Good afternoon.

My name is Ben Weber.

I am the District Six City Councilor and the Chair of the Boston City Council on Ways and Means.

Today is April sixteenth, two thousand twenty-six.

And the exact time is two thirteen PM.

This hearing is being recorded is also being live streamed at Boston.gov slash city dash council dash TV and broadcast on Xfinity Channel Eight, RCN Channel Eighty Two, and Files Channel Nine Sixty Four.

You can do so in the following ways.gov slash council dash budget.

Our scheduled hearings dedicated to public testimony are in person here in City Hall on Tuesday, April twenty-eighth at six PM, and again in person at City Hall on Thursday, May twenty sixth at six PM.

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For more information on the city council budget process and how to testify, please visit the city council's budget website at Boston.gov slash council dash budget.

In person, public testimony will be taken uh following the first round of questions again.

Um and individuals uh who are called will have two minutes to testify.

Again, if you wish to sign up for public testimony, you have not done so already.

Um you can email our director of legislative budget uh analysis, Chris Woodchohan, at uh K A R I S H M A dot C H O U H A N at Boston.gov for the zoom link, and your name will be added to the list.

Again, that's for virtual testimony.

If you're here in person, all you need to do is sign up on the sheet, and I'll call your name.

This afternoon's hearing is on docket numbers 0733 to 0740 and docket numbers 0741 to 0743.

The focus of this hearing is on the FY27 budget for Boston Public Schools.

This hearing will cover topics including food service, safety, office of human resources, slash staffing, uh, and transportation.

This hearing will also cover the facilities, transportation and technology revolving funds.

This is one in a series of hearings to review the FY27 budget.

It's also one of three hearings we're holding specifically on the FY27 BPS budget.

I want to note uh for my colleagues and uh and for the panelists that the BPS central office budget is relevant to our discussions at all of our BPS hearings, given the overlap of this budget with many of our specific topics.

In case of this, in the case of this particular hearing, um we are likely to discuss centrally budgeted services and personnel.

These matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and were referred to the committee on April 8th, 2026.

Today I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, uh Councilor Murphy, Counselor Flynn, Councilor Braden, uh, and uh believe we received a letter of absence from Councillor Culpeper.

Um I would like to introduce our panelists uh we from the all from the Boston Public Schools.

We have uh yeah uh senior deputy superintendent of operations Dr.

Sam DePina, uh Chief of Human Resources, Francis J.

Canty, uh, right, uh executive director of transportation Dan Rosengaard, executive director of safety security and school crisis response, Izzy Morrero, uh, and deputy chief financial officer Blair Dawkins, right?

And I have been told that the uh uh chief uh financial officer who's also here, David Bloom, um, to answer questions.

Uh he has a call at 3 30.

He may step out.

Um he'll be coming back, and his deputy uh sorry, Blair can answer all questions uh you know in his absence.

Um let's see.

Um so uh we are going to start now, I guess uh with uh any presentation or statement.

No?

Um we just would want to again just say good afternoon to everyone here, the council members in the public joining us and uh happy to discuss uh the topics here this afternoon and look forward to answering your questions this year a lot about the work that we're doing and we're planning to do.

Okay, thank you.

Uh let's get started.

Counselor Murphy, uh seven minutes.

Okay.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you all for being here.

Um some follow-up questions.

I know we've met a few times already.

Um some outstanding questions I have.

If you, David could speak directly.

One of the questions I asked twice now is to separate out the central office budget, knowing that um it's not just staff that are working under Skipper, that it's all of our custodians.

If you could list all of the other employees in BPS who are paid through the central budget, and then separate out the overall cut and which positions were cut.

That'd be helpful.

Thank you.

Yes.

Um thank you.

So we have approximately um 2800 centrally funded positions.

Um this is everything from bus monitors to custodians to special educational services staff as well as the central office.

Um our budget includes about 700 of the positions are what you would um often think of as sort of traditional central office roles.

Um that includes, for example, like the whole finance team, right?

All of our accounts payable, those sorts of things.

For instance, it's team HR, um, as well as sort of supervision for academics and other areas.

Um we have uh 56, I believe is our most updated number, uh FTE of reductions.

Uh of the 700 above the 2800.

Of the 700, um, about 175 from the 2800.

So 175 total, of which 57 are central office.

Central office.

Um, and because you had said last time that you know you had a percentage cut to central office.

So a smaller, and of the uh 120 or 18.

Where are those?

Are they bus monitor?

Like do you have the list of who's being um we are gonna be reducing some vacant positions in bus monitors um and uh some um special education staff that are assigned based on the needs of students' IEPs, there's a couple of vacant positions there that we think will be consolidating as well as some vacant um safety services positions.

Um the uh you're asking about sort of the remaining one ten.

Right.

Um there's also some some custodial reductions as we have fewer buildings.

Um you mentioned some of our bus monitors, Dan.

If you could chime in here because when we had our hearing on transportation last month, we were talking about the need to have more bus monitor, right?

And that many of the buses can't leave the yard if they're not following the IEPs, the one-to-ones, the safety monitors.

So how is that going to affect that conversation?

Appreciate that question, Councillor.

Um so the the reductions as uh Chief Blue mentioned are in vacant positions right now.

So we are um keeping the same number of active bus monitors that we have, and what we found is that with that staffing that we've had, we have not seen any coverage issues yet this year, and as we're projecting further reductions in the number of routes aligned with uh you know school closures and enrollment.

And are they permanently being cut?

Yes, that's correct.

And we haven't seen any interruptions on buses being able to pick up, drop off, or have the correct number of bus monitors at all this year.

There's been a hundred percent attendance matching the needs.

Not just the one, and we're talking, I get it, that it's IPs and what's written.

Yeah, uh what we've found is that um the the number of bus monitors we have is you know sufficient to cover daily operations every day, yes.

Okay.

I'll go back um after this, but I feel like that was different from the conversation we had when we were just talking about buses last time.

Um I have a question.

I know we were just talking earlier.

The I hear um we talk a lot, or you know, a lot of attention is brought to some of the bigger safety concerns and issues.

If it's a firearm, if it's a fight, if it's a video that goes viral, or you know, texting to us and concerns which are definitely concerns and need to be addressed, but I know we spent a lot of or most of the time talking about that.

I wanted to talk more about the you know, kindergarten first, second, the elementary grades, the lower grades, where you hear often um, especially with the expansion of inclusion and displacement, and if we're cutting paras, the supports needed for many of our students and just many kids maybe not feeling safe, parents raising these concerns, teachers themselves in a safe space if they feel like they can relay that safely or get support from their administration.

So, can you talk about like what if you your role and how you play into that need, or is that something that you don't step in for?

Excuse me.

Thank you for the question.

So school leaders have total autonomy on, especially with the elementary schools, whether they want safety personnel on site or not.

Um currently uh the bulk of the safety officers are dispatched to the schools uh that are in higher need.

Uh so most of the high schools will have a one or more.

Um we currently have 58 safety officers.

Um after the cuts and stuff, I I have two openings.

Um so I'll have uh 60 and when when fully staffed.

Uh we have uh over 120 buildings that we have to provide security for, so you can understand that those situations, the resources are spread thin.

However, with that said, um school leaders, school administrators have the opportunity to call when incidents of concerns arise.

Um we do deploy uh safety personnel to those elementary schools um when the the need is uh is great.

Um they also are secondary sites for those that are assigned to schools, they're there for dismissal, and then we we do dispatch so that safety personnel are there as a secondary site for arrivals, dismissals, uh, and are um the the lieutenants who supervisors and the sergeants are required to go and check in with those uh elementary schools uh regularly.

There's another division that we have called the Vipers, uh that is an acronym for violence intervention, prevention, and restorative specialist.

These are folks that have been trained.

It just started this school year, so this is why you may be hearing it for the first time.

Um they were formerly the community connection coordinators from last year who were prior to that with SOARs or street workers.

Um so they've all been trained in mediation and conflict resolution.

Okay.

And so they're also how many do we have of those uh ten uh members and one team leader who plays both roles.

So it'll be a total of eleven.

Um they can be requested to come in when you know when we're informed, uh, or when safety is informed of an issue, referrals can be made.

Shadow Cromwell is the team leader.

Uh she'll get dispatched, she'll get notified, she'll assign somebody uh the case.

That person is responsible for connecting with the school, uh connecting with parents.

The mediations work when all parties volunteer, right, are on board.

Uh and so they understand like when we're dealing with uh elementary school kids, it's a different approach than we would with uh with the high school students.

So um we can schedule regular check-ins and things of that nature to make sure that the school feels supported.

So there are some options there for the school leaders if they requested it.

Thank you.

I know my time's up.

I do just want to thank you.

A couple weeks ago, you hopped on that call with the concern at the Kenny School, and just thank you for your support and willingness to do whatever we can to help the staff, families, and neighbors.

Thank you.

Happy to help however I can.

Okay, thank you, Chair.

Welcome.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh Councillor Flynn.

Seven we're doing seven minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I want to get back to the question I asked earlier about the three district social workers, David.

Um is there anything we can do as a city council?

I I still think those three positions are critical, especially during cr um emergencies, crisis time.

What can we do to get those back in the budget?

Because I just can't walk away and just say, okay, they cut three social workers, and that's fine with me.

I I I just can't accept that.

But what can the city council do to get those three important positions back in the budget?

Because I I need them in the budget.

I know the challenges students are facing, and I just can't sit here and accept that we're cutting social workers, critical jobs, three district social workers.

What can we do to get to get them back in the budget?

Because that's just unacceptable for me, and I just can't go along as if as if that's acceptable.

I mean, uh I appreciate you sharing that this morning and and thank you for your feedback on that.

We'll certainly take it under your advisement, but um as we finalize the budget.

The okay, but there's still an opportunity to get it back in, is that right?

Uh we can certain we can certainly talk about it.

Okay.

Because when students need a social worker at a time of crisis, and the social worker isn't there, then that's a that's a bigger crisis.

Um when a school is under all these challenges that they're facing, not having the right staff at the right time, mental health counselors, social workers.

That's important.

Yeah.

There was a lot of learning loss during COVID.

There was a lot of mental health challenges as well.

And as a as a city and as a district, we just can't be cutting psychologists, social workers, school nurses.

That's what I focused on when I first came on here.

We didn't have school nurses in every school, and I I've I fought for that along with I think it was city council in East Orsabi George as well.

But can you commit to me that we're gonna put those three um positions back in the budget?

Um I certainly can't make any commitments today right here, but we'll certainly go back and have another conversation about it.

Okay, okay.

Um wasn't there an issue, and I'm I might be going back a couple years, Boston Police Department, Boston Public Schools, memorandum of understanding.

Is it has that ever been signed?

So that's been signed on behalf of Boston Public Schools.

The ball is in um Boston Police's department's court.

