Johnson revises plan to alter school district after protests

3 are taken off list for closing

School Superintendent Carol R. Johnson - conceding to protests by students, parents, and teachers - reversed her recommendations last night to close three Boston public schools and also changed other aspects of her massive overhaul plan for the city's system.

In a presentation to the School Committee, Johnson said a strong commitment from parents to work to improve the Elihu Greenwood Elementary School in Hyde Park persuaded her to keep it open, but said she remained concerned about a lack of teamwork among staff.

She also recommended merging the Academy of Public Service and the Noonan Business Academy at the Dorchester Education Complex, instead of closing the two schools. In each case, she said staff and students made strong arguments to give the five-year-old schools another try. The merged entities will preserve key missions of those schools.

"We were truly impressed with the tremendous amount of work and effort," Johnson told the committee last night, shortly before an overflowing crowd of students, parents, and adults broke into applause.

Johnson modified her plan, which she originally presented on Oct. 1, after holding a whirlwind of 18 meetings at the affected schools. The original plan called for closing approximately a dozen schools and leaving five buildings empty, while the others would have been used to expand popular schools or to house new programs.

As part of that plan, she also suggested creating two single-gender academies tailored to different learning styles among male and female students in grades 6-12.

Johnson said last night that she wanted to further investigate the idea in light of a state law that prevents public schools from denying student admission based on gender.

She said the district may seek a change in law if local and state school officials cannot find a legal provision allowing the single-gender schools.

In another change, Johnson scrapped a student assignment proposal that would have given greater preference to students who live near the schools. Councilor Chuck Turner and other community activists worried that the change might decrease access to students who live far away from the schools they wanted to attend.

The School Committee is scheduled to vote on the plan on Wednesday. Originally, the board was scheduled to vote last night but decided last week on a postponement as members sought additional information.

John McDonough, the school district's chief financial officer, updated the overall cost savings of the plan over five years, raising the estimate from $13.8 million to $27.8 million, which includes new transportation projections. But the savings pale in comparison to what the district expects to pay in increases in salaries and benefits alone next year, estimated at $30 million.

Several students from the public service academy said they were happy they could stay at the Dorchester complex, but were sad at the prospect of losing the school's name in its merger.

Other students at Odyssey Academy at the South Boston Education Complex, however, were disappointed they lost their battle to save their school.

"Our teachers are like our second parents," said Luis Roman, a 15-year-old sophomore who lives within blocks of the school.

But staff members at Noonan Business wanted to make it clear to students at Odyssey, the only high school to close under the plan, that they can have a second home at the Dorchester complex.

"Our doors are open to them," said John Evans, a head of discipline at Noonan and the football coach.

The plan is in response to a City Hall edict to cut millions of dollars in spending as the district faces escalating costs of salaries, health insurance, transportation, and food.

At the same time, state and federal aid has failed to keep pace with inflation.

James Vaznis can be reached at jvaznis@globe.com.