State reps. step in after family displaced by fire told they can’t remain in the school district

Mass. House Speaker Ron Mariano is among a cadre of state representatives that will be attending the Holbrook School Committee’s August 9 meeting to speak on behalf of a displaced family.

After a Holbrook family lost their home in a fire in January, Julia Evans hoped her two kids would be able to stay in the Holbrook Public Schools system even though they had been forced to relocate to nearby Weymouth. 

But the school district said that Evans’s son won’t be allowed to enroll for the upcoming school year, and her daughter will have to apply for school choice, Evans told WCVB.

Now, a delegation from the state Legislature that includes Mariano, Sen. John Keenan, Sen. Patrick O’Connor, and Rep. John Cusack — all of whom represent Norfolk County, where Holbrook and Weymouth are located — plan to appear personally at the district’s next School Committee meeting and speak in support of Evans’s son staying at his school.

“Due to extraordinary and emergency circumstances and through no fault of their own the family had no choice but to find housing in Weymouth,” the four representatives wrote in a letter to Holbrook School Committee Chair Nancy Alterio, alerting her they would be attending the upcoming meeting. “We believe that it is in the best interest of the child to continue his education within Holbrook Public Schools.”

Evans told WCVB her son is “very vulnerable at the moment after losing everything” in the fire. She said allowing him to stay at his school would offer some comfort and continuity.

Holbrook Public Schools Superintendent Julie Hamilton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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