Boston Public Schools (BPS) and city officials told parents and staff from the Shaw and Taylor Elementary Schools in Dorchester and Mattapan that they still plan to merge the two schools and would like to present the plan to the School Committee on April 26. They’re eyeing a committee vote by May 10.

Merger talks were first put on hold in September 2022. But BPS’s current thinking on the merger came out during an online public meeting on Feb. 16, with school officials saying they planned to work closely with the two school communities over the next few months to design the proposal for presentation on April 26.

BPS hopes to merge the two schools by the start of the 2024-25 school term. The plan would consist of using the existing Shaw school building and the existing Taylor school building – which are located about a half-mile from one another on Morton Street – to house a two-campus merged school.

BPS officials noted the Shaw has 11 general education classrooms and one early childhood classroom allotted for next year for grades K0-5. The Taylor has five different types of classrooms for grades K0-6. They include eight inclusion classrooms, seven general education classrooms, eight Haitian Kreyol Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) classrooms, two multi-lingual classrooms, and two moderate intellectual impairment classrooms.

The plan presented to the community would result in a merged enrollment of approximately 747 students. Students in all types of classrooms in grades K0-1 would likely attend the Shaw school building. Students in all different types of classrooms attending grades 2-6 would go to the Taylor school building.

Emily Piper-Vallillo photo

Parents, staff and other stakeholders will be consulted through a design team that is being assembled right now. It will include three family members from each school, three staff from each school, the school leader from each school, the BPS superintendent, a capital planning project manager, a community engagement manager, a Racial Equity Planning Tool (REPT) liaison, and a City of Boston representative.

Prior to the School Committee vote, the team would be focused on creating the proposal using data and input to create a model that would “result in closing gaps and accelerating learning.” After the vote, the team would continue their work until Sept. 2024 to implement the plan and further develop the details.

Anyone from the two school communities who would like to be a part of the design team should email capitalplanning@bostonpublicschools.org.