Dozens of families at Dorchester’s Dever Elementary School protested outside the school Wednesday afternoon, demanding the district reconsider its plans to close their campus at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
“Dever is my second community, my second home,” a student shouted from the crowd of about 50 parents and children calling for the school’s preservation.
The school, one of several slated for closure in 18 months, serves 445 students, per state data, after several years of rising enrollment. Mayor Michelle Wu and Superintendent Mary Skipper proposed the closures last week.
It was the first protest against the proposals, which would also shutter South Boston’s Excel High School and Allston/Brighton’s Mary Lyon Pilot High School, plus merge Dorchester’s Winthrop and Clap Elementary Schools, among other changes.
District leaders said the school closure proposals were based on a broad vision developed through public engagement, geared toward a district with fewer, larger schools with more complete offerings. The district has lost thousands of students since 2014-15, before leveling off recently and then slightly increasing enrollment for the first time in a decade this school year. But parents at the Dever said they only learned the school was at risk last week, when city leaders announced the proposal.
Jean Matthews, an alum of and parent at the school, said it was the only school she wanted for her third-grade son Ryan.
“He’s got the best principal, the best teacher, and the best school for him,” she said, in tears. “It’s been really hard.”
Matthews and her older son also attended the former South Boston High School, which is now Excel High School and is also slated for closure. And she attended McCormack Middle School, since merged with a high school and renamed the Ruth Batson Academy. She worried closing multiple schools in the area would be harmful to nearby students.
Boston Public Schools spokesperson Sujata Wycoff said in a statement the proposed closures were difficult decisions that have “caused a range of emotions in our school communities, including the Dever.”
“In the case of the Dever, alongside the rest of our impacted communities, we will be here to listen, support, and commit to a successful transition,” Wycoff said.
The district is holding community meetings this week and next to get feedback from families and staff, she added.
Per district data, the Dever remains only three-quarters full, despite the recent growth, and lacks the right spaces to offer all services needed for students with disabilities and English learners, among other things. It also has been under state receivership for academic underperformance for more than a decade.
But Dorchester resident Edzna Vazquez, a parent of two children at the school and member of the parents' council, said in an interview ahead of the rally the school is amazing and the families were not asked for their input.
“Nobody asked us what we think about it,” Vazquez said. “We think the district is not being transparent with us.”
Vazquez, who volunteers at the school, said the school’s state designation as underperforming is undeserved.
“The school has excelled in the past years,” she said. “I would bring my kids here even if I didn’t live around here.”
Parent Diana Moreta agreed, saying parents believed things were going well at the Dever and the closure proposal took everyone by surprise. The shock has made things harder for many families whose lives are already unstable, she said.
“Some of the kids are homeless and some of the parents are going through things in their own personal lives,” Moreta said. “So the fear we have as a community is now, ‘How safe do we feel here?’”
The Dever, like BPS as a whole, serves mostly Black and Latino students from low-income families. The school is unusual for an elementary school in that only about one-third of its students live nearby; part of the district vision is to offer more students good options in their neighborhoods.
The protesters said they already have a good option: the Dever. Anthuanet Bobato, a mother of a fifth-grade student at the Dever, said the school is particularly supportive for students who need extra help. As part of its state receivership, the school shifted to a full inclusion model, where students with disabilities learn alongside their general education peers — a broader goal of the district.
“They’re really good with special needs and Spanish-speaking kids that are new to the country as well,” she said. “We’re scared and worried since we don’t know what the process is going to be like.”
Vazquez said her own children, a daughter in Grade 5 and a son in Grade 3, learned English at the school.
“Nobody agrees with what’s happening — staff, parents, or kids,” she said. “We are upset about the way it’s being talked about, our school.”
Vazquez said the neighboring Ruth Batson Academy, a Grade 7-12 school, is already using some of the Dever’s classrooms. Ruth Batson is slated for redevelopment, and district leaders said the elementary school could serve as a swing space during construction or as part of the future campus.
It’s not unusual for a proposed closure or merger to trigger protests, which are sometimes successful in postponing or defeating the plans. The Boston School Committee, which must approve the closures, will hear the recommendations at its Jan. 22 meeting. Protesters at the rally Wednesday made clear they want the school board to hear them.
“We may be immigrants, but we are Americans too,” one parent said.
Christopher Huffaker can be reached at christopher.huffaker@globe.com. Follow him @huffakingit. Auzzy Byrdsell can be reached at austin.byrdsell@globe.com.