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Roslindale K-8 Pathway

Background

Over the past few years, Boston Public Schools has made a concerted effort to respond to families' requests for more accessibility to K-8 options for their children throughout the city of Boston, opening new K-8 schools and merging other schools to create seamless transitions for students. Due to facility and other constraints, Roslindale has remained a neighborhood without a K-8 school, and families have expressed a desire to strengthen the ties between the six Roslindale elementary schools and the Irving Middle School.

After numerous meetings with families from the seven schools in Roslindale, and many efforts to respond to extended learning, equitable access, and academic quality issues, the Superintendent proposed an admissions policy that would provide priority admissions to the Irving Middle School for 5th grade students who attend the one of the six elementary schools in Roslindale.

The Roslindale K-8 Pathway

On Wednesday, March 10, 2010 the Boston School Committee voted to approve the Superintendent's recommended admission policy which would provide priority admission to the Irving Middle School for 5th grade students who attend the six elementary schools in Roslindale:

This means that students from these six schools would be designated as part of a Roslindale school feeder pathway, which provides a priority, but does not require these students to attend the Irving Middle School. This change still requires families to participate in the school choice lottery process, as this model is not an automatic feeder structure. This second highest priority follows sibling preference, which is the first and highest priority for enrollment. If availability remains after the selection by Roslindale elementary school students (who may come from the entire West Zone), students living within the walk zone of the Irving will retain a priority for the first 50% of seats. The second 50% of seats would be open to students throughout the West Zone who had not attended one of the six schools.

Please note that this proposal makes no change to the assignment process of the six Roslindale elementary schools that serve the entire West Zone; they will continue to follow the regular school choice policies for the Boston Public Schools.

BPS believes that this change will create stronger relationships between the Roslindale schools as well as an exciting pathway choice for the diverse community of families in the six elementary schools.