Boston City Council Education Committee Hearing on BPS Transportation — November 2, 2026

On November 2, 2026, at 2:07 PM local time (19:00 UTC), the Boston City Council Committee on Education held a hearing on Docket #1920 concerning Boston Public Schools transportation performance at the opening of the 2026-2027 school year, contractor accountability, and corrective action. Chair Julia Mejia presided, with Councilors Flynn, Murphy, Pepén, Breadon, Weber, Worrell, Fitzgerald, and Culpepper participating at various points; Councilor Murphy was the lead sponsor. No minutes were available, so this summary is based on the transcript. Public testimony came first, followed by a presentation and questioning of BPS Transportation Executive Director Dan Rosengard, Deputy Director Jackie Hayes, and Transdev Area General Manager Jim Folk. No formal votes were taken.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Parents and students described chronic lateness, unreliable Zoom tracking, missed instruction and breakfast, unsafe stops, and weak complaint follow-up. Mira Godo said her five-year-old was erroneously not assigned a bus route and later had no head count on bus B153; she described conflicting answers about whether drivers check students on and off and where the stop was, and said the bus arrived up to 25 minutes early. She called student safety "non-negotiable."
• Lindsay Fertita raised safety concerns about routes H242 and B153, especially the stop at Seaport Boulevard and Pier 4 Boulevard in a bike lane, where young children must navigate parked cars, bicycle traffic, and vehicles. She also questioned a retraced morning route, a possible prohibited left turn from Atlantic Avenue onto Seaport Boulevard, and inaccurate Zoom notifications; she said she had received no transportation email response since September.
• Cassandra Xavier, a disability advocate and former BPS student, asked about winter pathway clearance and bus monitor staffing, emphasizing safety for young riders.
• A virtual parent, Sean, said BPS was failing obligations under Massachusetts General Law chapter 71, section 68 and its own eligibility policies; he estimated his son's bus at Warren Prescott was on time less than 25% of the time and asked for a written determination of legal and policy obligations, an explanation of current service, and corrective action plans with timelines.
• A sixth grader at Rafael Hernandez K-6 said bus B147 was constantly late, causing tardy passes and stress and affecting grades; the student asked BPS to address consistent small delays.
• Aaron Ramsey Teuer, a Roslindale parent of four Rafael Hernandez students, said the bus had been more than 10 minutes late on 94% of occurrences and after the morning bell 71% of the time; he said tickets, hotline calls, and emails had not produced change and asked for a threshold for intervention and a clear improvement plan.
• Giovanni Burgos, vice president and a bus monitor for more than 20 years, said monitors are blamed for management failures and that staffing does not match one-to-one student needs; he described routes requiring multiple monitors operating with one and monitors injured while trying to supervise students.
• Sadie Jasmine, president of Local 2936 and a bus monitor for over 26 years, said BPS ordered buses without required safety restraints, that later-installed restraints may create new hazards if not properly secured, and that monitors have been disrespected. She asked the City Council to investigate and audit the Transportation Department's budget and staffing practices.
• Graham Murphy, a sixth grader at Rafael Hernandez, described family stress, missed math class, and lost breakfast time when bus B147 was late; he asked BPS to improve bus times and consider starting the route earlier.
• Lori Murphy, Graham's mother and a BPS parent for eight years, said Roslindale families with resources can carpool but families without resources cannot; she said Zoom tracking had become erratic, tickets were useless, and a driver clicked drop-off at Washington and School Streets before the bus was physically at the school.
• Anastasia said her son's bus from downtown Boston to Charlestown was 30 minutes to one hour late almost daily or did not show up; she said children were marked absent or tardy, families paid for Ubers, and a bus stopped in the middle of Staniford and Merrimack Streets.
• Catherine Randahan said her first grader's bus was perpetually late, sometimes by 45 minutes, leaving children hungry and frustrated and disrupting dismissal; she said Zoom did not update consistently and tickets disappeared into a "black hole."
• Catherine Wang said her K0 and K2 children ride route 150/B153; on the first ride this year no head count was taken and the family tracked the bus into Seaport/Southie by AirTag. She said the ride took about 50 minutes, that she was told under an hour was acceptable, and that because of food-allergy and supervision concerns the family opted out of afternoon bus service. She said the morning B140 route worked well.
• Tia Washington said her daughter had experienced physical violence and sexual assault on a school bus; she said an eight-year-old was told to walk home despite domestic-violence safety concerns, that complaint follow-up was hostile or absent, and that trained bus monitors are needed. She said she had reported the assaults and received no written communication from BPS transportation about them.

Discussion Items

• BPS Transportation presented systemwide metrics: about 610 buses on the road each school day, transporting more than 18,000 students; roughly 107,000 trips so far this school year; and more than 12,000 tickets. BPS reported morning on-time performance of 61% on the first day, 84% in September, and 91% in October; afternoon performance was 73%, 82%, and 86%, respectively. BPS called this the second-strongest performance on record but acknowledged it was not good enough.
• BPS reported 94 uncovered trips this year, or 0.09% of about 107,000 trips, a reduction of more than 80% from the same period last school year and on par with the lowest levels in five years. Dan Rosengard said on-time performance is calculated from GPS arrival times, so a driver marking a stop early would affect family communication but not the on-time performance calculation. BPS said a bus is on time if it arrives before the bell, and morning buses are scheduled 15 minutes before the bell.
• Transdev's Jim Folk said Transdev manages 610 routes, maintains about 770 buses, travels about 500,000 miles per month, and provides about 55,000 scheduled trips monthly, or about 2,750 trips each school day. He said tablet usage was 98% and needed to be 100%, and that Transdev uses coaching, retraining, and progressive discipline.
• On contractor accountability, Rosengard said non-performance damages of $500 per trip apply only to trips more than one hour late or uncovered. BPS assessed about $400,000 last year from February onward and about $10,500 in September this year. Councilor Murphy asked whether that money returns to BPS or affected families; Rosengard said the reimbursement does not stay in the Transportation Department.
• On budget, Rosengard said about $125 million flows through the Transdev yellow-bus contract and Transdev's management fee is about $21 million; Councilor Murphy cited the BPS FY27 budget book showing just under $200 million total for transportation.
• Councilor Murphy said the ticket system was ineffective and requested all tickets and calls to transportation so far this school year. BPS acknowledged families may wait weeks for ticket responses. Councilor Flynn requested data on assaults on buses since the start of the school year, including how many involved a monitor; BPS said such reports are handled at the school level and it did not have aggregate numbers immediately.
• On bus monitors, BPS said it targets about 650 monitors and has about 640. Rosengard said every smaller HS/MS/WB bus transporting door-to-door or monitor-required students has at least one monitor assigned, while about 300 morning and 300 afternoon trips on full-size buses do not have monitors. Councilor Flynn challenged the claim that every bus has a monitor. BPS also said monitors receive eight hours of summer training and an additional eight hours this school year.
• Dan Rosengard said the Rafael Hernandez route would change the following Wednesday by removing a Renaissance 7:30 trip so the bus could serve Hernandez first; he said this should solve a persistent problem but is not an option for every route.
• Councilor Braden noted Transdev has held the BPS contract since 2013 and asked whether the district should divide routes or introduce competition; he raised six blowout trips at the Edison, buses arriving as late as 7 PM, and electric-bus range anxiety. Rosengard said route pairings are constrained by three bell times, long cross-city assignments, and limited buffers.
• Councilor Worrell asked about athletic transportation coverage, the on-time definition, and before- and after-school transportation. BPS said it can cover about 40-50 athletic trips per day, or 20-25 buses, depending on time, and that it does not have data on athletic trips not requested for bus service. Councilor Flynn asked about the Carter/CATA school; Rosengard said 86% of Carter school bus trips had been on time so far this year.
• Councilor Culpepper raised driver complaints about late pay and reimbursement for license and training renewals. Folk said drivers should be paid within the week, that reimbursement is company policy, and that he would ensure any missing reimbursements were addressed within 10 days. Culpepper also asked about a backup if the Zoom app were hacked or went down.
• Chair Mejia raised a real-time Zoom app problem in the chamber: parents saw "ride status unavailable" and an in-progress ride. Rosengard said one bus was still completing a prior trip and another driver had not logged in. Mejia pressed Transdev on consequences for drivers not using tablets and announced plans for smaller working groups with families to rebuild trust and co-govern transportation oversight. Mejia also said she had voted against the city and BPS budgets because they did not meet the moment; Flynn said he voted against the BPS budget because of cuts to bus monitors and paraprofessionals and that a supplemental budget proposal was denied.

Key Outcomes

• No formal votes were taken; the hearing was informational and ended with adjournment of Docket #1920.
• BPS and Transdev were directed to follow up on specific requests: identify Lindsay Fertita's email/ticket; address the in-chamber Zoom tracking issue; report on assaults on buses since the start of the school year, including monitor presence; provide all transportation tickets and calls this school year; provide data on athletic trips not scheduled for bus transportation; and address driver pay and reimbursement complaints.
• Dan Rosengard committed to a Hernandez route change effective the following Wednesday and to continued daily review of persistently late routes. Transdev's Jim Folk committed to holding drivers accountable for tablet use and for the reported profanity toward a parent.
• Chair Mejia said her office would create working groups with families, including student organizer Graham Murphy, and would send the parents' and students' questions to BPS/Transdev for written responses.