Roxbury Prep Students and Families Protest BPDA Delay

About a hundred Roxbury Prep students, families and supporters took to city hall Thursday to call on the Boston Planning & Development Agency to put the proposed 361 Belgrade Ave. project on the BPDA agenda for a vote.

“This week, our scholars took final exams and today, right after them, we headed here. But we should not be here,” said Shradha Patel, Roxbury Prep High School’s founder. “We should be reviewing data and getting ready for AP Exams in May. We are all supposed to be inside right now, at the BPDA meeting.”

Despite community support--including the support of District 5 City Councilman Ricardo Arroyo--the BPDA has not placed the project on the agenda for a vote. The proposed high school at 361 Belgrade Ave. has followed the Article 80 small project review process, in which more than 85% of the public comments filed were supportive of the project.

“The people inside this building have the power to put this unjust situation to rest,” said Yinessa Baez outside of City Hall. “They have the power to see us, to hear us,” said the 12th grader who is headed to Brown University in the fall.

“This isn’t fair and this isn’t right,” she said in front of her cheering classmates. “As children of color, society already attempts to silence us and put us at a disadvantage. On behalf of one thousand five hundred students--please, see us. Give us the opportunity that every other project in Boston gets”.

While members of the BPDA had their monthly meeting inside city hall, students and families stood outside in the cold, calling on the BPDA to act on the high school project proposed to be built on the lot of a vacant used car lot and auto repair shop in Roslindale in District 5.

Students then entered city hall and hand delivered self-portraits or pictures of all 1,500 Roxbury Prep students along with their hopes and dreams to Mayor Martin J. Walsh and At-Large City Councilors Annissa Essaibi George, Michael Flaherty, Julia Mejia and Michelle Wu.

The school is also asking for At-Large City Council members to meet with them about the project and listen to not only the overwhelming community support but also to the many ways in which the project has responded to community input. In the past year, Roxbury Prep has held multiple public meetings, listened to the community's input, and responded by decreasing the size of the proposed facility. More than 2,000 Boston residents, including 800 residents of Roslindale and West Roxbury, have signed a petition in support of the project.

Roxbury Prep has had to move locations three times in four years and their students currently eat lunch in their classrooms because they do not have a cafeteria and are split between two campuses across the city.

“Roxbury Prep has done everything asked of it through the BPDA process and has obtained enormous support,” said Keith Motley, past Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston and founding board chairman of Roxbury Prep. “We ask the city to allow the project to go to a vote.” Motley is also founder and education chair of Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts, Inc.

Along with Motley, Roxbury Prep was founded by Evan Rudall and John King, who went on to become the U.S. Secretary of Education under President Barack Obama.

In addition to District 5 Councilman Arroyo, other elected officials have also been publicly supportive and have called on the BPDA to place the project on the agenda. The BPDA has received letters of support from Representatives Nika Elugardo and Russell Holmes.

“For some, this debate has become a question of whether or not you support charter schools,” said District 5 City Councilor Arroyo. “However, I see this very differently. As a proud product of the Boston Public Schools and a proud supporter of public education, I do not view this proposal through the lens of charter schools vs. public schools. I see this as a question of what type of facilities do the students at Roxbury Prep, an existing school in District 5, deserve. They deserve, like all students deserve, facilities that support their education and are built with their success in mind.”

“Roxbury Prep High’s children need a quality facility that meets the complex needs of our public school children in their high school years,” said Representative Nika Elugardo, whose constituents include Roxbury Prep families and one of the middle school campuses. “My constituents in the school’s community want an opportunity to make their case as good neighbors. It’s important to have their project placed on the BPDA agenda to offer our communities a chance to come together on this.”

Representative Chynah Tyler, who has deep roots at Roxbury Prep, also chimed in. “As an alumna of Roxbury Prep, I am disappointed at the long wait that the students have faced in bringing their high school facility to a vote at the BPDA,” said Tyler. “I urge the BPDA to end this delay and allow this beautiful project for hundreds of public school children to go to a vote.”

Roxbury Prep is a high-performing public charter school founded 20 years ago with a mission to ensure students graduate from college. Last year, 94% of its graduating class matriculated into four-year colleges, and 100% of seniors take at least one Advanced Placement (AP) class, with 62% passing at least one AP exam. By comparison, across the country, only 39% of public school students take an AP exam during high school and 24% actually pass an exam prior to graduating.