Well, the wheel.

Well, the wheel.

Good afternoon.

Uh, for the record, my name is Ben Weber.

I'm the District Six City Councilor and the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means.

Today is May twenty-seventh, two thousand twenty six, and the exact time is three thirty PM.

This hearing is being recorded.

It's 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.

Written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.wm at Boston.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all counselors.

Public testimony will be taken following uh the first round of counselor questions.

People will be called on in the order in which they've signed up.

If you're interested in testifying, please add your name to the sign up sheet near the entrance.

Uh, you can also testify virtually.

Please email our central staff liaison, Karishma Chowan at K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A.

C H O U H A N at Boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list.

This afternoon's hearing is on docket number one zero three-one.

Message in order authorizing the city of Boston to appropriate the amount of 22,845,672 for purposes of funding Boston public schools to meet operating expenses for the fiscal year commencing July 1st, 2025, and ending June 30th, 2026.

This appropriation request was approved by the Boston School Committee on May 6, 2026, and is intended to cover projected deficits in health insurance, $18,087,750 and utility spending $4,757,922.

This matter was sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and referred to the committee on May 20th, 2026, I believe.

Today I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Councillor Pepin, Counselor Braden.

Received a letter of absence from Councillor Louie Jen.

We're joined this afternoon by the Boston Public Schools Chief Financial Officer David Bloom.

I am going to uh just wave opening statements and go directly to our panelists.

The floor is now yours.

Uh thank you so much uh chair and uh members of the committee, or that council, sorry.

Um we're here today to talk a little bit about our supplemental appropriation for school year 26.

Um as you know, and we've discussed it prior hearings.

Um BPS has had uh several areas of costs that were exceeding our allocated revenue um to date.

Um the slide outlines some of those costs, um, but specifically uh we've seen an increased cost in health insurance, $18 million, significantly over our budgeted amounts, increased cost of employee salaries due to a lower vacancy rate than is typical, increased cost of transportation that we're managing, special education and utilities.

We've been working to identify cost savings to offset those costs since we first brought them before the committee in December.

Um so uh to date we've identified 26 million dollars in savings through a pause of central office discretionary spending that started in November and a pause of school-based discretionary spending that started in December.

We also have identified six million dollars in other cost management strategies through active cost management and transportation facilities and food services, uh an IEP review to align appropriate support systems to student needs and reviewing grants to um identify available spot funds.

That's left us as of the end of March with a $28.3 million remaining overage.

Um we are seeking a $22.8 million supplemental appropriation from the city council to cover two of the areas outlined in my first slide.

As the chair mentioned earlier, we have a health insurance projected cost overrun of about 18.1 million dollars and a utilities projected cost overrun of $4.7 million.

Um you'll notice that that those that $22.8 does not add up to the $28 million I referenced on the previous slide, and that's because we have about $5.5 million of remaining projected overspending in other areas, and we plan to continue our pauses uh and other uh cost saving measures that we've outlined for the last three months of the fiscal year combined with available grant revenue.

We have every confidence that with the supplemental appropriation and uh these strategies, we will be able to balance our budget.

And I'll turn my time now back over to the council.

Okay, thank you very much.

We've been joined by Councillor Flynn, uh Councillor Pipen.

Uh we're gonna go with uh seven minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and Chief.

Thank you for being here today with us.

I really appreciate the breakdown, quick presentation.

A lot of my questions were around potential savings and where you guys are looking at to potentially um avoid, you know, anything like this happening again from next fiscal year.

Yeah.

I know that you've kind of went into that a little bit.

Is there any concrete detail that you can explain?

Oh, where you're looking at to make some of these cuts or certainly.

I'd appreciate that, yeah.

Yeah, so I think there are two main things I heard in your question that I'd like to address.

The first is in the current year to try and save as much money as possible.

We really did two things.

First is we delayed hiring on positions that weren't student-facing until the new fiscal year.

So I had a position on my team become vacant through a retirement.

In theory, I could have hired that position in March, but I the position is being hired for July instead.

So that'll save you know about a quarter year's worth of salary.

We also looked at sort of discretionary programming, non-personnel spending, contracts, and tried to really slow down, if not completely eliminate that work that had not yet started.

The other thing we did was just working collaboratively with our departments to really try and identify ways we could bring costs down in the short time.

So an example I like to use, I think is a really good one is we accelerated some of our work to add breakfast in the classroom at some of our schools, my daughter's school included.

Um she very was very excited on the first day of breakfast in the classroom.

Um told me all about it.

That helps us bring in more revenue for our food services program and helped eliminate a small part of the deficit.

So I think those are the things we're thinking about in the short term.

The second thing I heard you ask about was a little bit of what we're doing for next year to make sure this doesn't continue.

Some of that has to do with revive.

The main thing here is revising projections for accuracy.

So we did a big overhaul of our health insurance projections collaboratively with city finance, and I feel very confident that we have very strong projections going into next year.

Um then the other thing we did was a really close examination of vacancy rates and uh position budgeting, and we did a big adjustment to our vacancy rate estimation to hope that we're not having a similar salary overrun that we saw as well.

Um that's not the salary overrun is not the issue before you today, but it is something that we're trying to manage very closely.

So those are the main strategies we've been working on.

And I appreciate that because I I've always said I don't envy the leadership at Boston Public Schools because of the tall task that you all have to manage something.

Actually, um I was with Representative Rob Gonsalvo uh yesterday.

He was like one of the only departments, not the only department that has a crisis every single day of the year in the city, it is the Boston Public Schools.

And it's just it makes me think about all the work that you all do.

Um, and I know that it isn't easy to manage the budget, but obviously if there are places where we can save, I think we're having the same questions here inside the city hall, where can we make some tough cuts and you know make some decisions that could potentially make give us some savings?

I think that that's the right fiscal move to make.

So I'm glad to hear that you guys are doing that and uh making sure that for next year we are in a better place, and but yeah, trust you all are doing that just well.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Councilor Braden.

Thank you.

Good to see you.

Good to see you.

Um I had a few questions.

