Boston City Council Ways and Means Hearing on FY27 BPS Budget – April 16, 2026
Boston City Council Ways and Means Hearing on FY27 BPS Budget – April 16, 2026
The Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by District Six Councilor Ben Weber, held a hearing on April 16, 2026, beginning at 2:13 PM, to review the Fiscal Year 2027 budget for Boston Public Schools (BPS). The hearing covered docket numbers 0733–0740 and 0741–0743, focusing on food service, safety, human resources/staffing, transportation, and facilities/transportation/technology revolving funds. This was the second of three BPS budget hearings. Councilors Murphy, Flynn, Braden, Louijeune, Orrell, and Durkin participated. BPS officials present included Senior Deputy Superintendent Dr. Sam DePina, Chief of Human Resources Francis J. Canty, Executive Director of Transportation Dan Rosengaard, Executive Director of Safety Security and School Crisis Response Izzy Morrero, Deputy Chief Financial Officer Blair Dawkins, and Chief Financial Officer David Bloom.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Dr. Bianca Ortiz White (BTU Strategic Researcher, Roslindale resident) urged the council to move the BPS health insurance appropriation out of the school budget and into the city's central budget, noting that BPS is an outlier and that the current structure caused a $49.4 million health insurance increase to directly impact school funding. She stated that most Massachusetts cities centralize this budget.
- Ayush Bajpai (BTU Political Organizer) opposed the elimination of three district social worker positions, stating it would affect 37 schools, 13,491 students, and 71 school-based social workers. He detailed the roles of district social workers in crisis support, training, and coordination, noting that one district social worker trained 140 staff in safety care and provided 68 instances of clinical support.
- Johnny McGuinness (BTU Political Director) supported centralizing BPS health insurance and called for a supplemental appropriation to avoid cuts to student-facing services. He argued that the current budget would harm students with special needs, multilingual learners, and low-income students.
- Clifton Braithwaite (community member, grandfather) raised concerns about children going home without food, requested more community involvement, and asked about immigration studies, parent GED programs, and support for LGBTQ+ students.
Discussion Items
- Central Office Budget and Staffing Reductions: BPS CFO David Bloom reported approximately 2,800 centrally funded positions, including 700 traditional central office roles. Total FTE reductions are 175, with 57 from central office. Reductions include vacant bus monitor positions, special education staff, safety services, and custodial positions due to fewer buildings. Councilor Flynn pressed for restoring three district social workers; BPS officials said they would consider it but made no commitment.
- Transportation: Transportation Director Dan Rosengaard stated that the FY27 transportation budget is about $197 million, an $11 million increase. However, actual spending is projected to be stable or slightly below FY26 due to cost overruns this year. On-time performance is the highest ever, and uncovered trips decreased after assessing $105,000 in non-performance damages against vendor Transdev in March. Of 625 daily routes, 45% of schools served are non-BPS (charter, private, out-of-district special education). Councilor Louijeune requested a full disaggregation of transportation costs.
- Safety and Student Support: Safety Director Izzy Morrero stated that 58 safety officers are deployed, with 60 when fully staffed, covering over 120 buildings. School leaders can request safety personnel. The Vipers team (Violence Intervention, Prevention, and Restorative Specialists) has 11 members trained in mediation and conflict resolution. Councilor Flynn asked about the unsigned MOU with Boston Police; BPS operates under the agreed terms.
- Food Service: The food service director (not named in transcript) reported that the central kitchen is operational, providing freshly prepared meals to all schools. Savings of $2.6 million are projected from the central kitchen shift. Breakfast in the classroom is expanding. Staffing reductions are based on meal-per-labor-hour formulas tied to enrollment.
- Teacher Layoffs and Licensure: Chief Canty explained that positions are eliminated due to under-enrollment or licensure issues. Of 700 unlicensed teachers this year, 200 have obtained licensure. The district is working to place excess educators (permanent teachers) into available positions. Councilor Murphy questioned the timeline for provisional teachers.
- Health Insurance and Budget Structure: BTU speakers advocated moving BPS health insurance costs ($197 million) to the city's central budget, as is done for other departments. Councilor Flynn supported this idea.
- Facilities and HVAC: The facilities revolving fund is capped at $2 million. Most HVAC repairs come from the capital budget. ACs have been installed in most schools except four; work is underway at Bates, Kenny, and Lee Academy schools.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken; the hearing was informational and will continue the next day (April 17) with a focus on long-term capital planning.
- Councilor Flynn requested a list of all positions being eliminated (including those due to licensure and vacant positions). BPS agreed to provide the list.
- Councilor Murphy requested a breakdown of central office budget line items (contracts vs. personnel). BPS agreed to provide backup.
- Councilor Louijeune requested a disaggregation of transportation costs by category (yellow bus, door-to-door, charter/private, McKinney-Vento, MBTA passes, etc.). BPS agreed to provide.
- Councilor Braden requested job descriptions for senior advisors and deputy in the chief of staff's office (approx. $2 million for five positions).
- Councilor Flynn urged restoration of three district social worker positions; BPS said they would take it under advisement.
Meeting Transcript
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. You can give testimony in person here in the chamber or virtually via Zoom. For in-person testimony, please come to the chamber and sign up on the sheet near the entrance, which is over there for anyone in the chamber. For virtual testimony, you can sign up using our online form at our council but uh budget review website or by emailing the committee at ccc.wm at boston.gov or by emailing our central staff liaison at Karishma Chohan. That's sorry, Kerishma is K-A-R-I-S-H MA dot C H O U H A N at Boston.gov. When you are called to testify, please state your name and affiliation and residence and limit your comments to uh a few minutes to ensure that all comments and concerns can be heard. Email your written testimony to the committee, or I'm sorry, so it in addition to showing up and testifying in person or or doing that in person or virtually. You can also submit written testimony, which you can do by emailing the testimony to the committee at ccc.wm at Boston.gov. Third, you can submit a two-minute video of your testimony through the forum on our website. 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.
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