Um whether it's been signed or not, Boston Public Schools has been operating under that MOU that that was agreed upon.

So while it's still not signed, that's how we're operating based on the the understanding of that MOU.

Okay.

Uh thanks, Izzy.

Um Mr.

Chair, could I respectfully ask for a copy of that, please?

The the one that's signed by the Boston police.

Um I mean, I'm sorry.

By Boston, we signed.

Yeah, by Boston Public Schools.

That it's not signed by the Boston police, but could I still get a copy of that?

Okay.

Please.

Yeah.

Um let me go back to David.

David, in terms of teachers, paraprofessionals, educators that interact every day with students.

Specifically, how many people are getting laid off?

I'm not talking about um vacant positions.

I'm talking about um eliminating the job in the person still in there.

Yeah, so there uh which might be sorry.

So there are two types of position reduction or position changes that are happening for employees, and I'll turn it over to my colleague to give you the details.

One is a position that's being eliminated because of uh under enrollment, right?

So there are fewer positions.

The other is uh staff member who's being separated from their position due to a lack of licensure or other qualification that is required.

So um we can give you the numbers on both of those.

But but but someone that doesn't have their license, I would assume they're working to get their license.

Is that is that accurate to say?

And if they're working toward getting a license, um don't we want to give them an opportunity to continue on that path?

Maybe they maybe they've had some challenges at their home or or financial issues or paying bills.

But I don't want to see them, I don't want to see them lose their job.

I want to see them stay on that path so that they can get that certification, they can get that license.

Is that make sense?

Yeah.

Yes, so the way it works is if you are not licensed, um for us to get you what we call a waiver for you to be able to work in Massachusetts is we have to lay you off, and then we can request a we have to post that position so that we can then request a waiver from the state.

So we cannot like we cannot guarantee you a job unless you are um unless you are on that waiver.

And the only way the state will allow us to get a waiver is that that position has to be posted.

Okay.

So those positions that a teacher doesn't have their license, how many are those?

I can get you that number.

Is that in the hundreds?

Yes.

Um currently um this year we had 700 teachers who did not have license, and we've worked to get um at least 200 of those educators are currently um have been able to obtain licensure.

Okay.

Um so that number is constantly moving because of the work that we are also doing with those educators to try to get them license um to try to get them license.

Okay.

Well, m Mr.

Chair, and so could I get a list of every specific position that is being eliminated, whether it's someone that doesn't have their license, or the other or the what is it?

Oh, yeah, the vacant ones, or the vacant ones as well.

But the the ones also that are vacant that you're not putting a person in there where there should be a teacher in there, that's that's one child that's has less time with a teacher.

Um so having that less time with that teacher, or providing that teacher with being in the classroom, that's learning loss, and and and with learning loss for students, then we're going back to um dropout rates, then we're going back to tidiness, then we're going to back to mental health counseling counselors.

So why don't we just put the teachers in the classrooms, let the teachers teach, get the mental health counselors supporting the teachers, and then and then we have a a good environment, a safe and healthy environment for learning and teaching.

So I want to so BPS this year alone, um, at the start of the school year for educators, we have a 94% rate of first day of school having educators in the classroom.

So we have we we do our best, more than our best actually, to make sure that the first day of school that there is an actual adult in the classroom with students.

During the course of the year, are there things that happen like people resign, people go on and leave?

Um, those things um oft will sometimes impact staffing, but we have um we have mechanism of making sure that we have long-term subs who then come in and um um cover those positions.

So there's we we there's not a class, there's not there's not a class that go vac um vacant without a an adult being in front of us.

I think the thing other thing we should highlight because there's your team's doing a huge amount of work to place teachers in those vacant positions.

So there already are hundreds of teachers who have been displaced from one job who HR has worked to put them in and fill up those vacant positions.

So the list of teachers without a position for next year is shrinking every day.

Yes.

Okay.

Um, Mr.

Chair, I know you've been uh generous with your time.

Thank you very much.

Okay, thank you.

Um Council Braden just so is you you want to still get that list?

I mean, uh you want to just define it one more time based on the last exchange.

Um yeah, so Mr.

Chair, the the list would be um teachers that are losing their positions due to the fact that they may or may not have licenses or any certification, and then the other the other request basically is a vacancy that is not being filled.

Um to me, that's still somewhat of a job cut because you're not you're not giving that child the extra opportunity to interact with another with another teacher.

Okay, yeah.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Uh Madam President.

Thank you.

Um good afternoon, everyone.

Umsportation.

The transportation budget keeps growing.

It's sort of in the order of about 200 million, which is an 11 million dollar increase from last year.

This is one of the questions we have is that there are penalties for chronically late, persistent problems with late buses and buses not arriving.

And I I was just reading this article in the in the um Boston Public Schools didn't uh don't find vendors for uncovered trips yet.

That's probably leaving a couple of million dollars on the table.

And there's no consequences, they have a total monopoly on the whole service.

So why why are we not finding trans dev for in not meeting their targets?

Nice to see you as well.

I appreciate that question.

Um I think you know, when we think about you know making sure that we're providing the best service for students every day, and what we're doing with this current contract, which we you know designed to include incentives and accountability measures that were not in prior contracts.

Um what we've seen over the the three years of this contract so far is steady incremental gains over the life of the contract, and what we've seen is on-time performance this year is the highest that it's been, not just under this contract, but at any point in Boston history.

However, when we saw um a specific regression in service with the increase in uncovered trips in December, that is what led us to uh utilize uh non-performance damages, which is one tool, not the only tool, and not always the best tool, but in this specific situation, we feel that it you know was appropriate.

We have since implemented those for March, and what we've seen is since then uh we've seen significant improvement and reduction in uncovered trips uh back to levels in line with prior years, while also continuing to see those on-time performance improvements.

And then the other question, you know, I know we're in a process of trying to ensure that we have quality schools in every district, every every cluster right across the whole city.

Um I think what's happening is we're spending a huge amount of money on busing kids back and forward and round and round.

Um it's taking a lot of time away from for families, like three hours a day on a school bus is not a fun thing to be doing.

Um where are we at in just sort of the long-term facilities plan to get to that space where we have quality schools in every neighborhood?

Every quality, like we spend enough to make have every quality schools in every neighborhood.

Uh, where are we at in terms of the long-term facilities plan to make sure that we could reduce like if we if we had to come in tomorrow and say, right, we're cutting the transportation budget budget in half, and you're gonna get a hundred million dollars, and we can put that hundred million dollars into improving facilities at all of our schools.

Like how how far away are we from getting getting there?

Because what we're doing doesn't make any sense.

We're just keep throwing money down a hole in the floor.

I appreciate the question, Costello, and um thank you for that question.

Um earlier in this morning's session, Superintendent Skipper talked a little bit about um the uh having highest quality schools in every district as you as you heard um uh as you participated.

Um I'll just reiterate that our goal is to um strike a balance of making sure we're able to roll out our high quality programming in all neighborhoods, right?

And start there.

We want to make sure that we use our inclusion plan to make sure we're rolling out the best inclusion opportunities for our students, make sure we roll out the dual language programs um for our students.

We want to make sure that we capitalize on where we can put in before not the school programs and what our pilot with the hub school model and making sure we set up a well-rounded um opportunities for for our different schools, and once we get that correct, then we want to make sure we're able to um you know focus more on aligning uh what that looks like district y before you even tackle that issue.

Lastly, I would just say that um you know, we're with families they are able now to um select choices that are closer to their homes if they so choose to do so, and that opportunity is available to them, but we want to make sure that we really focus on the quality of schools everywhere so that families have that choice and when they do pick close to home that they are getting a viable choice.

So, how long away, how far away are we from getting there?

Um we've been working on this for years now.

It's a work in progress, and I think with the with the with the inclusion plan that we've developed, we've made a lot of strides, and we're rolling it out in more detail.

Um, and I think uh there's still some work to do, and we've seen a lot of progress.

We do have a benchmark that we'll talk more about in tomorrow's hearing um when we talk about long-term capital planning.

Um we do have plans through 2030, so we can talk more about that tomorrow, but that's kind of our timeline as we are uh currently.

2030.

I wonder four years away.

I wonder Dan, if you can share a little bit of the information you were sharing about sort of the like four or five main buckets of transportation spending and the size of them, just so the uh council can get a sense of of what that money's going for.

I appreciate that.

Hopefully folks can hear me.

Um I think you know this is this is one big driver of transportation spend, but there are also other large drivers that um you know, I think want to make sure we're we're discussing those as well.

For instance, the the non-BPS school commitments, so the charter and private schools that accounts for uh over 30 million dollars of our spend every year.

Our uh contracted van transportation for students who are homeless or in DCF custody through McKinney Vento accounts for almost 20 million uh in spend each year, and then uh students with disabilities who receive specialized transportation, whether that's door-to-door or a bus monitor.

Uh, there are um uh uh I think just under 5,000 students who receive that transportation, and that is while it's about you know under about 25% of the students receiving transportation, they do make up more than half of the volume because each of them receives their own, you know, individual stop versus a corner stop, which is consolidated.

So I think you know neighborhood schools would would address you know one of the drive big drivers of transportation, but it wouldn't on its own get us to having the transportation budget.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Um I'll go to another question.

If we can get up here.

Um, so that's my time.

Oh, I'm gonna have to come back again.

Thank you.

Okay.

Yeah, I just uh we've been joined by uh uh Councillor Louie Jen.

Uh you are up next, but just uh to follow up on that.

I think uh Dan, in your presentation before uh I I thought there was a stat in there of something like 46% of the schools that we we drop kids off at are not BP, like not BPS schools, like we're either outside the district or I can you just explain more uh and and I understand like if we're if if if somebody's out of the district and that's one kid, but you know, that's that there's could be a hundred kids getting dropped off at the Mendel, you know, in JP, but that that's one school, so 50% of those schools are outside the district, but it's could be one out of a you know a lot.

But can you just explain more about that?

Yeah, so um appreciate that, Councillor Weber, to briefly summarize.

Um so under uh mass state law uh BPS and other public school districts are required to provide transportation on the same terms and conditions to charter and private schools located within the same district.

So for us, that means charter schools and private schools in Boston receive their yellow bus uh transportation and their uh MBTA pass transportation from Boston Public Schools, and then in addition to that, any students who are assigned to special education out of district placements, um, and that's identified by the you know by our uh uh Office of Specialized Services, uh BPS provides that transportation as well.

And so what that ultimately means is that a little over 20% of the students riding on our buses and about 45% of the schools that we're transporting to are not BPS schools.

Okay, thank you.

Um I don't know.

Uh Councilor Lugen, do you want me to go first or uh um I can go next?

Uh you get seven minutes.

Thank you.

Um thank you, uh Mr.

Chair, and apologies.

We've um it's a lot going on, but I just want to thank all of you for being here today.

