Boston Public School officials briefed residents on the BuildBPS facilities assessment at the Leahy-Holloran BCYF Center in Dorchester on Tuesday night. A crowd of about 50 people- including city officials— attended the forum, which BPS Superintendent Tommy Change said was the start of an ongoing outreach effort to help shape facilities planning over the next decade.
The BuildBPS initiative —launched 18 months ago— began with a full review of existing school buildings, feeding into the city’s 10-year educational and facilities master plan. Analyzing the city’s aging facilities stock — 65 percent of all BPS buildings were constructed before World War II and new buildings include those constructed in the last 20 years — the report measures varying levels of structural quality and use of educational spaces.
Tuesday evening’s panel included Superintendent Chang; the city’s education chief, Rahn Dorsey; John Hanlon, the chief operating officer of BPS; and Makeeba McCreary, managing director and senior advisor of external affairs for BPS, who spoke on the facilities plan. The administration has pledged $1 billion of investment in the facilities over the next decade.
Officials emphasize that the report, which includes an online interactive data tool, is founded on “a deep-rooted sense of community engagement” and is not a prescription for dramatic change or a recommendation for school closures.
“It’s very important to note that BuildBPS is not a list of specific budget recommendations,” Hanlon said. “It’s not a crystal ball that will tell us what will happen 10 years from now. We’re not telling any community through Build BPS what schools are going to be built, what schools are going to be renovated, what schools are going to be repaired.”
The data will guide decisions as the district and residents determine what repairs, expansions, or new construction will be merited in the next decade.
“A big piece of the BuildBPS project is to think about the demographics of the city, not just what it looks like today but what it’s going to look like 10 years from now,” Hanlon said.
The community engagement cycle is about to kick off. Neighborhood workshops will run through May and June, soliciting input from residents and community stakeholders. Feedback would be channeled toward the new Office of School Building Synthesis in August and October and the community will be brought in again from November to January for neighborhood project prioritization meetings. Results should be reflected in the capital budget for the next year, and the cycle would continue year-over-year.
Different neighborhoods have specific needs, Dorsey said.
Responding to a question about increased pre-K programs, Dorsey said, “This overlaps with what you may have heard about where the high-growth areas in the city are. So when you think about neighborhoods like East Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan, these are the every same places where we need more pre-K seats.”
Those four neighborhoods currently account for 59 percent of the city’s school-aged children, according to the BuildBPS report.
