The Boston School Committee voted last Wednesday (May 24) to approve the merger of Dorchester’s Pauline A. Shaw Elementary School with the Charles H. Taylor Elementary School in Mattapan. The schools are located off Morton Street and sit a three-minute drive apart. The proposal passed by a 6-0 vote, with one member, Rafaela Polanco Garcia, absent. The Shaw-Taylor was one of
Brenda Cassellius, the head of Boston Public Schools, has a vision for the future unlike any superintendent the city has ever encountered. That’s a good thing right?
The sign for the Boston Public Schools headquarters in Nubian Square. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
New statistics show that enrollment in Boston Public Schools dropped about 4.3% this year with the decline concentrated among Black and Hispanic students.
The Boston Herald reports the drop in student numbers wasn t helped by the coronavirus pandemic, but it wasn’t started by it either. In the last three years, Boston schools have seen an 8.3% decline in enrollment.
The district says the decrease was most pronounced in the elementary grades, which accounted for 1,800 students of this year’s drop.
“People are having less children, and they’re having them later in life,”said Boston Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Nate Kuder during an online budget meeting this week. “So as they continue to age in place, we’re not seeing as many students enrolled in Boston Public Schools because there aren’t as many students in the city.”