Um I know that we are in an uh difficult um time.

Um, and uh there are a lot of choices that we needed to make um that are hard ones.

I wanted to first um and I and I missed the presentation, so I apologize if I ask questions that are repetitive, it's the questions I asked at the breakfast budget.

Um I want to get a better understanding of how many of our how many Boston Public Schools staff uh we're actually losing that is not the result of a school closing and not attached to the fact that, for example, three we are down, I believe 3,000 kids overall for compared to last year, 2,000 of whom are multi-language learners.

I know that I sat probably in that chair.

I remember I was sitting when I was been advocating for more social workers for our for our SLIFE classroom students with limited or interrupted formal education.

I was just at the Irish Pastoral Center where someone was talking about how some of the our students are walking in every day with more and more trauma.

Um, and are you know we're losing trauma support specialists?

So I want to get a better understanding of we have these buckets that we're losing uh we're losing staff as a result of school closures, closures, mergers, consolidations because of uh a student population that is uh declining by 3,000 year to year.

What is the remaining bucket of uh attrition that is happening as a result of a factor that is not those two things?

Give us a second, we're just um we're getting you guys the data.

So thank you for that question.

There are you missed it earlier.

Um there are two things that happen at BPS.

There's the positions that we have to post um that we consider vacant for us because an educator doesn't have a license.

Um so those positions um we have to post those positions again so that we can get a waiver from the state.

Desi requires that we have to request a um a waiver for a person without a license to be able to teach our um teach our students.

Then there's the positions that were cut um as a result of the um the reduction of students in um many places, like for example, um we have um Charlestown Hive, who we saw um because of the decrease of students, um, just because of shear of the political structure that we are in right now that we students are less there's like with Charleston High, my understanding is that there are fewer students who are traveling to Charlestown.

There are families who are making decisions that their children are no longer going to spend that time traveling to Charlestown.

Yes, and then there's the other aspect of it, like the students, we are seeing a shrinking of students.

So Charlestown High, for example, um is a school that's um supposed to have about 800 kids.

Um but right now it has um I believe David around 500 give or take.

So you're so that means that the student body that we generally use to serve, they're not there.

So we've had to make some uh cuts to reflect the staff had to reflect um the students that we can current we are currently serving.

So there's so there's vacancies as a result, so there's been um reduction as a result of just like classroom closures that we've had to do um that we've done because of the um of the of the reduction in students.

But we can get you specifically the numbers of those reductions.

And um counselor Flynn earlier asked about just um re um the positions that are posted because of um licensure um problems as well.

So we'll get you both those numbers.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um I guess uh question um I know that there was an effort in some of the schools, I believe it was the the curly that I lost their librarian as a result, and I care deeply about making sure that our librarians, we have a librarian in every school, just want to ensure was it I think it was at the curly and the other school, not sure if it was the Henderson.

It was the BTU pilot.

The B2 pilots that that position has been restored.

Thank you.

And what about at the curly?

So at the curly, they are still going from two librarians to one.

But they still have a library.

They still have a librarian in the school.

Yeah, I I just want to make sure that we are still moving towards a model of ensuring that all of our schools have libraries.

Um can you talk to me about when do you think that we are going to see any realization in savings from the very difficult and very hard work of school closures, mergers, and acquisitions.

I mean, sorry, mergers, closures, acquisitions, maybe acquisitions, consolidation.

Consolidated lawyer time.

I mean, yeah, I guess that's been too much time.

I've been talking too much today.

Yeah, I mean, the the hard thing about this budget is that it actually reflects really significant savings from those mergers and consolidations.

Um in fact, our budget would have been significantly harder if not for that.

So we ended up when all of a sudden said and done.

I the last time I was before you, I said we had a 48 million dollar felt impact of school budget reductions with cost increases and everything, and ended up being 47 with a couple of things we put back.

But half of that savings we took from schools came from closure and merger and reconfiguration, which meant the remaining schools saw sort of half as much impact as we would have otherwise had to do if we had had to spread it more evenly.

And so um we are definitely seeing some savings there.

I think uh as we continue to do projects like uh the MSBA project with the Shaw Taylor.

Um we'll be able to see even further savings as you operate sort of more modern newer buildings.

The um new Frederick is a great example of where's the new Shaw Taylor gonna be?

I I'm not sure where it's gonna be.

I know it's coming through the MSBA process, but um as we take some of our smaller schools and consolidate them into better, bigger buildings, we uh save money that we can reinvest into programming in those schools, um, which is um and ensure we're maintaining as counselor from mentioning earlier, the nurse, social worker, and all those other important positions.

Great.

Um great.

I just can I Mr.

Chair can I just make two comments?

Yeah.

One is that I I want to see us continuing to do that very hard work of the mergers, reconfigurations, uh I think it's short-term gain, hopefully, for short-term pain for a lot of folks.

Like, I'm I I mean I've said it I am going to be devastated if the l location for the tailor is not in its current footprint.

But if someone tells me that because I think that is a lot of capacity, but if someone tells me that what is best for the long term for the community, is that we there's a different physical location.

That's a conversation that we'll have.

Um I I I think it's important for us to continue doing that so that we could do the also when I talk about acquisitions.

Really, what I would maybe meant to say was the work of building more schools for our kids that reflect the dignity that each student should have.

Um and so I'm glad that we're doing that with Ruth Batson, former McCormickid, the tailor.

Um, but we need a wholesale.

I like I don't know where the Green New Deal for Boston Mobile Schools is.

I don't know where, you know, I know that some of our costs have been increasing because of HVAC um in our schools, but we still have schools that are that still need AC and still need these upgrades.

Um, you know, my office has been proposing the idea of a Boston School Building Authority because I think it's important to have a dedicated team in our city that is just doing as much as possible, the uh and as at least politically as possible, the work of building new schools um and being thoughtful about the revenue dedicated to doing that.

Um and then lastly, I'll just say to Dan, thank you for the work.

I know it's been hard, and there have been a number of very difficult issues um that we've had to deal with um over the past year, two years.

It sounds like we're we are beginning to see some gains from the use of the Zoom app.

Um, what I would like to ask the chair is if we could have it, and maybe we have it, but if we do have it, if someone could just pull it out and send a disaggregation of transportation costs, ones the the costs that are like legally required because we're required to transport uh students with IEPs, the costs that are related.

Do we have that, Mr.

Chair?

I think Dan uh went through uh a lot of this data just just before you you walked in.

Could we have it?

Could we have it physically?

Yeah, yes, yes.

Or do we have it already?

We can whether or not you have it already, we can certainly put something together and resurfaced.

Just to clear, I think what what you're asking is disaggregation of the transportation costs.

Yeah, no, it's like how much do we so is the budget is too close to 200 million dollars?

How much of that is for uh transportation for kids from one neighborhood to another, how much of it is for door-to-door special aid transportation, how much is it for transportation?

Transportation at a district exactly you know, or even transportation to private and charter schools.

Athletics.

We we uh yeah, yeah, and so we we I think we do have those numbers in the RFI.

We we will make sure that we uh produce a chart and whatever gaps there are, you know, we'll we'll get it from them.

But but I do think it is what is the if you just the sort of when people think about BPS transportation and the they think about you know just busing you know across the city, like what portion, what percentage of the hundred ninety-seven would that be?

It's transportation a little over 130 million of the hundred and ninety-seven.

Okay, and then when we the rest is like bus monitors, MBTA passes, uh McKinney Vento van transportation, and then within that 130th ish for yellow bus, we can break that out as how much is how much is non-BPS versus.

Yes, that's what I've etc.

Thank you.

I'd like that disaggregation.

Yeah, I great question.

Thank you.

Okay, well, thank you.

We'll we'll we'll do a second round.

Those are my questions.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh so just uh I guess David, you know, terms of like we we we talked or at the first hearing about the supplemental that you know BPS is seeking to cover the deficit from this year.

I guess you know, and a lot of healthcare utility costs.

What what uh changes have been made in the 20 s FY27 budget?

Are we gonna be seeing the same thing again?

Why, why not?

Um what have we learned and how is FY27 gonna be different?

Yeah, hopefully.

So um there were five main uh uh cost overruns uh we laid out to the school committee in December, and um unfortunately we were accurate uh in what those were.

Um fortunately, I guess, and that it meant we did it right, but unfortunately they were all they remain very similar.

So those those four main items we outlined in December were health insurance, um full-time staff due to a uh decrease in vacancy rate, transportation and special education costs.

The fifth item that has come up since that December update was utilities.

Um through our budget process for the first four.

Um we have revamped the budgets for those to better match our run rate and expected cost.

Um working closely with Dan on transportation, with our Office of Specialized Services on Special Education, and we are feeling very confident confident at this point in the year that we will not see issues with that pending, you know, unforeseen circumstances.

Um utilities is definitely something we're gonna have to continue to monitor, especially with the current global political environment.

Um the cost of natural gas in particular, but also electric prices are definitely concerning for us for next year.

It's something we'll continue to monitor.

Um but the scale of utilities relative to some of those others items can be somewhat smaller, so we'll be continuing to monitor utilities.

Okay, and we've budgeted more for utilities and health insurance for next year.

We've budgeted more for all of the main items, yes.

But utilities is the one I remain the most concerned about just because uh it's very hard to predict pricing at the current moment, uh, given um geopolitical factors.

Okay.

Um and you know, I guess we've talked about cost savings from school closures and mergers.

You know, what is the plan for I we're gonna talk more about that tomorrow, but uh you know what is the plan for school closures and mergers for for uh that would be notified next year.

I mean, we have like a lead-in.

Yeah, as you said, Chief Stanislaws will be here tomorrow to talk a little bit more.

I think we're planning to follow a very similar process.

Um uh my team is involved when appropriate uh to help understand the the costs.

Um as I've said before, um closures, like this isn't how you decide things, but closures tend to save more money than mergers.

Um because when you redistribute students across multiple schools to fill empty seats, you often don't have a lot of increased cost there.

When you're merging, you're often serving a very similar student population, and you see a little bit less savings, but what those students experience is improved.

So in mergers, it's a little bit less about cost savings, a little bit more about improved student experience in a larger school because they're able to have more offerings.

Um yeah, one thing I'm can I get confused about when I hear you guys talking about this is in terms of closures in the future, whether there's an actual plan to close XYZ schools, or this is these are decisions that will be made in the future uh in terms of like when people talk to talk about a long-term facilities plan, but and we talk about that tomorrow.

Uh yeah, we can talk more about it tomorrow, and I think just I would just close by saying we're we're gonna continue to work on our 18-month cycle of announcements and process, so that'll continue.

We can speak more tomorrow.

Okay.

Uh I know uh counselor Louie Jen mentioned like HVAC systems and uh the revolving fund.

I think is it capped at $2 million?

