WORCESTER – Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Rachel Monárrez announced on Wednesday that the La Familia Dual Language School will merge with the Chandler Magnet Elementary School for the 2023-2024 school year.
Forums for families to address the pending merger of La Familia Dual Language School and Chandler Magnet Elementary School will take place on April 11.
The forum for La Familia School will take place at North High School, at 140 Harrington Way. Chandler School families can find that forum at the Chandler Magnet School, at 525 Chandler St. Both are 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM.
A statement by Worcester Public Schools on Wednesday said the Diocese of Worcester, who owns the space where La Familia Dual Language School resides, at 355 Grafton St., will terminate the lease to the school in June. Worcester Public Schools says La Familia students will be guaranteed admission to Chandler Magnet next year and will remain in dual language programming.
The La Familia School celebrated its naming in honor of Worcester Police Officer Manny Familia in June 2022. The school opened in August 2021.
Worcester Public Schools plans to merge La Familia students with Chandler Magnet School, which operates at around half of its total capacity. La Familia’s 172 students will bring the total number of students at Chandler Magnet to 574. The school has a capacity of 800 students.
According to Google Maps, the distance between the two schools is a 3.6 mile drive.
Earlier this year, the Diocese ordered La Familia School to hold its classes that include its Rights, Respect, and Responsibility curriculum, the sexual health component of the health curriculum, at an off-site location. The school district intervened to prevent students being moved to an off-site location for the classes.
The statement from Worcester Public Schools did not mention the reason for the Diocese decision.
The lease for La Familia School’s space does not contain provisions which prevent it from teaching the district’s sexual health curriculum at the location. Worcester Diocese Bishop Robert McManus has opposed the Worcester Public Schools sexual education curriculum.
A charter school, Worcester Cultural Academy, approved by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in February, has faced additional scrutiny from critics. It also leases its space, at 81 Plantation St., from the Diocese of Worcester. As reported by This Week in Worcester, that lease has provisions that appear to enable the Diocese to restrict its curriculum.
