Expectations high as BPS set to unveil more detailed long-term facilities plan to the School Cmte & Council
A plan released in January had few details, while the plan released tonight is expected to detail school closures and mergers
In the final week of the City Council’s FY25 budget hearings, Boston Public Schools’ long term facilities plan has taken center stage. The plan is playing a major role in three meetings in front of three different state and city bodies this week:
The plan was a topic of discussion at the Board of Elementary & Secondary Education (BESE) meeting on Tuesday, May 21, because it was an important milestone in the agreement between DESE and the Wu administration that prevented a state takeover of BPS - read the memo that Acting DESE Commissioner Russell Johnston wrote & the Globe’s summary of it here.
The plan is being unveiled at the Boston School Committee meeting on Wednesday, May 22, where members, including Chair Jeri Robinson, have been asking for a more detailed plan with increasing urgency over the course of 2024.
The plan is being presented to the City Council on Thursday, May 23, at 10 AM in final hearing of the Council’s month-long series of budget hearings.
Before turning to what was said at Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Elementary & Secondary Education and by members of the School Committee and City Council about the long-term facilities plan, it is important to recap where the plan stands now. The memo from Acting Commissioner Johnston does a great job summarizing the timeline:
The long-term master facility plan that was submitted on December 29, 2023 caused confusion: multiple outlets reported that the plan could result is as many as half of BPS’s 119 schools closing - read the reporting from Boston Globe and GBH - and Superintendent Mary Skipper responded with a letter to principals rejecting that analysis - read coverage of that letter.
BOARD OF ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION HEARING
On Tuesday morning, Boston Public School Superintendent Mary Skipper and Boston School Committee Chair Jeri Robinson went before the MA Department of Education Board of Elementary & Secondary Education to talk about the Systemic Improvement Plan (SIP) that the state and the City signed back in June 2022 to prevent a state takeover of BPS - you can watch their testimony here, it starts at about the 49:00 minute mark and Superintendent Skipper starts at 54:06. This update was originally scheduled to occur in December 2023, but that meeting was cancelled. According to Superintendent Skipper, the update on Tuesday was the first time that BPS has given BESE an update like this on the SIP.
For the purposes of this week’s budget hearing, the long-term facilities plan is the focus, and here is what was said at the BESE meeting:
Facilities condition assessment is now available, with a public dashboard for each school
A new department created to manage capital planning - Capital Planning - which is being led by Delavern Stanislaus, the first person to ever hold the Chief of Capital Planning title
A school design study conducted by an external group will help accelerate school construction and renovation projects by moving projects along more quickly
There were over 200 projects in 116 locations in last 2 years, including replacing floors and roofs, renovating windows, and more
YTD BPS has spent $22M on capital projects
BPS has done 15 bathroom renovations - this was a major focus of the SIP and Commissioner Johnston’s memo
Two new schools will open next school year
Over 3,000 community members engaged in facilities planning process
The whole meeting is worth watching, and BPI will have an update from our education expert in the coming weeks about what she saw in this update.
PEOPLE ARE GOING TO WANT A BIT MORE MEAT: SCHOOL COMMITTEE AND CITY COUNCIL EXPECTATIONS
"People are going to want a bit more meat,” is how Boston School Committee Chair Jeri Robinson summed up her feedback on the long term facilities presentation that BPS’ Chief of Capital Planning Delavern Stanislaus gave to that body on May 8 - Chair Robinson is Speaker 0 and the video clip starts at the 3:17:23 mark in the transcript. Later in that same meeting School Committee member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez said: “Like, my contractor came to me and didn't tell me how much something cost and what it's gonna look like day over day, I would be like, we don't really have a plan.” SCM Cardet Hernandez is Speaker 2 and this question starts at the 3:27:39 mark in the transcript.
In the other chamber, City Council President & Councilor At-Large Ruthzee Louijeune and her Vice President and Ways & Means Chair District 4 Councilor Brian Worrell have both expressed a desire for more detailed budgets. Councilor Worrell has stated multiple times, both at Council meetings and in testimony before the School Committee, that he wanted to see budget books and have the Council play a larger role in the BPS budget-writing process. On April 22, the very first day of budget hearings, President Louijeune asked the Wu administration’s top budget officials - Treasurer-Collector & CFO Ashley Groffenberger and Budget Director James Williamson: “Has there been pen to paper math done on what the savings will be to the district, to the city once we do that rightsizing of students to our schools?” Councilor Louijeune is Speaker 5 and asks her question at the 42:35 mark in the transcript.
The Wu administration has also driven up expectations from the Council and School Committee. At that May 8 School Committee meeting BPS’ new Chief of Capital Planning Delavern Stanislaus said this, which appears to foreshadow a rather ambitious set of school closures - Chief Stanislaus is Speaker 14 and this answer is at the 2:45:14 mark in the transcript:
On May 22nd, the schools that we've identified for grade reconfiguration and or closure, we will be meeting with those impacted school communities to inform them of the proposals that would be going to school committee. We will meet with staff, we will meet with parents and families, and also we will share with staff and parents and families how they will be supported through this process and the areas in which they need they get to engage in building out transition planning.
In response to President Louijeune’s question on April 22 about “right-sizing” schools, Boston’s Budget Director James Williamson said this - Chief Williamson is Speaker 2 and this answer is at the 43:46 mark in the transcript:
Directly across my the street from my house is one of those consolidation efforts in Roslindale. The goal is to stand up a healthy district that provides us the quality of services. I think a lot of the efficiencies that will be gained through mergers and consolidations, many of which I think the school district would likely want to put back into into improving the experience of students. I don't think we have an exact savings number, but I think there's a general consensus that's not sort of where our footprint is a little too big for the number of students that we have in the district that needs to shrink.
The Boston School Committee’s meeting is on May 22 and starts at 6 PM. It is hybrid, so check out the meeting’s public notice to access the zoom. The Council’s Long-Term Master Facility Plan hearing is on May 23 at 10 AM in the Iannella Chamber at City Hall, and can be watched live on the Council’s YouTube Channel.
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Thank you for keeping track of this process. With the difficult budgetary environment for the City of Boston there is an opportunity here to better serve students and be more efficient with taxpayer funds.