Uh uh for um there's a two million dollar limit for BPS for the revolving fund, I believe.

And uh even though there's a lot of schools with sort of receive very poor grades for their HVAC system, and we we need to work on those.

So how like how we gonna help those school fac school buildings out if and do we have enough money?

What is this limit mean in the revolving fund?

Um you're correct.

The cap for the facilities revolving fund is two million dollars.

Um currently the balance is much lower than that.

Um as a department has been tapping into that funding source to support school repairs and alterations.

I will just say the the revolving fund, the revenue into the revolving fund is just from facility rental.

Um so if and parking fees, thanks, Mark.

And so um the the spending that we make from that is quite limited.

Most of the HVAC repairs would be coming just straight from the capital budget and not revolving.

The revolving expenses tend to be way more of the sort of day-to-day wear and tear for our buildings that are used more by the public.

And the only thing I would add to that is for all the APAC work in general, as many of y'all know we've added ACs in most of our schools, except for like four, if I remember correctly, and we uh received the grant from DESI to complete some repairs and some work at three of the four.

Um work is currently underway at the Bates, Kenny, and Lee Academy schools, and we've uh known that the Mathers School, there's a larger like neighborhood um upgrade that would need to happen to help support that school with their HVC work.

So we've assessed every school, we understand what they um need to um at HPC, and we're doing that with three of the four remaining that that we have left.

Okay.

Um and then for food service, there's uh a large number of vacancies listed.

Uh can you explain what it what what is happening there uh what those vacancies are?

Sure.

So I'll I'll start.

You can feel free to jump in on um uh cheapo.

But um a lot of those vacancies um come from positions that we no longer need based on a meal per labor hour formula.

So there'll be staff schools and sites is largely based on um the number of meals uh the that student that's the schools serve, and that's also based on the number of students.

So if that number goes down, um then we don't need as much staff because they're not serving as much staff.

So we account for so much as we planned previously, but since the reduction happened, we have less students next year than um this year, so there's actually gonna be some truth.

Okay, so it's about 148 of the uh well, we could get to exact numbers, but there was a level of reduction.

Okay.

Uh I guess Izzy, I saw I I think we have eight.

Is it a loss of eight FTs and school safety or um and who so what what is that?

What are those positions?

Uh so those those were unfilled.

Seven of those were unfilled, uh safety officer positions.

And one of the things you just explain who what what the what those pos uh those aren't crossing cards, those are no no, those are safety specialists, those would be the security officers inside schools, and then one of them is from the Office of Emergency Management uh division.

They have five folks, one position.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh okay, uh so we've been joined by uh Council Orrell and Councillor Durkin.

Uh councilor, this is the sort of we're wrapping up the first round.

Uh seven minutes for each counselor, then we're gonna have public testimony uh at the end of the first round, then we'll go for a second round.

Uh so council, you got seven minutes.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to BPS for being here.

Um family liaisons.

How how many family liaisons do we currently have on staff, and how many are we budgeted for?

Um I will tell you the budgeted for part, and then I'll look down at the end of the table for how many are actually filled.

Um, but we have we have one family leagues on at every school, and then we have a small number of schools that have a second, and I'll have to double check that.

So it's around 11 positions that we're budgeted for.

Right.

Budgeted for, and they are almost entirely filled.

Um we can certainly pull the number of vacancies for you.

Awesome.

And then this is um a transportation question.

We in March 27th RFI response, we received a uh a breakdown of uh the transportation costs, and I believe right now adds up uh to 90 million, like it's the numbers is 54.7 million door-to-door and corner stops, 3.5 million for out of district students, uh 25 million for charter school students, two million for private school students, and then 4.75 million for uh students who are unhoused.

Uh that adds up to 90 million, but we have a transportation budget of 200 million.

So what what are the breakdowns of the rest of the cost?

Sorry, I'm trying.

Uh it was in a March 27th RFI response.

It was um a breakdown of funds for FY27 business.

Yes.

Um yes, so I I think uh that RFI response didn't include some of the buttons like uh charter school students, for instance.

I don't think we're asked about in that RFI No charter schools was 25 million for charter school students.

Where are we seeing that?

Um that's the number I have here.

I think what we we are working on a revised breakdown of the full budget, and we'll we'll be able to send that to you very shortly.

Counselor Louie Gen asked for uh uh a breakdown, so we're gonna work on that with them.

Okay, they they did for submit one.

Yes, uh on March 27th, yeah.

Yeah, but it seems like it was missing 110 million dollars.

Um we we do have a kind of full council.

I think we'd uh um Mr.

Wolfgar just needs a chance to just break down it all completely.

We can give you this full breakdown if you want in more detail and explain where it all is.

Okay.

If it's not in the R5, okay.

If it's not clear in the R5, we can clear that all right.

Um in the future case, uh seeking clarity on cost savings strategies target for BPS.

How much are we supposed to be able to save through the current cost savings strategies as opposed to now?

Um I guess the question is in the future case that we're in this scenario again because of financial constraints, and whatever the economy looks like then, um do you foresee your cost savings strategies changing?

Like if we could not save the 53 million dollars, uh can you can you do that?

Can you replicate that again for next year if needed to this year?

We had to make some difficult decisions while still centering student experience through our current cost saving strategies, which included the spending pauses in November and in January, as well as some action planning across the operations division.

We estimate that we saved 26 million dollars.

26, okay.

Correct.

And last night um we uh reported to the school committee um a request for a supplemental appropriation to cover the overages for health insurance and utilities.

Got it.

I think looking forward, um in theory, we could take the same strategies again next year and see similar savings, but we are certainly not planning or hoping to have to do that.

Right.

And can you are you able to provide uh to the council because I know there was like a few different cost saving strategies that were implemented, like what was the dollar amount saved against each different strategy?

Uh yes.

Um can you give me a minute to have to get back to you with those details?

And then do we have a status?

Um, I know BPS was doing an equity study.

Uh, do we have a status of that equity study?

Uh is that the work Colin was doing?

I believe so, yeah.

Yeah, we he presented briefly on the uh updated up on the updated opportunity team that got policy last night.

Okay.

Um so we do have that available to to share with you.

Okay.

Um is the Boston Compact still active?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Um that's good.

And I know we are uh I know we can cut costs by aligning private and char charter bell times uh from 7 30, 8 30, and 9 30.

Um would the compact still handle that?

Yeah, I can take that question, Castler.

That is something we've been discussing through the the compact, and uh a number of those schools had made some shifts for this year.

Then there were four charter schools remaining which had misaligned bell times.

We've been working individually with each of them.

I'm happy to share it this time.

Three of them have confirmed shifts for next year to align to the BPS bell time structure.

Awesome.

In addition to that, counselor, we're also doing work if you could speak to Mr.

Rosengaard around making sure we all have other strategies to get us um more of our BPS schools on more bill um on more of the same tier times, and that's been proven successful as well.

If you want to add to that, yeah, no, that's that's right.

I think at this point in time um we've made some, I think almost 20 schools within the last few years within BPS making minor bell time adjustments, and the there's only a handful of schools remaining not aligned, and those are alternative education high schools where they have you know very specialized programming or uh you know schedules for the students, and we're looking at ways to do that in a way that aligns with the school's needs.

And the there's only a handful of schools remaining not aligned, and those are alternative education high schools where they have you know very specialized programming or are you know schedules for the students, and we're looking at ways to do that in a way that aligns with the school's needs.

And we're hoping to model that so that the compact schools can also see like that is possible.

Awesome.

And then I also know that we see a dip in enrollment in fourth and fifth grade.

Um I I believe because that's when a number of our other charter schools start, and so we end up seeing schools lose enrollment in those grades.

Is there a way the compact could align grades at our charter schools to whatever the grade alignment the rest of the district is?

So getting charter schools to follow our district alignment from K1 to 6 and then grade seven through 12.

I think we'd have to talk to the cop about that and double check what the legal requirements are around that, um, but we can definitely explore it back to you.

All right, thank you, Chair.

Okay, thank you very much.

Councilor Dricken, uh, we're doing seven minutes.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Um I wanted to ask some questions about food quality.

Obviously, um Boston public schools have been uh recently renowned and has have gotten you know a lot of um have been lauded for what we've been doing uh with making sure that uh kids have access to healthy meals, uh making you know, I know the mayor has been out to some farms, there's uh you know been some announcements over the years.

Um I think given the budget situation we're in, I just wanted to ask how confident we are that students will still have access to quality meals.

And I'm sorry if this question has already been asked.

I know that you serve over eight million meals per year.

Um I have had a you know a huge I've been on a health journey myself and really tried to eat healthy, and I'm just curious.

Um, as we're facing a tough budget yeah, how are we gonna ensure that students continue to have access to the highest quality of meals?

Sure.

So congratulations, you're the first person to ask me a food service question, so thank you very, very, very much for doing that.

Um and we're you know happy to say that our quality is not gonna diminish or change.

Um, and uh the budget definitely reflects that.

So we're committed to making sure that we do have the on-site cooking in all of our schools.

We um uh uh and I'm very excited about this because I started in 2006 when the central office kitchen was closed, and we've been working since 2006 to finally like launch it and get up and running.

So that is up and running.

Um we are serving freshly prepared some meals similar um at Central Kitchen that we do in the schools, and we're able to deliver to the schools that don't have the um ability to cook um fresh themselves.

So we have uh all the schools covered with all freshly prepared food.

We continue to source locally, we'll continue to make sure the um ingredient standards are there and there's no interruption in service from that regard.

The only questions that you'll see is more around the staffing levels per school because that's largely depending on the meals um that this uh that the staff serve per day, which is also tied to student enrollment.

So as number of students go down, there'll be less staff because of less food that they're serving.

The other thing I would add is that um we're also expanding our breakfast in the classroom model, um, which is huge because that's also gonna make sure we're uh getting kids students fed um as they come in in the morning and uh start their day freshly with meals.

So we we have had a number of schools already start that program, but we're spending the rest of the spring to make sure that they can roll it out in uh full school wide in more schools.

I think we're adding another two the 12 schools of the I think don't call me, but like the of the 12 schools that we're focused on now, we're rolling it out school-wide for this spring, and then next uh school year, we're gonna add more schools to make sure they're rolling it out school wide.

So we have a lot of exciting things going on in food services.

We continue to serve the halal meals.

Um, so I'll stop there, but I'm just sad to talk before.

No, thank you.

And I did want to ask a little bit about procurement equity.

I know that's been um a charge and composting.

Um, particularly there's a lot, you know, when waste when food is wasted.

I know that there was a program that um had been launched, and I was just curious if composting was still something that was a priority and was growing in the schools, and I wanted to ask about procurement in particular.

Yeah, so we we're continuing to compost, we're still continuing to work with that partnership and arrangement.

We're still working on good food purchasing um and all those things, so that's all ongoing.

