Boston School Committee Rejects School Choice, Moves Toward New Cell Phone Policy

BOSTON — May 14, 2025 — Boston School Committee votes down school choice participation and backs new cell phone policy process. The committee voted unanimously at its May 14 meeting to reject the Massachusetts School Choice Program for the 2025-2026 school year and received word that the district will form a working group on cell phone policy — the first formal update process since 2005 — following a campaign by the Boston Student Advisory Council that gathered more than 1,000 student signatures. Superintendent Mary Skipper announced a landmark project labor agreement with the Greater Boston Building Trades Unions guaranteeing up to 50 Madison Park Technical Vocational High School graduates per year direct entry into union construction apprenticeships. Skipper also confirmed that several federal grants have been frozen or clawed back, including a bilingual teacher pipeline grant and a school mental health grant, with nearly all losses currently subject to legal challenge. The committee honored two recently deceased BPS students — five-year-old Lenz Joseph, who died in a bus accident, and 14-year-old Marvin Cassius of the Roosevelt Upper School — and marked the appointment of Dr. Tanya Freedom Wisdom as the district's new Chief of Schools, effective July 1.