Committee approves ninth grade academy for Roxbury site

The Boston School Committee recently approved a plan to create a program for overage students entering ninth grade in need of academic support in a setting outside of a traditional high school. The program will provide these students with targeted assistance and resources in a small school environment.

The proposal adds the program for ninth-grade students to the successful Boston Evening Academy as a day component to the already existing night program. The addition of the day program to the evening school will lead to the creation of the Boston Academy at the Phillis Wheatley Complex in the Dudley Square neighborhood of Roxbury.

Schools Superintendent Thomas Payzant proposed creating a ninth grade academy in November to serve overage eighth-grade students who had not met the district’s benchmarks necessary to be promoted to high school. Discussion with the School Committee and the community led to the proposal to link the ninth grade academy with the existing Boston Evening Academy.