Boston School Committee approves grants, passes exam school policy 5-1 in marathon session

BOSTON -- February 5, 2025, Boston School Committee approves nearly $969,000 in grants and advances a $1.58 billion FY26 budget proposal. The committee voted unanimously to approve four grants totaling $968,971, including a $500,000 award to fund electric vehicle training at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School and a $300,000 early college planning grant covering five high schools. The exam school admissions policy passed 5-1, with member Cadet Hernandez voting no over unresolved concerns about individualizing economic disadvantage points using state data, telling colleagues, "I've been asking the same question for multiple years." Chief Financial Officer David Bloom's preliminary $1.58 billion budget, up $53.4 million, or 3.5 percent, directs $10 million toward inclusive education expansion and $4 million to multilingual programming, backed partly by $21 million in savings from school closures approved last year. The committee also received a proposed competency determination framework for the class of 2025, replacing MCAS as a graduation requirement following November's ballot vote, with about 841 of roughly 4,200 seniors not yet having met the standard; a vote on that proposal is scheduled for February 26.