Boston to close Jackson Mann K-8 School in Allston
Anthony D'Isidoro
Hello everyone,
What the article fails to tell you is that unless we hear something to the contrary, the BCYF Community Center is closing as well.
Advanced planning and cost management are concepts foreign to the Boston Public Schools.
School closings send the wrong message, if you are hoping to attract and retain students, top teachers, school leaders and staff.
Closing severely underutilized schools, I get.
Creating a severely underutilized school by shear incompetence and lack of leadership, by allowing a school building built in 1975 to deteriorate to the point where public health and safety are compromised, I get as well.
Tony
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Boston to close Jackson Mann K-8 School in Allston (James Vaznis, Boston Globe: May 6, 2021)
Boston to close Jackson Mann K-8 School in Allston - The Boston Globe
School officials had initially planned to overhaul Jackson Mann K-8 School's deteriorating building
on Armington Street and had been seeking an alternative location for the school during
construction.BARRY
CHIN/GLOBE STAFF
Boston school officials are planning to close the Jackson Mann K-8 School in Allston as they push forward with a school construction program and facing a dramatic decline in enrollment.
Officials notified staff and families about closing the school at the end of the next school year during a meeting on Wednesday, ending nearly two years of consternation over the school’s future. School officials had initially planned to replace the Jackson Mann’s deteriorating building on Armington Street and had been seeking an alternative location for the school during construction.
But with student enrollment dropping across the city, some families were skeptical that Jackson Mann would remain open and transferred their children to other schools, causing enrollment to drop from 610 in fall 2018 to 429 last fall.
“It really has been an aggravating process,” said Jean Powers, whose daughter is a sixth-grader at Jackson Mann. “They told us over and over they had no plans to close our school.”
Over the past five years, the school system has lost more than 5,000 students, dropping total enrollment to about 50,000 students in 125 schools. In a controversial move two years ago, the School Committee voted to close two high schools that were sharing a crumbling facility in West Roxbury, and is now carrying out a long-term plan to phase out the middle schools.
School officials are also embarking on a campaign to renovate or replace aging school buildings. The city has built very few new schools since its last major construction boom in the 1970s. Jackson Mann opened in 1975 and an engineering review two years ago uncovered significant issues with several building operation systems, including the roof and air handler units, and recommended it be closed in the near future.
Boston Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said Thursday that the district intends to demolish and replace the Jackson Mann building, which is also home to the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The district will temporarily move that program, which serves about 70 students, during construction, she said. The completed building will also house a new school.
Cassellius said closing Jackson Mann was a difficult decision that reflected a number of factors, such as the building’s poor condition, a lack of temporary space to accommodate a school that size, and the likelihood that very few current students would still be at the school by the time the new building was finished. Declining enrollment was not a driving force behind the decision, she said.
School officials decided to notify families and staff a year before the closure so they would have ample time to find a new school. Jackson Mann students will be given priority in the school assignment process for the 2022-23 school year.
“We decided to go ahead and let the community know and have a real respectful and effective process to ... help them find their next best fit,” Cassellius said.
The closing is part of a broader facilities plan that will be presented to the School Committee next week. Chair Alexandra Oliver-Dávila said a vote will likely come in October, and that she shares the superintendent’s “commitment to ensuring that all students are learning in spaces that are reflective of the excellence we know students can achieve.”
Acting Mayor Kim Janey supports closing the Jackson Mann, a spokesman said.
“We understand that closing a school building is disruptive to families, and BPS is doing everything possible to support the Jackson Mann School community through this transition,” Nicholas Martin, the spokesman, said in a statement. “The decision to close the Jackson Mann was thoughtful and informed by a variety of factors, and the transition process will be equally thoughtful and collaborative.”
The district’s master plan, called BuildBPS, seeks to modernize schools across the city, he said. “This is key to ensuring greater equity of program placement to meet the needs of English learners, students with disabilities, and other populations,” he said.