Um is it your are there structural issues in BPS budgeting that are contributing to recurring mid-year deficits?

Like is the baseline budget too low or is the forecasting inaccurate or and what for forms you mentioned some ways of changing projections?

Like uh what ways are we improving our budget accuracy going forward?

Yeah.

What I would say is I think there were two um sort of miscalculations we made, two main miscalculations we made for this year that uh led us to be the place we're in.

One is um we did not foresee the uh incredible increase in health insurance rates and premiums, and I think we could sort of go back and debate how much of that was foreseeable, but um that was certainly a number we got wrong.

I have a lot of confidence in the conversations I've had over the last year that that we have that corrected going forward.

So, with regard to health insurance, like is is the large is the largest proportion of that due to the G GLP one uh issue, or is there something else at play?

Um, yes, I I I admit so the other thing that um the other thing that I know is at play is we've seen uh an increase in the usage rate of our employees using our health insurance so the we used to be around 70% of employees using health insurance and that number my understanding is that number's gotten closer to 75% of employees.

And so obviously that's a pretty important number for us to um use in our projections and so we've revised going forward we've revised our projections based on that.

And there's some talk about moving you know just putting BPS health insurance into this into the city pool and just keep it you know with I we talked to the uh chief chief Grafenberger this morning about you know it really is all the same we just it's in two separate buckets yeah um is there any benefits from doing that or will you just would we just be um just take a couple of hundred million out of BPS and give it to the city for health insurance how would how would that work?

Yes I I think that would be the main impact.

So our budget would get a hundred and eighty million dollars lower and the city's health insurance budget would get that that much bigger um we would have to work through some complications around the way we do some of our grant budgeting because we would that health insurance would need to stay with us um for like uh Title I grants and other things where we get the revenue directly from the state and then we need to pay the health insurance premiums on that I'm sure we could technically manage that as a system but um I I don't it's not just an easy quick it's not yeah it's not a flip of the switch.

I think people are insinuating like people are suggesting well why don't we do that that could be easy that would be what but it's not just as easy as it might think and I think in terms of the FY27 budget there would the only impact would be sort of where the money sat it wouldn't necessarily change yeah still all comes out of the city offers still all coming out of the treasury yeah so in terms of and the utility spending it's projected it went up by 4.7 million.

Yes the main driver is um rate increases and rate pricing we we don't yet have um sorry as well as a we had a cold winter so those two things together um so we had an increased usage of of heat of therms is that is the term of art is my understanding and um because of the cold of our the coldness of our winter um this past winter so there is some hope that you know this winter was hopefully on one end of a scale and next winter won't be but we are sort of planning for that.

Do we have data on just how efficient some our buildings are like some buildings are obviously more efficient than others I know we have a very old uh school building stock um is that like sometimes the old buildings are not any worse than the new buildings you know I I don't know of any data on that.

I'm not sure about the energy efficiency I know we have really good usage data by building um I would have to look back through the facilities consistent assessment to see if that was efficiency was one of the things we and I know when I came on the council for first six years ago we were there was tremendous interest in you know building up our solar um yes uh PV infrastructure especially in school buildings etc um have we made any where are we at with that program that might save us some money?

I think it's we're continuing to make progress primarily through the renewable Boston Trust um so there are still projects ongoing um especially I think we like to look at them when we're doing roof repairs um because often then you don't put your solar on an old roof yeah exactly don't put your solar on an old roof and if there are any infrastructure issues underneath the roof that need to be addressed you sort of might as well do it all do it all at once yeah all at once so I think that is definitely we're looking at but I think there are continue to be projects in the pipeline there.

And just in terms of I know you folks were aware that there was a problem with the budget way back last November or October, November, in the fall.

That's fairly early in this in the in the financial year, and the school year um what why was there such a delay before it came to us to fix it?

Um it's a great question.

So we we brought it to the committee in December, which was what the first time we knew um with some certainty the sort of size and scale of the problem we were dealing with.

It then sort of varied a little bit in the months that followed, but we sort of knew the scale of the about $50 million problem.

I think at that point the thing we weren't aware of was the scale of how much money we might be able to save on our own and what we might need supplemental support on.

I'm also curious about ESSER hires.

You know, we all sort of were cautious about thinking ESSER is a temporary sort of wind windfall almost.

Um we knew that it was all good things come to an end, as they say.

Um there are are all of those SER hires gone at this point?

Yes.

Well, I mean, some of them have transitioned into the people maybe have stayed, but there's no more federally funded SER positions.

Yeah, so now they've been taken on by the general budget, not they're not funded by external funds.

Correct.

Um do you how do you what do you think about that?

What's your estimation?

Is that has that been a successful enterprise or has it been like I I think we all sort of were very conscious of the risks of doing that?

Like I think in terms of are we are we are we are we ended up with maybe staff, maybe if we had to do it a different way, we maybe it would have made different choices.

You know, like any big project, I'm sure if we had the opportunity to go back and do it again, we'd make some different choices, but I think um with the scale of the funding and the time period we had, I think there were always going to be some number of positions that ended up on the grant and some amount of turnover when it ended.

I think there are definitely some individual choices that we would go back and and look at again, but overall I think we're pretty proud of the work that was done with ESSER and think we were able to accomplish a lot as a district with that funding.

Thank you.

My time's up for now.

I'll probably come back for some extra questions.

Okay, thank you.

We've been joined by Councillor Fitzgerald.

Counselor Flynn.

Thank you, Mr.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you, David, for being here.

Um I have the opportunity, this is the fifth time I'll be voting on the on the budget for BPS, and I've voted in favor of the budget um four times.

A big reason of a big reason I supported the budget, although I knew the system is failing.

I still believe we have a good superintendent.

Um so I'm I'm uncertain where I am right now.

But know what was frustrating to me, David, is um I've asked questions for seven years about the H VAC system in public schools, and I was told by many BPS senior leadership people that it was fixed, and I just heard over the last two weeks that students are in schools where the AC is broke and the they're sitting there as you as you probably have read as well, and and it's 90 degrees in there.

Um so that's that's frustrating to me.

So we haven't fixed the HVAC system, and there's still many schools that don't have an uh an air conditioned system that's working.

Is that that's obvious?

Yeah, so my understanding is there are two things that were going on with that.

One was we do have about I think it's six or seven schools where the electrical systems couldn't support the window units for air conditioning.

Yeah, but David, we can't we can't accept that.

There has to be no excuse.

You fix it, you have all of this money, you fix the AC system, you fix the heating system in no not blaming you, but there's no excuses at all for not giving the kids um AC in this in the in the summertime and heat in the winter, went winter.

So you know I'm I'm willing to support the BPS team, but on the other hand, that I'm not getting reliable information about a simple thing like HVAC or heating.

So, you know, what is it?

Is it do we have a problem with HVAC, or is it is it fixed, or is this an isolated incident?

If it's an isolated incident and it'll never happen again, I'll accept that.

But but I don't want to see, you know, in in the fall a 90 degree day, where where this HVAC system is broke.

I can't accept that any longer.

I can't accept it this year any longer.

Can you guarantee me that we're not going to have this problem any longer?

I can tell you our team is working its hardest at it, and that the HVAC issues specifically with the conversions are proceeding, and hopefully all of our buildings will be turned over from heat to AC very soon if they're not already.

But David, I'm not, I don't feel confident.

I I I don't feel confident that we're going to do that.

Yeah.

Um we could students could be in their building today 90 degrees.

Is that, are we checking on that?

Yes.

Is that accurate?

Are people students sitting in rooms now that are 90 degrees?

Um I don't have today's data in front of you.

Can you get that for me?

I will for sure that's important because I I I've supported the schools.

But but I I have to support the students also.

I you know that's that's that's the number one priority for me is the health and wellness of our students and teachers.

Um the other issue I have, and again, I'm still undecided on what I'm going to do, but I was talking to a school teacher last night.

She testified she was a high school teacher at BPS.

She testified she's getting laid off.

But you told me that this the BPS said there are no layoffs of uh school teachers.

So is she uh I can't comment on any individual important situation?

But but are we laying off public school teachers, high school teachers?

Uh there are teachers in their first few years of experience who are not having their contracts renewed as part.

So they're getting laid off.

I can't accept that, David.

I can't accept layoffs.

I can't accept teachers getting laid off, I can't accept paraprofessionals getting laid off.

They're they're doing the best they can interacting with our kids, providing them an education.

How could I vote for the school committee?

How could I vote for the budget knowing that a paraprofessional that makes short money?

I don't know if they make $40,000 a year, $50,000 a year.

How could I support the budget knowing someone that does exceptional work is getting laid off?

That's the struggle I'm having.

Um is that a concern of yours?

Uh it's certainly a concern of mine that we're making sure we're doing the best we can for all of our employees.

Um but at the end of the day, our budget is rooted on the students we serve, and and we're serving thousands of fewer students than we were before, and so we will in some schools and places need fewer teachers and paraprofessionals.

But that's that's less support that our students are getting from an adult, an educator that's providing critical service to them, critical educational support to them that concerns me.

I don't know if it concerns my colleagues, uh, but it concerns me when when a student doesn't have access to more services, they're getting l they're getting less services going into the in into net the next academic academic year.

Why is that good?

Why is that a good scenario?

And then I'm supposed to I'm supposed to look at the budget and say, oh, this is great.

This is a great budget.

Even though public school teachers are getting laid off, paraprofessionals are getting laid off, teacher assistants are getting laid off.

Um but besides teachers and paraprofessionals, what other type of direct support for students are being impacted?

Uh I can certainly give you a full list by type.

I think there are, especially with uh three schools closing, there are fewer positions across most types of people.

Like give me an example, like a uh a counselor, a social worker?

Yeah, but but then but then we're balancing the budget on the backs of them, and and and those are the services that teachers need.

I mean, those are the services that students need.

They need social workers, they need mental health counselors, they need paraprofessionals.

I was working with a group.

Are you familiar with the Saint Stephen's youth Group?

Very familiar, yes.

The HO program?

Yeah, is that program being impacted?

Where they kind of they're gonna maintain their sites for next month.

Okay.

We did a city council resolution.

What's the official name of that um academic support they provide?

Yeah it's the St.

Stephen's youth program they call it's uh parent mentoring yeah parametering yeah it's an exceptional program.

Um I went to their graduation um two weeks ago no scholarship fund scholarship fund okay um two weeks ago and that program as you know it's it's mostly women it's mostly women of color many of them speak Spanish they work extremely hard they make little money and they do a tremendous service I'm I'm I'm glad it's not being cut but those are the types of educators I keep I I we need to keep we need to keep teachers we need to keep paraprofessionals peer mentors um you know nurses counselors so you know I'm willing to continue to have conversations with you but I I can't support when when we cut the budget and we and we we're laying off teachers or laying off paraprofessionals I I you know I'm willing to I'm willing to have a conversation with the superintendent thank you Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you Counselor Fitzcherald uh we're doing seven minutes thank you chair appreciate it Mr.

Bloom how are you I'm well how are you very good um correct me if I'm wrong just going through this this was approved by uh uh the school uh committee also right so it is gonna go forward so that there's not much of a leverage that we have in terms of talking about what's gonna happen it is is we will we still have to vote on this uh next Wednesday right the council has to vote by the end of June by the end of June we still have to vote but the but the school committee has voted on it understood um I I just look at the uh you know I a lot of what my colleagues said questions were already sort of answered in regards so I do appreciate their their their questioning uh and your answers Mr.

Boom uh I guess I would just say I would advocate for hopefully uh better financial projections in the future right for the upcoming year so that we don't come into this situation again um I know that we're resolving 22 out of the 28 million that we're over um leaving up with that 5.5 but even that's still right that's a hefty number that we're trying to um figure out how to do the cost savings on um do we know overall of health insurance if we're gonna see this year to year is this the norm that we've seen this this current year because I know it kind of came out of it for for everyone uh kind of came out of nowhere yeah it like do we have any type of um knowledge if that is like does it come down at all after this um is it one of those things like like rent once it goes up it stays up right you know what I mean yeah I I doubt it comes down uh but what I will say is we had a period of several years um before the most recent couple years of increases where where our budgets for how our cost for health insurance were increasing more steadily and at a more reasonable rate to inflation so you'd see maybe a two percent increase in a year or a three percent increase in a year or even a four or five percent increase but that would still be sort of more aligned with inflation um over the past two years we will have seen a close to 40 percent increase in health insurance just in health insurance um costs and so um I think number one our number one goal is slowing the growth um I don't know if there is a way back down um but I think number one is it's just slowing the growth and and getting us on a more sustainable path I know that will be a um because BPS health insurance is a part of the city health insurance program I know that'll be a citywide conversation that we will support of course yeah um looking at the utilities is that I know it's not as big a number as the health insurance as a reason that got us over but even the the you know the five million uh overrun there is that because of the buildings are so old or they inefficient in in running them and I know a cost of a new school is astronomical, yeah.

Uh, but in the long-term paying off, I mean, and is that something that we've talked to the utility companies about about any sort of way we can manage those in the future?

Yeah, I think um going back to Council Braden's point from earlier, some of the work we're doing around renewable energy, renewable sources, right, are really about reducing usage there the the big things with utilities right now are um rate increases, so our current um geopolitical environment is not helping uh anything for the cost of you know, a lot of our heat is natural gas.

Um so that doesn't help.

Um, and then of course a lot of electrical production is done by natural gas as well.

So I think excuse me, the extent to which we can use our investments in renewable energy to bring down the usage rate in the city.

I think that will help, as well as construction of more energy efficient buildings sort of going forward, but we'll have to be realistic that at the end of the day, you know, we operate more than the hundred buildings, and so really usage in existing buildings is more more sort of important than um uh rebuilding.

Yep, yeah.

Well depends who you asked there, I guess.

Well, yeah.

Not more important, more impactful maybe.

Yeah, I understand.

Um, look, I appreciate you being here, appreciate you answering these questions.

Um, I think for the most part it is what it is.

Uh you know, we find ourselves in this this hole.

We have to dip into uh reserves to make sure we're uh the budget's neutral by the end of this fiscal year.

Um, happy to support that, but of course, uh always advocate for your best today, better tomorrow in terms of uh on what we can do on the projection side.

So thank you, Mr.

Bull.

Thank you, Council.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh we've been joined by Councillor Culpeper.

Yeah, seven minutes.

So I lose my credit from the time this morning that was left.

Correct.

I want to pick up good good afternoon.

Haven't seen you for a while.

You've been trying to stay away from here, huh?

I've been keeping my head down, counselor.

No, good to good to see you, David.

I want to pick up on those utility costs a little bit because that's one of the things that I first looked at when I saw the 4.7 million dollars.

What did we spend last year in terms of utility costs?

Yes, it's um last year, so school year or fiscal year 24-25, right?

Um what did it look like for utility costs for those years?

I can pull that up for you, but I don't want to take your time, so no, I can wait.

Okay.

You know, you want to put around pause?

Please.

Sure.

Won't take me long, I promise.

Yeah, you're welcome very well.

Somebody looking out for me right now.

Yeah, I got you.

Sorry, just if you want to just keep going.

I'm down to three now.

Uh that's not how I remember the clocks working, counselor.

Um, must be on the fritz.

Yeah, it was about uh last year we spent about 29 million dollars on utilities for the utility costs, total utility costs.

What was the total for this year?

Uh total for this year.

Was it level funded?

It uh total for this year, so our uh not including the four.

Not including the four, before we got to 4.7.

Yes.

So current year we went into the year uh with a budget of about 30 million dollars for utility.

And we're we're gonna end up spending closer to 35.

Okay.

And you don't have a breakdown of what those costs were that pushed it up.

I could certainly uh get you a more detailed breakdown if you would like to please David.

David, check and see if it was premium increases.

So see what what the utility companies are doing.

One of the things that I want us to do more of is look at utility increases across the board.

Yes.

I know utilities across the state were going up.

Everyone's trying to figure out why.

And I'm wondering if those data centers, you know, we haven't figured out how those data centers are contributing to rate increases.

Yes, and so we have a very comprehensive analysis we can share with you on rate increases and usage.

Um, so we can certainly share that data with you.

I think rate increases have been a big part of the cost increase.

Yeah, yeah.

So I want to look at that because we're looking at it in other areas, yes, to see.

The impact that data centers are having on utility increases around the raising.

I know counselor Flynn is found a hearing order on data centers, but we know very little about data centers.

I didn't know there was one in Boston until Council Flynn filed that.

I started looking closer at data centers.

In terms of the lower vacancy rates, how much do you think that contributed to the increased health insurance?

It was certainly a part of it.

We typically spend about $15,000 per employee on health insurance.

That's sort of a pro-rated amount because not every employee takes health insurance.

So if we're off, you know, even a few hundred in our projections, right?

Um it can make a pretty big difference.

How big of a difference could it make?

Um, so I think in my most recent uh analysis with school committee, we had about a one percent um change in vacancy rate uh and that would be several hundred employees.

Um, and so uh a hundred employees would be 1.5 million dollars, so you know it could even be as much as five or or seven million dollars coming from a change in vacancy rate.

And what about premiums?

How?

Premiums would then be the the remaining with a little bit of it be with more employees, a higher percentage of employees are also using our insurance.

Do you have a breakdown?

Can you talk about a breakdown of what went into the total supplemental?

So we can we can give you uh information by all of our plans.

Okay.

So we have six options for plans, three three plans with each have an individual or a family plan.

We can give you the number of employees by plan and the cost.

And so when you submitted this year's fiscal year 27 budget, did you look at all of that before you put the budget together?

We did.

We took a much closer look of it because of this challenge, and we actually did uh uh a second review of it um in the spring.

