A proposal that will go before the Boston School Committee for discussion on Wednesday (Nov. 19) would result in the closure or reorganization of six city schools in 2027. Four Dorchester schools are impacted: the Lee Academy Pilot School (PreK-3) and the Community Academy of Health and Sciences High School (CASH 9-12) in Fields Corner would close under the plan, outlined to reporters on Monday afternoon by Mayor Wu and BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper.
Grades 9-12 will be eliminated at the William Henderson Upper School on Croftland Avenue (above), to also include the transition program for 18-22 year old disabled adults. The K0-8 grades will remain in place at the Henderson’s two campuses.
The William E. Russell on Columbia Road would expand to add a sixth grade, making it a PreK-6 school.
Other changes citywide include closing the Another Course to College High School in Hyde Park and eliminating grades 7-8 at the Tobin School in Mission Hill, leaving it a PreK-6 school.
All changes would take effect on June 30, 2027 – giving families, staff, and school communities about 18 months to prepare for a new placement. High school students in grades 11 and 12 would be allowed to graduate from their current school.
The changes will be presented to the School Committee at its regular meeting on Wednesday, with a vote coming at a future meeting.
Wu and Supt. Mary Skipper said more announcements could be expected every 18 months as the district looks to whittle down to 100 schools by 2027-28, and 95 by 2030. There were 112 schools in 2024-25.
“We’re not just closing or reconfiguring seats to save dollars,” said Mayor Wu. “This is focused around delivering the highest quality experience for all our students…We are in a different place than before looking at enrollment projections further into the future.”
Wu added that “when we have buildings underutilized and schools under enrolled” it can make it hard to provide funding so every student has a high-quality experience, but that can happen “when all buildings are fully utilized with academic, extra-curricular, and social-emotional experiences.”
She said they continue to work to find the “ideal footprint” to provide these experiences to all students.
She also noted the schools changes were announced much earlier than in previous iterations, specifically before the December and January school showcases and subsequent school choice period in early 2026.
Supt. Mary Skipper delivered the biggest news, which was the closure of grades 9-12 at the Henderson School on Croftland Avenue. Once a national model inclusion school, the Henderson’s upper grades have been repeatedly disrupted by incidents of disorder and assaults in recent years.
The school operates on two campuses, with K0-1 at the location on Dorchester Avenue, and grades 2-12 at the Croftland Avenue building. The changes would shed the high school grades, and bring grade 1 to Croftland. Grades K0-K2, a very popular program often with wait lists, would remain on Dorchester Avenue, “creating a true early childhood experience,” said Skipper.
“What we see is…that the high school population by the time they reach the 8th grade, they are choosing other high schools,” said Skipper. “We see about half go someplace else and it leaves a very, very small high school. When you have 300 or less it makes it more difficult if not impossible to have the full high school experience with sports, extra-curriculars, dual enrollment, and career pathways.”
She added the building— once known as the Woodrow Wilson School— isn’t meant for a high school.
“That Henderson building is really a middle, if not elementary, school building,” she said. “Classrooms are smaller, and the school is sprawled out. We’ll reconfigure it and close grades 9-12 and work with 8th grade families to find other, good high quality solutions.”
Parents and stakeholders at the Henderson received a letter from BPS on Nov. 7 detailing a series of meetings that begin this week looking at the past, present, and future of the Henderson – particularly its inclusion model at the high school levels. Those meetings are slated for Nov. 18, Dec. 3, and Dec. 16, according to the letter sent to the school community.
The popular transition program – a hallmark of the inclusion program at the Henderson – for adult students with disabilities aged 18-22 would likely be relocated to a nearby NeXT program, Skipper said, noting they would be meeting with current families about that soon. The existing NeXT program started in September is located in Roxbury.
CASH High School, located in the former Grover Cleveland Middle School on Charles Street, would also close at the end of the `26-`27 school year. Skipper said the building is only half occupied, and it isn’t a top choice of most students and has above average numbers of multi-lingual learners or newcomers/migrant students.
“It has an above district average of special education and multi-lingual learners, and the choice data isn’t strong, and we end up assigning students there and they don’t end up coming back,” she said. “You see a lot of churns in student population. Because of the decrease this year in multi-lingual learners this school is more impacted than other schools because of the higher concentration.”
She said they will analyze the building facility, and they see it as a rare resource where they could place a larger high school, potentially a “true multi-lingual learner center.”
She suggested they would bring Boston International Newcomer’s Academy (BINcA) from its Dorchester home on Maxwell Street to the new complex to combine with the former CASH population.
“It could be a central placement instead of scattering our multi-lingual learners in several areas,” said Skipper.
The Lee Academy Pilot School on Dunbar Avenue, formerly the Fifield School, serves grades PreK-3. It would close under the current plan.
“It is a pattern off path for our PreK-6 and 7-12 structure and it’s a very old building,” said Skipper. “They can’t have air conditioning and no upgraded HVAC because of the electrical situation.”
She added that while popular for the kindergarten grades, they see a drop off of students in grades 2 and 3 looking for a closer elementary with six grades.
“We feel confident based on family choice data we can settle families close to home in buildings with expanded arts, sciences and physical education,” she noted.
The final change locally would be expanding the Russell Elementary by adding a sixth grade, so it complies with the PreK-6 model. It’s something she said families having been asking for over a long period of time and allows them to stay at the school and make only one transition to a 7-12 school.
Skipper said staff, teachers, and administrators at the affected schools began working with the district’s human resources department as early as Monday to try to find them a new role in the coming 18 months in an appropriate school teaching the subjects or grade-level they prefer.
“We will pay as much attention to staff as we do the students and families,” she said.
Families in the impacted schools, if not on track to graduate from high school, would begin working with district representatives this year to ensure a smooth transition to a new school either next year, or the year after. All students impacted by closures and grade reconfigurations will receive priority in the registration process.
The announcement comes on the heels of closure announcements last year of Dorchester schools like the Roger Clapp School, the John Winthrop School, the Dever Elementary, and the Excel South Boston High School. All of those will close at the end of this school term. The Lilla Frederick Pilot Middle School in Dorchester was announced for closure two years ago, and closed in June, but will be reconfigured for a Clap and Winthrop Schools merger.
The announcement also comes amidst a drop in enrollment this year of approximately 1,700 students, according to BPS statistics. Skipper has said the drop is largely attributed to a decline in international or “newcomer” students compared to last year.
