About a hundred Roxbury Prep students, families and supporters took to city hall Thursday to call on the Boston Planning & Development Agency to put the proposed 361 Belgrade Ave. project on the BPDA agenda for a vote.
“This week, our scholars took final exams and today, right after them, we headed here. But we should not be here,” said Shradha Patel, Roxbury Prep High School’s founder. “We should be reviewing data and getting ready for AP Exams in May. We are all supposed to be inside right now, at the BPDA meeting.”
Despite community support–including the support of District 5 City Councilman Ricardo Arroyo–the BPDA has not placed the project on the agenda for a vote. The proposed high school at 361 Belgrade Ave. has followed the Article 80 small project review process, in which more than 85% of the public comments filed were supportive of the project.
“The people inside this building have the power to put this unjust situation to rest,” said Yinessa Baez outside of City Hall. “They have the power to see us, to hear us,” said the 12th grader who is headed to Brown University in the fall.