So we did an initial projection that was shared uh with the committee in February, and then we actually presented a revised proposal to the school committee in March based on some changed assumptions that led to increased costs.

So we actually, yeah, we have the uh sort of much more refined health insurance number this year.

And can you give that to us also through the chair?

Certainly at some point, and the breakdown that you have here, especially with regard to the utility costs and and the impact of the lower vacancy rates and premiums so that we can see what's going on with the premiums across the board.

Um did you include the increased energy costs in the utilities when you said utilities are does that incre include the increase?

Yes and energy?

Yes, and so all of you put it all together to come up with the 4.7.

Yeah, so um the the majority of it came from um electrical utilities, so about 3.7 came from electrical utilities, and the remainder came from most of the remainder came from natural gas heat.

About a million, yeah.

Okay, okay.

And at what point did did you see that these increases wouldn't be, or or could they wouldn't be absorbed by the current budget?

I mean, obviously not in the beginning of the year.

At what point during the year, did you start saying, Oh my goodness, we we've got a problem here?

The for the utilities, it was the December bills that we received in January.

So utilities, we actually we the risk for utilities came in a bit later for everything else.

For health insurance, we knew in the fall, for vacancy rates, we knew in the fall.

Utilities, because so much of our utility usage doesn't really spike until the winter, um, we it took us a little bit later to know sort of the impact of those changes.

David, thank you so much.

And obviously, um, we support this supplemental, and I don't think we have a choice.

Appreciate it, counselor.

Thank you.

Okay, uh, thank you.

A couple questions from the chair.

Um, uh, so um, in terms of uh health insurance costs, uh, you know, what other tools do we have to, you know.

I know there was a negotiation over like utility management or whatever it's called, uh, and that that sort of slowed down the rate of increase, maybe uh what other things are we looking at?

Um so I know there's a number of issues.

I would say that health insurance, the details of the way our health insurance premiums work are not something I'm intimately familiar with because we partner so much with city finance on it.

Um, but I I know specifically usage of uh medications and then is the is the main thing we're looking at right now.

Um is it just the GLP ones or uh I know GLP ones are a really significant portion of it, yes.

Okay, and then so you know I I think uh just in terms of the teachers and paras being lost.

Do you have like can you just clarify the numbers on vacancies, actual positions being lost, uh, of those, and then um in terms of services provided, like you know, so three thousand fewer students uh like what's your response like in terms of serve like us not being able to provide the same level of service that we're doing this year.

Have you given thought about that?

Um these decisions.

It is um always a difficult conversation when we have to reduce positions, it's not something that I've had to bring to this council in my this is now my 11th cycle doing this.

Um at a system level, this is certainly the most significant change we've ever proposed.

Um, we are expecting to have uh about a hundred and fifty fewer paraprofessional positions across the system, and um close to 200 and and 90 fewer teachers, right?

So um teaching positions I should say.

So those are really significant, um, as uh counselor from was mentioning earlier, um, and those are really significant changes.

Uh about half of the reductions are coming from our schools that are closing, um, and then the rest are coming through program consolidation at schools and programs that are no longer needed.

Um, we know a lot of these things are tied to federal policy and having the impact on our schools.

We had been expanding our programs for students with limited and interrupted formal education, but enrollment numbers in those programs are way down, and we would have a number of programs that would have zero students in them next year, so that we are reducing those programs across multiple schools as well, and that's obviously impacting the educators involved in those programs.

Um, we would certainly be happy to, once our hiring season is complete, come back to the council and give you information on the number of employees who left the district.

Um, right now we're doing a lot of matching.

So we had, you know, at the beginning of the season, we had several hundred employees who didn't have positions, maybe because they're building closed or because they're classroom closed, um, and then we've been working to match them with jobs, find them new positions across the system.

We're down under 100 of those permanent educators without positions, but that doesn't include teachers who were non-renewed for licensure reasons or other reasons where they didn't have their qualification or certification to teach in our schools next year, and we're still working through those issues with those educators as well.

And in terms of the vacancy rate, I know like it's uh you're not in at least in fiscal year twenty six, and I think in years past you've it it's been ninety four percent uh you know, like you you're not projecting all the positions being filled.

Is that been changed for next the 27?

Yeah, we're expecting our vacancy rate will continue to decline.

Uh so you know, I think we'll probably get up to ninety-seven, ninety-eight percent.

Is that is that what you've budgeted for?

Okay.

Um is that you so you're hiring teachers while you're laying off teachers?

Can you just explain this?

Uh, no.

So it's because we have fewer positions, um, uh, even though we will have fewer employees, the we're closing more positions than we are laying off employees.

So our uh vacancy rate will go down even though our staff count will also go down.

So it's not new new uh except in some very specific nuanced specialized areas.

This is not because of new hires, hires from outside the system.

This is just really sort of filling our jobs more fully.

Then will you have like a hiring freeze in place or will you be able to fill those vacant positions?

Um so we yeah, no, we are all of our positions are open.

Um the only ones that have any sort of freeze are ones where we've said you have to hire someone from inside the pool.

You can't go outside of the district hire.

Um but those positions are still open for hire, they're just only open to internal candidates who don't yet have a position.

Okay.

Um okay, well, thank you.

We're gonna go to public testimony.

Uh let's see if I can get the sign-in sheet.

If anyone wants to sign in, Mr.

Moore, do you want to sign in before you?

Oh, you did already?

Okay.

Okay, I've got uh, sorry, I've got George Lee, and then I apologize, the name I can't read, and then Nate Nichols.

Hello.

Good afternoon.

Apologies, counselors, this might seem a little random.

Uh I just I just want to thank counselor Weber.

Uh you were here till past 10 last night and helping make sure young people could testify, including alternating to make sure young people could get home.

Um, and you work to move the YEO hearing to an hour later to make sure young people could be heard.

And I know at least up to date, you've been working to make sure young people's voices are in this process.

I just want to confirm that you are still planning to meet with us at 5 30 tonight.

Um, young people were originally going to meet with you in Roxbury.

We caught a call yesterday requesting to change that.

