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With the financial feasibility study set to release results, the decision to open a new school will play a key role in influencing future programming for the Jackson Mann Community Center (40 Armington St). 

The study was scheduled to release results by the end of February according to Allston-Brighton city councilor Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Breadon, but no updates have been provided on the study as of March 1. 

Through the financial feasibility study, the City is exploring multiple planning and financial models for rebuilding the Jackson Mann, which could feature a combination of housing, community center or a school. The study, which began in late summer 2025, is being conducted by private planning firm Utile Architecture & Planning along with the Boston Center for Youth and Families and the City’s Public Facilities department.

In addition to the community center, formerly on the Jackson Mann site were two Boston Public Schools (BPS), the Jackson Mann School and the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which permanently closed in 2022 and 2023 respectively, due to deteriorating building conditions. The building is slated to be torn down. 

The community center remains open in providing public services.

Though schools at Jackson Mann are closed, the school district still retains partial ownership of the site. BPS must decide whether to retain that ownership or cede it to the city for other use before further development on the site can proceed. According to Breadon, the new study will add to that ongoing discussion.

Breadon said in an interview with Allstonia on February 13, that she had spoken with BPS that morning and reiterated her push for them to make a decision. 

“I was just making it clear we needed to know what their intentions were so that the whole process could go forward,” Breadon says. 

If BPS decides not to build schools on the site, Breadon says that the building would need to be deemed “surplus” by the City. From then, the City Council can vote to repurpose the building plan from its original use to a new use. 

“As with any major public facilities project, the timeline for future renovations and long-term planning at the site depends on multiple factors, including ongoing feasibility work and Boston Public Schools’ assessment of future school needs in the neighborhood,” wrote a BPS spokesperson to Allstonia in late January. “We remain committed to keeping the community informed as the process progresses and next steps for the site are defined.”

Breadon says that the decision whether to open a school or not will influence the future programming of the Jackson Mann. For instance, due to logistic challenges, there could be tradeoffs between school programming and senior programming.

“If a community center is shared with a popular school community, very often, the spaces in the community center would be used during the day by school. Then, that precludes maybe programming for our senior population,” Breadon says. “It’s just really a dance, and I think it’s quite a logistical challenge to do programming for different populations that want the space at the same time,” she says.

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The financial feasibility study will mark the third study that the city has done on the Jackson Mann since it closed its school in 2022. In collaboration with Utile, the City had released a 410-page study in October 2023 with recommendations and planning recommendations for the community center’s redesign.

Alongside these two studies, BPS allocated 150,000 dollars in 2023 to conduct a study on developing a building plan for a new school for students from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade. The study would also look into whether some of the neighboring elementary schools — Winship Elementary School, the Gardner Pilot Academy, the Thomas Edison K-8 School, and the Baldwin Early Learning Center — could be merged into this new elementary school. The study has not released results.

The release of this upcoming financial feasibility study will be followed by a community engagement and planning process. ■