Feb 1 2023 · Last Night @ School Committee Recap · Ep. 79
What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.
Last night’s meeting marked the beginning of the annual BPS budget process. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, in which she discussed the district’s progress in implementing contractually-obligated back-pay for educators and new developments in the school merger process. Superintendent Skipper noted that she has added staff to ensure employees receive appropriate pay, and she announced that the planned mergers of the Shaw and Taylor schools, and of the Sumner and Philbrick schools, will be delayed until 2024 to allow more time to engage the school communities.
The majority of the meeting was spent on the Superintendent’s preliminary budget recommendation. The Superintendent and her team presented a $1.4 billion budget, which represents a $65 million increase over last year and a 39% increase in per pupil spending ($28k per student). The proposal includes additional investments of approximately $12 million for transportation, $10 million for inclusive practices, and $6 million for multilingual education. The proposal also includes 209 new full-time positions, on top of all current vacancies. While the budget continues to grow year-over-year, the proposal lacked details on metrics and implementation, and members expressed concerns about how this money will be spent and why key structural issues are being delayed to future years.
The School Committee will hold several public budget hearings over the next few weeks and will vote on the final budget on March 22. The next committee meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 15 at 5pm on Zoom.
We want to hear from you! If you have concerns about how BPS is serving your child or your family, please send us an email at podcast@shahfoundation.org.
Ways to Engage and Resources:
Attend a budget hearing to voice your thoughts about the upcoming budget. The first hearing will be held on February 16th at 5pm
Continue to demand accountability from our school system by emailing the Mayor and School Committee members:
Mayor Michelle Wu: mayor@boston.gov
Chair Jeri Robinson: grobinson@bostonpublicschools.org
Vice Chair Michael O’Neill: moneill2@bostonpublicschools.org
Quoc Tran: qtran2@bostonpublicschools.org
Lorena Lopera: llopera@bostonpublicschools.org
Rafaela Polanco Garcia: rpolancogarcia@bostonpublicschools.org
Dr. Stephen Alkins: salkins@bostonpublicschools.org
Brandon Cardet-Hernandez: bcardethernandez@bostonpublicschools.org
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