Boston superintendent requests delay in changing school assignment zones

The goal, she said, is to deliver a revised set of recommendations to the board in the fall that will hopefully appease public concern over equal access to quality schools. Those recommendations, she said, would include a detailed improvement plan for each zone along with a financial plan to execute the improvements.

She will then follow up those recommendations in the winter with a multiyear strategy to implement the plan.

The delay follows months of controversy about the proposal, including allegations that it would lead to an inequitable distribution of potentially-failing schools among the five zones, particularly in the neighborhoods of Roxbury and Dorchester. Concerns also have been raised about reduced access to popular programs, such as bilingual schools and advanced work classes.

The proposal was a response to a directive by Mayor Thomas M. Menino last year to redraw the student assignment zones so $10 million can be eliminated from the district's skyrocketing transportation budget, which stands at about $76 million this year.

Before the meeting started, dozens of adults and young children walked in a circle outside the School Department's headquarters on Court Street, holding signs bearing such messages as "Demand Equal Quality Education."

One woman yelled through a megaphone, "The five-zone plan has got to go. Say no!" And the crowd chanted back, " Say no!"