Boston public school officials hosted a community forum in Roxbury last Saturday as part of an effort to shape the department’s emerging ten-year facilities master plan.

The process, dubbed Build BPS, is projected to be completed by January 2017. Over the next six months, the Build BPS team will finish assessing every building within the BPS system and analyze data gleaned from public comments to create a master plan. 

The process has become fraught with controversy. On Monday, a coalition of BPS parents, citing information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, claimed that the school department and officials in the mayor’s office have been quietly planning the eventual closings of between 30 and 50 schools. The school department has denied there has been any such planning.

On Saturday, Superintendent Tommy Chang welcomed a group of roughly 40 people to the Bruce Bolling Municipal Building in Dudley Square to take part in what he called “educational visioning for the 21st century.”

The city currently pays for capital improvements through a five-year capital investment plan.  Build BPS expects that such a plan alone will not be enough to fund the facilities master plan and intends to look at “a broad range of funding strategies, including the city’s authority to generate additional revenue, improving the city’s share of Massachusetts School Building Authority resources, public/private partnerships, and other strategic opportunities to increase revenue potential,” according to an handout provided at the forum.

Chang spoke enthusiastically about his vision for a BPS that will be shaped by community feedback throughout the planning process. The district “works for many, but does not work for all,” he said.

Chang also announced that the Build BPS would host a large event at the Boston Exhibition and Convention Center in August for BPS community members. “I want it to feel like Disneyland,” he said.

Throughout Saturday’s meeting, people were challenged to think critically about the future of the BPS. Charter schools, which remain a deeply polarizing issue, were addressed as a “competitive factor,” with Rahn Dorsey, the city’s chief of education, saying, “we’re dedicated to making sure BPS is the highest quality and first choice over charters.”

Two hours of the forum were spent in two rounds of breakout sessions. Joe Clark, vice president of MGT America, conducted a session focused on demographics. He explained his use of assumptive-based models to project areas of growth throughout the district over the next ten years.

Concerns from QUEST, and a rebuttal
A coalition of BPS parents – Quality Education for Every Student (QUEST) – has been sharply critical of the Walsh-Chang administration, especially so with respect to the claim of a secret school closings plan.

“If an honest assessment reveals overcapacity and unsafe buildings in the BPS, then let’s have an open public discussion about how to respond,” said QUEST member Kevin Murray in a statement issued Monday. “But that’s not what’s happening now. School closings are being pursued behind closed doors, along with Unified Enrollment, the charter school referendum, and various other initiatives, as part of a larger plan to ‘reinvent’ public education in Boston.”

In a rebuttal to Murray, the school department issued a statement to the Bay State Banner: “There are currently no plans to close any school facilities. While Boston Public Schools appreciates the analysis of external partners and organizations, one evaluation report will not determine the future of our schools.”