Nothing's nothing's changed at all.

I'm just thankful for the current leadership and past leadership that are guides to this point.

Definitely.

And can you talk a little bit more about um the cultural competency of food as well?

Because I think that that for me um is something that I think BPS is standing out in that respect.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, we we're gonna continue to make sure we meet with students and families to um understand what preferences that they have, making sure that we um we differ we do uh we celebrate different cultures per month, and we differ we said we definitely cook meals and allow that opportunity.

Um we do uh different taste testing for students and families as we as we build in um more cultural meals in the menu.

So all that will continue, and we're excited about that, and we're seeing a lot of um steady participation um with regard to that.

And I wanted to ask, and I I asked this question in our one of our working sessions.

We had, thanks to our chair, a lot of conversations already, um, both in this room and in other rooms.

Um I asked a question um with the breakdown, and I know that Councillor just mentioned it.

The breakdown of transportation costs.

Obviously, um if when student enrollment goes down, but transportation costs go up.

A lot of folks have questions about that.

Could you answer more broadly why that is the case and um and just sort of how we're approaching that conversation?

And obviously, we've had transdev in here, we've had a lot of conversations about transportation over the past year.

Sure, so we can get some of that breakdown to you.

Mr.

Rosenga can speak more to that, and then uh a lot of it is again about the service model that we're trying to implement, the measures and targets that we're trying to hit with our contract and some of the safety measures we put in place.

But Mr.

Rosenga, please.

I think in terms of the uh the breakdown of spend, we're gonna setting a follow-up with the the breakdown kind of by by line of how that overall cost is broken down.

Um but I think when we look at the the broader um how costs are evolving over time, and what we've seen is that we've uh things like Zoom and the ridership procedure that we've put in place over the last few years have led to have begun to create some efficiencies within our operations and our overall system.

For instance, this year the number of uh routes, buses on the road every day is down to 625 from 640 last year.

We're expecting to see another about three percent reduction in that next year.

Um, that's obviously in some ways offset by what we're expect to see with inflationary and contract-driven cost increases.

Fuel is a big one right now that we're looking at, obviously.

Um, but I think all told we are expecting to see our actual spend next year be in line with or slightly below actual spend this year.

And I did want to ask a turkey question.

I know um there was some news, and I don't know if anyone asked this question about um about this finding trans dev for late.

I'm just not sure if anyone asked that question.

Um, I'm sure someone asked that.

I was curious um if there was a plan to start doing that, or uh or how sort of the operational and if that is difficult from an operational side or if it's easy.

Yeah, no, I really appreciate that question.

So I think that um when we look at kind of the uh our goal, right, is always to improve service for students.

I think non-performance damages are one tool that are available to us.

They're not always the appropriate tool for the moment.

We've been seeing steady improvements in service over the last three years.

However, we saw a specific increase in uncovered trips this year, which you know um ultimately did lead us to begin to assess non-performance damages in March for uncovered trips.

Um we've seen that issue be dramatically improved, you know, to since taking that step.

Our on-time performance also continues to be higher than it's ever been.

And so I think you know, as we look forward, we're gonna continue to make sure we're using the right tool for each moment to keep driving improvements for kids.

Thank you.

And I if if I may, I just want to say thank you for all of your work because I know the issues that we've dealt with with constituents in my district.

Um, you've always been such a resource, and I think um the reality is um it is really difficult to move the amount of kids that were moving around and in students that were moving around, or should I say scholars around the city, and I think you have showed up and you've answered questions, you know, you do it all year long, so it's not just during the budget.

And I want to thank you for all the work that you do because I know that that work is not easy.

So thank you, Chair.

Okay, thanks.

Uh Dan, I just wanted to.

I know our last hearing you did talk about maybe uh finding trans dev for late buses or no shows.

It was like $500.

Is that what the contract says?

And just to update us, I I'm assuming no fines have been issued.

Yeah, so uh I think as we shared at the last hearing, we um did begin assessing non-performance damages for uncovered trips at the beginning of March.

So uh there March was a dramatic improvement from prior the prior months, but we did assess non-performance damages for March, and you know, we're continuing to see improvements in April compared relative to March as well.

What's the what was the dollar figure?

You know, it was about uh a hundred and five thousand dollars.

Okay.

Um okay, and and in your you you feel like that's having the intended impact of improving performance.

Yes, like I said, we um uncovered trips are back to kind of the minimal levels in line with prior years, and OTP is higher than it has been in any prior year.

Okay, uh thank you very much.

Before we go to a second round, we're gonna go to public testimony of the folks from the BTU.

You're you didn't just sign in because you thought this was an attendance sheet.

You want to testify?

I'm assuming.

Yeah.

Uh okay.

So we got four people.

First, Dr.

Bianca Ortiz uh White, and then Ayush Bajpai, Johnny McGuinness, and then uh Clifton Braithwaite.

Uh good afternoon.

So you have two minutes uh for testimony.

Just uh get close to the mic and uh whenever you're ready.

Uh good afternoon.

Uh my name is Dr.

Bianco Ortiz Weyth.

I'm the strategic researcher for the BTU.

I'm also a resident of Rosendale.

I'm here on behalf of the BTU to urge the council to consider moving the BPS health insurance appropriation out of the school budget and into the city's central budget under the people's operating cabinet to ensure better forecasting and lessen the impact of health insurance volatility on our schools.

This is a straightforward administrative fix, and right now the current structure is working against our schools.

Boston centralizes health insurance for nearly every department.

Police, fire, public works under a single 295 million dollar appropriation.

When costs rose by 43.9 million dollars this year, that increase was absorbed centrally, not taken out of any single department's operating budget.

BPS is the exception.

It's a hundred and ninety-seven million dollar health insurance costs sit inside the school budget.

So when that cost increased by 49.4 million dollars, 33% in a single year, it came directly out of funding for teachers, staff, and student services.

In fact, more than half of BPS's total budget increase this year was consumed by health insurance alone.

This raises a really important question, which is if health insurance is bargained already happens uh at the city level, why doesn't the appropriation?

Since 2011, all Boston employee unions, including BPS, have bargained health insurance through the public employee committee, the PEC.

The city sets plan design, negotiates premium splits, uses the same actuaries, and manages cost containment.

BPS has no independent authority over these decisions, yet it bears the full financial risk when costs spike.

Boston actually is in the minority when it comes to budgeting health insurance inside the school appropriation.

Most cities in Massachusetts, including Cambridge, Somerville, Worcester, administer health insurance for school staff centrally.

And actually, just two months ago, the town of Franklin voted unanimously to do the same, setting better forecasting and fiscal stability.

Um I'll wrap up now, but it simply aligns the appropriation with how health insurance is already managed in the city.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for yeah, is that on?

Okay.

Oh good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for giving me opportunity to speak.

Uh I'm my name is Ayush.

I'm the political organizer at the Boston Teachers Union.

I'm uh giving this testimony on behalf of BTU social workers.

Uh we need to put a human face on what it means to cut four district social workers, which includes a slight district social worker from next year's budget.

Cutting just three social workers from next year's budget is not a small adjustment.

It directly affects 37 schools, 13,491 students, and 71 school-based social workers who would have to be redistributed to the six remaining district social workers.

These roles are student-centered positions that anchor safety, stability, and coherence across our system.

District social workers lead high-level case consultations in our most complex high-risk situations, guiding schools towards safe, legally sound, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed decisions that keep students learning and out of harm's way.

They provide ongoing mentoring and clinical support to school-based social workers, reducing burnout and turnover, and protecting the quality and consistency of mental health care in every single school building.

In 2024 to 2025, we trained 329 BPS staff and 179 to date the school year.

We coordinate safe supportive placements and transitions for vulnerable students, ensuring they land in environments that meet their needs rather than being bounced between ill fitting settings.

They strengthen student support teams and other school-based teams by identifying gaps, sharing best practices, and building coordinated plans so students do not fall through the clock the cracks.

And lastly, they serve as the bridge between central office and schools, aligning policy with practice and building an equitable behavioral health system across the district, not just to a few well-resourced schools.

To make this concrete, just one district social worker trained 140 staff members in safety care, equipping them to de-escalate crisis.

They provided 68 instances of clinical support.

Um and I'm just gonna wrap up here.

Eliminating four of these positions does not just cut out the extras, it does not just trim the outsides, it dismantles a critical safety and support infrastructure that holds our schools together on these hardest days.

It is always the kids who need the most and who are the most vulnerable who will be left behind if these positions are cut.

For our student safeties and our staff's well-being, we need to reintegrate funding for these positions.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Mr.

McGinnis.

Good afternoon, Chair Weber and members of the Boston City Council.

My name is Johnny McGinnis, the political director for the Boston Teachers Union.

I'm here to speak on behalf of the over 10,000 members of our union to address two critical issues regarding our schools.

First, as my colleague, Dr.

Bianca Ortiz White testified earlier on BPS health care, must be centralized.

We are a glaring outlier as one of the few municipalities in the Commonwealth and one of the only big cities in the country to manage health care this way.

This change would not negatively impact any health plan in the city.

It will, however, allow for better forecasting of our budget and greater fiscal stability.

This is already within the city's power, Section 58 in the city charter.

Requires the city to fund hospitalization and insurance at no less than the three-year average of actual expenditures, and it does not exclude school employees.

This fix does not infringe on the school committee's authority over the BPS budget, as the money allocated to health care was already mandated to be spent on health care under Section 58.

We are not asking to change what gets spent.

We are asking to budget responsibly, and that the single step have a dramatic effect on protecting our schools from the current health care cost shock.

Second, our schools need supplemental appropriation if we are going to maintain trust in BPS.

The breadth of student facing facility services that will be cut under the current budget is staggering.

The students who will be hurt most will be the students with the greatest need.

Be aware, it will it will hurt students with special needs who pay the price.

It will be multilingual learners who pay the price.

It will be our low-income students who pay the price.

There will be loss of trust that will be near impossible to get back.

If we want families, students, and communities to buy into a robust, effective and inclusive Boston public school system, we cannot turn our backs on them now.

We know the budget is tight and that Boston is under fiscal pressure.

Whether it's increasing charter school tuition reimbursement or reforming Chapter 70 formula, which we are strongly advocating for at the State House, we need to work together to make sure the state gives Boston what it needs.

However, there are solutions the city can take to make the budget work for our students, schools, and families.

Thank you so much again for your time and consideration.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh Mr.

Braithwaite, are you ready?

Good evening, good afternoon, everybody.

My name is Clifton Braithwaite, and I'm not in here as the role as a statesman.

I'm here as a concerned grandfather and a concerned father of the community.

And I'm just gonna give some points.

I think we need to dive deeper into that because a lot of the children going home are going home without food, and y'all have been doing a good job on that, but I think we gotta expand on that.

And some of these things are what I'm asking, but this last question came from my on-page line.

