS) and taking pictures of normal kids in action, learning at school. It’s a passion she’s indulged in throughout a career teaching in Brookline, Boston, around Africa, and in Italy. Shelved at her Jamaica Plain home, bulging albums hold photos of kids at work, in…
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Unfortunately, equity access to seats in quality schools will not fix the underlying issue which is that there are few quality schools overall.
