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The City Council passed a resolution Wednesday opposing the controversial plan to move the O’Bryant School of Math and Science from Roxbury to West Roxbury proposed by the mayor and BPS superintendent this summer.

“It is the responsibility of the Boston City Council to prioritize the needs of students, parents/guardians, and educators in school building decisions that directly impact residents and their neighborhood,” the resolution states. “Moreover, decisions should not be rendered without an equitable community engagement process.”

The resolution, offered by Councilors Julia Mejia, Tania Fernandes Anderson and Erin Murphy, follows a impassioned five-hour hearing on the subject Tuesday night. It states that the council “stands with the O’Bryant community in opposing the current proposed plan” and calls on BPS to release a 10-year district-wide facility plan.

The resolution passed with 10 votes in favor and Councilors Ricardo Arroyo and Sharon Durkan voting against.

The O’Bryant school is currently located in the same building as Madison Park Vocational High School in Roxbury. The plan would allow both schools to expand, with the O’Bryant gaining 600 seats, and addresses transportation concerns with proposed shuttle buses to the school.

Many teachers, families, alumni and students have been critical of the proposal, arguing the community has not been engaged enough in the plan and the non-central location will present a real transportation barrier to many students.

For some students in East Boston, the transportation time has been estimated as high as two and a half hours.

Community members have also noted the O’Bryant is Boston’s most diverse exam school and expressed concern that moving it into a less diverse area will change that community.

“I wouldn’t sell ourselves short and saying we can’t build a state of the art school in the heart of Roxbury, Dorchester for the O’Bryant,” said Councilor Ed Flynn. … “If you want a state of the art O’Bryant school in the heart of the African American community, you have to fight for it. And I think the residents last night were determined to do that.”

Councilors who opposed the motion argued for the amenities of the West Roxbury campus and expressed uncertainty in the possibility of another facility with the same opportunities. Across the board though, councilors agreed on the need to move the facility and for a better community outreach process.

“We’re saying that stopping this particular idea of going to West Roxbury will restart a new one, and we’re asking to work with the administration, with Mayor Wu, or a community meeting where we say, ‘Look, let’s put all of the options on the table,'” said Fernandes Anderson. … “We do have to stop it from going to West Roxbury.”

ROXBURY, Mass. — Migrants who were sleeping at Logan Airport will have a new roof over their heads starting Wednesday. The Melnea Cass Recreational Complex in Roxbury will provide a temporary shelter to accommodate up to 100 migrant families. But not everyone thinks that’s the best spot.

“It’s a shame that the community heard from the Governor and DCR under these circumstances and not before,” said Louis Elisa, who is the President of the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association.

Elisa is a fixture in the Roxbury Community. He’s the president of a local neighborhood association he also worked for President Clinton with FEMA and NATO, so he knows how to resettle refugees and says the move to Roxbury falls short.

“The space while good is a gymnasium. It will not provide the health and safety and security that you want for families,” said Elisa.

Governor Maura Healey says she’s setting up shelters around the state and now it’s Boston’s turn.

“This is prob the 8th or 9th major location that we’ve opened around the state. We’ve been all over the state. We are now coming to Boston. It’s just bourne out of necessity,” said Gov. Healey.

Locals want to help but say it’s tough in a community already short on resources.

“Things seem to be taken more from the community than given to it,” said Laura Keating of Roxbury.

Gov Healey says this is short term only and migrants will be out by the end of May.

“This will only run through May so for just a few months while we look to secure more funding from the feds,” said the Governor.

Even though it’s temporary Elisa says it’s still not adequate for families.

“The thought of housing people here – it’s a good idea to get them out of the airport but not the right place to do it,” he said.

Community programs at the rec complex are on hold but Gov Healy says they will be relocated.

As for more suitable locations Elisa suggests the Shattuck Hospital and the former West Roxbury High School.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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BOSTON - There were strong words from community activists about a plan to move the O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science from its location in Roxbury to a new building to be built on the site of the now closed West Roxbury Education Complex.

