Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Public Schools Proposes Closing Charlestown High School in 2028

Boston Public Schools has proposed closing Charlestown High School on June 30, 2028, a plan that would end classes at the neighborhood school in Charlestown and move its remaining students to other city schools.

Superintendent Mary Skipper broke the news in an email to families on Friday, October 30, calling it "difficult news," according to The Boston Globe. "We understand that Charlestown High is much more than a school building," Skipper wrote.

Enrollment fell from 820 to 559

The district says Charlestown High has lost about a third of its students in three years, falling from 820 to 559. The bottom of the school is already thin: this year's senior class has 205 students, against 65 ninth graders and 48 seventh graders, according to the Globe. Skipper pointed to decreases in international immigration and newcomer enrollment, along with smaller birth cohorts, the Boston Herald reported.

Under the plan, the school would stop taking new seventh graders next fall. Juniors and seniors would graduate through 2028, and every other student would get priority to register at another city school for the 2028-29 year. Mayor Michelle Wu and Skipper called the closure "one of the hardest decisions we have to make as a district" in a joint statement on Saturday, and said the city wants to move another high school into the Charlestown building as early as the 2028-29 school year.

The Charlestown proposal is part of a wider round. In recommendations sent to the school community on Monday, November 2, the district also proposed closing Greater Egleston High School and the East Boston Early Education Center, the Boston Teachers Union said. The district Long-Term Facilities Plan aims to bring Boston down to about 95 schools by 2030, from 114 buildings a few years ago. Excel High School, Mary Lyon Pilot High School, Community Academy and the Dever Elementary School already closed in June.

Council members and teachers push back

District 1 Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, who represents Charlestown, has filed a hearing order to examine the proposal. "The news surrounding Charlestown High School is difficult for our community, especially for the students, families, and educators who call it home," she said. Her priority, she said, is a Charlestown high school that provides a world-class education, with the community given a meaningful voice in its future.

At-large Councilor Erin Murphy, a former Boston Public Schools teacher, answered in an open letter on Saturday. "Families need more than a promise of priority placement," Murphy wrote. "No family should be asked to choose a new school without knowing whether that school could close next." Charlestown High students marched out of the school after classes on Monday to protest the plan, WBZ reported.

On Tuesday, November 3, the Boston Teachers Union demanded more time before the School Committee vote, saying a vote less than a month after the recommendation, in the middle of the holiday season, gives a school community no fair chance to respond. The union said a merger should be pursued where one is possible, and that no school should close unless the district can guarantee its students a clearly better option.

What happens next

The School Committee is set to hear the proposal on Wednesday and could vote as soon as December 2. Families get a first say at a virtual meeting on Thursday night and at an in-person session inside the school on November 16. The educators at Charlestown High, Greater Egleston High and the East Boston Early Education Center, along with their students and families, "deserve to have their voices heard," union president Erik Berg wrote.