As residents of Charlestown concerned about the health and education of our community, we sign this petition to immediately action THREE items:

1) PROACTIVELY ADDRESS CURRENT & FUTURE DEMAND:
BPS must urgently reexamine its position that Charlestown has sufficient elementary school seats to meet demand. Charlestown demand has already dramatically climbed leaving excessive waitlists for the 2019-20 school year.

With thousands more students set to reside in Charlestown at the completion of Hood Park, Graphic Lofts, One Charlestown redevelopment, and others, Charlestown urgently needs plans for more K1-8 seats within Charlestown borders so that all Charlestown students may learn locally. We urge BPS to immediately use the Edwards Middle School to add seats to meet current demand (i.e. doubled waitlists), and require BPS to create further seats prior to the arrival of increased demand from development.

2) CREATE A MORE FAIR LOTTERY PROCESS:
To help address unfairness in the BPS lottery system, change the lottery process so that families who are placed in seats receive waitlist numbers in reverse order (allowing those who do not receive a spot to receive the best waitlist numbers).

3) HELP CURRENTLY WAITLISTED FAMILIES:
In the face of a lack of transparency from BPS about how waitlists move, assign deadlines to families who have received a BPS spot to accept the spot and remove themselves from waitlist or decline and choose one waitlist in order to provide more options for school placement in a reasonable amount of time and eliminate the need to transition students after the first day of school. Note: waive deadlines for families with limited English proficiency or who face barriers navigating the BPS system.

Proposed deadlines: June 30th for families with seats, July 15th for families on waitlists (or one week after BPS notifies these families)

OUR MISSION STATEMENT:

We recognize that Charlestown is only one part of a larger, Boston-wide system. We believe that not only Charlestown children, but all children, deserve a high-quality education that will serve their needs now and provide for their futures.

With this in mind, we DO want:

We DO want...to see a fully funded Boston Public School system that reflects the paramount importance of a quality education for all of Boston’s children
We DO want...to see a future where all our Boston Public Schools provide the same high-quality education city-wide, so that all children may learn close to their homes and so that all families may be more engaged in their children’s educations
We DO want...to grow the student body at Charlestown’s high-performing schools so that more children of all socio-economic and cultural backgrounds may benefit from these schools, especially when demand is so high
We DO want...to plan for the future in the face of Charlestown’s dramatic changes (e.g. exponential new development and the changing family landscape), so that we ensure that Charlestown’s high-quality schools remain high-quality, and so that they remain able to serve the area’s children, especially those most in need
We DO want...to ensure that the lottery system that assigns spots to Boston children across the BPS system is equitable for all, and promotes more options for those who do not receive seats at their preferred school(s)
We DO want...more transparency from BPS in terms of how and when waitlists move, to help parents better plan for their child’s schooling in a reasonable amount of time
We DO want...BPS to encourage waitlists to move faster by asking for a quicker response from parents who are most able to navigate the BPS system

We do NOT want:

We do NOT want...to perpetuate segregated schools or repeat racist or insular ideologies that promote access to certain demographics and restrict access to others
We do NOT want...to further restrict access to Charlestown schools
We do NOT want...to see funding drained from other locations within the BPS system to create the changes we seek in our petition
We do NOT want...to adversely affect the students already placed at schools. Rather, we want plans to expand, repurpose, or reimagine school buildings and resources to be carried out in a way that equally prioritizes all students’ needs