“Every student in Boston deserves to learn in a space that is safe, healthy, energy-efficient, and inspiring,” the spokesperson said in an e-mail. “Mayor Wu has made it a top priority to invest in our school facilities, and we will have more details to share about the Mayor’s vision for district-wide facilities planning in the coming weeks.”
In total, the plan features $788 million in school spending, including funds from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. It would put the district on pace to hit the $1 billion over 10 years target envisioned in its BuildBPS planning process. It also represents a $47 million increase over district capital spending in the prior five-year plan.
The proposed studies represent yet another effort by BPS to bring its more than 100 schools into the 21st century, a daunting task after the district went decades without building more than a handful of new schools. The original BuildBPS report, released in 2017, found that the vast majority of the district’s schools were in poor or fair condition, keeping the city and district “in a constant cycle of upkeep to maintain these old buildings.” BPS completed its first new school in over a decade in 2018 and now has multiple under construction simultaneously.
The budget proposal touts the major projects already underway, including the $137 million Boston Arts Academy, which should be completed next budget year; the $193 million Josiah Quincy Upper School under construction; and the $92 million Carter School that will break ground this summer.
The city’s vision includes a $3 million investment in a citywide “Elementary School and Grades 7-12 Programming and Siting Study,” as well as initial investments in the six potentially major projects:
- West Roxbury Education Complex Study: “Study to rebuild the WR Education Complex as a comprehensive 7-12 school.”
- McKinley School Study: “Space programming study to determine requirements for all three McKinley School sites.”
- Allston Elementary School Study: “Develop a building program for the design and construction of a new K-6 school to be located on the site of the Jackson Mann School.”
- Horace Mann School Siting Study: “Study that will evaluate locations for the permanent siting of the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.”
- Dorchester Elementary School Study: “Develop a building program for the design and construction of a new K-6 school.”
- Roxbury Elementary School Study: “Develop a building program for the design and construction of a new K-6 school.”
Most of the projects have been referenced in prior district planning, while the need for a new permanent Horace Mann site has been pressing since the Jackson Mann school building’s closure was announced last spring. The Horace Mann siting study comes alongside a $31 million project to move the school to Charlestown in the meantime.
All three elementary school studies are for K-6 schools, while the West Roxbury campus would be a 7-12 school — part of the district’s efforts to phase out middle schools entirely.
Otherwise, no information is available on why these particular projects are advancing — a notable question for the Allston elementary project, as the neighborhood has more elementary seats than students.
The studies are significant; at its current pace, the district is nowhere near spending the $3.2 billion it says it needs to devote to repair and renovations, as noted by the Boston Schools Fund, an organization that helps fund public, charter, and parochial schools.
“The $47 million increase is a solid start to addressing Boston’s school facilities needs,” said Kerry Donahue, the group’s chief strategy officer. “Longer term the city will need to ramp up its own capital investment, as well as partnering with the MSBA. The six new facilities studies are a start toward getting more projects shovel-ready, but until we have a master facilities plan, we won’t know the full cost of…
Read More: The new Boston city budget includes $780m for school capital projects over five