West Roxbury Education Complex
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West Roxbury Educational Complex (formerly West Roxbury High School) was a
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
complex within
Boston Public Schools Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts. Leadership The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the ...
located in the
West Roxbury West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the town of Brookline to the north, the cities and towns of Newton and Needham to the northwest and the town of Dedham to the ...
neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. (1976 – 2019)


History

The School was located on a 14 acre site near the 19th Century site of
Brook Farm Brook Farm, also called the Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and EducationFelton, 124 or the Brook Farm Association for Industry and Education,Rose, 140 was a utopian experiment in communal living in the United States in the 1840s. It was fo ...
, and in the watershed of the upper
Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...
. The school was designed by architects Antonio DeCastro and Samuel Glaser. It was built by The Jackson Construction Company of Dedham. The school location was built adjacent to a large wetland, Saint Joseph’s Cemetery, the former VFW Parkway Drive In and the former Gardner Street Landfill. The landfill was later capped and became
Millennium Park Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in 2004 and intended to celebrate the third millennium, is a prominent civic center nea ...
. An island within the wetland is accessible by a boardwalk from the shore behind the school where the
Boston Schoolyard Initiative Boston Schoolyard Initiative (BSI) is a public private partnership that works to transform the conditions of public schoolyards of Boston Public Schools. BSI, in collaboration with private funders, the City of Boston and Boston Public Schools, uses ...
built an Outdoor Classroom and science education site in collaboration with the Urban Science Academy. Boston Mayor Kevin White announced plans to build a new high school in West Roxbury in 1973.   A groundbreaking ceremony was held on January 7, 1974. The school opened to students in September 1976.  Followed by a semi-formal dedication ceremony on May 19, 1977.  In 1982, cracks appeared and bricks began falling of sections of the school.  An investigation revealed an additive substance called Sarabond in the mortar used when the school was built was defective and causing the problem.  A suit was filed against Dow Chemical Company, manufacturer of the masonry additive. The city won a 5.5. million settlement in July, 1987.  Most of the money was used to repair the damage which changed the appearance of the school with a two brick-color exterior by 1989. In the fall of 2005, West Roxbury High School was renamed West Roxbury Educational Complex, and was divided into four schools: Media Communications Technology High School, Parkway Academy of Technology and Health, Urban Science Academy and Brook Farm Business & Service Career Academy. Funding was being provided by grants from the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation. In the fall of 2004, the West Roxbury Education Complex's four schools were merged into two schools. Brook Farm Academy & Media Communications Technology High School were merged into one school, West Roxbury Academy, while Urban Science Academy and parkway Academy of Technology and Health were merged into one school at the complex. In December 2018 the Boston School Committee voted to close the school after Inspectional Services Department deemed the building unsafe. The schools’ student bodies were dispersed to other high schools throughout the district.


Notable alumni

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Manny Delcarmen Manuel Delcarmen (born February 16, 1982) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He previously pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2005 through 2010, mainly for the Boston Red Sox; he was a member of Boston's 2007 World Seri ...
(Class of 2000) -
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
player * Ron Stone (Class of 1989) - former
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
player *
Patrice O'Neal Patrice Lumumba Malcolm O'Neal (December 7, 1969 – November 29, 2011) was an American comedian and actor. He was known for his stand-up comedy career and his regular guest appearances on the talk show ''Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn'' and the ...
(Class of 1988) - Comedian, radio personality and actor


Athletics

The West Roxbury Baseball Team won the 2015 Boston City Championship for the first time since 2002 under Coach Cliff Wilson.
The West Roxbury Football 1984 Team was the first Boston Public School to win a state title.
The West Roxbury Boys Baseball Team won the Boston City South championship in 2008
The West Roxbury Football Team won the Boston City North championship in 2006
Longtime coach Leo Sybertz led the West Roxbury Football Team to 5 Super Bowl wins, 2 players who went on to NFL careers, 202 wins, still a record in the City League, 13 league championships and 10 playoff appearances in 31 years as head coach. /sup> From 1983-1996 the West Roxbury(Westie) High Football team enjoyed almost 15 years of sustained success at the division 5 level. During that 13 year span West Roxbury played in 7 Superbowls, winning four. The wins were in 1983 14 Nantucket 0, 1988, 26 Greater Lowell 6, 1993 30 Greater Lawrence 26, 1995 34 Greater Lawrence 8; the losses were in 1992, Greater Lowell 10 Westie 8, 1994 East Boston(Eastie) 18, Westie 14, 1996, Greater Lowell 21, Westie 6.


References

https://www.wgbh.org/news/the-road-to-closure https://dnarchitects.com/education.html https://digital.americanancestors.org/digital/collection/p15869coll18/id/37251 https://archive.org/stream/cityrecord1981bost/cityrecord1981bost_djvu.txt https://apnews.com/article/d5cb1f6a18fa20c4c5e9aa84b14d44c8 West Roxbury High School, Murphy School Masonry Repair (P#3990). Capital Construction project files, 4300.001. City of Boston Archives. https://archives.cityofboston.gov/repositories/2/archival_objects/9735


External links

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Boston Public Schools Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts. Leadership The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the ...
{{authority control High schools in Boston Public high schools in Massachusetts