Education is key for everybody, especially when they come into our country.

But people want to know where is the budget going when it comes to immigration studies.

Because we have to find a balance that we can help everybody.

I'm originally Venezuelan Trinidad, I'm first American born in my family.

So I'm not against immigration at all.

But we gotta have a balance, and I like to do in closing with parents and children.

If one kid thinks that they're getting more from their parents will cause a divide in a home.

My immigrant brothers, I stand with them.

But a lot of people don't because they don't understand how politics really works.

So those are the three things that I want to talk about, and anything we need to get our parents in our community more involved.

And are we bringing back where if a parent didn't finish high school that they could be a part of getting a GED?

And one more thing in closing.

And a young man was from the LBG community.

And when his mother and father came, he had to change back to being a young man.

When are we gonna have classes for parents to understand?

We're in a different time now.

What people didn't like or didn't believe in back in the days is different now.

So we should be able to help parents to understand the transition of their children.

Those are questions that I got offline that people wanted me to ask, but my overall concern is being a grandfather, and I feel that we're losing our educational values.

And last thing said, when my grandson said to me, I'm not studying cursive, I couldn't believe it.

The rest of the world does it.

Why did we pull it out of our schools?

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Okay, uh, we're gonna start with the second round.

Um, because the people here will do six minutes uh and councillor Flynn and Murphy have agreed to swap places here for for this uh round switch, which order, so thanks uh counselor Flynn, you're up.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you to Council Murphy for letting me go first.

Um I listen carefully to public testimony from the Boston Teachers Union in let me let me be the first counselor to say that I I agree with that recommendation that they have made.

Basically moving the health care for teachers in in BPS employees, move it under the city of Bros City of Boston umbrella under their human resources.

Maybe it saves money for taxpayers, and what do we do with that money?

Well, maybe we can put that money towards um social workers.

Maybe we could put that money towards other mental health counselors to teachers, to paras.

Um I highlighted in in one of the representatives of the teachers union did as well.

Um these social workers, the the three district social workers.

I'm still I still can't get over how a city is able to cut social workers during this critical time.

I'm not criticizing anybody, but we have to understand the invaluable role they play in schools, these three district social workers, especially during a time of crisis.

We need them in the schools, working with other social workers, working with students, working with teachers, working with parents, providing critical services that they need and deserve so that they can be productive, so that they can be happy.

As we move forward, I do want us to see a commitment that we're going to not cut social workers or psychologists or nurses, but I I can't support anything where we're cutting anyone that gives direct direct support to a tea to a student every day.

And that those are teachers, those are paras.

Those are nurses, those are social workers.

So I might my challenge to my colleagues is let's work together to ensure that there are no cuts to BPS employees that interact every day with students.

Maybe other maybe we can make cuts at other other places.

I don't know.

But we shouldn't be making cuts to personnel that directly provide critical care for students.

My other point, Mr.

Chair, is I I don't know why the Boston Public School system is the only city department that is that is getting cuts in their personnel.

I'm troubled by that.

I think it's one of the most important city departments we have.

Yes, we have challenges in the transportation department, significant challenges.

But why are we cutting, why are we cutting teachers?

Why are we cutting social workers, psychologists?

That's what I'm focused on, and I'm going to be focused on from now until the time this budget is signed.

Is what do we do as a city council to ensure that we work together to get the funds back in the budget for those critical positions?

And I know some of it has to do with vacant teachers, vacancies that are not currently filled that we're able to eliminate.

Well, that doesn't solve the problem.

So I don't I don't support cutting vacant positions because that's an opportunity lost for our students.

And when the student doesn't have that support that they need, that's troubling for me as as an elected official.

Once again, and listening to the teachers union, but I I talked about this before that.

And how are we going to work with the city council to get that funding back into the into the budget?

Are there any other options for us to do it?

So earlier this afternoon, Chief Bloom, you know answered by saying that we will continue to have conversations about it, and we will continue to do that, and we do appreciate your advocacy and the advocacy of the BTU around that.

But we also just want to highlight that we do appreciate the work the social workers do do in the district.

And as we also mentioned earlier today, we still have about 396 total staff that are supporting our students with the combination of social work and mental health support and social work services.

And we you know, of course, we due to budget cuts, we do have to change the way we manage centrally that work, and these district social workers do a hybrid of some tier three support the schools and some training.

Yes, they do, but we also um want to make sure that we maintain staff that did that direct service at the school level, which we have.

Thank you, Sam.

And Mr.

Chair, maybe just to a question for you to the administration.

What why is BPS the only city department that has cuts to personnel?

Is is that is that a fair fair question to ask?

Uh yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think yes, it's a fair question to ask.

Uh and I mean I think that we'll see what the answer is.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay.

Thanks.

Uh Councillor Murphy.

Also, if we could just put it on the record, because I know Council Flynn did ask the question about why is BPS the only city department that does carry their own benefit costs.

So if we could just put that on the record, please.

That answer, because it wasn't answered.

Um Dan, have they paid yet the 105,000 dollars we build them, correct?

For March?

Oh.

Sorry.

That gets assessed against the monthly management fee.

So could you just explain that for those watching?

Yeah, of course.

Um, as part of you know our contract, uh, we pay the vendor a monthly management fee, and so any non-performance damages are subtracted from that amount.

So you don't build them, you just give them less.

Correct.

How much do you pay them each month?

Uh just one second.

Sure.

Okay, so um thank you for that clarification.

The on page 57, I know Dave stepped out, but you're here and can answer this.

Um a couple things stood out.

One is in this is the section in the budget that is central office, and it goes from six contract and other non-personnel to 90.

Could you explain what those 84 positions are?

And it also though goes from spending 27.2 million to spending less money, but adding 84 positions.

So where did we shift that payment and who are those 80 for people there?

Um 57.

Yes, in the book.

I don't know if you have the same lineup as we do, but under the budget categories.

Could you tell me is that um for a specific department?

Yep, central.

It's under the section of central office operations.

Yes, 57.

Yeah, and then the other question I have is support staff went up just 1.8 personnel, but it went up $3 million $683.

Well, 17,000.

So that was the other one, because I don't think less than two full-time positions need to spend $3.6 million for that.

So can I take a deeper look at that and then uh provide that information?

Yes, because that but that's a important answer to get, especially where it's coming under central office.

And where is the pay?

It's obviously it's not showing the pay all in that same spot.

And do you know the answer to the support staff?

It says we're adding less than two full-time positions, but we increased that line by 3,683,017.

Yeah, I I believe David Bloom has the answer.

I think we talked about this in the pre-budget hearings, but uh I know he three thirdly, but I wanted to ask it again on because we didn't get a clear, yeah.

No, no, it's but while we um jumped out to I have staffing questions also.

Um thank you.

So the excess pool this year they were given um it if you could explain what I was told is that it worked a little differently this year where they were giving a letter that was sent to them last week and they were told where they would be placed, but that they weren't allowed to take the time.

I think it's July 1st, the date before they used to be able to um you know still apply to other positions.

Could you explain why we didn't we did we're not allowing our permanent teachers to take other options up till that date?

So um let me begin by saying for people who don't understand what excess educators are.

So our excess educators for us are our teachers who are permanent, meaning that they've been in the district for more than three years, and by state law, we are required to um to keep those people gainfully employed by the district.

So they are permanent educators and they have tenure within BPS.

And when we talk about our excess pool, we're talking about educators who are who are either displaced because of reduction or um school closing, school closure, or or trend, or they they themselves can say, you know, I no longer want to work at this location, I'm gonna put myself in the excess pool.

And what traditionally happens in when they're in that excess pool is we allow them, they are they are then we have something called mutual consent, meaning that those educators, um the district pulses positions on March 1st, and those educators can in return um apply for positions that are available to them.

However, this year, it's not just this year, but um last year as well.

What we've noticed is that um there are certain positions, especially the positions um our high school positions where we have more excess educators than we have positions.

So this year we gave we gave our um school leaders the ability to say that people can apply up to I believe the date was um April 1st for us, that individuals can in fact still apply for those positions.

And we have we have the ability to pull um to place educators in positions if in fact they were not able to obtain a position after that um that date.

We've placed people in those positions, and it's always been our role is that one position once you've accepted once we've placed you or you've accepted a position, you cannot move after you accept that position.

So what we've done is um we've placed those educators in those positions.

The reason we're not allowing people to move is right now we have uh at least 132 um provisional educators who need to be settled.

Like what more than more than likely what's going to happen, Councillor Murphy, is that those people will leave the district because if you have people moving left and right like that, that means they they truly don't know if they have a job in the district.

Then I'll apply elsewhere.

And we lose them every year.

Yes.

But this year we do fail.

And what if we did it last year, then how successful was it?

It was it was um it's it's been successful.

Um it was successful last year.

We were able to get um most of our excess educators into um a position.

I mean for the provisional.

The provisionals, we um for the most part, um we notice our hiring is we hire more people back into the district than we do um people coming out of the district.

So most of our um most of our employees that we bring back are are um are one or two um provisionals that were already in the district whose positions were either deleted or they were displaced, that they actually apply for other positions in the district, and that we are able to retain them.

And that's basically what we're trying to do is like retain those educators by giving people certainty, because like right now, if people are moving to more time, so you can before like summer break starts.

Exactly.

Provisional teachers are known.

How many of the permanent teachers that were placed are not happy?

And is there any recourse they have?

Because I know some of them are very happy with the placement and glad that they're not gonna be just you know extra support somewhere because sometimes it's very degrading to our especially with school closures, it's not of any nothing that these permanent teachers did to deserve it, but they're in a situation where they're no longer you know in their own classrooms and able to do their best work.

Um to be honest, we've probably heard from like two to three people that weren't happy with their placement for the most part.

Um we you know we took a lot into account when placing people.

For example, we looked at your address, your um the um how close a school is um for your commute.

So we considered all of those things, like um what the license you have, um the um demographic of kids that you used to teach, and where like all of those things were it was a really thoughtful process, and we understand we're not gonna please everyone, but we really really tried to do that to um to understand that people have commutes and all of those things can um played a role, but I think ultimately for us, we are really thinking also about our provisionals that we want to keep and having the hiring process um be settled.

It's really important to us that we keep these people who have, you know, the district have poured into them.

Like you're talking about um um three um um people who've been here for three years who've um who have been in the district and we want to keep them.

So that's why it's been a little trickier this year.

Thank you.

Okay, thanks, Councillor Uh Murphy.

Um Councilor Braden.

Oh, I'm sorry, did you have before did you get an answer on that?

What's going on in the budget?

Not yet.

Okay, well um, yeah, I mean it's uh the just for folks watching home.

The support staff uh goes from last year for 4.6 million from 90 to 8.3 million for 91.8 positions and the contracts and other non-personnel somehow has personnel, but it's goes from 27 million for six people to 10 million for 90 people.

