School committee OK's Kennedy name change

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

The Boston School Committee tonight unanimously approved renaming a high school after the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in recognition of his commitment to both education and health care.

Under the proposal, Health Careers Academy, a 200-student school located on the campus of Northeastern University, would go by the name of the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers: A Horace Mann Public Charter School. Mayor Thomas M. Menino recommended the name change, sending a request last week to the school's board of trustees.

The name change won't become official until its approved by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The state has some jurisdiction on the school name because the academy is one of the state's charter schools, which operates with some level of both state and local oversight.

The academy would become the third school in Boston to honor a member of the famed Kennedy clan. Jamaica Plain has the John F. Kennedy Elementary School, named after the former president , and East Boston is home to the Patrick J. Kennedy Elementary School, which honors the grandfather of the former president and senator.