A Letter from the Chair of Ways and Means

Fri., April 18, 2025

As we wrap our first full week of hearings since Mayor Wu filed her budget last week, I’d like to share my thoughts as well as an update around the council’s budget advocacy.

On Monday and Tuesday, we were joined by Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper, CFO David Bloom, Deputy Superintendent Sam DePina, Deputy Superintendent Linda Chen, Deputy Superintendent Ana Tavares, and a host of other BPS personnel to answer the Council’s questions surrounding the Fiscal Year 2026 school budget. Over four hearings and 12 hours of questions, the Council zeroed in on a number of topics. Among the topics we learned about:

• The new teacher contract will add an additional $62 million in the FY26 school budget.

• BPS is hiring a new director of special education for multilingual learners

• BPS intends to better spread out its subseparate classrooms across the district.

• BPS’ goal is for a 3% or less dropout rate

• BPS is committed to creating a dashboard outlining post-secondary outcomes for its students

• The district’s investment in Inclusive Education will total $184 million in FY26. 

• Regarding school meals, the city hopes to be cooking at all 108 buildings by the end of the year, is piloting non-dairy beverages, and has a long-term goal to renovate its Central Kitchen and bring all school meals in-house.

• In terms of arts education, 98% of elementary students get arts once a week, and 73% get it twice a week.

• BPS spoke about athletics, saying the city is investing $100/day in athletics, and is requiring high school students to take one semester of physical education to graduate.

• As of 2024, 5,200 BPS students were unhoused according to the McKinney-Vento definition. BPS said there is one homeless liaison per school, but schools with a homeless population of more than 5% receive more resources. 

• BPS spoke about how the 37 (net) new positions in the FY26 budget are all school based, and how the new teacher contract calls for the elimination of the 22-pay period structure, putting all teachers on a biweekly schedule.

• BPS also discussed the new 14 different criteria it uses to evaluate all outside partners.

On Thursday, we were joined by CFO Ashley Groffenberger and Budget Director Jim Williamson to discuss the operating budget and capital plan for Fiscal Year 2026. During that hearing, the administration highlighted the breakdown of the revenue increases and what those will be spent on in FY26. Property tax revenue is forecast to increase $144 million in the coming year ($60 million from new growth and $84 million on existing property owners), while excise taxes are forecast to rise $58 million in FY26. Those are the two largest increases to the budget, which will increase $208 million from FY25, a 4.4% increase that’s in line with inflation. City officials also outlined how the city is now losing money in net state aid for education, with a $13 million deficit forecast for FY26 once charter school reimbursements are calculated.

The administration also gave updates on dozens of capital projects across the city, with the budget book and the capital project website including a more detailed look on a project basis. CFO Groffenberger outlined that the city is forecast to hit its 7% debt service limit in a couple of years, which could lead to less ability to fund capital projects across the city.

Also on Thursday, the administration released a memo to the council, outlining the areas of the council’s advocacy that were included in the budget that was released on April 9. Please read the memo in full.

As we look ahead on the calendar, please testify at our virtual public testimony period on April 22 at 6 pm. We will resume budget hearings on April 28 at 10 am as we hear from the Equity and Inclusion cabinet to kick off our departmental hearings. I can’t stress enough how important it is to center equity first in all that we do, and by hearing from these departments first, it will inform our next steps as a Council.

As always, follow along with the Council hearings on our YouTube channel and check out our budget website for the calendar and more information.

Councilor Brian Worrell
Chair of the Committee on Ways & Means