Eliot School 300th a Reason to Celebrate

The Eliot School is the oldest public elementary school in the United States – and it is among the best with a strong commitment by many hundreds of parents of North Enders who have attended the school over the years or who are attending right now and who will attend in the years to come.

As most people around here know, the Eliot School Community, led by the Eliot School Family Council, has kicked off a year long celebration which begins with a festival to be held at the school and the Prado.

This takes place on October 20 from 2:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.

The celebration includes games, raffles, food, guest speakers, an Aquarium tide pool.

Eliot School students, families, alumni, community friends and valued partners will join in the celebration.

The Eliot School Community is perhaps one of the most unique among such school communities in the city of Boston. The school itself has survived the test of time and is today preparing to move forward in ways that couldn’t have been dreamt of in the past.

The recently approved K-8 expansion agreement pushed by Mayor Thomas Menino was cheered by parents and officials at the school.

In fact,  with a waiting list of about 300 school students with anxious parents waiting for them to enter, the school department decided on a third strand of classes and designated the Eliot as an Innovation School. That was last May.

Today, the Eliot expansion is a reality made possible by the $11.35 million building and cash swap exchange between the North Bennet Street School and the City of Boston which is selling 150 North Street-the former police station-and 13-140 Richmond Street properties.

Today, everything going on at the Eliot School is all about potential. Younger couples with children living in the North End are staying, with the hope their children can be educated at the Eliot School.

“I can’t wait to see how far this school community will go in the years to come,” Boston Superintendent of Schools Carol Johnson said recently.

“The Eliot School is moving to the next level,” she added.

So it’s onward and upward for the Eliot School.

See you at the festival!