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Boston Green Academy Wins Inaugural Statewide We Declare! Challenge

BPS and City of Boston Announce Completed Upgrades at Otis Elementary School

Boston Public Schools Student Wins State Championship In Wicked Math Year 1

Boston Joins Bloomberg Initiative to Connect Students With Skilled Trades (opens in new window/tab)

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News

Boston Green Academy Wins Inaugural Statewide We Declare! Challenge

BGA's creative interpretation of the Declaration of Independence is named the best of 145 video submissions from 44 school districts across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Boston Green Academy Wins Inaugural Statewide We Declare! Challenge

Boston Public Schools and Boston Green Academy (BGA) celebrate an extraordinary achievement after nearly 40 BGA Grade 8 students were named the featured statewide winners of the inaugural We Declare! iCivics Challenge, a Massachusetts-wide civics competition celebrating America's 250th anniversary.

Led by Grade 8 Humanities and Civics Teacher Olivia Dehm and Teaching Resident Mariana Villegas Suez, BGA students created a video reading and interpreting the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence. Their submission was selected as the top entry among 145 videos submitted by more than 2,100 Grade 8 students from 44 school districts across Massachusetts.

As the John Hancock Award for Excellence in Civic Expression winner, every participating BGA student will receive a $2,500 scholarship upon graduating from high school, totaling nearly $100,000 in scholarships funded through the competition by philanthropist Rob Waldron. BGA also will receive a $2,500 award, and Dehm will receive a $1,000 teacher prize. The winning video will be featured during the Boston Pops July 4 Fireworks Spectacular

"This recognition is really about our students," said Dehm. "Throughout the year, we've challenged them to think critically about what the Declaration of Independence means and how its ideals connect to their own communities. Watching them bring those ideas to life has been incredibly meaningful."

Participation in the project was voluntary. Students selected passages of the Declaration that resonated with them, with many scenes filmed during a field trip to Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound School and others recorded in Boston Green Academy's outdoor classroom, reflecting the school's commitment to sustainability and experiential learning.

Dehm was supported throughout the project by her teaching resident, Mariana Villegas Suez, who helped coach students and supported their civics learning throughout the school year.

At the school's eighth grade Moving Up Ceremony, student Kimberly reflected on the experience.

"Civics taught me a lot, not only about the career path I want to follow but also about our society and how the way we interact with each other can make big changes," she said. "I hope that with the video people from different parts of the country could remember what this country is supposed to believe and fight for."

The award recognizes more than an outstanding video—it celebrates a year of meaningful civic learning, critical thinking, and student leadership, demonstrating the power of young people to engage thoughtfully with history and democracy.

Boston Green Academy Teachers Olivia Dehm (left) and Yeji Son

BPS and City of Boston Announce Completed Upgrades at Otis Elementary School

The City of Boston and BPS are announcing the completion of building upgrades at the James Otis Elementary School in East Boston that will improve student health, classroom comfort, and reduce the school’s carbon emissions.

Boston Public Schools and City of Boston Announce Completed Air Quality, Cooling and Energy Efficiency Upgrades at Otis Elementary School in East Boston

The project sets an example for schools across the nation for improving student health while reducing carbon emissions

BOSTON – June 22, 2026 - The City of Boston and Boston Public Schools (BPS) are announcing the completion of building upgrades at the James Otis Elementary School in East Boston that will improve student health, classroom comfort, and reduce the school’s carbon emissions. This building retrofit is the first of its kind in BPS and sets a national example for reducing exposure to pollution within an environmental justice community.

“The Otis Elementary School students and school community now have a healthier, more comfortable, and more energy efficient building,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “These improvements and investments across the district are critical to ensuring our buildings support the best experience for students and staff, while helping us advance our climate goals.”

Prior to the building upgrade, the 121-year-old Otis Elementary School did not have available electrical system capacity to install air conditioning or fresh air delivery systems. These constraints posed challenges to classroom comfort, indoor air quality, and student health and learning. The Otis Elementary School is located merely two blocks from Logan Airport, Route 1A, and 1-90, resulting in higher levels of pollution exposure compared to other BPS facilities. By upgrading the building’s electrical system capacity, BPS was able to install heat pumps, fresh air delivery systems, HEPA filtration units, improved lighting, weatherization, and water-saving fixtures to introduce cooling into the building while improving the Otis Elementary School’s indoor air quality and energy efficiency.

In April, Mayor Wu announced the release of Boston's 2030 Climate Action Plan, a roadmap for how the City will reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The Otis Elementary School was upgraded through the Renew Boston Trust program, a City initiative to improve energy efficiency and resiliency in municipal buildings. Through Renew Boston Trust’s energy efficiency upgrades, the City is saving $2.3 million a year in taxpayer dollars. While three newly constructed BPS schools are powered without burning fossil fuels on site, the Otis Elementary School is the first BPS facility modernized through a retrofit to no longer rely on fossil fuels. Later this year, the City will finish construction on a geothermal system at the JFK Elementary School in Jamaica Plain. In addition to HVAC systems, the Renew Boston Trust program has also installed solar panel arrays on four schools.

More than half of BPS buildings were built before World War II, and in 2021, only 38 school buildings had cooling systems. Today, after multiple years of sustained capital investment, more than 100 school buildings have cooling systems, with three additional HVAC projects underway and targeted for completion in 2027.

The Otis Elementary School retrofit was made possible through a $5.7 million City investment and a $1.5 million grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Green School Works program. BPS also leveraged $342,000 in Mass Save incentives for the clean energy and energy efficiency upgrades.

