The Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Councilor Ben Weber, held a virtual hearing on July 15, 2026, to consider two dockets that would fund planning and design phases for six Boston public schools: Docket 1311 ($5 million for a feasibility study and schematic design for Madison Park Technical Vocational High School) and Docket 1312 ($850,000 for feasibility studies and schematic design for window, door, and roof projects at five schools: Boston Adult Academy, Joseph J. Hurley School, Ellis Mendel Elementary School, Joyce Kilmer K–8 School, and Lyon Upper 9–12 School). The hearing included presentations from the Public Facilities Department (PFD) and Boston Public Schools (BPS), questions from councilors, and public testimony.
Note: The hearing was held virtually via Zoom, livestreamed, and broadcast on Boston City Council TV. Written comments were accepted via email.
My name's Ben Weber. Uh, I'm the District Six City Councilor and the Chair of the Boston City Council on Ways and Means. Today is July fifteenth, two thousand twenty-six, and the exact time is two. Oh three PM in accordance with chapter two of the Acts of Two thousand twenty-five, modifying certain requirements of the open meeting law and relieving public bodies of certain requirements, including the requirement that public bodies conduct uh their meetings in a public place that's open and physically accessible to the public. The city council will be conducting this hearing virtually via Zoom. 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 82, and uh five 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 uh at the end of the uh first round of questions from my colleagues, um, individuals will be called on in the order in which they've signed up and will have two minutes to testify. If you wish to sign up for public testimony, have not done so, please email our Central Staff liaison, Korean chan at K R I S H M A.C. O U H A N at Boston.gov for the Zoom link, and your name will be added to the list. Today's hearing is on two dockets that would fund the planning and design phase of major improvement projects for six Boston public schools, one being our vocational tech school, Madison Park. Uh the MSBA board of directors voted to invite Madison Park into the MSBA's eligibility period on December 12, 2025. On October 29th, 2025, the board also voted to invite the other five schools to participate in their accelerated repair program. The goal is to modernize our aging school facilities and improve the safety, accessibility, and energy efficiency of our educational spaces. I'll now read both dockets into the record. Docket number one three one one is a message in order authorizing the city of Boston to appropriate the amount of five million dollars for the purpose of paying the cost of a feasibility study and schematic design associated with the project for the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School located at 75 Malcolm X Boulevard, uh Roxbury, Massachusetts, 02120. Uh this includes the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto, and for which the city of Boston may be eligible for a grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, otherwise known as the MSBA, uh set amount to be expended under the direction of the public facilities department on behalf of the Boston Public Schools. And docket number one three one two, a message and order authorizing the city of Boston to appropriate the amount of eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the purpose of paying costs of a feasibility study and schematic design work associated with window door and roof projects of the following schools: Boston Adult Academy, Joseph J. Hurley School, Ellis Mendel Elementary School, Joyce Kilmer K through eight school, and uh the uh Lyon uh upper nine through twelve school. Um, this uh includes the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto, and for which the city of Boston may be eligible for a grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, set amount to be expended on the under the direction of the public facilities department on behalf of the Boston Public Schools. These matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and were referred to the committee on July 8th, 2026. Today I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Councillor Flynn, Councillor Fitzgerald, Councillor Murphy, and Councillor Louie Jen. Uh I'm joined, or we are joined by a wonderful panel today. We've got Brian McLaughlin, senior project manager for the public facilities department, Carlton Jones, Director of Public Facilities, uh Dell Stanislaus, uh the chief of uh capital planning for Boston Public Schools, and Brett Dickens, the assistant superintendent for secondary schools and college career and life readiness um uh for the Boston Public Schools. Um with that said, uh I think if the panel and get back to the screen here, the panel has uh uh presentation or anything you want to say. The the floor is yours, and then we'll go for a first round of questions from my colleagues and then uh to public testimony and come back for a second round of questions. Great. Thank you, Chairman uh Weber and uh counselors again, Carlton Jones from the public facilities department. I just want to um introduce myself and my colleague uh Brian McLaughlin, who's gonna run through our slide, senior project manager Brian McLaughlin, and then we're gonna turn it over to our colleagues from Boston Public Schools, uh Dell and Brett. So without further ado, and I know we have a lot to go through, so I'm just gonna turn it over to Brian. You have the floor. Carl, thank you. Uh thank you, Chair Weber, Council members. Uh Chair Weber introduced moments ago uh before you today are two loan owners associated with the Mass School Building Authority School Construction Program. The first uh we'll go through today is the 2025 accelerator repair program projects, and the second is for the Mass and Park Technical Vocational High School feasibility study um funds. The MSBA um we're gonna be sharing a presentation too. Is that oh, there we go. Sorry, can we go to the second slide? Thank you. Uh the MSBA is a state authority that oversees the funding of public school construction projects in the state of Massachusetts. It's a reimbursement agency that works with local school districts to great affordable, sustainable, energy efficient schools across the Commonwealth, and it's funded through one penny of the sales tax. MSPA has two programs, the core program, which is for larger renovation or new school construction projects like the Boston Arts Academy, Josiah Quincy Upper School, and the Carter School, and the accelerated repair program, which focuses on the repair and replacement of roof windows, boiler, heat pub systems, and otherwise structurally sound buildings. Uh, next slide, please. Over the past several years, Boston has made an effort to increase their participation in the Mass School Building Authority program. As of today, there are 57 projects in various stages of the MSBA process. The slide provides an overview of the status of these 57 projects. Of the core projects, which there are seven, the Dearborn, Boston Arts Academy, Josiah Quincy Upper School, and the Carter School are complete. One school, the Shah Taylor, has recently started the feasibility study. The Ruth Batson Academy is currently procuring the OPM in Madison Park, started the eligibility period two weeks ago.