The Superintendent’s office seems to have taken the summer off too; we dive deep on BPS benchmarks; and a new survey highlights classroom concerns

Last night's School Committee meeting kicked off with some key updates from Superintendent Skipper. She started off by breaking down the district’s plan to cut around 568 positions. She explained this is a direct response to losing roughly 3,000 students over the last two years, though she promised a steady 10-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio would remain.

Last night’s Boston School Committee meeting covered a wide range of issues, beginning with Superintendent Mary Skipper’s report on the district’s ongoing budget concerns, staffing updates, teacher diversity, as well as the implementation of a new cell phone policy. While district leaders highlighted student achievements and positive developments across Boston Public Schools, the public comment period created an emotional reaction focused on proposed changes to the Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) program. Teachers, advocates, and families passionately defended the program, emphasizing its critical role in supporting English learners whose formal education has been interrupted by circumstances such as displacement or political instability. Speakers argued that reducing SLIFE services would disproportionately impact some of the district’s most vulnerable students and raised broader concerns about whether budget pressures are beginning to undermine the exact programs designed to close achievement gaps. Additional testimony focused on challenges families face navigating special education placements and accessing appropriate supports for students with disabilities.

The school committee briefly touched on BPS’s bus transportation performance, continuing to claim ‘great strides’ in addressing structural issues with the troubled system. This was particularly relevant given the need for additional funds to cover overspending on transportation in the current fiscal year. Remember that next year, BPS has budgeted $199M, roughly $50 a day per student transported. 

Last night’s School Committee meeting touched on a number of critical issues for BPS, including a vote on a policy amendment to MassCore, an ask for more money to fill a budget gap, an update on decade old policy surrounding opportunity and achievement gaps, a new strategic roadmap, as well as an an approval for a new MSBA statement of interest. To learn more about these topics, please listen to the podcast for more in-depth analysis. Regarding BPS facilities, which played a key role at the start of last night’s meeting, we conducted an analysis to better understand the future of the district’s capital plan in the coming years.

Last night was the first full meeting in a month after a series of budget hearings. The meeting covered three topics; vote on the 2026-2027 budget, update on MassCore and the annual discussion on school choice. We dig into each of these areas below and on the podcast. We are also excited to unveil a new tool to help you better understand the BPS budget. 

Earlier this month, we recorded a special conversation with Boston Globe reporter Christopher Huffaker. Huffaker is a reporter for “The Great Divide” - an investigative arm of the paper that analyzes and reports on educational inequities throughout the state. 

Last night, the district had a two-part meeting, beginning with a Budget Hearing for FY 2027 and then a short School Committee meeting. The budget hearing largely touched on many of the same financial themes we have heard from the district before, including transportation costs and collective bargaining expenses, while also highlighting some more granular fiscal challenges at the school level. School Committee members asked a number of questions about multilingual programming, cuts to personnel, and the connection between the FY 27 budget and the long-term facilities plan. 

On Wednesday evening, the district held a hearing focused on the Central Office budget. In their presentation, district leadership stated that they prioritized "student-facing" investments that directly supported schools. Highlights from the central office budget include an $86 million increase due to four main categories: health insurance, transportation expenses, special education, and collective bargaining.

Last night kicked off the FY 2027 budget season with an overview and a release of all the budget documents. The district’s preliminary FY27 budget proposal totals $1.71 billion, representing a $74 million increase over current spending. This increase comes even as BPS serves roughly 3,000 fewer students than last year, continuing a multi-year trend of declining enrollment. On a per-pupil basis, the district is now spending approximately $37,000 per student. What makes this especially concerning is that increased spending has not translated into improved outcomes. Only one-third of high school students are currently on track to meet BPS graduation standards, and proficiency in ELA MCAS for students in grades 3–8 has declined from 35% in 2019 to 29% in 2025. During that same period, the district added approximately 1,700 positions, raising fundamental questions about staffing growth, productivity, and accountability. Transportation costs illustrate this disconnect. The FY27 budget proposes an additional $11 million for transportation, bringing total spending on yellow buses to approximately $200 million annually, despite ongoing reports from families that buses remain unreliable and poorly coordinated.

The Boston Public Schools (BPS) School Committee held its first meeting of 2026 this week, coming at a critical moment for the district with new committee members, the current $53 million budget deficit, as well as serious questions about inclusion and transparency.

At last night’s meeting, many important issues were discussed and decided. These included an important memo about enrollment decline, a school closure vote, and a budget update. Conversations between the Committee and district pointed to long-term issues for BPS.
The meeting moved directly into the public comment period. There were 30 speakers, with the overwhelming majority urging the Committee to halt the proposed school closures. Testimony from teachers, parents, students, and organizers emphasized a lack of transparency, insufficient engagement, and deep uncertainty about what will happen to students once schools close. Speakers repeatedly stressed that families and educators had received vague answers to direct questions about transition plans, accountability, and the future placement of students, particularly those requiring inclusive services.

The meeting opened with an executive session to discuss a tentative agreement with the Boston Association of School Administrators and Supervisors (BASAS), which the Committee will vote on at its next meeting on December 17th. Additionally, the Committee recognized Taylor McCoy, an Inclusion Specialist at Mattahunt Elementary School, as the 2025 Shattuck Award recipient. Members celebrated her dedication as well as the work of countless educators who serve students every day.

The Superintendent began with updates on transportation and enrollment, noting that the district has seen record-high transportation performance this fall. Morning on-time performance has reached 95% or higher on nine separate days, a remarkable increase given that in past years BPS only hit that mark twice during the first 45 days of school. Member Cardet-Hernandez, however, inquired about the headline the Superintendent avoided mentioning: the recent bribery and kickback scheme involving a Transdev employee, and the long-standing oversight failures that allowed uncertified drivers and other safety lapses to occur. The Superintendent stated that the latest transportation contract includes stronger accountability provisions, but did not elaborate on what those measures look like. 

Last night’s Boston School Committee meeting was filled with votes on various topics crucial to the future of the district, including an adjustment to the Exam School Admissions Policy as well the Competency Determination for the Classes of 2026 and 2027.

Last night’s Boston School Committee meeting covered a wide range of topics, including declining enrollment, the Superintendent’s contract and an update on transformation schools.

At last night’s Boston School Committee meeting, members dove immediately into another discussion about the Exam School Admissions Policy Recommendation, foregoing the usual Superintendent’s Report. In response to committee requests from the last meeting, the district presented new simulations that gave equal weight (as opposed to 70% grades and 30% MPA score) to both GPA and MAP assessment scores. The district found that there was minimal change in the overall makeup of students admitted to exam schools.

The Boston School Committee held their second meeting of the school year last night, primarily to present a proposal to change the exam school admissions policy. This was the sole report of the meeting and much of the public comment surrounded this proposal.

After the Superintendent’s report, Member Cardet-Hernández pressed for updates on graduation rates and summer school outcomes. Superintendent Skipper noted those would come at the October 8th meeting, alongside official enrollment numbers.

The Boston School Committee met last night for its first meeting of the school year. The meeting covered a wide range of topics, from the district's back-to-school updates to the ongoing discussion of the exam school admissions policy. Here’s a recap of what happened:

The meeting kicked off with a warm welcome to the newest member of the Boston School Committee, Rachel Skerritt. Skerritt, who has previously served as Head of Boston Latin School, is joining the committee and brings a fresh perspective to the group. We are looking forward to hearing from her in the months and years ahead. 

The only Boston School Committee meeting of the summer opened with a goodbye to a leaving member, included a summary of the Superintendent’s progress, and ended with more questions than answers.