NOVEMBER WWW.FENWAYNEWS.ORG 2016 FREE SERVING THE FENWAY, KENMORE SQUARE, UPPER BACK BAY, PRUDENTIAL, LONGWOOD AREA AND MISSION HILL SINCE 1974 VOLUME 42, NUMBER 11 OCTOBER 28–DECEMBER 2, 2016 Big Papi’s Bittersweet Goodbye Involved Students, Possible New State Funding Raise Kennedy Academy’s Profile BY ALISON PULTINAS ment about the passes: “Bus passes allow high little-known resource in our school students to participate in professional PHOTO: KEITH ALLISON KEITH PHOTO: neighborhoods—the Edward M. and academic opportunities such as physical Kennedy Academy for Health education, field trips, internships, and dual Careers (EMK)—is a small, enrollment courses across the City. We believe dual-campus Horace Mann charter high that all Boston Public School students should A have access to the rich resources that our City school founded in 1995 in partnership with Northeastern University’s Center for offers. We are extremely interested in partici- Community Health Education Research and pating in a focus group to discuss the issue of Service (CCHERS) program. Elmer Freeman, M7 Bus Passes for all BPS students.” executive director of CCHERS, chairs the As an in-district charter school, EMK is school’s board of trustees. something of a hybrid; the state has oversight (Horace Mann charter schools differ from authority, but the local collective bargaining Commonwealth charters in that they are created with the approval of the local school committee and, in most instances, the teachers’ union.) Public recognition of EMK is on the upswing following the September appointment of EMK ju- nior Keondre McClay as After 14 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz retired last month. Big Papi the student representative went out with a bang, leading the club to first place in the American League East to the Boston School Com- while hitting 38 homers, batting in 127 runs, and boasting a healthy .315 batting mittee for the 2016-2017 On October 11 Mayor Marty Walsh joined Gabrielle Farrell, average. The 40-year-old slugger had cemented himself in Fenway lore as a key school year. Originally BPS deputy chief of staff for communications, visited the member of the 2004 team that scraped its way to an unlikely World Series title, from Baton Rouge, Loui- 9th and 10th grade EMK Fenwood campus. Members of breaking the Curse of the Bambino, a championship drought that had stood since siana, McClay moved to the student council gave him a guided tour, and he held 1918. Ortiz also holds several Red Sox records, including the single-season home Boston in the summer of a Q&A session after greeting students in classes and the run record (54, in 2006); first player to hit 40+ home runs in three consecutive 2014 and has become an cafeteria. years (’04-’06); and the most seasons in extremely active member Boston history of 30+ homers and 100+ RBIs. of the community. In September, he appeared unit—the Boston Teacher’s Union—is a party The Red Sox announced that the team would on stage at the American Repertory Theater to the governing agreements for the school. retire Ortiz’s number, 34, next year. As if that in Cambridge as a participant in a panel dis- Admission is by lottery, with applications due weren’t enough, Governor Charlie Baker, House cussion for Anna Deavere Smith’s production in February. Since 2012, 9th and 10th grades PHOTO: RUTH KHOWAIS Speaker Robert DeLeo, and Mayor Marty Walsh Notes from the Field. McClay also serves have been housed at the former David Farragut announced a new name for the Brookline Ave. on the School Committee’s Opportunity and Elementary School in Brigham Circle, and the bridge across the Mass Pike, just behind left Achievement Gaps Task Force and is presi- upper grades use Northeastern’s Cahners Hall, field: “Big Papi” David Ortiz Bridge. dent of the Boston Student Advisory Council 110 The Fenway, built in 1957 as the Cardinal (BSAC) Working Group, a citywide coalition Cushing Guidance Center for Boys. Dr. Caren of elected student leaders representing most Walker Gregory has been headmaster since BPS high schools. 2008. Michael O’Neill, chair of the School BSAC is responsible for the creation Committee calls her “one of our fabulous last year of a smart phone app that informs leaders in BPS.” BPS students and families about student EMK’s applied for state Career rights related to school discipline. BSAC Vocational and Technical Education funding members helped write the district’s code of for a health-assisting program. If approved, conduct (updated in 2014), which promotes the funding would increase state contributions This year Mas- Voters will restorative-justice practices. A current concern to the school’s budget, helping recoup some EARLY VOTING sachusetts joins QUESTIONS 1-4 decide four of the group and the EMK Student Council is of the recent losses that all BPS schools have 36 other states with early voting. statewide ballot initiatives. Those