Pictured: The former Grover Cleveland School building on Charles Street in Dorchester. File photo
Copyright © 2026 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc. This content may not be re-published or re-used without written permission.
In an ongoing effort to whittle down the city’s portfolio of school buildings to “approximately 95” by 2030, Boston Public Schools officials announced a fourth cycle of closures and reconfigurations on Monday that includes the closing of Charlestown High School in 2028 and the moving of Dorchester’s Boston International Newcomers Academy (BINcA) from its current home on Maxwell Street to the former Grover Cleveland building at 11 Charles St. in Fields Corner by next September.
Overall, the changes, if approved, would leave BPS with 97 buildings in operation, according to the announcement.
BPS 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 the BINcA relocation next fall, which was reported by The Reporter earlier this year.
“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,” stated 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.”
Mayor Michelle Wu added that the 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 students attending Charlestown High come from outside the neighborhood, mostly from Dorchester and Roxbury. The site also houses a large number of special needs students in the Life Skills program.
In another move in Dorchester announced on Monday: Boston Adult Technical Academy (BATA) will move from Bay Village to share space in Fields Corner with BINcA. The schools have a combined enrollment of about 535 students.
As to BINcA’s home on Maxwell Street, that would be up for consideration as a space in which 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 Skipper during a press briefing Monday.
Other relocations in the plan would see the Boston Green Academy in Allston/Brighton moved to the former South Boston High School at 95 G St., which is under renovation and could open for the 2028-29 school year, and 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.
The Charlestown High closure has drawn the most attention, as it has been a destination for students, in particular athletes in football and basketball from Dorchester and Roxbury. Current basketball Head Coach Hugh Coleman – and before him, Coach Jack O’Brien, drew heavily from Dorchester and Roxbury.
The school has shown sharp enrollment declines, BPS said, even after the introduction of a middle school in 2021. For example, officials noted, this year’s senior class has 205 students, but the 7th grade class has only 48.
However, there is talk about an existing school moving into the space, which was confirmed by BPS officials in a release on Monday that said, “BPS remains committed to continuing to serve the Charlestown neighborhood with a new anchor secondary school as early as the 2028–2029 school year.”
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. The mayor clarified there would be no vacant building in Charlestown, and the new school would move into Charlestown by the following school year in Sept. 2028.
Neither would offer any notion on what that school might be but said they would run a process such as they did for Boston Green Academy going to South Boston.
Beyond closings and relocations, grade eliminations and additions were laid out on Monday. The Joseph Hurley K-8 School in the South End and Joyce Kilmer K-8 in Roslindale would lose grades 7 and 8 while Boston Arts Academy in the Fenway and Fenway High School in Mission Hill would add middle school grades 7 and 8, making both of the latter 7-12 schools aligning with others like Boston Latin Academy, John D. O’Bryant High School, and TechBoston Academy.
The changes in grade configurations don’t require a vote by the School Committee, nor does the Green Academy’s move as it is a Horace Mann Charter School.
The BINcA and Technical Academy moves would require a vote.
“The plan is for both schools 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.
