Boston Council Hearing Puts School Artifact Preservation on Record Before Closures Begin

BOSTON -- March 4, 2025, Boston City Council Education Committee hears call to protect war memorials and historical artifacts in closing schools. Chair Henry Santana convened the March 4 hearing on Docket No. 0265, sponsored by Councilors Erin J. Murphy and Edward M. Flynn, focused primarily on Excel High School, formerly South Boston High School, which is slated to transition to a new program in the 2026-27 school year. Ryan Ford, BPS chief operating officer, confirmed that no citywide inventory of historically significant school artifacts currently exists, though he committed to developing one. City Archivist Kristen Laferty said the archives holds records from more than 142 closed school programs and expressed strong interest in bringing Excel's yearbook collection and metal war portraits into permanent archival custody. Resident researcher Mary Ryan testified via Zoom that more than 1,100 metal portraits of Boston's World War One dead, commissioned citywide around 1930 under Mayor Curley, are distributed across Boston schools with no guaranteed public-access home, calling them war memorials rather than mere artwork.