Boston City Council Closes FY24 Budget Hearings With BPS Academic Review

BOSTON -- June 5, 2023, Boston City Council closes FY24 budget review with a $71.7 million BPS academic investment hearing. The Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by District 7 Councilor Dania Fernandez-Anderson, heard the final departmental presentation of the budget season Monday, with Deputy CFO David Bloom outlining new spending on inclusive education, multilingual programs, and high school pathways while warning that ESSER cliff pressures require a long-term sustainability shift. At-Large Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune flagged guidance-counselor ratios of 300-to-1 in high schools and 400-to-1 in middle schools as unacceptable, while At-Large Councilor Julia M. Mejia pushed administrators to confirm the number of bilingual Bateria assessors in the district, an interim assistant superintendent said 16 Spanish-speaking staff can administer the test, countering community claims that only one exists. District 1 Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata noted that Charlestown and the North End share just 15 K-2 inclusion seats, and administrators confirmed newcomer learning center expansions at Brighton, Charlestown, and East Boston high schools will be funded outside individual school budgets.