Students, teachers and parents pleaded with Boston Public Schools and the Boston School Committee to keep Charlestown High School open after the district proposed closing the school earlier this week, citing declining enrollment.
Superintendent Mary Skipper presented the recommendation to close Charlestown, along with Greater Egleston High School and the East Boston Early Education Center, during a School Committee meeting on Wednesday night. The closures would be set for June 2028.
The vast majority of the speakers during the public comment section of the meeting addressed the school closures, and almost all of them were about Charlestown High in particular.
Zoe Dennison, a sophomore at Charlestown High, said the school has provided a “safe haven” for her and hundreds of other students, “whether they be low-income, LGBTQ+, people of color or disabled.”
“This proposal terrifies me,” she said during the School Committee meeting. “I finally have a school I feel I belong at, and this proposal would displace me and all of the class of 2029 for our senior year. I don’t want to start over at a new school as a senior, and I am pleading with you to not make me.”
The latest round of Boston school closures come as enrollment continues to decline in the district because of low birthrates and a decrease in immigration. The closures are also part of the district’s long-term facilities plan, which seeks to close nearly 20 schools by 2030 in response to declining enrollment and facilities conditions.
One teacher at Greater Egleston, who was a former administrator at Charlestown High, addressed the pending closures of both schools.
“Both schools are amazing, nurturing, caring, wonderful schools,” said Jess Madden-Fuoco. “I could talk to you for hours about all of the ways that we support our students in re-engaging in school after difficulties they’ve had at other schools.”
Enrollment at Charlestown High School has declined by 32% over the last three years, from 820 students to 559, according to BPS data.
The building only uses 53% of its 1,046 student capacity, and students with disabilities now make up 45% of the school, which district officials say make it harder to offer inclusive programming.
In Charlestown, students would begin transitioning to another high school during the 2028-2029 school year. BPS officials said the district would still use the Charlestown building, but it would house a new school that’s growing and could make better use of the building’s capacity.
Ryeza Harris, a senior at Charlestown High School, said that as both an immigrant and a transgender man, endured bullying and racism that made school feel unsafe until he started attending Charlestown.
“For the first time, I found people who made me feel like I didn’t have to survive school every single day and that I could simply live it,” he testified at Wednesday’s meeting. “I found friendships that then became my family, teachers who genuinely cared about my future and a community where I wasn’t just another student at a desk.”
“Personally, I’m struggling with many of the questions that you are asking us today, and thank you for asking those questions,” said Boston School Committee member Franklin Peralta. “Listening to these students — the love that they have for their community — it fills my heart that something good is going on.”
Peralta also emphasized that this proposed closure is especially hard because the majority of students at Charlestown High School are students of color.
“The fact is that we keep closing schools that are majority Latino and Black students, and that is a problem,” he said. “We can’t go all night of why this is the reality.”
Simone Wright, BPS Deputy Superintendent of Academics, said there hasn’t been an increase in advanced coursework access or career pathways over the past three years at Charlestown.
“I think what we do see is that Charlestown High has added advanced coursework over time in the years. There has been a dip in the last year to the number of students being able to take those,” said Skipper. “I think the second part of access is whether or not they [students] actually get credit for it. The state looks at it both ways.”
BTU President Erik Berg said all proposed closures would affect 776 students and 193 educators.
“There should always be a transparent, evidence-based community conversation before closure announcements happen, where decision-making data is reviewed and school communities can participate in developing possible solutions,” he said. “That did not happen for the communities we’re discussing this evening.”
Berg also urged the district and the school committee to consider where school mergers could be possible, saying that’s better than a closure.
BPS officials plan to gather input in coming weeks before the School Committee is expected to vote on the closure on Dec. 2.
