Boston Public Schools

Parents at the Curley School hold a fundraiser on Saturday afternoon to try to raise $200,000 to convert an old asphalt "field" at the school into a three-season, multi-use playing field. The original goal was $250,000, but somebody recently and anonymously donated $50,000 toward the goal.

NBC News reports on the turnaround of the Orchard Gardens K-8 pilot schools 10 years after it opened.

Johnson discusses the Marathon and her decision to resign.

Boston School Superintendent Carol Johnson announced today she will leave at the end of the school year, due in large part to her husband's death last month:

This has been a difficult decision, but as you aware, the loss of my husband and best friend Matthew last month has been life-altering for me and my entire family.

Johnson has served for six years:

We have improved our high school graduation rates and MCAS performance; we have brought hundreds of students back who had dropped out of school, and are closing achievement gaps. We have expanded academic support for our English Language Learners and students with disabilities, and we have increased the number of quality school choices through our turnaround, in-district charter and innovation schools.

BPS reports greater vigilance at middle schools today due to a "vague threat" on Twitter against both an unnamed middle school and "a television personality in New York City." Both School and Boston police are patrolling local middle schools, just in case.

BPS has forwarded a copy of the text local principals are using for robo-calls to parents:

The Mission Hill Gazette reports Fenway High School's move into the old Mission Hill K-8 school - which was itself moved to JP to make room for the high school - has been delayed until the 2014/2015 school year because of issues related to the fact the building isn't currently big enough for a high school.

The first round of lottery assignments for students in Boston Public Schools went out last week. Some parents were overjoyed that their children would be going to the schools they preferred; others (probably, including the lady whose child didn't get into his first 9 choices) were faced with disappointment.

But, worry not, parents! You have another option - Simply move!

The online version of Boston Magazine has a column by Steve Poftak about a Westwood Realtor(TM!) who has come up with a novel way of getting more business.

Did your child not get into the school of their choice?

Every school is a GREAT CHOICE in WESTWOOD!

The best decision I made 10 years ago was moving to Westwood with one of the best schools in the state and not having to worry about school placement and entrance exams.

Clever marketing? Or, rudest thing you've ever heard of?

Video by teachers and students at the Dever-McCormack School on Columbia Point.

UPDATE, 8:42 p.m.: Our phone rang and the kidlet picked it up. As soon as she began jumping and yelling, I knew: School is canceled in Boston tomorrow. Barring any more snow days, this means Boston Public Schools will get out for the year on June 28. All Boston Centers for Youth and Families sites will be open tomorrow, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Somerville announced this afternoon it's cancelled school, but America's Toughest City says school is still on. Parents who do get their kids to school will no doubt get really, really annoyed if they get robo-calls at noon again that absent kids won't be marked absent.

Parent Imperfect describes the choice his daughter faces now that she's gotten into both BLS and BLA:

Connie's Mom, to her unending credit, will challenge Connie to remember that both schools have the same curriculum and to think about who she'll be going to school with and to imagine how she will feel in the two schools. She'll do all that challenging, and then she'll listen to what Connie wants and we'll make a decision ... hopefully the right one. Help!

The School Committee tonight voted to approval an overhaul of student assignment for elementary schools that will give parents a choice of six schools - at least two of which have to have among the highest standardized test scores in the city.

The new system, which will go into effect in the 2014-2015 school year, will end the city's current three-zone system - and walk zones.

Students already in the system will be grandfathered in their current schools.

• Supt. Carol Johnson's letter on student assignment
• Profile of Peng Shi - the MIT grad student who came up with the new system.
• Home-based assignment proposals
• Partial victory for those seeking a fair assignment policy - One parent's reaction.

Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, explains his thinking on longer school days.

An advisory committee tonight approved a proposal to replace the current school-assignment zones with a new system in which each family gets a choice of up to six schools guaranteed to include two that are at the top of standardized-test scores as well as schools within a mile of their homes.

But for now, Boston Public School students can rejoice: No school on Tuesday.

Boston Public Schools are shut. All extracurricular and sporting events canceled as well. The city is opening community centers in Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, East Boston and Mission Hill for parents who aren't as lucky as their kids to drop them off for the day.

At least, in Boston, for BPS kiddies.

The Globe reports that Queon Jackson, acting headmaster at Madison Park High School, was suspended after school officials learned the feds are investigating his alleged role in a credit-card fraud ring. The Globe reports he admitted to sufficient facts for a guilty finding in a drug and domestic-violence case in 2000. Superintendent Carol Johnson appointed him in September.

Last year, O'Bryant Headmaster Rodney Jackson quit his job after news surfaced he was on probation for punching and kicking his wife.

Innocent, etc.

The Dorchester Reporter gets a copy of his letter to the advisory committee looking at changes in how to assign students in lower grades to public schools.

All of Boston's minority legislators and city councilors today asked a committee looking at ways to change the way students are assigned to public schools to hold off a planned vote next week on a recommended method.

City Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester, Mattapan) today seeks approval from his fellow councilors for a hearing to look at borrowing $115 million to build a new high school on the grounds of the old Mattapan State Hospital.

Yancey has pushed the idea, with no success, for more than a decade, arguing the city is failing its students without a brand-new high school and that the city is wasting its money renovating existing high schools in old buildings, such as the Quincy School.

Because Boston doesn't have enough quality schools, the External Advisory Committee on School Choice tonight released three proposals to try to give as many elementary-school students a shot at entry to one of the ones it does have: A proposal to split the city into ten assignment zones and two that would do away with zones altogether but let parents apply to either six or nine schools that include at least two that have standardized test stores near the top of city rankings.

Whichever plan is approved by the School Committee, possibly next month, would replace the current three-zone assignment system in the 2015-15 school year.

Whichever plan is picked would preserve sibling preference.

• Ten-zone proposal
• Home-based proposals

The Dorchester Reporter details a proposal by City Councilor Frank Baker (Dorchester) to create a School Committee consisting of a mix of three elected members and four appointed by the mayor. The Reporter notes the proposal would need the signature of the mayor, no fan of Baker's or elected school-committee members, before going to the state legislature.

David Bernstein thinks the guy has a point and maybe should consider running against the incumbent mayor next year.

Yeah, well, about that ....

The Globe reports Boston School Police, who do not have guns, but who, of course, want them, have a radio system that cannot communicate directly with actual Boston Police - which has its own dedicated school unit. In an emergency today, school guards would have to call their own dispatcher, who would then contact Boston Police.

Mayor Menino plans to ask the state legislature for permission to eliminate the current limit on BPS charter schools - which could mean ceding day-to-day operations to private non-profit groups - and give them the right to serve only particular zones, rather than having to accept students from across the city.

In a sweeping proposal that would also let the city extend hours and and send more resources to schools that are only almost failing, the mayor proposes requiring all charter schools - including those not overseen at all by the city - to set aside seats for students with disabilities and students whose first language is not English. He says this would "level the playing field" between city schools and private charter schools.