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An issue SourceLine follows · roxbury, and Boston students headed for the trades

A new home for Madison Park: Boston's vocational high school and Parcel 3 in Roxbury

A new home for Madison Park: Boston's vocational high school and Parcel 3 in Roxbury

Madison Park Technical Vocational High School on Malcolm X Boulevard in Roxbury is Boston's only technical and vocational high school, with about 1,000 students learning trades such as auto repair, cosmetology, plumbing and dental assisting. Its buildings date to 1977. In December 2025 the state's school building authority accepted Boston into the program that can help pay for a rebuild, and in July 2026 the Council approved $5 million for a feasibility study and early design.

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Where to build is the open question. In January 2026 Mayor Michelle Wu let a developer team's rights to Parcel 3 lapse so the city could study putting the new school there. Parcel 3 is a 7.7 acre city owned lot on Tremont Street, cleared in the 1960s for a highway that was never built. HYM Investment Group and My City at Peace had planned housing, lab space and a museum for Embrace Boston on the site, the kind of use the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan called for. The city says a school on Parcel 3 could cost $84 million to $147 million less than rebuilding on the current campus, estimated at $680 million to $720 million. Many Roxbury residents and leaders say they want both a new school and the economic development they were promised, and that the decision was made without them. Councilor Miniard Culpepper says both goals can be met with partnership and respect for Roxbury's leadership.

The city expects the feasibility study to begin in fall 2027. Here is every Council vote on the school and the land, and how each councilor voted.

Weigh inWhere you stand, and why, goes to your representatives
2votes on the record on this issue
13members of Boston City Council decide thisWho decides
OpenNo vote date is set yetWeigh in now

Add your voice, your neighbors add theirs, and the count goes to the people who decide before they vote.

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CityBoston City CouncilPassed Aug 5

Who decides this

  • Ruthzee LouijeuneAt Large Seat 1No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Julia M. MejiaAt Large Seat 2No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Erin J. MurphyAt Large Seat 3No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Henry SantanaAt Large Seat 4No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Gabriela Coletta ZapataDistrict 1No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Edward M. FlynnDistrict 2No vote on recordCallEmail
  • John FitzGeraldDistrict 3No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Brian WorrellDistrict 4No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Enrique J. PepénDistrict 5No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Benjamin J. WeberDistrict 6No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Miniard CulpepperDistrict 7No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Sharon DurkanDistrict 8No vote on recordCallEmail
  • Liz BreadonDistrict 9No vote on recordCallEmail

Whole board: passed, Aug 5 (the record does not list each member's vote)

Latest vote, Aug 5: The council voted on the paying for a feasibility study and early design, $5 million. It passed. The issue is still open.

See who decides at every level, and the laws behind it ›

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