Eva Webster
Tony et al –
I wonder if you and other folks know that the BPS system has “lost one twelfth of its total enrollment since 2017”? (this statistic is from the link directly below)
Boston Public Schools sees enrollment drop heavily, mostly among younger, minority students
And here is a more comprehensive study of the issue (but the accompanying photo of an upper-class black kid is poorly chosen – kids in BPS schools are never dressed like that):
Kids Today | Boston Indicators
https://www.bostonindicators.org/reports/report-website-pages/kids-today
I came across this sentence in that report:
“Allston—a much smaller neighborhood with fewer than 1,000 school-aged kids in 2000—experienced the largest percentage decline [in school-age population] (40 percent).”
So it seems like they are just 600 school-age kids in all of Allston.
Also, “West Roxbury is the one residential neighborhood with a notable increase in school-aged kids—up 16 percent since 2000.”
We all know how West Roxbury differs from Allston – in owner-occupancy rates, in BPDA-supported development pressures, and availability of family-friendly housing. (Note to our elected representatives: families don’t want to live in huge “revolving door” rental buildings, with no access to yards and playgrounds, and lack of parking -- so getting some additional 3-bedroom IDP units is not going to make us into a more stable family-friendly neighborhood. You have to choose – are you for families and preserving family-friendly housing, or are you for large buildings with thin walls and minimalist boxy apartments mushrooming everywhere? You cannot have both -- and pretending so is hypocritical.)
The Boston Indicators study also says that “white students make up only 13 percent of public school enrollment in Boston, yet represent 32 percent of exam schools”.
Now, how about this (below) eye-opening map of Boston and vicinity (it takes just a second to open it – then you can zoom in on the sea of red color, signifying “Many Single Parent Homes” in large parts of Boston:
Single Parent Homes by Neighborhood in Boston, MA | BestNeighborhood.org
https://bestneighborhood.org/single-parent-homes-boston-ma/
For decades now, we have had a system that actually rewards fatherless families, and concentrates them in major cities – but if you try to demonstrate that there is a strong connection between that and problems with urban public schools, you must be a racist! As a result, nobody wants to touch this and other underlying causes with a 10 foot poll.
Additionally -- and this is a more recent phenomenon -- most parents who want some control over what their children are taught do NOT want to outsource the teaching of their personal values to school systems that are increasingly run by political ideologues who put greater emphasis on indoctrinating children politically, when the only true mandate they have from all parents is a strict focus on traditional academic achievement and honing of social and life skills.
So not surprisingly, in recent years, Boston parents with other options have been increasingly picking better schools, and/or better housing/quality of life -- elsewhere.
Ironically, this outcome coincides with the unprecedented building boom that has been happening under Mayor Walsh -- while at the same time, City Hall has been doubling up on ultra-progressive trends such as “sanctuary city”, identity politics on steroids, lip service on quality of life issues, weakening of the law & order system/enforcement, and other policies that make the city unfriendly to stable middle class families.
Most people in activist circles in Boston, not to mention nearly all politicians, are in complete denial about this. But facts and numbers are stubborn things – they clearly show how the policies that are supported by so many are “winning” (not!), and you can see the results in their full “unintended consequences” glory.
Why can’t so many seemingly intelligent people connect the dots and acknowledge the reasons why certain things are happening? Without it, you cannot fix the problem – in fact, you’ll never fix it, you’ll only make it worse. Everyone is so good-hearted, well-intentioned, and convinced they are on the right path. So how come we are walking in circles, and Boston is on its way to become a revolving door city?
And it’s so very sad that now nobody can blame Trump and republicans for that (since this city and state have been managed entirely by the blue team for as long as anyone can remember). Sorry for my bluntness, but maybe some folks need to take a look in the mirror.
