Another building “emergency,” this one at the EMK
The health careers high school, with more than 90 percent Black and Brown students, protests placement in an under-sized elementary building
By Alain Jehlen
Yet another crisis over Boston Public Schools buildings serving largely Black and Brown students: Educators, students, and parents of the Edward M. Kennedy School for Health Careers are blasting the decision to put its 200 juniors and seniors in the vacant Endicott Elementary School building near Franklin Park.
“I recognize that EMK is not an exam school that services predominantly White and Asian students, but we are a college preparatory high school successfully preparing Black and Brown students for the Health professions,” said Head of School Dr. Caren Walker Gregory in a pointed message to central office administrators.
She laid out why the Endicott does not have what EMK needs:
Not enough classrooms, no science laboratory, no gym, no auditorium, no special education or nurse’s office, no space for the psychologist, social worker, family liaison or other non-teaching staff, and other deficiencies.
Cassellius: Yes, it’s bad, but we can’t do better
School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, reporting to the School Committee September 1, agreed the building doesn’t come close to providing what EMK students need but said the administration hasn’t been able to find anything better.
She said she and other staff had made 50 phone calls looking for better space for the EMK and visited “multiple buildings” around the city, but turned up nothing usable.
The school had expected to use space at Wentworth Institute for its junior and senior students this year, but that space “suddenly” became unavailable because of construction, according to School Committee Vice Chair Michael O’Neill. Cassellius said the Wentworth space will be available in the future.
In past years, EMK students used space at Northeastern University. The pandemic put an end to that, officials said.
Students, educators, and a parent who spoke during the public comment period demanded that the BPS administration give them a fixed date for when they could leave the Endicott. Educator Sean Gray said EMK was housed “temporarily” at Northeastern for more than a decade.
For years, “they promised us bigger space because it was always crammed,” said student Jorge Lluberes. “Since freshman year they promised us bigger opportunities. But they never really gave us that because — I honestly don’t know why. I don’t think it’s fair. Promises should never be broken like that.”
Educator Angela Cappucci said she was “super-excited when I met Dr. Cassellius as the new superintendent. I was very excited about ‘JUICE — Joy, Unity, Inclusion, Collaboration, Equity’ [Cassellius’ slogan]. But nothing like that has happened. There is no JUICE for EMK.”
On top of the space problems, there’s the location: One of the school’s main strengths is internships in Boston’s Longwood medical area, but the Endicott is several miles away. It’s also a 40-minute trip on public transportation to EMK’s lower school campus in Mission Hill. Educators said that will make school-wide extracurricular activities impossible.
Parent council Co-chair Amy Wyeth wrote to the School Committee, “I have heard mayoral and City Council candidates express desires to turn Madison Park High School into the type of professional, internship-heavy learning environment that EMK already is. Why not encourage and support the existing model? … [O]ur students and staff deserve the same careful attention and resources that this Committee devotes to the city’s exam schools.”
She added a chart listing the many ways the Endicott is a bad location for EMK:
