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“We’re losing support staff,” a South End educator said. “If anything, you should be putting more supports in these classes, not taking away.”
Protestors gather outside of Boston City Hall to support the Boston Teachers Union in response to potential budget cuts. Finn Gomez/The Boston Globe
With more than 400 Boston Public School jobs proposed to be cut next year, educators, parents, and students gathered outside Boston City Hall before a budget hearing Tuesday night demanding just “1 percent more in our schools.”
The layoffs would affect educators and support staff working with high-needs students, the Boston Teachers Union said, and, to maintain those services, the city would need to invest about $48 million, or 1 percent of the city’s entire operating budget.
“The cost pressures driving this budget are real,” Erik Berg, the president of the Boston Teachers Union, told councilors during the public hearing Tuesday night. “Health insurance, transportation, and special education costs are rising across every school district in Massachusetts. What sets Boston apart is its fiscal capacity.”
The union said more than 400 full-time positions could be cut, affecting mostly multilingual learners and students with individualized education programs, or IEPs, the union said.
The proposed cuts include more than 200 teaching positions, 100 classroom aides, and other support staff and administrative jobs, The Boston Globe reported.
The Boston School Committee is expected to vote on a $1.7 billion budget Wednesday night.
‘Let BPS bloom’
Dozens of people protested outside City Hall Tuesday, asking councilors for the nearly $50 million investment to “let BPS bloom.” Cecil Carey, a BTU executive board member and history teacher at Charlestown High School, rallied the crowd with chants, telling the union advocates gathered that “these cuts are an attack on our profession, our livelihood as educators.”
Once inside, school children gave all the councilors bouquets of flowers, a nod to the advocate’s “bloom” imagery. Residents packed the fifth floor, where councilors heard hours of public testimony about the proposed BPS budget.
As enrollment decreases, the School Committee voted to close Lee Academy Pilot School in Dorchester, the Another Course to College high school, or ACC, in Hyde Park, and the Community Academy of Sciences and Health, or CASH high school in Dorchester, effective June 30, 2027.
Other schools would be reconfigured, including the Henderson Inclusion School from K-12 to a preK-8 school. At the time, BPS Chief Financial Officer David Bloom said many of the proposed cuts would lay off teachers and paraprofessionals in homeroom roles at the closing schools.
District 7 City Councilor Miniard Culpepper holds up flowers as he makes comments in support of the Boston Teachers Union during a meeting inside of Boston City Hall Tuesday. – Finn Gomez/The Boston Globe
Boston City Councilor points to overspending at White Stadium
At-large City Councilor Julia Mejia and Enrique Pepén, who represents Hyde Park, Mattapan, and Roslindale, both attended the rally before the budget hearing.
Pepén said the impacted students and staff at ACC should have a plan after the closure. Mejia said the city should reevaluate its spending, pointing to the White Stadium project, where costs have ballooned to $135 million.
“One percent, for me, is not enough. We should be asking for more to meet the moment,” Mejia said. “We have so many students who are recently arrived who need these services, right? And the paraprofessionals need these jobs.”
‘Children’s lives are at stake.’
Anna Stenger Golden, a special education teacher and parent at William Henderson Upper School, told the crowd outside City Hall that her school “lost a beloved student in September and faced multiple mental health crises in our building.”
“Every one of us has seen what happens when kids don’t have the support that they need,” Golden said. “This is not a game. This is not politics. Children’s lives are at stake. We already don’t have enough social workers, and we’re demanding that Mayor Wu not cut a single social worker.”
Multiple high school students on the Boston Student Advisory Council also asked councilors to “invest in our future, because if you don’t invest in us now, you’re cutting our chances to succeed.”
Heidi Boulogne, of the South End, works at Josiah Quincy Elementary School, which is losing eight staff members, she told Boston.com outside City Hall.
“They’re trying to save money with the closures, but it’s a very negative impact on the families,” Boulogne said. “We’re losing support staff, specifically staff that help for our inclusion classes. If anything, you should be putting more supports in these classes, not taking away. It’s, I’ll say, dangerous in some instances.”
Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.
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