When Boston University’s 20-year contract with the Chelsea School District expires next July, so too will one of former President John Silber’s most celebrated ideas — and both sides say they are ready for the separation.
“I think there is a feeling on the sides of both parties that substantial progress has been made and the city is now able to manage the school district the way it should be managed,” Chelsea city manager Jay Ash said.
The partnership granted BU complete control of a failing school district struggling to educate a large population of non-native English speakers, said Chelsea School District superintendent Thomas Kingston.
The arrangement, proposed by the Chelsea School Committee in 1988, established a partnership with BU similar to one Silber had previously pitched to the Boston Public School District.
Kingston said the district began transitioning to local management 18 months ago and called the end of this partnership “appropriate.”
“Chelsea is a reformed government — we have an intelligent and informed school board,” he said. “It is time for full local control.”
BU has invested roughly $16 million in the Chelsea school district — including $3.2 million in scholarships awarded to Chelsea high school seniors – over the two decades. Funding for the scholarships will continue after next year, said president’s office spokesman Kevin Carleton.
The initial 10-year contract granted BU full control of Chelsea’s five elementary schools and a high school to increase the quality of education in a district ridden with poverty and crime. The contract was renewed in 1998 and 2003 to turn around a school district that was the “lowest in what they wanted high and the highest in what they wanted low,” Carleton said.
Because the contract was scheduled to expire June 30, 2008, the end of the partnership came as no surprise to the district.
“For the past four-and-a-half years we’ve been working for this point,” Carleton said. “There is every expectation that a relationship will continue, but the district is ready to do this on its own.”
He said the program gave participants not only experience developing theories used in the classroom but also a chance to “see how they work on the streets.”
School of Education interim dean Charles Glenn said the relationship gave participants a chance to be a part the real world.
“BU has been pulling back quietly,” Glenn said. “It has been a gradual transition.”