So either we're making the best bargain ever or something is uh and that's at central office, not school level.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's the central budget office that is the budget office for central.

So I think uh hopefully you get an explanation for that.

Um Council Braden.

Thank you.

Um I had further questions on the buses, but I think uh my colleague Constra Dorkin had that question answered.

Um I'm just curious as to what the process is for the school committee to vote on the external funds budget.

Uh and from the documents, it seems that it this is an additional 160 million, 139,501 dollars that is included in the school committee tables under the department summary.

And the external funds um 134,600 6,221, 2002 was in the um FY27 budget recommendation to central office, while only 25,518,000 thereabouts to schools.

So not so that means these external funds would round the total school budget up from BPS budget for financial year 27 up from 173 billion one point 1.73 billion up to 1,866,704.

So it does the city the question is does the school committee have to vote on that?

Because that's money that's sort of floating around.

It's it's a hundred and a hundred and sixty million plus that doesn't seem to be clearly identified to be going anywhere.

Yes, um our school committee does vote to accept all grants that come into the BPS budget.

And so uh this 160 million, where where is that coming from?

That is in part an estimate uh based on prior year grant awards.

Um those grants uh run the spectrum of privately funded um privately funded uh foundations, there are uh donations as well as federal and state grants.

And most of those grants come with specific purposes to be spending.

So why why is it not included in the in the BPS BPS budget financial year 27?

Why why is it not why why is it not included?

Like why are we why are we voting voting on a bit of 1.73 billion instead of 1.86 billion?

The vote for the 1.73 billion dollar budget um is for the operating budget that comes from the city.

These grants, most of them we haven't accepted or we haven't uh received the formal award yet, as are for FY27.

Um there are a there are a few multi-year grants where we do know the funds will be there, and we actually already have um we already have received those funds, and so either they would be carried forward into next year or it would be um one of the years included in the grant award and in the budget book, the budget tables towards the end do include um the total grant funds, but we do go back to our school committee in uh hopefully it's May this year, uh, to present our detailed grant projections for next year.

So then how can you how why is the are the external funds, you know, it indicates that 134 134 million is going to central office while only 25 million is going to schools.

Again, um as Dr.

Napina has mentioned, many of our grants are for a specific purpose, and most of our grants are applied to directly by central departments, and in most cases, those grants do go to direct school programming.

Uh an example would be our IDEA grant for special education.

Though most of those funds do send in the sit in the central office, I believe our um FY26 award amount for IDEA is 18 million.

Most of that does sit in central office.

But all of the dollars go to supporting students.

Is it a way to even look back to last year and see what what these external funds were spent on this for financial year 26?

So we get an idea of what the landscape looks like.

Yeah.

The other question I had was about the management of hub schools.

It's it's not apparent in the org chart.

Um this appears to now be in opportunity gaps office.

Yes, that's correct.

And then what's the total allocation of funds for the twenty is it twenty hub schools?

Yes, it's twenty hub schools.

And how much money do the is allocated for the hub schools?

We'll get you that information in a second.

Um and then also um I'd love a breakdown of where the hub schools are and and what where the funds are being spent in the hub schools.

Yeah, so we can get you a list of each 20 schools and um some of the activities that are going on in them and sure, no problem.

Yeah, because one of my concerns about hub schools, I think they're great, like um, but I also feel that it's every every every neighborhood if it's a hub school has a particular different flavor because the needs are slightly different.

True.

It's sort of a universal threat, like we have a lot of kids, families living in poverty and low opportunity, but um you know different hub schools, some some need the kid east class, and some need more food support, and um just having a better idea of all of that.

Um and then see there's an is it possible to get an average salary table for financial year 27 um for uh managerial employees in central office?

Yes, yeah, we'd really like to see that as well.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um just uh we can do another round of just a couple questions from the chair.

Um so for uh salary savings, can you just explain uh you know um what you know calculations you did, what the methodology was for to calculate salary savings in this in the FY27 budget?

Yes.

Um so we calculate salary savings looking at historical data.

Uh this year we did this year being FY26, we did have an increased fill rate, so we had less vacancies than we have historically.

Uh and for that reason, we adjusted our FY27 calculation to be about four million dollars less in salary savings to account for what we think will be a continuing trend.

Okay.

That's yeah, so the uh the vacancy rate I uh use is it it was 94%.

I think um we're just so we're projecting around same same kind of yes.

Yes.

Uh okay.

Uh and then for terms of where we have class closures, like are you know um what percentage of uh I mean how how how does the closure of a classroom impact our salary savings?

Or do we are we planning not to reopen those classrooms?

Um are we wiping them off our books uh for good?

Usually I I guess what's the when we hear of a class closing at a school, how does that impact the number of vacancies?

Great question.

Um if a class is closing at a school, then those positions do not exist for FY27.

Um and so they would not be counted towards the salary savings.

And just to describe our process a little bit, counselor.

So every year we go through a cycle of um uh reviewing what our projected enrollment will be and what that looks like, and then based on that we work with schools to understand like what families are choosing, how many people actually enroll, and then we have a sense of how many students are going per school, and then from there we talk about staffing as we align the budgets, we go through a cycle every year.

We call we do what's called a budget um collaboration prologue meeting every December to plan for the upcoming year.

So if we see that there's a need for additional classrooms or teachers at school, we make those adjustments during that process.

Okay, and um I I there's information here about um going for food service to go to like we're making our own food uh and so what's the projected savings for if that what's the do you have a plan schedule for becoming self-sufficient and yeah, we're pretty much self-sufficient now.

The only um uh we rely heavily on our vendor to provide emergency meals and to provide um um uh this this emergency meals that they provide, and they provide some um allergy of free meals as well.

So we do have some reliance on them for that, but for the most part, we're cooking fresh in most of our schools as well as those schools that don't have the kitchens to provide it from our central office.

Okay, so I apologize.

I guess is there any more savings that we will get in?

Yeah, we have some strategies that we that we've identified.

Yeah, so for next year, um we're estimating 2.6 million dollars in savings from the shift to the central kitchen.

Okay, and then what is that we've maximized that savings and not another?

Okay, and then what is that we've maximized that savings and not another I I think there would be other strategies that the food and nutrition services team could follow to find additional savings, such as continuing their marketing strategies and continuing to encourage participation in meal service within schools.

Um we're also working with food and nutrition services to um increase opportunities for other for after school programming meals, um all all providing these meals and increasing participation increases our reimbursement from from the feds, which would then decrease costs on our operating budget.

Okay, l last question for me for this round, but it is um so I I think under the proposed budget there's is the the dollar figure from salary savings from vacancies I had is down as 15.7 million.

I don't know, is that is that right?

Yes.

Okay.

Um then but but that so what you're saying is that amount does not include uh like positions that have been eliminated because of closure either closure of schools or closures of classrooms.

Correct, because those positions um would not be considered vacant, they'd be considered deleted.

Okay.

And do you know what the dollar figure is attached to deleted positions?

I can check on that for you.

Okay, thank you.

Um and still no update on the central before Councillor Murphy has to use her time on the central uh budget office numbers, which are we had or I asked the team who put the budget book together to provide the backup for that page.

Um they're working on on pulling that and sending it to me.

So I'm sorry I don't have it right.

Okay, I mean if we we don't have an answer today, we'll get an answer uh uh you know, maybe in writing and circulate it.

Uh so counselor Murphy uh we could we could they could bring it tomorrow.

We also have tomorrow yes, there's there's always tomorrow in this case.

Yes.

Yeah, hopefully in most cases.

Um thank you.

So it's my turn, you're good?

Yeah, but how about four minutes and how about yep?

I don't think we need that.

So each school has its own breakdown and the book.

And some schools under the contracts and other non-personnel have costs, and then there's others that have zero costs.

So if you could explain exactly what that pays for, what that's spent on, because some like the Mildred Abs has 170,000 in that one, the Mozart has zero.

So do you know what that's can covering?

Sorry, couldn't you repeat the question?

Each page in the budget book broke breaks down the school.

So if you open like any page to if the schools are there, the third one from the bottom on in the chart, it says contracts and other non-personnel.

Could you explain?

Because some schools have that zero and others there's costs.

So exactly what is covered under those costs in that sec in that row in school tables on the budget book would be our contractual services, most oftentimes in schools, those pay for partnerships.

Um the amount would also be for supplies, um stipends to staff.

The reason that number uh may be zero for some schools is that they could have budgeted for those activities using their Title I federal dollars.

So at the school site council level, they provided you this number, and they're deciding how they're gonna spend it or not.

School site councils do work with their school leaders to develop their budget.

Well, the school leaders part of it, yeah.

So that's what I'm saying.

That this is coming from each school telling you where they're okay.

One specific question.

The Carter School.

Which is a wonderful, wonderful school.

I've worked with Mark.

So but I have a question about when you flip through the percentage of low income.

I I think it's the highest.

There are a few that have low 90s, but the ink low income level at the Carter School is 96.2.

Which I don't need to ask why it's 96.2.

My question is we know that there are middle and high income students across our city with severe special needs.

Where are we placing them?

And are they all the out-of-district placements?

So I would like like a direct correlation or some understanding.

Because that that's a very high number at one school.

Yeah, so well, what I what I was saying is we will have office of specialized services here for sessions tomorrow, and they can help us break down on where they go exactly.

But I know in general, um families have their team meetings and then they and then they discuss you know your family.

No question, so I'm not asking the process, I'm saying where they go.

Why why is that the highest?

I'm not sure, but we can we can have our we can see if we can answer that tomorrow with our with our team that specializes in that work.

Okay.

Um, do we have any ideas now?

We want to wait.

I don't want to speculate and and and and you guys, so uh I prefer if we're okay.

Um could you speak to just will we still have long-term subs?

Like, how's that gonna work itself out?

Is that gonna be different at school levels?

How's that?

No, well, we'll still have long-term subs because um a long-term sub sometimes happen as a result of someone going out on a leave.

Uh so those um those processes are still gonna exist, like we're still gonna have individuals who take leave, things happen, so um, we are going to have we're gonna, yeah.

And I know this answer, but but just want to get a kind of uh understanding many times, or not many, but there are times when teachers will take a long-term position for many reasons.

Sometimes it's like they're happy with the school, the principal likes them, they feel like it will turn into something, but we know that when you're in a long-term sub-position, you're not accruing the three-year time.

So many times we have teachers who may have been with us for a four or five years but still aren't in a position to be made permanent.

Do you uh work with them closely?

How do we work with those teachers who may not have selfishly put themselves right?

Because sometimes I've seen it many times where you know they're great asset to the building, then maybe someone else is taking a maternity leave and they want to stay at that school, but then they find out, especially at a time like this when we're making cuts.

Yes, so uh two things.

