Ep. 76, Last Night @ School Committee: 12/14 Meeting Recap

Last Night At School Committee

Last night’s meeting was the last School Committee meeting of 2022, and the School Committee spent the majority of the meeting kicking off the process for next year’s budget discussion.

The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, where Superintendent Skipper discussed student safety, transportation, and rising COVID-19 cases in Boston – an issue raised by several public commenters last night. The main report of the night was a financial update from BPS CFO Nate Kuder. The report showed that schools have only spent half of their federal ESSER relief allocations. In addition, the report showed that priority positions and other priorities funded by ESSER would move into general funding to avoid a “fiscal cliff” when that funding expires. At the same time, that ESSER money will be reallocated to cover “soft landings” for the following two years – funding to under-enrolled schools that allows them to maintain their current staffing levels. While this trade-off avoids a “fiscal cliff,” it will lead to difficult conversations two years down the road when relief money runs out for dozens of schools. With projected enrollment declines and the coming expiration of ESSER funds, paired with BPS leaders’ interest in new investments in areas like multilingual education, special education, and school construction, it is clear that there will be tough, consequential budget decisions ahead in the new year.

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