“This building upgrade at the Otis Elementary School is a perfect example of how climate action delivers huge benefits to our communities,” said Oliver Sellers-Garcia, Environment Commissioner and Green New Deal Director for the City of Boston. “These community-led solutions improve our children’s health, lower carbon emissions, and ensure every neighborhood can access a more sustainable future.”

“The improvements at the Otis Elementary School reflect our commitment to creating learning environments that meet the needs of students today while preparing our buildings for the changing climate,” said Katherine Walsh, Director of Planning, Engineering, Sustainability, & Environment at Boston Public Schools. “As we continue investing in facilities across Boston Public Schools, our focus remains on ensuring that every student has access to safe, healthy, and high-quality spaces that support teaching and learning during every season.”

“It’s hard for students to learn and for teachers to teach in uncomfortable, poorly ventilated school buildings,” said Ben Downing, CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. “The improvements at Otis Elementary School in East Boston are part of a statewide effort by the Healey-Driscoll Administration and Massachusetts Legislature to modernize local public schools—because our kids and teachers deserve healthy, comfortable, and energy-efficient places to learn and work.”

“The addition of central air conditioning and an advanced air filtration system at our historic 1905 Otis Elementary School has been truly transformative,” said Paula Cerqueira-Goncalves, Principal of the Otis Elementary School. “This project proves that with creativity, collaboration, and a willingness to think outside the box, even our oldest school buildings can be modernized to provide the safe, healthy, and high-quality learning conditions that all students deserve in BPS and across the nation.”

“The new HVAC system has been such a blessing during these recent warm days. It has also allowed us to finally be able to comfortably sit in classrooms along with 20 or more adults attending welcome sessions in September, Academic Parent-Teacher Team meetings in May, and end-of-the-year classroom events in June,” said Vicky Lynch, a parent of three students at the Otis Elementary School. “Not only has it benefited the parents, but our children are also coming home from school on these warm May and June days noticeably less irritable, which I can imagine every parent and teacher is grateful for!”

BPS has been recognized by the United Nations as a world leader in indoor air quality management. In 2021, BPS leveraged federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to install 4,400 air quality sensors across the district to measure and improve air quality and thermal comfort for a better teaching and learning environment. Real-time data is available on BPS’s public dashboard. This first-of-its-kind network in K-12 schools has enabled BPS to engage in a research partnership with Boston University School of Public Health and secure $22 million in grant funds for building improvements.

Boston Public Schools Student Wins State Championship In Wicked Math Year 1

O'Donnell Elementary School Grade 4 student Haytam El Ayoubi has qualified for the Math League National Championship, showing the impact of the Wicked Math Initiative.

Boston Public Schools Student Wins State Championship In Wicked Math Year 1

Boston Public Schools (BPS) celebrates our latest champion math wiz. O'Donnell Elementary School Grade 4 student Haytam El Ayoubi won the Massachusetts Math League State Championship last month after earning the highest score in the competition among Grade 4 students. He will compete in the Math League National Championship on June 13, 2026, at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He represents Boston among the nation's top young mathematicians, with support from the City of Boston's Wicked Math initiative.

Mayor Michelle Wu visited the O'Donnell Elementary Math Club on June 10, 2026 to celebrate Haytam's accomplishment and recognize the successful first year of Wicked Math. Wu's visit was both a sendoff for Haytam and a reminder of the opportunities high-quality math enrichment can make available to students.

Throughout the school year, Haytam attended Math Club twice each week before school, demonstrating exceptional dedication, perseverance, and a genuine love of mathematics. He also represented O'Donnell monthly in Math League competitions, consistently challenging himself through advanced problem-solving and mathematical reasoning.

Haytam's success reflects the broader impact of Wicked Math, the City of Boston's initiative to expand access to advanced math programming across BPS. Launched in the 2025-26 school year through a partnership among EdVestors, The Calculus Project, the Young People's Project (YPP), and the BPS STEM Department, Wicked Math is helping build a stronger citywide math culture and ensuring students who love math have opportunities to deepen their learning inside and outside the classroom.

In its first year, Wicked Math established math clubs at 11 BPS schools, engaged hundreds of students in enrichment opportunities, hired 19 student math mentors through YPP, recruited students for The Calculus Project's summer program at MIT, and provided 11 professional development sessions for 161 BPS math educators.

The O'Donnell Elementary Math Club, led by Taylor O'Brien and Zhi Wang, has been one of the initiative's standout programs. The school's overall math performance has surpassed pre-pandemic levels, improving by 10 percentage points over the past two years.

As we celebrate Haytam's remarkable accomplishment, we also encourage students, families, and educators across Boston to get involved in the next chapter of Wicked Math. Opportunities include summer math programming, school-based math clubs, mentoring, competitions, and advanced learning pathways launching for the 2026-27 school year.

Haytam's achievement demonstrates what is possible when students are given opportunities to explore their passion for mathematics. As he prepares to compete against the country's best young problem-solvers, the entire BPS community is cheering him on and looking forward to welcoming him home after representing Boston with pride.

Boston Joins Bloomberg Initiative to Connect Students With Skilled Trades (opens in new window/tab)

Bloomberg Philanthropies’ $12.8 million investment will strengthen direct pathway from Madison Park Technical Vocational High School into Registered Apprenticeships in building trades and water utility management.

Events

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Jun 15

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Jun 19

College Counseling Fair with State University and Community Colleges

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Jun 20

Spirit Day

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