Another Dorchester school building project has taken a major step toward securing funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). In a unanimous decision last Friday, the state board voted to include the Ruth Batson Academy— formerly the BCLA/McCormack School on Columbia Point — on its list of approved projects to fund.

The decision is a big win for the Boston school district, which secured a similar approval from the authority last December to advance plans for a new building to house the merged Shaw-Taylor School communities on the Dorchester-Mattapan border.

While the designations don’t guarantee that either project will ultimately be funded or built, state funding is essential to advancing projects for school districts. It has on occasion proven elusive for the Boston system. Of 47 requests from 36 districts statewide, 22 were added to the list this year

In testimony before the MSBA last Friday, BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper thanked the panel for its support.

“We know you get many, many statements of interest and you are only able to fund so many and we’re especially appreciative of this invitation,” said Skipper. “In Boston, our goal is to make sure every student we serve in BPS has a high-quality experience and modern facilities and those facilities are able to support their goals and passions and dreams.”

Skipper pointed to the newly opened Josiah Quincy Upper School in Chinatown, which was funded in partnership with the MSBA. She noted how its new auditorium and Black Box Theatre have uplifted that school community.

The Batson project, she said, would give Dorchester a non-exam school option housed in a new facility partnering with UMass Boston as a “university school.”

“If this project is funded ultimately, it will provide a state-of-the-art 7-12 school in Dorchester for us,” said Skipper, who noted that such a facility is only possible if MSBA votes later on for the funding it will share with the city.

Councillor John FitzGerald said he was excited to see a new school proposed in District 3. “We look at the Josiah Quincy and the rave reviews it has from an architectural standpoint and for kids looking to go to school there,” he said. “That kind of experience would be very welcome in Dorchester. The good thing about the MSBA process is there are multiple occasions to check in on the financial aspects along the way…The reality is we’re about three years away from getting anything in the ground.”

The road to Friday’s decision was opened last April, when the Batson project was submitted for consideration to MSBA.

“Mayor Michelle Wu will file a loan order with City Council to appropriate funds for project costs through schematic design, including costs for a design firm and an (owners project manager),” the application read. “The timeline for City approval of project funds would have to be in January and February of 2025, as December 11 also marks the last day of the 2024 legislative session for the Council. Similar to past loan orders for MSBA projects, the process to appropriate the funds would likely take four to six weeks.”

The city council must hold a hearing and complete two affirmative votes before the mayor can move forward on the project.

Councillor Brian Worrell, chair of Ways and Means, noted that the Council approved similar spending for the Shaw-Taylor school plan last fall. His office has indicated that such funding would likely be secured through a bond offering.

The current Batson Academy facility on Mount Vernon Street, built in 1967, is deemed antiquated and ill-equipped to support the amenities needed for a grade 7-12 school, according to the city’s application, which noted that a Facilities Condition Assessment scored a 9. The average score is 28.

However, the site of the school is deemed “large enough that with a large-scale renovation, it could fit up to an ‘ideal’ large 7-12 model space summary,” the city argued in its application.

The BCLA in Hyde Park merged with the McCormack School in 2018, and gradually phased out the Hyde Park location over several years, with all students on the Columbia Point campus for the first time this year.