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The presentation school foundation community center.

The Presentation School Foundation Community Center received funds through the Harvard University Allston-Brighton Emergency Response Grant Program in efforts to support community.  

When the Our Lady of the Presentation School was closed over 15 years ago, the community rallied to maintain the building as a neighborhood institution. The result: the Presentation School Foundation (PSF) Community Center, a hub for organizations and individuals committed to the neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton.

The Foundation recently received funding through the Harvard University Allston-Brighton Emergency Response Grant Program, which will be used to help the six partner organizations that call the building home to continue providing essential services such as food pantry operations, social service outposts, and childcare services.

“The COVID-19 crisis is so unlike anything anyone has ever experienced, it could be easy to feel overwhelmed as [one] organization trying to respond to community need,” says Clodagh Drummey, the organization’s executive director. “I think being a part of a group of organizations working [collaboratively] to address the problem is tremendous – it gives you a feeling of possibility. It gives you hope.”

One of those partner organizations is the Allston Brighton Neighborhood Opportunity Center (AB NOC), which has been focused on distributing food to members of the community in need. AB NOC still runs its food pantry as a drop-in location where those in need can pick up food, but a solution was needed for those without the ability to go to a food distribution site. The emergency funding from Harvard has enabled PSF to even more thoroughly clean the Center prior to any food distribution, an important task even which has become even more essential – and more frequent - during the ongoing global health crisis.

Drummey also said the members of a group convened by the Allston Brighton Health Collaborative developed an idea to enlist volunteers who would bike supplies from food distribution sites to those who need healthy food.

“Having something like 30 organizations working together and being strategic on how resources are allocated, we can make a big difference,” Drummey says. “These folks pour themselves into their work, and they rely on volunteers from the community. They are [a group of] neighbors who care about the community and want to make it better.”

She notes that by engaging with this group of organizations all striving to better the neighborhoods in which they exist she can connect those that call the PSF Community Center home with essential resources.

PSF’s existing relationships and partnerships have been key to maintaining its commitment to those they serve. She notes specifically partnerships with like-minded community groups, City Councilor Liz Breadon, and Harvard University.

“Our needs have changed and there are new expenses that we did not have to anticipate four or five months ago to allow us to open the community center in a safe way,” Drummey says. “Having the support of institutions like Harvard has been incredibly helpful.”

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A People's Guide to Greater Boston

An online extension of the book by Joseph Nevins, Suren Moodliar and Eleni Macrakis

Our Lady of Presentation School/The Presentation School Foundation Community Center

640 washington street, brighton.

Graduation ceremonies for Our Lady of Presentation School normally took place inside the Catholic elementary school. On June 9, 2005, however, the one for the kindergarten was held across the street in Brighton’s Oak Square Common. The ceremony was one of both celebration and protest—protest against the Archdiocese of Boston’s abrupt closure of the school the previous day. The Archdiocese had made the move out of fear that parents would occupy the building in order to prevent the shutting down of the school, scheduled for two days later.

The early 2000s was a challenging time for the Catholic Church in Boston.  Growing out-migration of Catholics of European descent to Boston’s suburbs and broader changes in churchgoing among Catholics (decades-long processes) brought about a dramatic decline in church attendance within the city. These factors, combined with the revelations of sexual abuse in 2002, led to a sharp decrease in financial support for the Church from area Catholics. Meanwhile, the sexual abuse scandal itself exacted high financial costs: About two years after the revelations, the Archdiocese of Boston had paid $85 million in a settlement involving 500 victims.* In this context, the Archdiocese announced in mid-2004 that it would close 82 parishes (out of a total of 357) in the coming months. It also announced the closure of Our Lady of Presentation School.

Given the strong identification of Boston’s Catholics with their parishes and the associated institutions, parishioners often resisted the closures, and, in some instances, successfully. In the case of Our Lady of Presentation, parents, students and community members occupied and camped out in Oak Square in protest of the lockout, attracting national and international media attention and strong support across Boston in the process. Eventually, in 2006, the Archdiocese agreed to sell the property to the Presentation School Foundation, an organization of parents and community members.

Today, the former school is the home of the multi-service Presentation School Foundation Community Center , which opened in 2012. It houses a range of non-profit organizations that serve children, families, and recent immigrants.

Getting there :

Various MBTA bus lines pass through Oak Square.

To learn more :

“A Community Center Rises from A Closed Catholic School,” WBUR , May 18, 2012 .

