The Boston public school system is projecting that enrollment in preschool through the second grade will jump by nearly 1,000 students for the next school year, sending school officials on a massive hunt for 75 additional classrooms.
The projection — driven largely by an increase in disability diagnoses for toddlers, who by law must be given an education as soon as they turn 3 — follows a steady increase in enrollments in the lower grades over the last few years. At times, the surge caught school officials off guard and left a number of preschoolers at home waiting for seats as schools struggled to find space.
Comments
Putting "art on a cart" is just plain wrong. It's time for non profits, such as the Museum of Fine Arts and the Gardner Museum, to pay their fair share in municipal services. As a teacher I know how devastating this "space" issue can become. You never hear of these problems in Winchester and Newton. Public schools should be equitable, regardless of which zip code. Teachers are NOT contributing to inequity. It's time people start listening to US, and not take just the sound bytes of the business community via the like of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau and Boston Foundation. Our working conditions are students' learning conditions. We need space!
Who is doing the demographics at Court Street? Who told Dr. Johnson to close 12 schools 18 months ago? Was it the BPS Office of Strategic Planning? Are families caught in the wind tunnel, again, with the "team that couldn't shoot straight?" Or has this "crisis" been set-up intentionally by Director Ann Waterman Roy of the BPS Department of Strategic Planning? I find it interesting that this shortage of classrooms coincides with the $3.5M Gates Compact Grant which requires that the BPS lease or sell school building to charter school vendors! 12 PUBLIC schools were closed 18 months ago, time to open them up again as PUBLIC Schools! What is BPS going to do for classroom space when these K1 students move up to K2's! I couldn't agree more with ColumWhyte it's time for non profits, such as the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) to pay their fair share for municipal services. In 2011, the MFA only paid the City of Boston $66,220! The MFA is worth $282,450,999; if taxable they would pay $$8,767,279! In 2012, Mayor Menino only requested they pay $259,473! 1st Quarter they kicked in $129,737. and 2nd quarter they have only paid $28,055! Is the rest coming by wagon train? I still can’t understand why the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), that is worth $37,162,500, and if taxed would be paying $1,153,524., are only asked to contribute $17,198. a year; $ quarter they paid $8,599 and NOTHING for the 2nd quarter! Perhaps their contribution is on the same wagon train as the MFA! I pay more in taxes then the ICA! What really shocked me was the minuscule amounts Boston’s "Cultural Institutions" were requested to contribute by Mayor Menino. What was really disturbing was their obvious resistance to pay even that! See for yourself: http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/FY12%20First%20Half%20PILOT%20Status%20Report_tcm3-30229.pdf http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/news/mayor-menino-bps-and-charter-schools-present-boston%E2%80%99s-first-district-charter-compact
"But he said few closed schools remained mothballed. Many have already been reactivated, including two that specifically serve elementary-school-age students, he said."
Priceless comment. They were closed by BPS, but who is using them now? UP Academy, and the other private, "non-profit" charter schools that city officials turned they over to?
Let the charters pay for their own facilities. Don't make the citizens pay twice for the facilities by making them foot the bill for the replacements, too.
Many schools have already given up precious space for extra K1 and K2 classes! The Bates Elementary already has an art teacher (who is great) trying to do everything on a cart, as well as science on a cart! THERE IS NO MORE SPACE LEFT!!!!