Wednesday, January 23, 2013
After months of wrangling, there are three proposals left on the table. Which do you think is best for Boston's families?
After months of deliberations, trial balloons and many neighborhood meetings, Boston school officials on Tuesday released three alternatives to the current school selection process. The three plans are designed to provide families with flexibility to select quality schools close to home, according to the Boston School Choice website. The three plans are as follows: 10-zone plan: In this plan, parents would rank the schools in their zone. The child would then be placed based on availability in each school. This plan is structurally similar to the current zone-based system for placing students in schools. Home-based proposal A: This plan would give parents the choice of at least six schools of different quality near their home address. "…
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Mayor Menino: "...your child will not be forced to change schools, but if a younger sibling is attending another school, closer to home, we will prioritize sibling access to that school if your older child wants to join his or her younger brother or siste
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Wednesday, October 17, 2012
The following column was submitted by the City of Boston on behalf of Mayor Thomas Menino. Our city is deep in conversation on efforts to create a new school assignment system. As many parents know and as we have heard loud and clear today’s system is too complicated, frustrating, and unpredictable for too many of our families. My goal is to create a new student assignment system that is fair, follows the laws of common sense, and prioritizes placing students in quality schools that are closer to their homes. Much hard work remains, but today I am proud to tell you that we have made significant progress toward achieving that goal. That progress is a credit to the External Advisory Committee on School Choice (EAC) which I created …
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
A parent of an Ohrenberger School student feels there are too many questions out there and not enough answers.
Editor's note: John Radosta is a parent of an Ohrenberger School student, and he lives in Jamaica Plain. Last Thursday, I was one of over 200 people who came to the Ohrenberger School for a presentation by the Boston Public Schools on the School Assignment proposals. The crowd was the largest of the BPS meetings that are being held over the course of two weeks, perhaps because it is the only meeting near to Roslindale and Jamaica Plain as well. In addition to a number of School Committee, External Advisory Committee members, and about half a dozon BPS principals, state Rep. Ed Coppinger attended, as well as City Councilors John Connolly and Matt O’Malley who distributed information on their own plan for BPS, billed the “Quality Choice Plan…
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William Ohrenberger Elementary School
175 W Boundary Rd, West Roxbury, MA
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Friday, October 5, 2012
The Boston Public Schools said that a "grandfathering" claus is included in all school choice plans, so students will be able to remain in their current schools once a new system begins.
Boston Public School officials said that students will be able to remain in their present school even after a new student assignment plan begins. School officials sent out a press release specifically about the issue. 'Can my child stay in his or her school if we adopt a new assignment plan?' We are doing our best to answer your great questions about our Improving School Choice proposals. One of the most common questions we have received so far comes from parents of current students, who are asking whether their child can stay in his or her current school under whatever plan we create.
The answer is yes. At Wednesday's Boston School Committee meeting, Superintendent Carol Johnson recommended to the Boston School Committee to create a '…
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
City Councilors John Connolly and Matt O'Malley joined with Reps. Linda Dorcena Forry, Nick Collins, Ed Coppinger and Russell Holmes to present their alternative to the Boston Public Schools' five options.
City councilors and state representatives who Wednesday unveiled a school choice plan they say builds upon the best aspects of the five options the city's school department presented last week but doesn't force families to choose between school access and educational quality. “This is a step we felt compelled to take after reviewing the options that BPS put on the table,” said Connolly, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Education. While acknowledging the hard work the school department and the External Advisory Committee did to create the five options, Connolly and others said that they can be improved upon. In that effort, Connolly joined with fellow City Councilor Matt O'Malley and Reps. Linda Dorcena Forry, Nick Collins, Ed …
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Boston City Council's Education Committee Chairman John Connolly attended BPS' meeting, and had some major concerns about the five plans.
Boston City Councilor At-Large John Connolly credits the School Department with doing a lot of work on their proposed five plans for changing school choice - but the Council's Education chairman also has major concerns with the proposals. "First it was clear from the presentation that the 'no zone' plan and the '23-zone plan' are not under real consideration. And it seems as BPS wants to drive the process towards a compromise on the '6' or '9' zone plans," said Connolly, in an interview with Patch. "My second concern is that there were not a lot of specifics on upgrading quality across all schools. And so I think those are the big factors going forward. The citizen advisory committee needs to push for some different options," said …
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
"BPS has just offered its best thinking on how a new system might look in the future and is asking for your feedback." - Boston Mayor Thomas Menino
- OPINION
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Editor's note: The following column was submitted by the City of Boston by Mayor Thomas Menino. Read about the five plans proposed by the Boston School Department here. In January I made a promise to our city’s parents and children. Our families would like a school choice system that passes the common-sense test. Today’s system does not. In the Bowdoin/Geneva area of Dorchester, where families speak 15 different languages and one in four falls below the poverty line, 2,000 students attend 100 different schools. Something similar could be said in East Boston, in Jamaica Plain, in Allston and in Dorchester. We cannot build a stronger community when we split ourselves apart every morning. This spring we asked you to tell us how we can …
Monday, September 24, 2012
Boston Public Schools will release five alternative plans for school choice. What would you like to see the school system do to improve school assignments for kids?
Boston Public Schools will host a meeting 6 p.m. Monday night to announce five alternative school choice plans. The five alternatives were designed to improve local school access while preserving a parent's ability to choose the best school for their child, according to Superintendent Carol Johnson. Johnson made her remarks to WBUR. The schools have been mum on the details of the plan, preferring to present them Monday night at the Lilla Frederick Pilot Middle School in Dorchester. From there, the department plans more public meetings to present and vet the alternatives, which will also be examined by an advisory committee appointed by Mayor Thomas Menino, according to boston.com. What do you think? What kind of changes should the school …
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270 Columbia Rd, Boston, MA
Lilla Frederick Pilot Middle School
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012
On Oct. 4 there will be an Improving School Choice meeting at the Ohrenberger School - there is no Roslindale meeting. There will be 11 neighborhood meetings starting Sept. 27 through Oct. 12.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012
(Editor's note: The following is an email sent out by Boston Public Schools from Superintendent Carol Johnson.) Dear BPS family, Welcome back to school! We hope you had a wonderful summer - especially the 11,000 students who participated in our expanded summer academic programs. As we welcome you back to the classroom we are pleased to let you know that for the first time, BPS is offering free breakfast for all students in every school. Last spring and summer we asked how we can improve school choice and student assignment. More than 2,300 people from every corner of Boston offered great suggestions. Now, our team is using these ideas to develop several new school assignment possibilities, which we expect to share at a meeting of the …
frankly mr.shankly
4:31 pm on Monday, January 28, 2013
right now I prefer the home-based plan. All of the zone plans essentially red-lines certain neighborhoods - even this current incarnation. What bugged me about the last round of zone plans was that on all but one or two, the line cut roslindale right in half - essentially lumping the more affluent section with west roxbury and JP, and the up-and-coming section with mattapan. This zone plan seems … more ›