boston public schools

Boston City Council discussed plans to address the safety conditions of Boston Public Schools buildings and classrooms during extreme temperatures in a virtual meeting on Sept. 30.

After almost two years of pandemic uncertainty, vague communication and a revolving door of Boston School Committee member resignations, Governor Baker and his appointee Commissioner Jeff Riley have added a layer of stressful bullying by continuing to foster the idea of receivership for the Boston Public Schools.

Before Boston Public School officials became consumed by the demands of remote learning, distributing Chromebooks, keeping track of disappearing students and other pandemic-era challenges, there was the looming threat of a state takeover.

As a new school year began, BPS leadership continued a dangerous trend of being rhetoric-rich and implementation-poor. Central office leadership uses the terms “equity,” “anti-racism” and “accountability” regularly. However, BPS leadership has gutted the meaning of the terms, most especially in school reopening, BuildBPS, plans for English learners, students with disabilities and academic recovery.

Boston Public Schools (BPS) Superintendent Brenda Cassellius announced in a press conference at City Hall Thursday that the district is facing staffing shortages ahead of the start of the 2021-22 school year.

With lingering concerns over air filtration, mask use, social distancing and testing and tracking, Boston Public Schools (BPS) parents and staff are still trying to get their feet underneath them and understand what measures are in place to keep students safe from the spread of COVID-19 in the classroom as kids prepare to return to school in person.

At the end of last month, Boston Public Schools submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education its projected spending of $123 million in federal funds from COVID-19 relief packages for the 2021-22 school year.

Angered at what they say is the Boston Public Schools’ refusal to honor a promise to provide them a new building, students from Boston Community Leadership Academy met last week with Superintendent Brenda Cassellius in an attempt to obtain a guarantee they would not be moved from their existing building.

The Boston School Committee voted last Wednesday in favor of a new policy for entrance to the city’s three exam schools in which students will be selected from eight tiers, divided by socio economic factors including income of families in a student’s census tract, the number of households in which a language other than English is spoken and the educational attainment of individuals in the tract.

Citing wait lists for summer programs and school buildings with no air conditioning, District 4 City Councilor Andrea Campbell held a press conference last Wednesday calling on the Boston Public Schools to accelerate their release of millions of dollars in federal COVID relief funding.

With three city councilors and an acting mayor locked in a competition to lead the city, a group of white and Asian parents making a last-ditch effort to overturn a policy aimed at diversifying admissions to the city’s three exam schools and acting Mayor Kim Janey’s $3.6 billion city budget hanging in the balance at the bitter end of the fiscal year, what could possibly go wrong?

Boston Public Schools officials promised students 21st century schools in their BuildBPS document, but Boston Community Leadership Academy students say the district’s scaled back renovation of the McCormack school building will leave them with too little space for their new high school.