Brian MacQuarrie, “Once Embattled Brighton School Reborn as Community Center,” The Boston Globe , May 11, 2012 .

Michael Paulson, “Catholic School Lockout Angers Parents, Officials,” The Boston Globe , June 10, 2005 .

John C. Seitz, No Closure: Catholic Practice and Boston’s Parish Shutdowns , Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.

“History,” Presentation School Foundation Community Center website .

* See also the entry on the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in A People’s Guide to Greater Boston .

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Once-embattled Brighton school reborn as community center

“Happiness Is Our Intention,” reads a sign inside the signature brick walls of what was once Our Lady of the Presentation School in Brighton’s Oak Square.

Fresh paint adorns classrooms built in the 1920s. Original wood floors gleam with refinishing. And an entrance lobby, the only new addition to the school’s exterior, has been partially built of blackboards that once helped educate generations of students there.

Nearly seven years after the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston caused a firestorm by locking out students two days before the K-6 school was scheduled to be closed, a scrappy grass-roots group that transformed the landmark into a community center is prepping for the building’s coming-out party.

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Following a $5.4 million renovation, the Presentation School Foundation Community Center will open to the public next Friday to unveil what once seemed a pipe dream: a neighborhood anchor designed to serve Brighton and Allston residents from infancy to retirement.

“There were moments certainly where we were close to organizational death,’’ said Kevin Carragee, a foundation board member. “One way to describe the volunteers is that they’re a very stubborn group of people.’’

That stubbornness was forged in the contentious aftermath of the archdiocese’s decision to close the school. Although opposition helped postpone the closing for a year, to June 2005, the archdiocese infuriated parents by canceling the final two days of classes in 2005 and locking students out, ostensibly to prevent its occupation by protesters.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who seven years ago assailed the early closing as “reprehensible,’’ offered the use of Faneuil Hall for the sixth-grade graduation.

Negotiations with the archdiocese were often difficult over the ensuing 16 months, Carragee recalled, but the church’s offer to sell the building for $1 million, instead of the $2 million the foundation had proposed, helped save the effort.

“The Archdiocese is thrilled for the Presentation School Foundation at this wonderful milestone,’’ said Terrence Donilon, an archdiocese spokesman. “They have worked incredibly hard to accomplish their goal of establishing a community center, and we are pleased to have had the privilege to work with them.’’

Benefactors have included the state, which provided $1.25 million in historic tax credits; the City of Boston, $501,000; the New Balance Foundation, $550,000; the Boston Foundation, $200,000; and 15 other foundations. Residents and businesses in Brighton and Allston contributed $325,000.

“We’re essentially a trustee for the folks who live in the neighborhood,’’ Carragee said. “There is a sense of ownership of the building. It was widely believed in the neighborhood that this would have been a condo.’’

Instead, what has emerged is a meticulously restored and upgraded building that Susan Wobst, the center’s acting executive director, said will meet the demands of the present but have the flexibility to adapt.

“This was never about a renovation project; it was about bringing programs and services to a neighborhood,’’ Carragee said.

Services include an early education center, which opened in November; a Women, Infants, and Children program affiliated with St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center; meeting space for civic groups; an after-school program; and immigrant outreach.

Bricks have been repointed; a roof that recalls the original Spanish tile has been laid; and the large front door, once boarded over, has been restored to its stately, original presence.

These nods to the past should resonate in the community, which Katherine Mackland-Rivera, executive director of the Little Sprouts early-education center, called close-knit, involved, and invested in the center’s success.

“We need to give people reasons to stay, and this is a reason to stay’’ in the neighborhood, Carragee said. “Parents who went to the school now have children in the preschool.’’

Many of those parents, along with others from the neighborhood, volunteered a “staggering’’ number of hours to aid the renovation, Carragee said.

Nestled amid the gleaming result will be a reminder of what led to the Presentation’s new life. On a first-floor wall, in what will become a community meeting space, the words “Congratulations to the pre-K children’’ will remain in colorful script.

That message, preserved since 2005, was meant to cheer the children who were ousted from their school two days early.

Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at [email protected] .

• Victor Mukhin

Victor M. Mukhin was born in 1946 in the town of Orsk, Russia. In 1970 he graduated the Technological Institute in Leningrad. Victor M. Mukhin was directed to work to the scientific-industrial organization "Neorganika" (Elektrostal, Moscow region) where he is working during 47 years, at present as the head of the laboratory of carbon sorbents.     Victor M. Mukhin defended a Ph. D. thesis and a doctoral thesis at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (in 1979 and 1997 accordingly). Professor of Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. Scientific interests: production, investigation and application of active carbons, technological and ecological carbon-adsorptive processes, environmental protection, production of ecologically clean food.   