Um when you have the the when you have a long-term sub, um if you're on a long-term sub-assignment, after um by December, you become um, you become you become you get a contract essentially.

So that time counts towards um because you are the teacher of record, so that time will count towards it.

Well we really try to do is we try to employ our people to.

I know you like the school, but like the it's important that you get that professional status.

So we are always trying, we um our recruitment team have been really great this year of working with educators who are reaching out to us that are saying, hey, I need a position somewhere else, can you help me look for um that position?

And we are um we try our hardest to work with everyone that um come across our emails, um, you know, getting them prepared for those interviews.

But we you know, we always urge people to try to get that permanent position.

Could you I know my time's up, but could you just explain um for those listening that even if you have the time accrued, if you're in a position that you don't own that you can't be made permanent, if you could just explain that that'd be helpful.

Thank you.

Yes, so um to all the people watching at home.

My colleagues don't, and because we're getting calls from those types of staff too.

So it's important to understand.

So um to the permanent process, I think a lot of people don't understand the process.

For you to become permanent, there's two things you have to do.

One, you have to be licensed.

Um, you have so you can be in a position, but if you're not licensed, we you don't get professional status.

So you need to be licensed and you need to be in a per in a position for at least three years within the BPS, not just BPS, but any district, you need to be in that position for at least three years.

And on your fourth um in the first day of your fourth year, you did not made permanent.

So if you don't own that position, it's you you're it's not yours um because you're doing a long-term sub, so you can't be made permanent in that position.

Um we, you know, again, we try to work with people to get them to get them um the um a permanent position, but what we've seen that's stopping a lot of our educators actually from being permanent is that licensure piece because um oftentimes what happened is that you know, I started the first day of school, I've been sitting in this position for two years, but unfortunately you're not licensed.

So that's been the really hard um thing for a lot of our educators is because sometimes we have to say, yes, you've been here, but for three of those four years, you are unlicensed.

Right, and they don't need the certification to be long-term stuff.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you for that.

I appreciate it.

Okay, thank you very much.

Madam President Braden.

Um we talked earlier about school safety officers, and I was just wondering the notion of school safety officers in an elementary school really giving me caught pause.

I'm wondering, are we implementing uh you know a restorative justice teaching model where you know inevitably moments of conflict arise in the classroom, uh kids can almost resort to physical punching each other.

But um are we are we really working with helping our kids resolve conflict without restoring, you know, it's a teaching moment when something starts to unravel, and have we got enough staff like Paris and whatever trained in restorative justice to be able to deliver that sort of way to resolve and teach students how to resolve conflict without resorting to violence and such a question?

I can speak to to my staff and the training that they've gotten.

So to be clear, there aren't any safety officers assigned to an elementary school there all day.

They respond when called upon for those emergency situations.

Uh their job is to provide services immediately, um, document, notify the necessary um people or agencies that need to be alerted.

Um if they need to donafy BPD in accordance with the MOU, they will.

Um DPD, the um the Boston police Boston Police, yes.

So there's an MOU that outlines you're reporting an elementary school student to the Boston Police Department.

So there's certain offenses that by law we have to alert BPD.

Um even though the law does not prosecute anybody under the age of twelve, but by law and and in accordance with the MOU, we have to notify Boston police.

What sort of incidents are you talking about?

Sexual offenses, weapons offenses, um I can pull it out.

No, no, it's fine.

Um yeah, um I can see that these are serious situations.

So but that's the rare occasion.

Yeah, so it's only the serious offenses.

Most again, most of them involve sexual assaults and things.

Outside of that, when it's just a fist fight or just uh a conflict uh between students, that we don't involve police in that in that situation at all.

Um however, we have a team called uh Vipers.

It's violence, intervention, prevention, restorative specialists.

Yeah.

I I I worked in a school for special needs kids and we did CPPI, it was conflict prevention and physical intervention.

So we really taught to we had 18 hours of training as new staff to do it, and then we had eight hours every year to keep up to up to snuff.

So this this staff here is ten individuals, eleven of Uclude, uh, their team leader, they're all trained in mediation and conflict resolution.

They're the ones that would intervene and mediate between the two students.

The goal is students and people tend to follow an agreement that they took a part in.

And so the job of the the Vipers is to facilitate the two students coming to an agreement um and to repeat, I mean to deter any repeat.

Um, so you've you've how many many people have you trained in it?

So it's 11.

11 for the whole system?

No, no, that's just his staff.

Your staff?

So are other our teachers and counselors and other people trained in in de-escalation.

I'm sure they are, yes, ma'am.

But that's not under uh my my uh division.

Um sorry, Consul Brady, why you looking up your other questions?

Yes, other staff are training mediation, MTSS supports, uh safety cares.

Um so there is a lot of robust training that are staff due on restorative practices that we offer district wide, then that doesn't necessarily come out of Chief Morrero's office, but it does happen district wide.

Yeah, that's good.

Um I'm gonna Mr.

Chair, can I have one one more question?

Yes.

Um it appears that there are at least four senior advisors and a deputy working with the chief of staff spending approximately two million dollars.

Um what are the can we get the job descriptions of that group of people like that?

Two million dollars for five people seems a lot of money.

Yes, we can get that to you.

Yeah, job descriptions and what they do.

Sure.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Council Warrell.

Thank you, Chair.

And I know I wasn't here for my second round, so I got my second and third round now.

I'll give I'll give you some.

I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm joking.

I am comparing I'm really joking.

Um I'm a big I'm a biggest, I'm a big fan of um Discovery Hub.

Um that's something that probably was talked about in the first session.

Um it's some it's a program where our our young people um are able to get you know weekend support or classes.

Um in Springfield has just released their no pressure Saturdays, kind of similar to you know, this discovery hub that has been stood up over the last two years.

I am a little disappointed because my understanding that it's no longer gonna be funded.

Um or okay, it it is.

I see the confusion yeah, there's some monies available to continue some of that programming, yes.

Okay.

Um is it at the is it level funded or is there a decrease?

Um there's some decreases, but uh the some programming will have to see you now.

Okay, all right, because um there was uh Discovery Hub over at the Henderson School, um, and it was getting real real good attendance.

Um so we'll love to make sure that we at least keep the ones that were getting good attendance um going.

And I know uh Corey and team are are being stretched thin, but that was um one of the programs that I'm was very excited about, and definitely was a lot of engagement there.

And thank you for your participation and going in some of those as well.

Thank you.

Yes.

Um also I I've been always advocating for vote tech or some form of you know, whether a certificate program to be done at every school.

How many of our schools, especially like our high schools, how many of our high schools have like a certificate program or vote tech for or some sort of career path?

Yeah, I'm sorry, but Brett Dickens was here earlier today, would have all that information, so I don't have that right on my fingertips, but we could get that for you if we bring some more of us helpful.

Okay, and then um there was a federal grant around um let me just find what it was.

$7 million federal grant for the parrot a teacher pipeline.

What what's the status of that grant?

That grant.

Um that grant was actually um how do you say it?

Um taken away from the federal government.

Okay.

Um it was a six million dollar grant that was um supposed to create a pipeline for um um educators, paras to become teachers of record.

It was going to be a residency program.

And unfortunately, on March of 2024, 2025, um, right after the um the current president took office, that grant was immediately taken back.

Yes, um very unfortunate.

And are we looking to stand up uh stand up a program or anything similar on our own?

Yeah, so we have um currently we have our own um grow your own program um which is um which is uh um bilingual um education program that we have where this year we had 46 um people who went through this program.

We have 21 teachers of record from that program.

Um so each year the district does its own grow your own program where we take um paras as well as members of the community who are doing um who are going into teaching as a second career that we matriculate, we do an accelerated program where these individuals essentially become teachers.

We currently are also um working with um UMass Boston to create a um a master's program for those people after they become the teacher of record.

We now have a program where they um they can also go through UMass Boston.

We currently have seven people that we um we received a grant that we were able to pay for their um for them to get their masters.

The program started in 2025, it will end in 2027, where we hope these seven individuals will be graduating with their masters um with certification in moderate disabilities and um um uh in bilingual education.

So there are programs that we are doing.

Um unfortunately I have to say that money um we don't have that money anymore, so the people who are currently there are gonna be the last um individuals in that program.

Unfortunately, and what's the cost to run that program?

Um to run the to get them their best.

No, the grow your own.

The grow your own program, um, it's it's um I can get you the specific cost, but like um right now we would like to increase the amount of people that we have in that program, but it's only two people that are that's doing that work.

Oh wow.

Okay.

Awesome.

All right.

Thank you.

Okay.

Yeah, you sure?

I gave you I gave you five minutes.

If you have if you have enough anyway, no, they've been.

Yeah, we do have been.

Okay.

Well, uh, so just to follow up uh for um Dan on transportation, you know, I think the data is we have we're having like we're looking at three percent fewer routes next year, but the cost is going up ten million or so.

Did uh from the from the data we got in the RFI, you know, we had asked like how many door to door transportations there are based on IEPs.

Um and the the and we got you know it looks like uh for K to six for in district, out of district, K through six high school.

Um look the numbers were going up in 25 and 26, and that uh we the answer we got was FY27 projections will be further developed this spring.

Uh transportation volumes and costs are downstream of enrollment.

Uh school assignment and IEP decisions, however, BPS transportation is currently projecting a three percent reduction in the number of transportation in the volume of transportation.

But are we projecting a decrease in door-to-door transportation also or um not?

Yeah, uh appreciate that.

Uh thanks for that question, Counselor.

Um, so what we've seen, and and we have very close uh collaborative working relationship with the Office of Specialized Services.

What we've seen actually is um throughout this year, we've started to see those door-to-door numbers leveling off.

Uh there's you know, IEP meetings happening continually throughout the year, but over the past few months we've started to see slight uh stabilization and then slight reductions in the overall number of door-to-door students.

So we'll continue to monitor those as we develop um projections for next year.

And then the only other piece I wanted to uh just address quickly on the the spending, I think, you know, as uh David and Blair and others have talked about, we saw some cost overruns this year above our budget.

Um so our our budget for next year is going up, but when we look at actual spending, we are projecting to see stable, if not slightly reduced actual spending and transportation next year relative to this year.

Okay, when you say we say actual spending is that like per student or no, the the total amount of actual spend.

Okay.

And that's because we saw overruns against our budget this year.

I got it.

Uh and then are we projecting out of district uh uh transportation to go up, down level for FY27?

At this point in time, um I think we we don't have you know enough data to make solid projections there, so you know we're assuming generally level, which is what it has been over the last few years.

Okay.

Um I think that's it for for me, unless everyone wants to stay.

Uh we um I guess we're coming back tomorrow with some of you.

Uh but uh do my colleagues have anything else?

No.

Um okay.

Well, uh thank you very much.

And and today's second hearing is uh now adjourned.

Thank you, College.

Thank you.