Ep. 51, Last Night @ School Committee: 3/16 Meeting Recap

Last Night At School Committee

Last night’s meeting marked two years since schools closed due to the pandemic, and it came in the face of mounting uncertainty from families across the district about the future of their students’ education. Prior to the meeting, BPS leaders announced temporary measures to assuage the concerns of the P.A. Shaw Elementary School community about the lack of promised grade expansions and of the Boston Day and Evening Academy’s BDEA 2.0 program about the future of their learning space. While a step in the right direction for these school communities, these decisions failed to provide long-term stability to families, and many of those families testified last night

The meeting began with an updated presentation from the Superintendent on changes to her initial budget recommendation. The updates include $2.3 million in increases to the Central Office budget and additional funding for 98 schools, including funds for library expansions and additional school psychologists. There were pointed questions from the School Committee about whether this budget accounts for projected declines in enrollment and the ways in which those projections are determined. The meeting then continued with a report on several school building repair projects being submitted to the State – which the Superintendent noted was lacking a larger vision from City leaders for districtwide facility improvements – and finally a progress update from the Superintendent Search Committee.

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