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. 

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.