Ep. 79, Last Night @ School Committee: 2/1 Meeting Recap

Last night’s meeting marked the beginning of the annual BPS budget process. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, in which Superintendent Skipper discussed the district’s progress in implementing contractually-obligated back-pay for educators and new developments in the school merger process. The Superintendent noted that she has added staff to ensure employees receive appropriate pay, and she announced that the planned mergers of the Shaw and Taylor schools, and of the Sumner and Philbrick schools, will be delayed to future years to allow more time to engage the school communities. The majority of the meeting was spent on the Superintendent’s preliminary budget recommendation. The Superintendent and her team presented a $1.4 billion budget, which represents a $65 million increase over last year and a 39% increase in per pupil spending ($28k per student). The proposal includes additional investments of approximately $12 million for transportation, $10 million for inclusive practices, and $6 million for multilingual education. The proposal also includes 209 new full-time positions, on top of all current vacancies. While the budget continues to grow year-over-year, the proposal lacked details on metrics and implementation, and members expressed concerns about how this money will be spent and why key structural issues are being kicked down the road. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices