The Boston City Council Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Councilor Ben Weber, held a hearing on April 17, 2026, from 10:09 AM to approximately 3:00 PM, to review the FY27 budget for Boston Public Schools. The hearing focused on inclusion, multilingual learners, special education, curriculum, partnerships, summer programming, family and community outreach, and mergers and closures. Two administrative panels testified, and public testimony was heard from students and adults.
Good morning. Um, my name's Ben Weber. I am the Boston City Councilor for District Six and the chair of the Boston City Council on Ways and Means. Today is April seventeenth, two thousand twenty-six. The exact time is ten oh nine AM. This hearing is being recorded. It 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 File's Channel Nine Sixty Four. The council's budget review process will encompass a series of public hearings that began this week and uh run through June. We strongly encourage residents to take a moment to engage in this process by giving testimony in uh you know, for the record, which you can do in one of several ways. First, you can attend one of our hearings and give public testimony. We'll take public testimony. Uh usually at the end of our first round of questions for my colleagues. Um and you can also give public testimony at two hearings dedicated to public testimony. The full hearing schedules on our website at Boston.gov/slash council dash budget. Our scheduled hearings that are dedicated to public testimony, these are listening sessions, are both in person at City Hall. First on Tuesday, April 28th at 6 p.m. And then on Thursday, May 26th at 6 p.m. You can give testimony in person here in the chamber or virtually via Zoom. For in-person testimony, uh come to the chamber and sign up on the sheet that's near the entrance. If for anyone in the room who plans on testifying, you haven't signed up, the sign in sheets over there. Um for virtual testimony, you can sign up using our online form on our council uh budget review website, or by emailing the committee at ccc.wm at boston.gov, or by emailing Krishma Chohan at K A R I S H M A dot C H O U H A N at Boston.gov. When you are called to testify, please state your name and affiliation and your uh your residence uh and then uh please limit your comments to a few minutes so we can ensure all comments and concerns can be heard. Email your written testimony. Um sorry, so in in lieu of showing up here and testifying in person or in Zoom, you can also email your written testimony to the committee at ccc.wm at Boston.gov. Another option is you can submit a two-minute video of your testimony through the form on our website. Uh okay, and then uh for information on the city council budget process and how to testify, you can visit the city council's budget website at Boston.gov slash council dash budget. In person public testimony uh again uh will be taken following the first round of counselor questions. Individuals will be called on in the order in which they have signed up, and we'll have two minutes to testify. Uh if you're listening online and you uh haven't signed up yet, you can sign up by emailing our director of legislative budget uh analysis, that's Chris Machouan at 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. This morning's hearing is on docket uh dock it's number docket numbers 0733 to 0740. The focus of the of this hearing is the FY27 budget for the Boston Public Schools. This hearing will cover topics included including inclusion, multilingual learners, uh special education, curriculum, partnership, summer programming, family and community outreach, and mergers and closures. Uh this is one of a series of hearings to review the FY27 budget, and this is the third of three hearings with BPS. Uh I I want to note uh for my colleagues that the BPS Central Office budget is relevant to the discussion at at any of our BPS hearings, given the overlap of this budget with many of our specific subtopics. Uh in this case, this particular hearing uh which will touch upon mergers and closures and centrally funded offices that coordinate with schools on inclusion partnership summer programming and family and community outreach. Um given the number of topics covering we're covering today, where we're we're gonna have two administrative panels. The first panel will cover inclusion, multilingual learners, special education, and curriculum. The second panel will cover partnerships, summer programming, family and community outreach, and mergers and closures. These matters were sponsored by Michelle Wu and were referred to the committee on April 8th, 2026. Today I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival. No surprise, uh first counselor Flynn, then Councillor Murphy, and Madam President Braden. Uh oh, sorry, uh that we also have received a letter of absence from uh councillor Coletta Zapada. Um for our first panel, we have uh we have superintendent of Boston Public Schools, Mary Skipper, uh, we have Chief Financial Officer David Bloom, Deputy Superintendent of Academics, Simone Dr. Simone Wright, apologize, uh, uh Chief of Chief of Office of Multicultural Multilingual Education, Joelle Gamer. Am I okay, got that right? Uh, and senior advisor of specialized services, Christine Trevis Sohn. If I okay, again, apologize. Uh, and then uh just for my colleagues, we're expected to have a panel this afternoon with the chief of capital planning uh uh Delivern Stanislaus, uh Chief Financial Officer Bloom, uh Deputy Superintendent Community Family Advancement Dr. Anna Tavares, Chief of Family Advancement, Migali Sanchez, Chief of Community Engagement, Mary Amorties, and Development Officer for Strategy Partnerships and Innovation, Dr. Ann Clark.