The Boston School Committee has approved vacating six elementary school buildings next year and expanding other academic programs as it tries to cut costs and improve school quality. The schools: Dickerman, P.A. Shaw, and Stone in the Dorchester neighborhood; Hamilton in the Brighton neighorhood, Higginson in the Roxbury neighborhood, and the former Fuller Elementary in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, which houses Boston International High School. That program is to move into the Thompson building in Dorchester. All the shuttered schools will be left empty. Superintendent Carol R. Johnson says the buildings could eventually provide space for neighborhood programs.
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EARLIER: The Boston School Committee will delay its vote on Superintendent Carol R. Johnson's school reorganization plan by a week as public opposition mounts over recommendations to close about a dozen schools. City Council member Chuck Turner had asked for a delay in the vote. Turner contends that the reorganization plan could restore a level of inequity not seen in the city since before court-ordered busing. He wants Johnson to withdraw a recommendation that would give a greater preference to students who live near schools, making it more difficult for other students to attend those schools.
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Several Boston elementary schools are on the chopping block in Superintendent Carol R. Johnson's plan to reconfigure schools and expand quality at a time of ever-worsening budget troubles. The plan is designed to address a 7 percent decline in enrollment over the past five years, which has left nearly 8,000 empty seats in grades K-8, and to allow the district to expand successful schools. Closing four to six schools, along with other changes, would be the district's largest reorganization since the 2002-03 school year.
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