ANDERSON GUERRO has one question for Mayor Marty Walsh and Laura Perille, his interim Boston Public Schools superintendent: “How would it feel if we took your house and family away?”
That “house” is McCormack Middle School, now proposed for closure and extensive renovations after the 2019-20 academic year. For students like Guerro, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, their Dorchester school is more than its hallways, walls, and whiteboards. It’s a close-knit community that’s been a sanctuary from the turbulence of their young lives.
This is another phase in Walsh’s “BuildBPS,” a $1 billion, 10-year construction plan to reconfigure and update its 125 schools. Meanwhile, McCormack students say they are learning harsh lessons about race, and how gentrification makes them feel unwelcome in their own neighborhoods.