Title : Active carbons as nanoporous materials for solving of environmental problems

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Lower School

The Primary Grades (Lower School) at Presentation are child-centered and developmentally appropriate. It is in these grades that we lay down the foundation for the student’s future school life.

“ Every stage of development is complete in itself. The three year old is not an incomplete 5 year old. The child is not an incomplete adult. Never are we simply on our way! Always we have arrived! Enjoy now! ” - JC Pearce

Our teachers carefully guide the K - 4th grade child, instilling in them a love of learning, confidence in their own voice and respect for others. We value a young child’s natural desire to learn through exploration, creation, and self-expression.

We want our children to see themselves as part of the world, dream big, and then equip them for success! Beginning in Kindergarten students learn what it means to be a Presentation student, which to us means students who embody the ability to Love, Learn, and Lead. Even the youngest child can see their calling to love others, learn about the world around them, and how they can be a leader today and for the future!

Helping children develop their natural strengths and build skills means honoring the whole child. Beyond rigorous academics, our lower school children spend significant portions of the day immersed in Spanish, art, music, drama, and PE.

Language Arts

Our Language Arts program provides the building blocks for students that allow them to explore and develop language arts skills and concepts. Enveloping the children in a literacy-rich environment, our comprehensive language arts program lays the foundation for literary growth and self-expression, and continues on with them through their subsequent years at Presentation.

The years spent in Lower School are marked by incredible growth. These are critical years when a child moves from learning to read, to reading to learn. Focus moves from phonics in K-2 to literary analysis in 3rd and 4th. The program is supported by 6 + 1 Writing Traits. Students develop not only the art of verbal storytelling, but also the skills to put pen to paper, to share their thoughts, opinions, and to clearly demonstrate their learning in a written format.

Mathematics

In addition to an aligned curriculum, a similarly aligned philosophy and approach to mathematics ensures all Presentation School students receive consistent quality math instruction. We are always striving to ensure that all students are properly supported and challenged. That means being able to meet diverse capacities within the classroom. Our teachers attend the Making Math Real Institute. Making Math Real (MMR), providing best practices and multisensory structured approaches to teaching math K-12. Teachers know how to link the three processing modalities (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) at the same time, and how to aid students in moving from the hands-on experience of concrete math to It is specific reconstruction in abstract, symbolic forms.

Our goal is to create mathematical thinkers who understand how numbers work, and how to apply that understanding throughout their lives. Mathematics is taken beyond the basics to open the world of numbers, math logic and number sense to the young mind. A hands-on approach is emphasized, as are mental math activities and conceptual projects. Students build a strong foundation for solving complex mathematical problems, while tackling the necessary simple memorization of number facts and operations.

The Lower School math program guides the students from basic facts and number families, to place value and equations. Once fluent in all things numbers, up to three digits with regrouping, students are introduced to larger composite numbers and a formal introduction to multiplication and division. The rising 4th grade student has further tackled division, fractions, and an introduction to geometry.

Science and Social Studies

Science and Social Studies are critical pathways for students to make connections between one’s self, community, and the natural world. Social Studies and Science instruction are grounded in real-world, experiential learning. The Lower School uses Mystery Science to engage and inspire a young person’s scientific thinking and curiosity.

Our goal is to engage students in investigating and making sense of the complexity and wonder of the world they will one day lead. It is common to see students building weather stations, while reading Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, or building flying machines while learning about the basics of aerodynamics. Reading about the California Gold Rush can be an abstract historical idea, but historical learning, partnered with an overnight field trip to California Gold Country, and integrated with a geology unit, creates a dynamic platform to better understand our socially and environmentally complex state.

Children and their families are unique in their personal values and beliefs. At Presentation, these values and traditions are honored, while simultaneously providing a shared foundation for the exploration or moral values and the social and emotional development of our students.

Presentation School’s Values curriculum seeks to do the following:

• Introduce school traditions while valuing diverse individual religious perspectives
• Encourage students to think outside themselves
• Provide meaningful service opportunities on campus as well as in our local and global communities which are reinforced through sound instruction and reflection in the classroom
• Encourage compassion and understanding and develop leadership
• Invite staff, parents, and community to active participation in the shared values of our school
• Lower School students take part in planning and leading values assemblies based on monthly  themes and service-learning opportunities.

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