Following the cancellation of the contentious proposal to move the O’Bryant School to West Roxbury, BPS superintendent Mary Skipper said the district will open a dialogue in an upcoming community meeting but did not speak to the potential future of the city’s most diverse exam school Wednesday.
“Over the past seven months, we’ve gathered feedback perspectives from students, families, alumni, partners, and at the same time, we have diligently explored alternatives to the West Roxbury site in the O’Bryant’s current neighborhood, Roxbury, as well as other neighborhoods surrounding,” Skipper said at Wednesday night’s School Committee meeting.
“While we’re not moving forward with a proposal for the O’Bryant school, we’ve gained invaluable insight and input that we will use to inform potential future projects,” she said.
Mayor Michelle Wu and Skipper announced the proposal to move the O’Bryant School of Math and Science from its shared campus with Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Roxbury to the vacant West Roxbury Education Complex in June 2023.
On Tuesday, sources reported the city was planning to shelve the West Roxbury plan. Citing a “lack of consensus,” the mayor and district leaders announced they were halting the plan to move the O’Bryant “indefinitely” in a letter to families Tuesday night.
The Madison Park renovation plans will move forward, the letter said. Though the O’Bryant’s continued presence means “somewhat less space” for the vocational school, Skipper said Wednesday, there is “strong support” for the project.
Construction on Madison Park is expected to start in the summer of 2025, Skipper said.
The letter to families included a planned community meeting in March for O’Bryant and Madison Park families to ask questions following the announcement. Families were also invited to join workshops on the long-term facilities plan.
“Going forward, the O’Bryant School and future use of the West Roxbury Educational Complex will be included in those larger discussions—with the same consideration, analysis, and engagement as all the other BPS schools that require major facilities improvements or restructuring,” the letter reads.
The city and district presented the West Roxbury move as an opportunity to significantly expand the O’Bryant’s seats, as well as academic and athletic offerings. However, fervent opponents over the seven months argued, the move would pose significant transportation barriers for many students and take the school out of the more diverse, connected Roxbury community.
“This is just showing us that we need to stand up and fight for our rights and what we think is right for us and opportunities given to us,” said Rim Tiguite, an O’Bryant junior who was honored for her advocacy for her school at a Wednesday City Council meeting. “We need to be able to get the best of the best.”
The junior said she’d heard positive feedback on the decision from her classmates since the announcement. Being in the center of Roxbury, Tiguite said, “makes the O’Bryant the O’Bryant.”
Several School Committee members praised the district’s willingness to make a “hard decision” on Wednesday.
“For a really long time the district has always been criticized for not listening to the community or rushing the process,” said Committee member Chantal Lima Barbosa. “And I think this is definitely an opportunity, an example of all of us taking a pause and not stopping to continue to have these conversations but still going back to the OB community have reset that conversation right.”
BPS will host the Zoom community meeting for O’Bryant and Madison Park families on March 13 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
