Parents, School Officials Against Moving Charlestown High School

Thursday night's was led by Bill Galvin of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council and Dr. Ranny Bledsoe, Headmaster of Charlestown High School. Bledsoe fielded questions from the audience. 

Issues raised at the meeting included:  

• The importance of CHS's extensive Special Education offerings to the school district and Charlestown parents. 
• Raising the percentage of youth from Charlestown attending CHS up from CHS's current percentage of Charlestown residents, which is 9 percent. 
• The strengths of the school's Forensic Sciences program, which is popular and has the potential for extensive support from the local biotech industries.
• The possibility of using the Forensics program and other vocational programs to attract students in the neighborhood. 
• Bussing issues, including concerns about excessive commute times for students.
• CHS's graduation rate (40 percent) and high population of at-risk students (75 percent).
• The need for Charlestown parents to reinvest in the high school. 

Teachers, staff, and community members were overwhelmingly against the move, which was proposed by a group of local parents. The city's superintendent is currently pushing forth a plan to relocate the Arts Academy to the current building occupied by Boston Latin Academy. Boston Latin would move the Hyde Park Educational Complex.

But local parents -- eager to shift the reputation of CHS and keep Boston Latin Academy in its current location -- proposed that Charlestown High be included in the school rotations.   

At last week's meeting, Galvin said he'd bring the sentiments expressed to the full Charlestown Neighborhood Council, who will make a recommendation to support or block Boston's Arts Academy's move.