Eva
On 5/7/21, 8:07 AM, "Anthony D'Isidoro" <homeowners-union-o...@googlegroups.com on behalf of Anthony...@msn.com> wrote:
Hello everyone,
What the article fails to tell you is that unless we hear something to the contrary, the BCYF Community Center is closing as well.
Advanced planning and cost management are concepts foreign to the Boston Public Schools.
School closings send the wrong message, if you are hoping to attract and retain students, top teachers, school leaders and staff.
Closing severely underutilized schools, I get.
Creating a severely underutilized school by shear incompetence and lack of leadership, by allowing a school building built in 1975 to deteriorate to the point where public health and safety are compromised, I get as well.
Tony
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Boston to close Jackson Mann K-8 School in Allston (James Vaznis, Boston Globe: May 6, 2021)
Boston to close Jackson Mann K-8 School in Allston - The Boston Globe
Error! Filename not specified.
School officials had initially planned to overhaul Jackson Mann K-8 School's deteriorating building
on Armington Street and had been seeking an alternative location for the school during
construction.BARRY CHIN/GLOBE STAFF
Boston school officials are planning to close the Jackson Mann K-8 School in Allston as they push forward with a school construction program and facing a dramatic decline in enrollment.
Officials notified staff and families about closing the school at the end of the next school year during a meeting on Wednesday, ending nearly two years of consternation over the school’s future. School officials had initially planned to replace the Jackson Mann’s deteriorating building on Armington Street and had been seeking an alternative location for the school during construction.
But with student enrollment dropping across the city, some families were skeptical that Jackson Mann would remain open and transferred their children to other schools, causing enrollment to drop from 610 in fall 2018 to 429 last fall.
“It really has been an aggravating process,” said Jean Powers, whose daughter is a sixth-grader at Jackson Mann. “They told us over and over they had no plans to close our school.”
Over the past five years, the school system has lost more than 5,000 students, dropping total enrollment to about 50,000 students in 125 schools. In a controversial move two years ago, the School Committee voted to close two high schools that were sharing a crumbling facility in West Roxbury, and is now carrying out a long-term plan to phase out the middle schools.
School officials are also embarking on a campaign to renovate or replace aging school buildings. The city has built very few new schools since its last major construction boom in the 1970s. Jackson Mann opened in 1975 and an engineering review two years ago uncovered significant issues with several building operation systems, including the roof and air handler units, and recommended it be closed in the near future.
Boston Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said Thursday that the district intends to demolish and replace the Jackson Mann building, which is also home to the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The district will temporarily move that program, which serves about 70 students, during construction, she said. The completed building will also house a new school.
Cassellius said closing Jackson Mann was a difficult decision that reflected a number of factors, such as the building’s poor condition, a lack of temporary space to accommodate a school that size, and the likelihood that very few current students would still be at the school by the time the new building was finished. Declining enrollment was not a driving force behind the decision, she said.
School officials decided to notify families and staff a year before the closure so they would have ample time to find a new school. Jackson Mann students will be given priority in the school assignment process for the 2022-23 school year.
“We decided to go ahead and let the community know and have a real respectful and effective process to ... help them find their next best fit,” Cassellius said.
The closing is part of a broader facilities plan that will be presented to the School Committee next week. Chair Alexandra Oliver-Dávila said a vote will likely come in October, and that she shares the superintendent’s “commitment to ensuring that all students are learning in spaces that are reflective of the excellence we know students can achieve.”
Acting Mayor Kim Janey supports closing the Jackson Mann, a spokesman said.
“We understand that closing a school building is disruptive to families, and BPS is doing everything possible to support the Jackson Mann School community through this transition,” Nicholas Martin, the spokesman, said in a statement. “The decision to close the Jackson Mann was thoughtful and informed by a variety of factors, and the transition process will be equally thoughtful and collaborative.”
The district’s master plan, called BuildBPS, seeks to modernize schools across the city, he said. “This is key to ensuring greater equity of program placement to meet the needs of English learners, students with disabilities, and other populations,” he said.
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