Pictured: The former Grover Cleveland School building on Maxwell Street in Dorchester. File photo
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In an ongoing effort to whittle down the city’s portfolio of school buildings to 95 by 2030, Boston Public Schools officials announced a fourth round of closures and reconfigurations on Monday. Charlestown High School will close in 2028, according to the plan, while Dorchester’s Boston International Newcomers Academy (BINcA) will move from its current home on Maxwell Street to the former Grover Cleveland building at 11 Charles St. in Fields Corner.
The changes, if approved, would leave BPS with 97 buildings in operation.
Supt. Mary Skipper will present the plan to the Boston School Committee on Nov. 4 with a vote expected on Dec. 2. Any changes would go into effect on June 30, 2028, except for BINcA which would relocate in 2027.
“These recommendations are part of building a district that is optimized to match our student body and offers high-quality choices for all BPS students and families across our neighborhoods,” read a release from BPS. “Long-term enrollment projections show that in order to best serve our students, the district needs to reduce the number of schools we operate. This year’s recommendations would bring the total number of schools to 97, which is in line with our 2030 vision of operating approximately 95 schools.”
Mayor Michelle Wu added that new configurations would allow better student experiences “rather than keeping open half-empty buildings or schools that are too small to offer a full range of extra-curriculars and academics that we have heard from families are the baseline.”
More than 80 percent of the student population at Charlestown High Schoolcome from outside of Charlestown, mostly from Dorchester and Roxbury. They also house a large number of special needs students in the Life Skills program. The BINcA move was previously reported by the Reporter in January.
Also announced today: Boston Adult Technical Academy (BATA) will move from Bay Village to share space in the Fields Corner building with BINcA. Both schools have an enrollment of about 535 students combined. BINcA’s home on Maxwell Street would be up for consideration as a site to build the new Shaw-Taylor school that is working its way through the state School Building Authority process.
“For the time being now it’s really part of the Shaw-Taylor project and it being one of the choices (for the new school),” said Supt. Skipper during a press briefing Monday.
Another relocation would include moving the Boston Green Academy in Allston/Brighton to the former South Boston High School at 95 G St., which is under renovations and could open for the 2028-29 school year.
Other closures include the Greater Egleston High School in Jamaica Plain, a specialty school with 76 students, and the East Boston Early Education Center (Pre-K-1), which will be brought in line with the adjoining McKay K-8 school.
Charlestown High’s closure has drawn the most attention, as it has been a destination for students and, in particular, athletes in football and basketball from Dorchester and Roxbury for many years under current Head Coach Hugh Coleman – and before him Coach Jack O’Brien who drew heavily from Dorchester and Roxbury. The school has shown sharp enrollment declines, BPS said, even after introducing a middle school in 2021. For example, they said this year’s senior class has 205 students, but the 7th grade class has only 48 students.
However, there is talk of an existing school moving into the space, which was confirmed by BPS officials in a press release Monday.
“BPS remains committed to continuing to serve the Charlestown neighborhood with a new anchor secondary school as early as 2028–2029 school year,” read the statement.
Skipper said if the Charlestown closure is approved, they would begin identifying a new school that is growing and could fit into the space and that is wanted in Charlestown.
Mayor Wu clarified there would be no vacant building in Charlestown, and the new school would move into Charlestown by the following school year after in Sept. 2028. Neither would speculate on what that school would be but said they would run a process such as they did for Boston Green Academy going to South Boston.
Other changes include eliminating grades 7 and 8 at the Joseph Hurley K-8 School in the South End and Joyce Kilmer K-8 in Roslindale. At the same time, they would add middle school grades 7 and 8 to Boston Arts Academy in the Fenway and Fenway High School in Mission Hill – making them both 7-12 schools aligning with others like Boston Latin Academy, John D. O’Bryant High School, and TechBoston Academy.
The change in grade configurations doesn’t require a vote of the School Committee, and the Green Academy’s move also doesn’t require a vote of the School Committee as it is a Horace Mann Charter School. The BINcA and Technical Academy moves would require a vote, and would take effect on June 30, 2027, if approved.
“The plan is for both schools (BINcA and BATA) to move in the summer of 2027 and be operations in the fall of 2027, in September,” said Skipper, noting they will be renovating part of the building. “It’s going to be a busy summer.”
Copyright © 2026 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc. This content may not be re-published or re-used without written permission.
