By Seth Daniel
Several advocates who are still frustrated by this summer’s threat to cut the neighborhood buses to Boston Latin School (BLS) and Boston Latin Academy (BLA) are continuing to organize and hope to bring a crowd to the October School Committee meeting.
One of the advocates who spoke loudly about the cut was Jennifer Herlihy of Charlestown, and she is calling upon the scores of exam school parents from Charlestown and East Boston who joined her in fighting against the cut last month. Parents’ objections to the cut did get the neighborhood yellow buses restored in both communities, but there is an understanding that it may be a temporary solution.
That’s not going over well.
“This appears to be a temporary solution based on the Boston Public Schools’ statement about the BLS bus and I want this to be permanent for all neighborhoods,” she wrote to supporters last week. “I will be going to the Boston School Committee during open public comments on Wednesday, October 4, at the Bolling Building in Dudley Square and I need everyone to be there…For everyone that emailed me and asked me what they could do, please come and just stand when I get up to speak so they know how important this is to the Charlestown and East Boston residents.”
The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. at 2300 Washington St. in Roxbury, where the School Department is headquartered.
Parents were blindsided in both communities one month before school started when they learned, contrary to earlier statements from BPS, that the buses had been cut and students – some as young as 12 years old – would have to take the MBTA to the Fenway and Roxbury.
After a rousing campaign by parents, both buses were restored for this school year.
Herlihy said they are grateful to all that got the service restored, including Mayor Martin Walsh. However, she said parents fear it won’t last, and they want to be on record saying that middle schoolers and high schoolers in the two neighborhoods should have transportation services.