City Year Helps Ready New Mary Lyon Elementary School For Students' Arrival

City Year Boston and Bain Capital took on a beautification project in July at the Mary Lyon Elementary School, with 200-plus volunteers coming together to help prepare the school for its first year in the upper building.

City Year Helps Ready New Mary Lyon Elementary School For Students' Arrival

One of the Boston Public Schools' (BPS) longtime partners has helped shape a beautiful new beginning for the Mary Lyon Elementary School community.

City Year Boston took on a beautification project this summer in Brighton at Lyon Elementary. City Year arranged for 200-plus volunteers from Bain Capital to participate in transformative days of service in July and August.

With Lyon Elementary moving across the street into the former Mary Lyon Pilot High School in school year 2026-27, BPS contacted City Year to City Year last spring to see if they would be interested in helping support the community in this process. City Year enthusiastically agreed and worked closely with the new Lyon Elementary Principal Jackie Carolan on a project that reflected the school’s commitment to creating a positive and welcoming environment for its students and staff.

Murals that align with Lyon Elementary's core values highlight the design of the school's new space. Between the paw prints scattered throughout the building to the ROAR (Respect, Optimism, Achievement, Responsibility) mural along the back wall of the cafeteria, the school’s pride is on display for all to see. Students who visit the library will read, learn, and grow under a mural depicting one of Boston’s most iconic sights: the Charles River Esplanade.

Prior to starting their work, City Year volunteers heard from Carolan why the project is so important to the community. “This is a big year for us, at the Lyon,” she explained, “The Lyon was established in 1992 by Dr. Mary Nash. ... She pioneered inclusion in this school before inclusion was a thing. And now we see the district adopting inclusion across all the schools. With our move to the upper building, it gave us the opportunity to add K0 (three-year-old PreK). The work that you will do today will make this building feel like a fresh start, and a really exciting beginning for our school.”

The volunteers also worked hard to beautify the exterior and interior of the building. In addition to painting murals, they built outdoor furniture and packed supply kits for the students.

We are deeply grateful for the support of Bain Capital and City Year. Their time and effort helps ensure Lyon Elementary students, staff and families will return to a welcoming environment that they will call home for years to come.

MTEL & Licensure Support

Overview

As part of our overarching strategy to cultivate and retain quality educators for the young people of Boston, the Boston Public Schools Office of Human Resources is committed to supporting educators who need support passing an MTEL, but especially all educators who have been hired on waivers and those participating in BPS Teacher Pipeline Programs (TPP), including: Bilingual Education/ Accelerated Community to Teacher Program (BE/ACTT), BPS Teaching Fellowship (BPSTF), and Bilingual Inclusive Education Program (BIE). The Licensure Support Specialists prioritize these educators because their development and retention align with BPS’s commitment to recruiting, cultivating, and retaining a diverse workforce. Eligibility for these supports is contingent upon several factors, which are outlined below.

Individualized Support

Licensure Support Specialists

Every BPS educator that is hired on a waiver and each TPP participant is assigned a Licensure Support Specialist who will hold on site visits and virtual support meetings. During these meetings and throughout the year, Specialists will:

Provide educators with one-on-one guidance, resources, and planning support
Support schools in tracking educators' progress toward licensure
Serve as a point of contact for licensure-related questions

Targeted Support

Additional support for educators hired on waivers and BPS TPP participants includes: 240 Tutoring accounts and MTEL vouchers (and entrance into MTEL preparation courses contingent upon funding). Eligibility for these resources are explained in the full MTEL Support policy, here.

Licensure Support Specialists

Ayelia Ali

Regions 1-4

Jessica Sáenz

Regions 5-8

If you are not hired on a waiver or a part of the Teacher Pipeline Programs, our team is still available to help!

Please reach out to us via email at licensuresupport@bostonpublicschools.org.

Resources

MTEL Requirements

The Communication & Literacy Skills MTEL is required for all licenses. It is comprised of two subtests that can be taken together or separately.
- Communications & Literacy: Reading
- Communications & Literacy: Writing
Required content-specific MTELs differ based on the license being pursued.

Resources:

Licensure Lookup Tool

List of required content-specific MTELs by license

List of approved alternative tests