Last Night at School Committee: October 29th, 2025 Meeting Recap
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.
The meeting began with a Superintendent’s Report. Superintendent Mary Skipper opened by reflecting on the previous night’s “State of the Schools” address, sharing that there was “more pep in the step” throughout central offices following Mayor Wu’s remarks. She also celebrated the opening of several newly renovated schools, upcoming international travel opportunities for students, and an award earned by the BPS Food Team for their work in providing healthy, delicious meals across the district.
Following the report, Member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez raised two key questions about district trends, enrollment and graduation rates, both of which have been ongoing areas of concern.
Superintendent Skipper confirmed that enrollment is declining across the district, particularly among “newcomer” students, whose numbers are “roughly half” of what they were last year. She explained that while BPS is working to support families, several upcoming cohorts will be smaller, a trend driven by both post-COVID demographic shifts and broader declines in birth rates. The Superintendent also noted that a more complete enrollment report will be presented in November. As for graduation rates, Skipper said that while internal numbers suggest an increase in June graduations and a “robust summer cohort,” final figures will not be available until the state releases official data later in the school year.
During public comment, 33 speakers addressed the Committee, with many focused on the exam school admissions policy. The upcoming vote on this issue will take place next week, and the evening featured impassioned arguments on both sides of the debate, some defending the current system with others pushing for policy shifts. In addition to the exam school discussion, quite a few speakers advocated for increasing access to dual-language programming for students across the district.
The Committee then voted to approve several grants before turning to a discussion of Superintendent Skipper’s new contract. In framing the conversation, Superintendent Skipper spoke passionately about her commitment to Boston and the mission of BPS. Absent in the discussion, however, was a lack of benchmarks or goals tied to Skipper’s renewal. Member Cardet-Hernandez echoed this sentiment, and he called for a more calibrated and evidence-based evaluation process.
The Committee then heard an update on Transformation Schools, schools identified by the state as requiring targeted intervention. Superintendent Skipper noted that while there are “signs of progress,” persistent challenges remain, including low student achievement and chronic absenteeism. She highlighted that for the third consecutive year, more schools improved their accountability percentile than declined, with 18 schools improving and eight remaining steady.
Member Cardet-Hernandez called the presentation both encouraging and sobering, noting that despite incremental gains, roughly one-third of BPS schools remain in transformation status, serving the highest concentrations of Black, Latino, low-income, multilingual, and special education students. And while it is a positive that the district continued to present this update even though it is no longer mandated, a lot more work needs to be done.
On this episode, we had a special guest, Greg Maynard, from the Boston Policy Institute to discuss the first ever State of the Schools address from Mayor Michelle Wu. While the Mayor touted new bilingual education, an increase of air conditioning units, and improvement on transportation times, there were a number of more thorny issues that the Mayor avoided.
The speech stopped short of confronting the district’s most pressing challenges. For instance, while Mayor Wu cited examples of students taking advanced coursework, her discussion of overall academic performance was minimal. Mayor Wu did not address Boston Public Schools’ recently released MCAS results, which remain far below pre-pandemic levels. Fewer than 30% of students in grades 3–8 met expectations in both ELA and math, down more than five percentage points from 2019. Likewise, while Mayor Wu has previously pointed to major capital investments in BPS facilities, more than half of all students still attend schools rated as “inadequate” under the district’s own building experience measure. Over 50% of buildings also lack a full continuum of services, including English learner and special education programs.
Finally, on transportation, Wu noted that 96% of school buses arrived on time yesterday but did not address the district’s long-term failure to meet the standards required under the 2022 Systemic Improvement Plan (SIP), which set a monthly 95% on-time goal. Public data show the district and its embattled contractor, Transdev, have not met that standard once since the plan began. The annual on-time rate for 2024–25 was 90%, and through the first month of the 2025–26 school year, just 88% according to a public records request.
Mayor Wu’s State of the Schools address was an important opportunity to confront these challenges head-on. While progress is real, it remains uneven. Test scores are low, facilities are deteriorating, and key obligations to the state remain unmet. Mayor Wu has the political mandate and resources to act decisively; the question is whether the Mayor will use them.
To read the full speech, please click here.
