As BPS students begin to head back to classes this week and the school district hustles to keep their infrastructure promises, many will find their schools different than they left them.

“The BPS Facilities Department has been busy this summer preparing our facilities for the return of students,” Boston Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper told the School Committee last week, listing ongoing and completed projects. … “Just a massive amount of work for facilities with our buildings so they can be beautiful for students and staff come the start of school.”

With a controversial new Long-Term Facilities Plan finally released in December and a renewed commitment to repairing and updating their buildings, Boston Public School got busy playing catch-up on decades of delayed facilities work this summer.

Projects ranged from “murals and playground improvements to key infrastructure updates and repairs, accessibility upgrades, and air conditioning,” according to a BPS Operations memo outlining the summer work.

Over half of BPS buildings are 80 years old or older, according to the BPS facilities plan, and buildings across the historic district have been plagued by disinvestment and deferred maintenance and updates.

Capital projects

As of this summer, the district has more ongoing capital projects — large-scale constructions and renovations — than have been done in the last 40 years combined, BPS and city leaders have emphasized.

Of the 11 major projects, two are scheduled to be completed by the start of school: a new building for the Josiah Quincy Upper School in Chinatown and a “newly renovated and ADA compliant” temporary home for the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Charlestown, while district leaders continue to look for a permanent home for the school.

The Josiah Quincy building is a “new, six-story, state-of-the-art building in Chinatown,” according to a BPS spokesperson, and includes “innovative learning spaces like a rooftop outdoor classroom and activity complex, a media center, athletic and fitness areas, and a black box theater.”

A handful of the other projects have estimated completion dates. The construction of the new Philbrick-Sumner location in the Irving Building in Roslindale is scheduled to be done by the start of the 2025-26 school year, followed by the new addition on the Patrick J Kennedy Elementary School in East Boston next fall and the new Carter School building in the winter of 2025.

The other capital projects remain in various design or planning phases. The projects are slated for the Kennedy Academy for Health Careers, Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, Melvin H. King South End Academies, Ruth Batson Academy, Shaw-Taylor and White Stadium.

Cooling down schools

Heading into the summer, the district looked to keep up with several key infrastructure promises — including outfitting all BPS schools with air conditioning systems.

“Over the past three years, significant strides have been made in improving thermal comfort within our schools,” BPS officials said in the facilities memo. “Starting from 32% of schools with air conditioning, we have now reached an impressive 92%.”

Still, 10 schools still lack HVAC systems. Over the summer, the design phase of systems for Bates Elementary School, Lee Academy and Kenny Elementary School. The district said they aim to have bids for the work by fall or winter of this year and are “hopeful for construction to begin in 2025.”

The remaining seven schools are Mather Elementary, Otis Elementary, Taylor Elementary, Melvin H. King Middle and High schools, Community Academy, and Mozart Elementary. For these schools, the memo noted BPS is “seeking out additional funding to continue the design of suitable systems to add in thermal comfort and ventilation.”

In the meantime, facilities officials are “investigating the option of installing portable/window units where the electrical load allows” in the schools and have distributed portable air cleaners and fans.

Some are calling for more emphasis on the projects as school days get progressively hotter.

“We need to think creatively and have concrete plans about how to support the students at those remaining 10 schools now, particularly considering that most of those remaining schools are elementary school serving our youngest students, who are the most vulnerable to extreme heat,” said City Councilor Brian Worrell, proposing a hearing to discuss BPS plans for heat emergencies.

The “new normal,” councilors emphasized, will be over 80 and 90 degrees day increasing in May, June, September and October, making the systems critical to the safety and learning of students in schools.

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Accessibility upgrade, new amenities and maintenance projects

The district also took on a bulk of small projects at schools across the district.

These included some overdue accessibility upgrades, including two new ramps at English High School and Beethoven Elementary School completed this summer. The push for a ramp at English High grew contentious over the last few years, with students in wheelchairs speaking out about their experiences navigating being lifted through the delivery and dumpster entrance of the school.

Students will also have five pools repaired and open this school year at Charlestown High, Madison Park Technical Vocational High, Mattahunt Elementary, Umana Academy, and UP Academy Marshall. Six other pools were closed for periods through the summer but slated for reopening in the late summer or fall.

Hernandez K-8 School is scheduled to complete a library renovation, two schools finished playground improvements, and six schools got new murals over the summer. Numerous other projects to school amenities took off, including improvements for 18 gyms, several auditoriums and more playgrounds.

Maintenance work was also wide-ranging and extensive across the district, including five exterior door projects, five kitchen renovations, 10 combined ongoing and completed flooring projects, and much more.