"This is a continuation of the disrespect Mayor Wu has shown for our community," said Sadiki Kambon with the Black Community Information Center. "You can see this is an expansive facility," said Kambon as he spoke with reporters outside the school.

But the mayor disagrees saying there are space constraints as it shares a campus with Madison Park Technical High School where the city wants to expand and improve the curriculum and give O'Bryant students a brand-new school.

"They make decisions downtown that affect us, but they don't include us, " said Priscilla Flint with the Black Local Organizing Committee.

The O'Bryant, one of the city's three exam schools, has a largely Black and Latino population of students, while West Roxbury is a predominantly white community.

Mayor Wu says it's not only early in the process, but students deserve better. "We are committed to making sure we live up to the promise to young people who are Black and brown, who make up the majority of our school system, to have world class opportunities and our high schools must reflect that," Mayor Wu tells WBZ-TV.

One of the issues as well for the community activists is transportation with West Roxbury seven miles away and the campus not well connected to public transit lines. "The location is further from where kids live around here," said O'Bryant student Allison Audia.

It's an issue as well for students, though the prospect of a new school is intriguing for some. "A brand-new building is really nice, but it's the distance from our house and what we're used to over here," said student Jazlenys Guerero.

It's still years away from any move becoming a reality, and the discussion is far from over. The activists say they've requested a meeting with the mayor and are hoping to raise their concerns with her next week.

Beth Germano

Emmy award-winning Beth Germano is a general assignment reporter for WBZ-TV News. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Germano has been a New England-based reporter for more than 15 years. She joined WBZ-TV as a freelance reporter in 1996 after reporting for several local television stations including WCVB-TV, New England Cable News, Monitor Cable Channel, WLVI-TV, and WGBH-TV.

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A pocket of suburbia on the southwestern edge of the city, West Roxbury is an area historically favored by Irish-Americans that's long attracted young families for its (relatively) affordable single-family homes.

It is a point of confusion for many outsiders that West Roxbury and Roxbury are two entirely distinct Boston neighborhoods; in fact, they do not even share a border. But they do share a history: West Roxbury once roughly encompassed the neighborhoods we now know as Jamaica Plain and Roslindale, and seceded from the city of Roxbury in 1851. Roxbury was incorporated into Boston in 1868, with Jamaica Plain, Roslindale and West Roxbury following suit several years later.

In the 1840s, West Roxbury was home to Brook Farm, a transcendentalist utopian commune that famously served as the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Blithedale Romance.” Irish Catholics flocked to the neighborhood in the 20th century, establishing its reputation as a white, working class enclave that remains to this day even as West Roxbury has become more racially diverse and ever more attractive to Boston residents priced out of other neighborhoods.

Today, the bars that once lined Centre Street have been replaced by Thai, Korean and Middle Eastern restaurants, upscale bakeries and a trendy coffee shop. A former landfill has been transformed into the towering, sprawling Millennium Park.

West Roxbury by the numbers

What locals say about West Roxbury

The back patio at Recreo Coffee & Roasterie, a popular West Roxbury spot, was buzzing on a weekday morning in the summer. Chris Rohrig sat at one of the tile piazza tables taking in the sun as sparrows zipped around the courtyard.

Rohrig, who is in his early 40s, moved to West Roxbury with his wife and kids three years ago from Jamaica Plain. He found it easy to make the case for his newly adopted neighborhood.

“West Roxbury does a really great job of balancing itself on this line of city and suburb, and this combination of public transportation, city feel, traffic, even the noise of the city … with some of the amenities and the pleasures of that suburban life,” he said. “You have a lot of trees, you have a lot of yard, you have a lot of … families, playgrounds, kids walking to school and bumping into friends on their way.”

