As the three-year deal between BPS and state education officials to avoid a receivership comes to an end, the education commissioner said Tuesday the Boston district has made good “effort” — even if it isn’t meeting all the deal’s requirements.
Acting Education Commissioner Russell Johnston at a state education board meeting Tuesday provided a recap of what has resulted from the work related to the Systemic Improvement Plan.
“The word that I’ve used repeatedly is mixed,” he said. “We’ve seen mixed results, but definitely much effort, really concerted effort on behalf of the district, the School Committee and the mayor in order to meet the requirements that are in the SIP.”
The district and DESE signed the Systemic Improvement Plan (SIP) in order to narrowly avoid a state receivership of the struggling district in June 2022. The deal, which builds off a former 2020 agreement between BPS and DESE, outlines benchmarks related to transportation, attendance, special education and other subjects the district was required to meet over the three-year period.
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The SIP is set to expire in June 2025.
Johnston spoke positively about the district’s progress, indicating BPS remains on track to avoid a state receivership. The commissioner noted that DESE will maintain “continual oversight” even after the deal ends.
“There’ll be areas that we will continue, obviously, to work with the district on,” said Johnston. “But what I’m particularly pleased about is the development I’ve also seen in the School Committee within BPS to provide the kind of oversight, the accountability that is required to continue these improvements beyond the life of the SIP.”
Statements from BPS and city leadership applauded the commissioner’s report, noting BPS’s “strides in the right direction.”
“Over the three years, we have made notable progress in addressing systemic barriers and have enhanced our operational capacity, maintaining a laser focus on transportation,” said BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper, noting critical work still to do in areas like the rollout of the Inclusion Education Plan, operational systems and raising the bar academically.
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Johnston highlighted several areas of improvement, including the release of the long-term facilities plan and enrollment data, student safety planning, supports for multilingual learners and students with disabilities, and staffing and covering bus routes.
Board members pushed on bus transportation timeliness, which has been one of the most high-profile issues plaguing the district. BPS was required to meet 95% on-time bus performance in the SIP, which Johnston called a “particularly high bar.”
“They have not fully reached it, but we do see that by and large there is just steady improvement in this area, which is what we really need to see,” Johnston said.
Skipper said bus on-time performance averaged 94% for the month of March and route work through new GPS tracking is ongoing.
“I think a three year learning curve with something that impacts attendance, something impacts student safety, something that is a daily operational matter, that ultimately has to be successfully tackled is way too slow,” said Board member Michael Moriarty. “I think that is a failure ultimately.”
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Moriarty added that the state’s current tools of interventions and accountability of school districts are “not working,” and called on the Legislature to adjust processes like these.
DESE’s update on the SIP comes weeks after the watchdog organization Boston Policy Institute released a report saying the state intervention in BPS has failed to aid academic outcomes.
“There are elements of what Boston is dealing with which may be intractably sort of set up in a way that or beyond any one person, any one school committee, any one superintendent’s control to fix,” said Board Chair Katherine Craven. “So I think we as a board should just remain open to any constructive potential future engagement with the Boston Public Schools.”
Massachusetts families are stuck in the Middle East amid the war in Iran, and Democratic Sen. Ed Markey says the State Department needs to do more to get them home.
The Trump administration is telling Americans to leave the region, and families would love to, but they haven’t been able to get out.
Stacey Schuhwerk of Hingham has been sheltering in place in a Doha hotel since Saturday.
“We hear the missiles outside,” she said. “We can see them.”
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The Hingham mother and her son are among nearly 1,600 Americans trapped in the Middle East with no way to get home.
“Airspace is shut down. There’s no planes,” said Schuhwerk. “There’s no way to leave.”
Flights between Boston and the Middle East are canceled or delayed as travelers express anxiety over the conflict.
At first, U.S. officials told people to shelter in place and register with the State Department — something Schuhwerk did days ago.
“There’s no help there. The last time we called was 20 minutes ago, and they continue to say that ‘We don’t know anything about any plans for government help to get people out,’” she said.
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Embassies and consulates across the region — including the U.S. Embassy in Israel — have now suspended services, saying they simply can’t get Americans out.
“They did not have a plan to conduct this war, and they clearly did not have a plan as to how to evacuate innocent families,” Markey said.
The senator says his office is hearing from Massachusetts families, and he’s pressuring the Trump administration to come up with an evacuation plan fast.
“We are going to apply that pressure on the State Department until every American who wants to leave that region is out,” he said.
Back in Doha, Schuhwerk keeps watching the war outside her window.
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“The talk here is ‘How much defensive ammunition’s left?’ Good question, you know, because the missiles aren’t stopping,” she said. “So how long are we going to be safe here?”
With no clear end to this conflict, she’s worried she could be stuck there for weeks.
Happy Tuesday! While today started off dry, we’re already looking at snow out there across the area. While this event will primarily stay as rain on the Cape and islands, it will be an icy mix of snow, ice and rain for the rest of us.
The rain/snow line will continue to advance from the south to the north as the evening progresses. Before the changeover, there will be a quick coating to 2 inches for most of our area.
The threshold between the snow and rain will feature sleet and freezing rain, leading to that icing.
For the rest of the night, there will primarily be rain with continued pockets of freezing rain, leading to increasing spotty ice accretion. Be extremely careful on roads, especially since switching between rain and freezing rain can wash off any road salt.
The rain and freezing rain will exit by 6 a.m. Wednesday, but temperatures will still be close to freezing during the morning commute, so watch out for some spotty black ice.
The rest of Wednesday will be really nice! Highs will warm up to the mid 50s with the help of ample sun.
Thursday we start off in the mid 20s and top off in the mid 40s. We’ll be partly sunny with another chance for some wintry weather Thursday night. This primarily looks like some rain and freezing rain, rather than the triple threat with snow too. We’ll keep an eye on that for you.
That will continue into Friday morning. The rest of Friday: cloudy with a chance for a spot shower and highs cooler again in the upper 30s. Saturday will be dry, breezy and cloudy but gorgeous near 50 degrees! There’s a chance for some rain showers Saturday night. Don’t forget to set your clocks forward an hour before you to go bed!
Sunday we start the day mild in the 40s and make it all the way into the upper 50s with more sun. Monday and Tuesday both look bright and in the 60s! Stay tuned.
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