Brighton Residents Organize Rally to Protest Proposed High School Closure in Allston

Approximately 50 parents, students, teachers and Brighton residents rallied outside the Mary Lyon Upper School on Tuesday night to protest the high school’s proposed closure, before attending a meeting with district officials inside.

The meeting — which was closed to the media — was the first in-person discussion between Lyon parents and officials since the district announced its closure plans last month. Parents and Lyon alumni left the meeting hopeful that the Boston School Committee may still amend the proposal to close the school, which they said seemingly remains unclear and far from final.

The Lyon would be among four schools to close at the end of next school year, in an attempt to consolidate amid enrollment decline across the district and improve building infrastructure. Since BPS proposed the closures at a virtual press conference in early January, parents at the Lyon have organized weekly community meetings, written a petition that has garnered more than 100 signatures, lobbied their elected representatives, and planned Tuesday’s rally to protest the school’s closure.

Parents’ concerns include losing the Lyon’s specialized full-inclusion classrooms that integrate students with and without special education needs, as well as its unique support for students and its tight-knit community.

Irma Yuman Revolorio, who graduated from the Lyon in 2020, returned on Tuesday to attend both the rally and the community meeting that followed. For Revolorio, attending the Lyon is a family tradition — all three of her older brothers did so before her.

“I had an amazing experience with all the teachers that I had. They helped me with everything that I know now today as an adult,” Revolorio said.

She said that attending the rally made her hopeful and gave people the opportunity for their “voices to be heard.”

“I feel like we came together as a community and as a family,” Revolorio added.

Savannah Lewis, who graduated from the Lyon in 2014, said that the school’s teachers have developed a talent for teaching full-inclusion classrooms, a skill that would go untapped if the school were to close.

“I really think that those teachers have a lot to teach the community, and they could build something really beautiful based on the foundation that they were given, but they’re deciding to close the school instead,” Lewis said.

According to Lewis, the Lyon’s reputation of support has even attracted students from outside of Boston.

“A lot of my peers have had their parents move to this area or move across the country just so that they could have their educational and social and emotional needs met,” Lewis said.

Parents also spoke about the importance of the Lyon’s dedication to teaching children with Individualized Education Plans and other special needs to parents living in the Boston area.

“To close this school, especially for families that have children on IEPs and 504s, not only does that do such a disservice to the community, but it’s making it harder for families to access special education,” Dana J. Green, a former parent, said in an interview earlier this month. “It meant that we weren’t sending them out to Foxboro or an hour away.”

Despite the closure announcement, some meeting attendees believe there is still a chance that the school remains open past the proposed closure date.

“I think there are a lot of community members hoping that the district changes their mind,” Lewis said.

Kerry A. Flaherty, parent at the Lyon, said that the plan did not seem to be finalized yet — and that there remain many “what ifs.”

According to Cristin M. Stegemann, a Lyon parent and president of the Lyon’s School Council, an advisory board of school affiliates, officials said at the meeting that “no decision has been made” and that there remains “a glimmer of hope.”

“Maybe they’ll see us and hear us and keep us open, or maybe give us an opportunity to merge someplace, instead of just shutting us down,” she said. “I’m not done fighting.”

“I'm hopeful, but not 100 percent hopeful,” she added. “I’m worried about Allston-Brighton. You’ve taken away another school, and they’ve got other Allston-Brighton schools supposedly on the chopping block.”

Both Stegemann and Flaherty said they will continue organizing until the School Committee’s final vote, which they expect to come next month.

—Staff writer Angelina J. Parker can be reached at angelina.parker@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @angelinajparker.

—Staff writer Emily T. Schwartz can be reached at emily.schwartz@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @EmilySchwartz37.