Rohrig was familiar with West Roxbury’s reputation as insular, white and skeptical of outsiders. He argued the demographics and attitudes of the neighborhood’s inhabitants were shifting. But he admitted feeling frustrated sometimes by some parts of the community’s resistance to new development, public works programs and other changes.

“You get frustrated sometimes when people are like, ‘Don't change anything,’ ” he said. “Part of that, I think, is just people being afraid of change. But I also think part of it is people wanting to keep their little piece of what they feel comfortable in and are nervous about letting other people be part of that. Sometimes that bums me out, because West Roxbury should be shared. Boston should be shared.”

Matthew Minerva was walking his brother’s dog down Centre Street in West Roxbury. The tall, cheerful man in his 50s grew up in the neighborhood but spent three decades away before returning a few years ago to take care of his ailing father.

A lot has changed since his childhood. Property values have ticked up, and new development increased. Strangely, though, the bars that used to line Centre Street are no more.

“It used to be like every corner, there was a bar,” Minerva recalled. “The bars are all gone.”

These days he prefers to spend his time in the many parks accessible on foot. Those, he said, had improved.

Roslyn Pedlar moved to West Roxbury 24 years ago with her husband. They were fresh out of grad school and stood out as young newcomers to the tight-knit neighborhood.

“People were kind of looking a little bit askance and saying, you know, ‘Who are these folks who are moving in?’ ” Pedlar, who is in her early 60s, recalled. “But the neighborhood's gotten way more diverse since I've been here.”

It was tough to make friends in those early years. Pedlar remembers being met by a blank look whenever she tried to greet neighbors on the street. It was disheartening, but Pedlar stuck with it, continuing to say hello whenever she passed someone on the sidewalk with her young daughter.

“And one day I was walking past this woman who was walking toward me with a baby in [a] stroller,” she said. “So I said hello to her and she literally stopped in her tracks. She took her son out of the stroller and she said, ‘I've been saying hello to people for the past year. You're the first person who's answered.’ ”

It turned out the woman lived across the street. Both moms and kids became lifelong friends. And more than two decades later, Pedlar hasn’t left West Roxbury.

After significant backlash, the city of Boston is axing their controversial plan to relocate the O'Bryant School from Roxbury to West Roxbury.

"I'm very happy with the way the school is now," said Kendra Nealon, a parent.

"I just think it's not a good idea that it is not being moved," said student Aven Hamilton-Iammartino.

Students at John D. O'Bryant School didn't mince words Wednesday morning about their feelings on their school staying put.

"The location is just so accessible to the students that live in this Greater Boston area," said Nealon.

In a letter sent to parents Tuesday, Wu and Boston Public Schools leaders wrote in part that "after analyzing many sites in Roxbury and other neighborhoods, we could not find an alternative location to accommodate the expansion and student experience that had been envisioned."

The letter went on to say that "we are halting those plans indefinitely."

The move is part of a long-term facilities plan to improve and upgrade many schools in the district. For O'Bryant, the plan was to move it to the vacant West Roxbury Education Complex on Veterans of Foreign Wars Parkway to give students more space, green space and state-of-the-art facilities.

"Even though the Madison shares the school with the O'Bryant they all mesh well," said Charlene, a parent.

Parents weren't thrilled with the idea. In fact, more than 1,500 signed a petition against it and even staff members expressed their discontent, with the number one issue being accessibility to transit.

"It would be really good for me since I live in West Roxbury, but there are a lot of people that it would be really hard for it to get to," said Hamilton-Iammartino.

"Being out there in West Roxbury — how would they get to school? Unless the mayor instituted new bus routes," said Nealon.

Others fear a move to West Roxbury would've changed the makeup of the school that currently is the most diverse exam school in Boston.

"Look at the students, look at the diversity, you have every walk of life just meshing. They are all best friends, and they all hang out. This is like our own little melting pot," said Charlene.

Boston Public Schools will be holding an O'Bryant community meeting at 5 p.m. on March 13 via Zoom to talk about the next steps and answer questions the community may have.