New school year kicked off at Brighton High

BRIGHTON -- On the morning before school opens in Boston, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, members of the Boston School Committee and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant gathered at Brighton High School to announce that Boston's schools are ready to open. Schools open for the city's 63,000 students on Wednesday, September 4.

"This is my 10th opening of schools as Mayor," said Mayor Menino, "and I'm just as excited about this year. There is a new enthusiasm for the school year and our hard work is paying off. Our graduation rate is up, more students are passing the MCAS and the top teachers want to work in our schools. We're ready to build upon the progress that we've already made."

Today's event took place in the school's new library to recognize some of the hard work taking place at the school. Last June Brighton High was selected by the Department of Education as one of 15 state-wide Compass Schools, an honor given to those schools who have exceeded their improvement expectation on the MCAS exams.

Superintendent Payzant said that there is a lot of energy in the schools this year and that he hopes to build on the success that the district has demonstrated in recent years.

"I am filled with great hope and confidence as we start the new school year," he said. "As we focus our efforts on the six learning essentials in Focus on Children II, we realize that our goals are clear. We must work together to not only continue building on the success that we have seen so far, but to accelerate the rate of improvement and ensure that all of our students achieve."

A major focus this school year will be on high school reform. Mayor Menino announced that the US Department of Education has awarded the Boston Public Schools a $3.9 million grant to support the transformation of nine of the city high schools into smaller learning communities. The grant money will be used to help the nine schools support their small learning communities, expand tutoring services and extra help programs for students, and help with the efforts to increase mentoring by area college students, businesses and community partners.

Also new this year in two district high schools (English High and Hyde Park High) is the implementation of longer classes to increase instruction in the core subjects of math and English. The faculty at the three schools made a major commitment towards improving instruction in these areas by voting to allow for the longer classes starting this year. This is also the second year of implementation of the district's five year $1.8 million Carnegie Grant that will help high schools improve literacy and create a more positive climate for learning..

Other highlights of the New Year are:

New high schools:

New Tech Boston Academy - focus on helping students learn real world computer skills in addition to meeting academic requirements

Boston Community Leadership Academy (formerly Boston High) - focus on getting students involved with and connected to their community in addition to maintaining high academic standards

Class size reduction:
$4.1 million for this school year - and $17.5 million since 1998 - to continue to reduce the student to teacher ratios in all schools at all grade levels to allow students to receive greater individual attention

Family Resource Centers:
The school district's three Parent Information Centers have been transformed into Family Resource Centers that will look at issues facing the whole family and provide support and services to ensure that families are getting the help they need to help their student achieve

New Teachers:
This year there were over 5,500 applicants for 300 positions allowing the district to select the most qualified individual for each position