Seats in Roxbury charter school in high demand

Serghino René

Tensions were high last week at the City on a Hill Charter Public School, a free college preparatory high school, during their annual admissions lottery at the school’s Huntington Avenue location in the Greater Boston YMCA.

Prospective students, some sitting near their parents, were biting their nails, fidgeting their fingers and tapping their feet as they waited, hoping to hear their names read from a folded piece of white paper.

City on a Hill was one of 14 charter schools throughout Boston that held admission lotteries on the same day. It was expected that more than 5,000 Boston families applied for approximately 1,000 available spots.

The lottery was open to the public as parents and students anxiously watched state Rep. Byron Rushing and Greater Boston YMCA President John Ferrell pull names from a glass bowl. The chances of being accepted seemed slim, considering City on a Hill received more than 700 applications with only 90 freshman seats available.

“This was the largest applicant pool we have ever seen,” said Michael Duffy, the school’s executive director.

The first 90 students were guaranteed a spot. The remaining applicants were put on a waiting list. The majority of students came from Dorchester and Roxbury.

Samiah Johnson, 14, of Roxbury was one of the chosen applicants. A METCO student in Melrose, she was relieved to be one of the top 90.

“I wanted to try it out and see if I could get in because I wanted to go to a good school closer to home,” said Johnson. “If this didn’t work out, I would have just stayed in METCO.”

Apprehensive about sending their children into the Boston public school system, parents had no qualms making the extra effort to attend multiple lotteries.

Sheron White of Dorchester was one of them. She randomly came across City on a Hill while applying to several other charter schools in the city. Her son wasn’t one of the top 90 there, but she was on her way to the next lottery at the Match Charter Public High School, on Commonwealth Avenue near Boston University.

One thing was clear, she said: her son was not going to one of the Boston Public Schools.

“I have a daughter who went through Boston Public Schools and it wasn’t a good thing,” said White. “The charters are different. They give students a better chance and provide more attention.”

Duffy says the reputation of the school has grown significantly and continues to do so each year, especially considering that every graduate from City on a Hill has been accepted to college.

“Part of our success has to do with being City on a Hill. Another part of it is parents looking for better options,” said Duffy. “I don’t think we’d get as many applicants if people were unhappy or unsatisfied, and we are a great college prep school, so we have an excellent track record for preparing our students to get entrance into college.”

Fortunately, City on a Hill won’t be on Huntington Avenue much longer. The school will soon be moving to its new location on 18 Hulbert Street in Roxbury. In early June 2006, the school purchased the former St. Joseph’s Parish property from the Archdiocese of Boston for $3.1 million. The official groundbreaking took place last September and Duffy says the school will be ready to operate this September.

“The importance of charter schools is that they give an alternative to the public education,” said Rushing. “I think that it is important to understand that public schools are supposed to learn from the charter schools.”