Boston School Committee approves expansion of Kilmer Elementary to K-8 school

BOSTON - The Boston School Committee voted at its November 1 meeting to expand the Joyce Kilmer Elementary School in West Roxbury to a Kindergarten through grade 8 (K-8) school beginning next year. The school will occupy two buildings: its current site at 35 Baker Street for Kindergarten through grade 3, and the former Lyndon Elementary School building (now vacant) on Russett Road for grades 4 through 8.

The school will add a Grade 6 in September 2007 and continue to expand each year until they are serving students through Grade 8.

The Kilmer will become the district's twentieth K-8 program, offering families continuity through the elementary and middle school years. In 1998, only three such programs existed in the Boston Public Schools.

The Superintendent formally recommended the Kilmer K-8 expansion at the beginning of the school year, but the School Committee did not vote at that time. Instead, the Committee directed the Superintendent to hold an additional round of community meetings at the school to discuss the proposal further with parents, staff, and neighbors. After several meetings about the matter, the community reached a general consensus on a proposal, and Superintendent Contompasis resubmitted his recommendation to the Committee.

The Superintendent and the Kilmer community will work in the coming months to resolve several key operational issues around the expansion, including developing a comprehensive transition team/plan to oversee the process, ensuring that facilities and teaching tools at both sites are appropriate to the age groups using them, and determining the leadership framework of the upper school.

The Kilmer Elementary School currently serves approximately 285 students in K1 (for four-year-olds) through grade 5. Last year, Boston Magazine named the Kilmer one of the top 100 elementary schools in eastern Massachusetts. For more information about the school, visit http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/schools/profiles.asp.

The Boston Public Schools serves approximately 57,000 pre-kindergarten through grade 12 students in 14