We rearranged to come to City Hall.

Folks are starting to come in, people are ready to meet with you at 5 30.

We know you're doing amendments tomorrow.

Um, but that's exactly why it's important to be able to have a sit-down and outside of the public hearings, really have a constructive conversation back and forth about solutions.

And I just want to confirm if that's the case.

Well, okay.

If that is that your public testimony, we'll talk after the hearing.

I well, if you're gonna not answer directly, then I'll just add some more to my public testimony.

Which is I have an email.

Um April 16th and April um.

The reason I'm asking is last time we got locked out of your office is when we try to meet with a staff member.

That was on April 16th and 15th.

And we have an email from April 16th, um, uh inviting us to set up a time with you.

We have an email on April 30th, offering four days, including May 27th.

We confirmed on the next day, May 27th, we confirmed the time on May 12th at 5.30.

Um, we said it would be in Roxbury.

So we have been preparing to meet with you for a few weeks.

Young people again, are coming in, and we want to make sure you're honoring that commitment.

Okay, are you f are you finished?

Um, I guess if you are not gonna honor that commitment, it would be good for you to explain to our faces why you are backing out from that commitment.

We can talk after this hearing is done.

Okay, we're trying to have a constructive meeting.

Okay.

Well, you know where I am right here in City Hall.

So, thank you.

Okay.

How are they going?

So I'm just following up.

How's it going, Mr.

Boom?

This is my seventh grade math teacher.

Yeah, you logged in.

Twin.

Um just following up.

Work for the Center for Team Department.

I'm program director.

You know, did a lot of work, you know, I mean, to make sure that we could have this meeting, you know what I'm saying, with our young people in a constructive fashion with you as Ways and Means chair.

So I do want to just follow up around George's question.

Just making sure that we are still on for 5 30 to make sure that we can have this meeting.

Because again, we're trying to be solution-oriented and work forward towards a solution that works for all of your constituents and all of the constituents of all the council members, the residents of the city of Boston.

And so for us it's really important that we're able to have this meeting.

Um, not sure like how where that like sits with you, but I do know that it's something that's really important for our young people and really important for the constituents of the city of Boston.

Again, as we're following up, we have to make sure that we're having these constructive conversations.

We're not trying to be anyone's enemy.

We also don't want to make enemies along the way.

We're trying to really work together, figure out solutions, and you know, the same time as like we know where you are, we also know where we are.

We're accommodating, we're trying to make sure we're meeting you where you're at, and it doesn't feel like that's happening on like the flip side.

So just trying to follow up.

Is that meeting happening today?

Okay, we can talk after the meeting.

I also want to add, as far as my testimony goes, that when it comes to Boston Public Schools, I want to urge city counselors just to make sure that you're doing everything that you can in your power to make sure that our teachers and our administrative staff within EPS are being uplifted.

A lot of times when these cuts are coming from the top down, the folks who are doing the work, the hard work of working with our students are being the ones who are often more often or most often on the chopping block.

When it comes down to it, if we are not able to uplift the teachers and staff in that regard by making sure that they have safe and secure and stable positions, we're also filling our students, and that means you're filling the future of the city.

So I want to make sure that that's also a priority for all the city counselors, which I'm sure that it is, but just reinforcing that message, you know what I mean?

So also want to add that in there.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, uh anyone else who had Mr.

Bloom for math?

Um any anyone else for public testimony?

Sorry.

Anyone online?

No, okay.

I'm gonna go to uh my colleagues for another round of questions, five minutes.

Uh I think Councillor Braden.

Thank you.

Um in our conversations with um Chief Grafenberger about um the health fund, the trust, like we have to re-sort of because we went over budget with the LG TLPs ones.

They we ran down our there was some pretty heavy draws on the on the the trust fund because we self-insure.

Where does the B does BPS have to contribute to that trust fund as well?

And and I'm always because we're sort of BPS is this sort of entity over here, and sometimes a lot of the time we don't want people to sort of really engage with it the way we'd love to.

But do you contribute to the trust fund?

So my understanding of the way it works for BPS is that we have a set rate we pay per premium holder.

Um, so the level of the trust doesn't necessarily impact us except for how those rates are set.

So um, in the document that I'll be sharing with counselor Culpepper that I'll obviously share with you as well, um, you can see sort of those amounts uh per per plan type and by the number of employees.

So I think the only way it would so we I'm assuming those premiums then go into the trust, right?

So the the way it would impact us would be if the premium increase is due to the trust drawdown.

Yeah, it's always hard to get my head around all these things.

Yes.

Um, and then in terms of you say that there's three school closings, and that the staff won't be needed for those three schools, but I'm assuming that those students are going to transfer to other schools, and that staff should follow them.

Is that there will be some overage, but yes, so uh a number of the staff members are going to be transferring to other schools.

Yeah.

And then um, I'm curious, you know, are there ways like our February?

Your vacation used to be called Save the Cold Week.

Is there ways to are there ways to shift the school gear that would and I'm not sure this would work because we have extreme heat in the summer and we have extreme cold in the winter that doesn't it might not work.

But I know are there ways of thinking about how do we sort of close our buildings down for vacation times or whatever to it I think when even when I even when I started working in schools 20 years ago the idea of having sort of 90 degree days in April was in Boston unheard of was was crazy so I think you know the idea that um air conditioning in the spring has now become such a necessity because of the climate is this incredibly important um issue I think unfortunately there probably isn't a way to move around it because September's have gotten so hot as well.

Yeah we basically have you know we go from having five or six 95 degree days in a year to having dozens of 95 degree we've already had them and it's not even summer yeah um so in climate resilience then and focusing on yes as to counselor Flynn's point earlier about how heating and cooling of our buildings and how to make it as efficient as possible it's gonna be critically important.

Watch my time.

So your health insurance usage went up from like 70% to 75% something in that range yes so is there a reason like is that like spouses or partners coming on moving from their other employer insurance into BPS insurance or we're not very sure of the reasons why we just know sort of more a greater percentage of our staff are using our insurance than had been true in the past.

