Boston Public Schools is weighing a plan to shut down Charlestown High School by June 2028, pointing to an enrollment slide that has left the building far emptier than it used to be. The district says the school's population dropped from 820 students to 559 over the past three years, a decline of roughly a third, and that slump is driving the closure recommendation.
Superintendent Mary Skipper told the Charlestown school community in an email that the district plans to bring the proposal before the Boston School Committee at its meeting Wednesday, according to The Boston Globe. She called it “difficult news” in that message. The School Committee is expected to vote on the closure plan on Dec. 2, per Skipper.
Under the proposal, Charlestown High would stop enrolling seventh graders starting next fall, while students currently in 11th and 12th grade who are eligible would be allowed to graduate from the school through June 2028. Other students at the school would get priority for registration elsewhere for the 2028-2029 school year, Skipper said.
City Hall and the Council Respond
A spokesperson for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said the city was preparing a statement on the proposal but did not immediately offer further detail. City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, who represents the area, said she has submitted a proposal for a council hearing to examine the closure plan.
Coletta Zapata said people had just learned of the proposal and were shocked, with many still asking questions about what it would mean for their families. The pushback echoes an earlier fight over the school's future: in January 2022, Boston Public Schools leaders unanimously rejected a separate proposal, this one from a group of parents, to convert Charlestown High into an “innovation school” with more flexibility over staffing, curriculum and scheduling, as reported by the Boston Herald. That plan drew heavy opposition at the time, with 130 of the 187 public comments submitted to the district against it.
A Troubled Recent History
After a three-member screening committee rejected the innovation school idea in early 2022, then-Superintendent Brenda Cassellius announced an intervention team to examine student opportunities and outcomes at Charlestown High, according to CommonWealth Beacon. At that time, the school had a graduation rate of just 55 percent, with only 16 percent of students meeting expectations on the MCAS English exam and 28 percent in math, the outlet reported. Current academic performance figures were not available.
Part of a Citywide and Statewide Pattern
Charlestown High's struggles sit inside a much larger enrollment crunch. Boston public school and charter enrollment fell by just over 6,000 students between 2019 and 2024, according to the Boston Indicators analysis, which also found more than 11,000 Boston students now attend out-of-district charter schools and that the city's school-aged population has shrunk by almost 28,000 even as its overall population has grown since 1980.
Statewide, Massachusetts public school enrollment hit a 30-year low, and half of nearly 1,600 schools assessed were operating at less than 80 percent capacity, amounting to roughly 275,000 empty seats, the Globe reported in a separate piece. More than three dozen Massachusetts public schools have closed or consolidated since the pandemic disrupted classroom learning, and Boston itself is closing three schools this summer as part of a broader push to eliminate nearly one-fifth of its school buildings.
The trend extends well beyond Massachusetts. Nationally, K-12 enrollment fell from nearly 50.8 million students in 2019 to almost 49.4 million in 2024, a 2.8 percent drop, and is projected to decline further to about 46.9 million by 2031, according to Stateline. More than 1,000 public schools closed nationwide during the 2025-26 school year alone, the outlet reported, with districts from Austin to Cleveland also moving to consolidate buildings as classrooms empty out.
