Boston School Renovation Plan Falls Behind as 3 Buildings Finish, More Projects Stall

The city of Boston faces a dual educational challenge. Years of declining enrollment have resulted in more school buildings than students who remain can occupy.

School administrators say they have to consolidate children into fewer, larger schools. However, the district is relying on using aging buildings built before World War II. Many of these buildings need extensive repairs and lack basic amenities, such as cafeterias, gyms, and science labs.

The School Committee has approved about a dozen closures and mergers since Mayor Michelle Wu took office in 2022. These moves have triggered backlash from families and educators who say that the major projects Wu discussed in 2022 aren't moving quickly enough.

“We have too many school buildings, and most of them are old,” said Will Austin, a former public school teacher, principal, and founder of Boston Schools Fund, a nonprofit seeking to improve Boston Public Schools (BPS). “Those are just the facts, and so it is very difficult to navigate those two things at the same time.”

Martin J. Walsh, a former U.S. labor secretary who served as Boston mayor from 2014 to 2021, told The Boston Globe that the delays in school construction are mainly due to funding shortfalls rather than a lack of expertise.

The three schools that have opened since Wu took office — the Boston Arts Academy, Quincy Upper School, and Carter School — were planned or under construction already when she became mayor. These projects are attributed to work that Walsh began while in office.

BPS noted that of the 14 projects Wu said she was emphasizing in 2022, no progress has been achieved on eight of them, according to the district's website. A ninth project to renovate the building that's home to the Community Academy of Science and Health also appears to be cast aside: the school will close next summer, according to the district.

Three renovations have been completed, however: East Boston's PJ Kennedy School, the Irving building in Roslindale, and the Edwards in Charlestown.

The Boston Globe reported that two significant school building construction projects are in the planning and design phase and need state funding: the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, with an estimated $700 million price tag, and the Shaw-Taylor Elementary School.

BPS did not comment about the state of the eight projects that Wu announced in 2022 and have not been updated in four years.