Last Night at School Committee: September 14th, 2022 Meeting Recap
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.
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Last night’s meeting was the first meeting since the start of school and the last for Dr. Drew Echelson as Acting Superintendent before Mary Skipper starts on September 26. The meeting began with Chair Jeri Robinson announcing that a report on the Mission Hill School would be postponed to the next meeting. Although there was no presentation during the meeting, the Boston Globe reported yesterday that the district is preparing for two federal lawsuits in response to the findings from this investigation.
The rest of the meeting featured discussions on transportation, special education, school safety, and teacher vacancies. Dr. Echelson and his team spoke optimistically about the district’s work in these areas while downplaying key issues that have been publicly raised by community members, the press, and even the School Committee members themselves. Members were left without answers as to how the district will address uncovered bus routes, the plan to fill hundreds of remaining vacancies in schools, where those vacancies are concentrated, and what the district is doing to proactively prevent safety incidents. Later in the meeting, members heard a report on a new bargaining agreement with the Boston Teachers Union. However, when prompted with questions about specific details of the agreement, there was a lack of clarity in implementation and implications for students and schools.
The next School Committee meeting will be held on September 28th at 5pm on Zoom.
Instead of asking more questions today, we want to hear from you. If you have concerns about how BPS is serving your child or your family, please send us either an audio file or email, and we might read, reference, or even play it in a future podcast. Send it to us at podcast@shahfoundation.org.
Ways to Engage and Resources:
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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BTU Collective Bargaining Agreement School Committee Presentation
