Menino's School Plan Could Reduce Bussing

A proposal laid out by Mayor Thomas Menino in Tuesday’s address could lead to fewer students from outside of Charlestown attending schools within the town, but will likely have little direct impact on enrollment at Charlestown High School.

Matt Wilder, a spokesman for Boston Public Schools, said that high school enrollment within Boston is expected to remain city-wide while the mayor and superintendent plan to localize middle and elementary school registrations.

Menino’s Adrress

During his address, Menino said, the city’s student assignment process, which “ships our kids to schools across our city” stands in the way of Boston further improving its educational institutions.

“Pick any street,” Menino said. “A dozen children probably attend a dozen different schools.”

That scattering, Menino said, prevents students from carpooling and studying together, and may serve as a barrier against children playing with those in neighboring homes.

“We won’t have the schools our kids deserve until we build school communities that serve them well,” he said.

Bussing

Building more localized school communities should also reduce transportation costs, Wilder noted.

“If we do nothing with transportation,” he said, “we’ll be spending in excess of $100 million [annually] in a matter of years.”

That money, he said, would be better directed into classrooms—though transportation costs can’t be eliminated entirely. The city would still have to provide bussing for special education students, Wilder said.

The Process

While Wilder outlined the initiative’s goals, he couldn’t say how, exactly, it would work.

“It would be premature for us to say what the plan will look like on the other end,” Wilder said. “We want to engage our community to help us draw a plan that will eventually be put into place here in Boston.”

To that end, he said, the city plans to hold a number of events over the coming year during which residents can offer their voice on how school registration should work. At this point, he said, the school department has a “rough outline” of when those discussions should happen, but has yet to plan any concrete dates.