Is do you think is that our our liberal our approach to GLP ones and it could be um it certainly could be it could be you know the city has good health insurance and as health insurance changes have happened more broadly it certainly could be impacting.

Okay I think that's all I have Mr.

Chair thank you I'll yield back my 32 to one of my learned colleagues.

Okay thank you.

Counselor Flynn I think you're next thank you Mr.

Chair.

Thank you again to David for being here I in the first round I asked about the the cuts to teachers to paraprofessionals to nurses to other educators that or supports support that's provide students with direct support um interacting interacting with them daily um and as Reverend Cole Pepper mentioned you know we're voting on the supplemental tomorrow which which I'm going to vote for.

Next Wednesday oh yeah yeah okay next Wednesday if we don't mean yeah next Wednesday which I'm gonna vote for but you know I'm still I'm still discouraged about voting on something when we're cutting teachers when we're cutting paraprofessionals that that bothers me I'm discouraged about I'm just looking at a map here the the Mather elementary school the other day in the classroom was 97 degrees um in Orchard Gardens schools 94 degrees I could I could go on the um the Madison Park 90 degrees but how how effective are we in terms of teaching how effective are we in terms of learning when kids are trying to learn and teachers are trying to teach when it's 95 degrees um again, we're gonna vote for the budget, but that but we're not doing we're doing a disservice to the students and teachers when we don't at least acknowledge that we have a significant problem that we're trying to educate kids in a classroom that's like a steam bath, yeah.

Um I was I was in an environment where it was 140 degrees in in off the coast of Iraq.

Um but I I just I'm just trying to wrap my head around how much teaching and how much learning is going on in a classroom when it's 97 degrees in the classroom.

What do we what do we how are we teaching them?

And again, David, I like you.

I'm not blaming, I'm not blaming the.

No, I understand.

I'm not blaming you.

I'm I'm trying to do the I'm trying to do the best I can for the teachers and the students.

I I remember doing my student teaching in July in the classroom with no air conditioning, standing right in front of uh one of those rotating fans that was just blowing the hot air around the room.

I think you know it is never what we are setting out to do, and it's never acceptable to have a room that's that hot, and we are certainly trying to address all those issues as quickly as we can.

Um but will will the this supplemental address those issues, or is it it really needs to be f it really needs to be dealt with in the capital budget?

Is that is that accurate?

That's correct.

Yeah, okay.

Um I've talked to Mary Skipper at length about the Josiah Quincy elementary school gymnasium.

Do you have an update for me in terms of how we're going to address some of the infrastructure challenges inside the gymnasium?

I didn't come prepared with an update today, but I'm sure she can get you one.

Okay, um, I've I've talked to her at length and I've talked to um Sam as well at length about it, but do you think there's going to be some progress made during the summertime where we're able to get people in there fixing the gymnasium?

Because I want to make sure that my constituents have a place that they were able to um exercise and play sports as well.

I certainly know it's an amazing hub of the community, that school.

Um I don't have an update on the the construction work today, but um I'm sure that Dr.

Dapina would be able to give you an update.

You think they might be starting work on Monday?

I don't know what's okay.

Um, for the chair, um I do want to see when I can get an update on when the work is going to start at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School Gymnasium.

It's not a significant amount of work, but it's a it's it's some work that needs to be addressed that needs to be done.

Um, and I just I just would I my goal is really to get it done over the summertime.

So when the students come back in September or late August, that they have a gymnasium that they're able to play sports and exercise at.

There's a lot of there's a lot of kids I see students I should say at the school that are uh students with disabilities, and they're using the gymnasium.

They're getting their exercise as well.

Um but if you have like a little bump in the floor in in kids in students around wheelchairs, you know, I would I I want us to I want us to address that issue.

Um that's important to me.

Um but but you you have you have said that the work starts Monday.

I I don't know.

I'm just not personally.

Oh, I thought you said it starts Monday.

I'm sure I'll be there with you.

Maybe you and I could do without Monday conflict.

We'll get there together.

I'm sure Counselor Culpepper would come to you.

Yeah, call Council Cole Pepper will help.

Uh Mr.

Chair, um, I have no further questions.

Just want to say um thank you to um David Bloom for being um an outstanding employee of the city of Boston.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Counselor Culpepper.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

David, I wanted to pick up on Council Webber's question about uh the number of vacant positions, the number of uh teaching layoffs.

How many?

Can you give me the categories of the individuals that will actually lose their position?

And I understand that no teachers will, right?

So some teachers will, if they maybe don't have their license, right?

If they're um working in an area that's oversubscribed, there will be some teachers who lose positions.

Will they be out of a job?

That's I'm I'm trying to get to the teachers that will be out of a job.

There will be some teachers out of a job.

And it was my understanding that there were enough vacant positions that no one would actually lose their job if they could be paired up with one of those positions.

We're doing our best to find as many pairings as possible, but there will be some teachers who are out of the job, even if they have all the credentials and their certifications.

We're trying to make it as few as possible, but there will likely be some.

What other categories will as soon as you know?

Can you let us know how many teachers will be out of a job?

Because I thought the superintendent said that there would be no teachers that would lose their jobs because there were enough vacancies that all of the teachers, if they decided it was a different area, and they had to go into a different area that they would not lose their jobs, and that there would be no teachers losing their jobs.

None of our permanent staff will.

So all staff with three years of experience become permanent educators in our system, and none of them will lose positions, but some of our um provisional educators who have less than three years of experience will be losing their jobs.

And what do you what are you doing?

What's the BPS doing to help them find employment?

So we we do a number of things.

I think within the system we work with uh folks on coaching, we do we do some resume support, we do licensure support, helping them pass their tests and other things they need to do to get positions.

Um, and we certainly are always happy to provide references to other districts as needed.

So, how many vacant positions are there?

Because I I think there was 600 positions that were posted at one point.

Yes, I can see I I'm not I have to ask our HR team to pull that.

Um, but we can certainly get you the information.

