Yancey: School Department gets plush new offices, while high-school students get 'substandard' buildings

Submitted by Judy Meredith on Tue, 12/06/2011 - 1:00am

Boston's City Councilor Charles Yancy just keeps on going -- working with parents fighting for the kids in his district (and mine) to have an Opportunity to Learn: Quality Education, Safe Buildings. 

From the Dorchester Reporter:

City Councilor Charles Yancey has a new tactic in his long-running battle to get a high school built in Mattapan: Blasting the city's plan - which he voted for - to spend $115 million moving BPS headquarters from Court Street downtown to the old Ferdinand building in Dudley Square, when nearly 4,000 high-school students attend classes in "substandard" buildings originally built for elementary students or as warehouses.

At a hearing tonight, Yancey asked for the city to borrow $110 million to build a high school on a college-like 15-acre campus on the grounds of the former Boston State Hospital. Students and their parents have waited long enough for a modern high school like the ones that have sprung up in surrounding suburbs, he said.

Yancey gained support from councilors at-large Councilor Felix Arroyo and Roxbury Councilor Tito Jackson.
 
But Allston/Brighton Councilor Mark Ciommo said he couldn't support building a new high school when existing schools - including Brighton High in his district - already have their own pressing issues. Ciommo said he is worried the costs of a new high school would take away from the capital budget for all the other schools in the district and that it just wouldn't be prudent to add a new high school when projections show BPS continuing to lose students.
 
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