equitable access for M7 bus passes for high faced. According to Gregory, if the School Already begun, voting runs through questions—not to mention the school students. Committee and the state agree, EMK will Nov. 4. You don’t vote at your nor- intense presidential race—could McClay and fellow students Spartacus become the first charter school to receive mal polling station under early vot- mean longer-than-usual wait times Jean (EMK Board of Trustees) and Sandra vocational funds. ing. Instead, choose any of multiple on Election Day; early voting could Joseph (Mayor’s Youth Council) issued a state- Alison Pultinas lives in Mission Hill. locations open during the period, help you avoid that. including nine available on Saturday, • Question 1 would allow the state Oct. 29. You’ll find a full list of loca- to issue a second slots-parlor TEMPORARY DORM PLAN GETS AN AIRING tion at www.boston.gov/early-vot- license (only one is allowed under ing, but here are some sites easily current law). reached from our readership area: • Question 2 would loosen state FRI, 10/28 limits on charter schools, • Boston Arts Academy, 2-8pm allowing more of them to open • Boston City Hall, 9am-8pm more quickly. SAT, 10/29 • Question 3 would require • Boston Public Library (Copley “humane” conditions for farm Square), 12-6pm animals (pigs, veal calves, and • Bruce Bolling Municipal Building laying hens) in order for products (Dudley Square), 12-6pm like meat and eggs to be sold in MON, 10/31 Massachusetts. • Franklin Institute (South End), • Question 4 would legalize the 2-8pm recreational use of marijuana. A public meeting at Morville House on Oct. 17 addressed Emerson College’s plan • City Hall, 9am-8pm Boston voters to use 12 Hemenway St. as temporary student housing while the school renovates TUE, 11/1 QUESTION 5 will face a its Little Building dorm on Boylston Street downtown. Emerson would house • City Hall, 9am-5pm fifth question, whether to create a 115 students at 12 Hemenway—now a hostel—from fall 2017 to spring 2019 and WED, 11/2 & THU, 11/3 small surtax under the Community requires an amendment to the school’s institutional master plan (IMP). Opponents • City Hall, 9am-8pm Preservation Act that would fund expressed concerns about potential student misbehavior; the impotence of RAs FRI, 11/4 affordable housing, parks/open or security guards to control students outside the building; the possibility that • Tobin Municipal Bldg (Mission Hill), spaces, and historic preservation. the precedent the deal sets for the building’s owners; and the integrity of the 11am-5pm Note that this question will appear IMP process. Supporters argued that the students wouldn’t displace renters, • Back of the Hill Apartments on the back of your ballot; be praised Emerson’s security plan (via those same RAs and guards), and noted the (Mission Hill), 11am-5pm careful not to overloook it. proposal’s limited lifespan. Public comments are due by Friday, Nov. 4, to BPDA project manager Michael Rooney at [email protected]. ELKUS MANFREDI RENDERING MANFREDI ELKUS 2 | FENWAY NEWS | NOVEMBER 2016 Revised Plan Covers Pike, Pays For It With New Height BY BARBARA BROOKS SIMONS and Steve Samuels (Samuels & Associates) to Prudential Financial and date back to the t’s been nearly two years since presented the updated plans, still undergoing development of the Prudential Center in the the Citizens Advisory Committee revison, for the two parcels. David Manfredi late 1950s. (CAC) for the Turnpike air rights of Elkus Manfredi Architectss and Peter Weiner Ventures brought Prudential into parcels at Boylston St. and Mass. Ave. Sougarides (also from the Samuels group) also the project and with it, access to the missing recommended development teams for Parcels made presentations. air rights. That allows the new development— I The plans for Parcel 15 are farther now called 1000 Boylston—to cover the entire 12 and 15. Since then, the developers have been working to further refine their plans and along and have undergone the more dramatic hole at that corner of Boylston and Dalton address some of the criticisms and suggestions changes. Parcel 15 is bounded by Boylston streets and run the building along the full offered by the CAC in response to their initial (across from Dillon’s), Dalton Street (along stretch of Boylston Street (which the earlier plans. the Hynes Convention Center), and Cambria version of the plan could not do). At a meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 25—run Street, the sloping ramp where trucks In place of the hotel originally envisioned by the newly renamed Boston Planning & unloading for the Hynes often park. The parcel for that site, Weiner proposes two buildings Development Agency—CAC members and does not include the entire “hole” through sitting atop a common base with two retail the public got their first look at the revised which pedestrians can see the Turnpike, levels and four of parking.