Wu Administration Proposes Closing Charlestown High, Greater Egleston High and the East Boston Early Education Center in June 2028

Mayor Michelle Wu's administration on Monday proposed closing two Boston high schools and an early education center in June 2028, the latest round of school closures as enrollment in Boston Public Schools continues to fall, The Boston Globe reported.

The proposal would close Charlestown High School, Greater Egleston High School in Roxbury and the East Boston Early Education Center. The plan will be presented Wednesday to the mayor-appointed Boston School Committee, which must approve the closures, according to the Globe.

'Our public education dollars should be going to serving students and delivering outcomes,' Wu said during a press briefing, according to the Globe, 'rather than keeping open half empty buildings or schools that are too small.'

<h3>The enrollment numbers</h3>

District officials pointed to falling enrollment driven by low birthrates and a decline in immigration. Over the last 25 years, BPS enrollment has dropped by more than 25 percent, and in the last two years alone it has fallen by 3,000 students, according to district officials cited by the Globe. Monday's proposal is the fourth wave of closures and reconfigurations in recent years and is part of an effort to close almost 20 schools.

Charlestown High's building has space for 1,000 students, but enrollment is down to 559, and enrollment in grades 7 through 12 has dropped by nearly one-third in three years, the Globe reported. Superintendent Mary Skipper said nearly 80 percent of the school's students this year do not live in Charlestown and that their average commute is nearly 5 miles.

Administrators plan to move a different high school into the Charlestown High building by fall 2028 so that it does not sit empty, Wu said, according to the Globe. The report did not name which school would move in.

Greater Egleston, in Roxbury, serves students ages 16 to 21 seeking an alternative to a traditional high school. With 76 students in grades 10 through 12, it is the lowest-enrolled standalone alternative school in Boston, administrators said. Its enrollment is higher than last year but less than half the 182 students it had in 2016, according to state data cited by the Globe.

In East Boston, officials said the decision was driven in part by a 25 percent drop over the past decade in the number of elementary school students in the neighborhood, which already led the district to close two of the center's classrooms in 2025. The center, which serves prekindergarten through grade 1, had 139 students last year.

<h3>Relocations and grade changes</h3>

The plan would also move three schools. Boston Green Academy in Brighton would move in fall 2028 to the former South Boston High School building on G Street after a renovation. Boston International High School and Newcomers Academy in Dorchester and the Boston Adult Technical Academy in the Back Bay would move to the Cleveland Building on Charles Street in Dorchester for the next school year, according to the Globe.

The School Committee does not need to vote on the Boston Green Academy move because it is an in-district Horace Mann charter school, the School Department said. The committee also does not vote on grade reconfigurations.

Those reconfigurations would remove seventh and eighth grades from the Hurley K-8 School in Roxbury and the Kilmer K-8 School in West Roxbury by fall 2028; current seventh and eighth graders would graduate as planned. Officials are exploring adding seventh and eighth grades to Boston Arts Academy and Fenway High School for fall 2028, the Globe reported. The changes continue a decade-long shift toward schools that serve either prekindergarten to grade 6 or grades 7 to 12; the city eliminated its last middle school last year.

If approved, the recommendations would bring the number of city public schools to 97, with the intention of closing two more by the end of the decade, officials said.

<h3>Protest in Charlestown</h3>

About 20 protesters gathered outside Charlestown High on Monday afternoon. At 3:20 p.m., Skipper walked out of the school flanked by two Boston police officers as protesters followed and chanted 'Shame on you,' the Globe reported. 'The emotion is extremely strong right now,' Skipper told reporters afterward, adding that the city would ensure students from closing schools find seats elsewhere.

Students marched into the building chanting 'save our school,' and parents joined them, according to the Globe. Tina Goodnow said her son, a 10th grader, had improved in attendance, grades and social interaction since transferring to the school. Kelly Tucker, a 1981 Charlestown High graduate with two children there, including a son in the special education program, said, 'The best special ed program in the district is going to be shut down, and it's not right.'

The district has not published, in the materials reviewed, where Charlestown High's special education students would be placed. That question, and which school would move into the Charlestown building, are likely to come up when the School Committee takes up the plan Wednesday.