Okay, about the number of positions that was posted because I thought there were far more positions posted than there would be individuals laid off, and that if they laid off individual was willing to accept something that they were doing different that was different from what they were doing, yeah, there would be no layoffs.

I mean, I think the technical term of layoff for us means a permanent educator, so there will be no layoffs of permanent educators in that circumstance, but for provisional educators who have not yet um achieved permanent status, there will be some staff who are not renewed who do not have their contracts renewed for for next year.

When will you know?

Um uh it's at some point over the summer.

I think if you if you we could certainly give you um some uh as soon as possible.

We can certainly give you some estimated information today, and today of the other categories of paraprofessionals or teachers' aides.

Can you tell me the number of individual per category that are actually going to lose their job?

I'm not talking about layoff and finding that are actually gonna lose their job.

Yes, I think the the pool for those positions is happening this week, so potentially as soon as next week we would have that information.

Do you have an idea?

I don't know.

Okay.

I can tell you how many fewer positions we have, but I how many?

There are about a hundred and fifty fewer paraprofessional positions, but a number of those are vacant.

And then people will retire and there'll be the normal sort of departures.

And so there's gonna be quite a few individuals that will be losing their jobs.

Yes.

When I thought earlier there would be no individuals that were gonna lose their jobs.

There will definitely be some individuals who are losing their jobs.

And that's not what we heard earlier, David.

We've never heard this.

In fact, this is the first time that I've heard that maybe you have missed a chair.

But I thought there were more than enough jobs to pair up individuals that were on the excess list.

On the excess list, yes.

They're all said everyone that was on the excess.

We have not yet found placements for all of them, but we are working through that process now.

But the excess list is only for permanent educators, permanent teachers with more than three years of education.

Yeah, it's a seniority issue, I think.

It's a seniority issue, yeah.

So that's I mean that that's the I mean that's historically the problem when you have to cut back, you end up going, you know, you have to cut the newest teachers.

That's not what we heard.

We we heard that no, even the educators on the excess list.

We were told that there were enough positions to pair them up so that there would be no one on the excess list that would lose their jobs.

Yeah, so I'm saying you only end up on the excess list if you have the tenure or whatever uh and that's right.

And so uh if you're a second year teacher, this is you know happening, this happens often in BPS.

You know, new teachers, they sort of seem to lose their positions before they acquire that.

I think is it three years?

I don't know.

You have to have three full years of no excess, no teachers, excess teacher administrative anyone on excess list, and not none of them are gonna lose their positions.

If they're on the excess list, which means they have more than three years of teaching experience, then they will not lose.

And as soon as you can, it would be helpful so we can see what's going on with the folks that don't have a job because we're gonna hear from them.

I know, and uh, then you're gonna hear from us.

You know.

I do.

I do counsel.

Thank you, David.

And okay.

Um, so I I just I had one one follow-up question.

I know we've heard um about uh health insurance costs, and I think it's uh one of the proposals was to move the health insurance from BPS to the city.

Have you looked into that with that save money that we spend on health insurance is just moving it?

It's sort of moving money from one basket to another, and it would run into a number of technical hurdles we would need to adjust.

I think for FY27, there would be no, it would not help our budget in any way.

Did you?

Okay, okay.

Uh I want to Deval Moore, I don't know if you can hear me.

If you're out there, you're signed up.

Okay.

I'll give them about I think they're waiting outside my office.

That's fine.

Uh I won't tell you.

I won't, I promised Nate I wouldn't tell you about his uh experiences in 700.

Yeah, so can we go over what were his strengths and weaknesses?

I won't, I won't read that into the record, I promise.

How long did you teach?

Um I taught middle school, I thought three years basically.

So not very long, but um, yeah, middle school math.

But I could not teach my kids math on my own.

I I can teach them how to read, but yeah.

Uh uh I'm not sure I could teach my kids math either.

Okay, David, you got two minutes to uh wrap up this hearing.

Okay.

Well, in that case, I'll probably just restate some of the things that I spoke about yesterday for the people that weren't here.

But hi, good evening, counselors and everyone.

My name is Naval Moore.

I live in Roxbury.

I'm an 11th grade 17-year-old MECO student at Weston High School, and I'm a senior youth organizer at the Center for Teen Empowerment's Dorchester site.

I've been working at TE for two years or three sessions, and yesterday at the hearing, I mentioned that what makes these cuts so frustrating is that they expose a deeper contradiction in how the city understands public investment, and Boston is perfectly willing to spend enormous amounts of money managing the downstream consequences of inequality, but becomes hesitant the moment the conversation shifts to reducing inequality at its source.

I also said that youth employment programs are one of the few policies that simultaneously address economic mobility, public health, educational engagement, workforce development, and violence prevention.

And the research on this isn't controversial anymore because stable employment during adolescence is strongly correlated with long-term earnings, lower justice system involvement, improve educational outcomes, and stronger civic participation.

And in other words, these programs, they do work.

I mean, we're dedicated.

I'm at my youth job right now, my youth school, your job right now.

Um, I love what I do, I have a passion in what I do.

I love community organizing and stuff as well.

And I mean, there's 10 of us here right now who are willing to continue to fight for this, and it shows that we're determined.

Um, stability rarely receives the same political urgency as punishment.

You know, like we have all of these policing techniques and methods uh set up within our community, and all of all that it's doing is continuing to divide us from our political understanding and knowledge of what goes on in the city of Boston, whether that's the youth, whether that's the adults that are being affected by their pensions, and whether that's um subsidized housing, and whether that's the rising youth that are here to come as well.

Um, and I'm going to continue to fight for this because like I said, this is what I do, this is my passion, and this is teen empowerment, all of the other orgs that could not stand here right now and testify on their behalf as well.

Okay, thank you.

Uh anyone online?

No, okay.

Um, with uh that on that on that note, uh we're gonna uh just adjourn this afternoon's hearing.

I want to thank everyone who came to testify.

Thank uh uh Chief Financial Officer Bloom for your preparation and your answers today, my colleagues who were here.

Thank you.

This uh afternoon's hearing is now adjourned.

Um, uh,