Christian Midina, a senior at Chelsea High, says, "At first, I didn't see any changes. I was like, `Where's B.U.?.' But, now I see them."

"A lot of lessons have been learned since the beginning of the partnership," Wasserman says. "The feelings of a lack of inclusion have been addressed with more open meetings and sending out information."

Carleton and Paul Clemente, B.U. associate vice-president of financial affairs, acknowledge that there has been some negative community feedback against the project.

"Chelsea is a complex community with every problem that exist in every large city. A lot of people thought we'd pay to run the schools. That was a misconception," Clemente says. "We are trying to foster broad participation by the many different groups in Chelsea and the PTO."

But some members of the community say the contract should never have been signed. Juan R. Vega, the office manager of the Chelsea Commission on Hispanic Affairs and life-long Chelsea resident, says the commission, which is currently suing the city, believes the program sets a poor precedent for educational reform.

"I'm one of the plaintiffs protesting the constitutionality of a private entity controlling a public entity," Vega says. "We still think that the school system should not have been handed to a private university."

The contract allows Boston University exemption from five public education laws--open meetings, open records, public audits, and regulations of hiring and firing personnel.

"We gave away the whole store," Vega says. "The school committee remains powerless."

However, the school committee continues to exist in an advisory capacity and can override the entire contract with a majority vote. A two-third majority can overrule any B.U. team decision on all issues but personnel.

Clement does admit the project is not without flaws, but says these are attributable to a lack of precedent.

"We've groundbreakers," he says. "We're trying, learning, making mistakes, moving forward. We would like to communicate to others who are thinking of taking on a similar responsibility so they won't have to make our mistakes."

Vega claims that an open-bid process allowing other universities to offer alternative proposals would have been more justified. While he believes in some of the new programs, he says he does not feel the basic level of education has been properly addressed.

"Some valuable programs have been implemented," Vega says, "but B.U. has focused on special programs while staying away from the major programs of reform because of budget constraints."

Vega is angered by B.U.'s criticism that Chelsea has not maintained the level of program funding promised in the original contract.

"It is ludicrous to whine now about budget problems when those problems were there from the beginning," Vega says. "We didn't need to go into a 10-year-program to realize we had budget constraints."