Order for a hearing Regarding the Boston Public Schools Transportation System. Councilor Mejia rule 12 was invoked to include Councilors Lara and Murphy as co-sponsors.
Talking about 0725 Council on Me here offer the following order for a hearing regarding the Boston Public Schools Transportation System. The chair recognizes. Counsel me here. President Council, President Flynn. You see why you're so dope. Thank you. I appreciate Your Grace. Thank you. And I want to thank my colleagues. But well, let me first read this, because I need to know who my co-sponsors are. Right. So thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to suspend the rules and ask an ad counselor, Laura and Counselor Anderson to join me as co-sponsors for the Special Education 144.07. OC 40724. Counsel Vara and counsel Fernandez Andersen are are added hearing no objections. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to read the second one that I am 40725. I would like to suspend the rules and add Councilor Lara and Murphy as co-sponsors. Hearing. No objection. Counsel O'Hara and Counsel Murphy are so out of it. Okay, great. Okay. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do this with both. I'm going to have a little bit of technical assistance here. But really quick with the audit for the Boston Public Schools Education Services and return on investment. This is where I believe the moment in time that we've been talking about as it relates to Boston Public Schools. This is where we have an opportunity to really lean in and support through real, meaningful partnerships with the council and our in our ability to help support and hold ourselves and the district accountable to providing oversight that will ensure that the money that we are proving to be spent are going to be spent and that we're going to see the return on those investments as it relates specifically to the budget and the supports for special education services. You know, according to BEPS as of October 2020, there are about 11,350 students aged 3 to 21 with disabilities, 21% of our total enrollment enrolled in special education programs and BEPS. The f y 23 recommendations budget for special education was over 351 million. Many advocates and administrators agree. At this point, it's not a question of resources. We are a resource rich, poor, coordination, poor. And students across the district are not having many are not having their IEP met and IEP needs met. Staffing rates making it difficult to provide a full range of services. Transitions at the top. Making it a bigger challenge to provide strategic vision to help support and provide care and services to our students. And so we're failing this hearing already because the conversation on how we support our special education students cannot begin and end with a budget. Like, really, this is where I oftentimes believe that we fall short. I look forward to this conversation and to working alongside my colleagues who both have been fierce advocate in the education space. And then the last thing that I'll say in terms of transportation, I myself, as a parent have gotten over 25. Notifications between January to me that my daughter's school bus was either going to be delayed or not going to show up at all. Luckily, I have the resources and a village that helps support me, but I also have received countless of communication from other parents with their frustration and their level of just. A contempt for the way we are doing business as it relates to the transportation situation. We spend roughly 10% of our entire budget on transportation and over 110 million and a half Y 23 alone. That's over 4 million that we spent last year. And we're bussing fewer students than we did last year. The Boston Public Transportation team has struggled with hiring bus driver retention problems, which have led to bussing being late or not arriving at all. And we also have seen how this has impacted our out of school athletic events. It is clear that we need to take a deeper dove into the transportation without all the flashy PowerPoint presentation and jargon. This conversation needs to be live beyond the budget season, and I believe that if we could really do this work and lean in and figure out how we can be partners and being able to help hold BP accountable, but also hold ourselves accountable to their success, then only then will we really be able to move the needle. So I look forward to joining my colleagues in this robust conversation, and I look forward to the President's recommendation on what happens after I speak because I choose to that point. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Here on docket 0724, the chair recognizes counsel Lara. Counsel Lara, you have the floor. Thank you, President Flynn. And in the. Interest of time, I'm only going to be speaking once on both dockets. So at this point, everybody here on the council and people across the city have heard me speak in support of not only our Boston public schools but. Against specifically state receivership. Naming specifically that I believe that Mayor Wu. The city council, the incoming superintendent, and soon. The elected school committee should be given the opportunity to fix the problems. That we have. In our schools and really do the work to make them joyful places of learning that we know that they can be. This is a moment for the Council to be in solidarity not only with the parents, the students, the teachers and the administrators and VIPs, but also with the mayor's office and stand against state takeover of our public schools. And for me, solidarity is a verb. So I consider this to be an all hands on deck project. And, you know, my colleague. Council, Flaherty often. Says that we need to have both hands on the wheel. And this is the moment where we need to have both hands on the wheel that if we're going to pass this budget and we're going to make sure we're asking to be given the opportunity to do the work that we have to do, the work that we have to make sure that our schools are functioning at the level that they're supposed to, that our investments are going in the places that they need to, and that we, not the state, have the opportunity to come up with the solutions that are going to be necessary for our children. My son Xavier is autistic. He's a special needs student at BIPs. He's six years old going into first grade and similar to my co-sponsor, Councilor Mejia. Oftentimes the bus is late or it doesn't show up. And I'm grateful that I have a car that I can drive to school. But everybody here has had to pay the price of me being late to a hearing or not being able to show up at all because of it. And so I am in support of our public schools, not because I think that they're perfect, but because I know that we are going to be able to come up with the best solutions possible to fix those issues. As one of, I think only two people on the council that have students who are currently in the decisions that we make here very, very much directly impact me and my family. And so I want us to be thoughtful and I want us to be gracious, but I also want us to put both hands on the wheel, which is why I'm excited to do this work with Councilor Me. He has the chair of the Education Committee at the helm. Thank. Thank you, counsel. Laura, the chair recognizes on docket 0722 for counsel Fernandez Anderson. Counsel Fernandez Anderson. You have the floor. And thank you to the original co-sponsor on this docket and my co-sponsor, Cancellara, as well. It is incredibly vital that we provide first class, high quality special education services. However, for us to know the nature of these problems, whether the money being put towards said programs and services is being well spent, we need more information. We all have anecdotal story stories that great of great successes or horrific failures in this area, and those are not to be dismissed. But what is needed is a comprehensive, concrete breakdown of services, provided the costs of services provided and the positive impact or lack thereof, and that the student acquired by accessing the services. And I say this knowing that we cannot analyze this data in a vacuum, for there are a variety of socioeconomic issues that are influencing and impacting our youth. But it is imperative that we gain a better understanding of what services our youth are being offered. I thank you again, the original co-sponsor, and thank you and look forward to this work. Thank you. Thank. Thank you, Counsel Fernandez Anderson. The chair recognizes Counselor Murphy. Counsel Murphy. You can call President Flynn. So our office gets countless calls and emails from concerned parents that their children are being stranded at bus stops. We get these calls several times a week. We have 22,000 students on busses each day. Yet on average, 2% of these students, around 442 children are not picked up, forcing them to arrive late or miss school entirely. That may seem like a small number, but one child is too many to be left at a bus stop. To make matters worse, most of our students that are on busses and have 1 to 1 monitors are on IEPs in our ESL students. These vulnerable students benefit the most from our schools, but with our transportation problems, we fail these students and the families. This is why I am happy to co-sponsor this motion for a hearing in regards to the Boston Public Schools Transportation System in hopes that this ongoing problem is not only addressed but also starts to get solved so that our students and families don't have to lose out. I also want to mention that we also have heard in the news and many calls our office also gets about the busses in the afternoon that are stranding our very few students who participate in athletics and they're missing sports. And other teams also have to forfeit games because we're unable to get our student athletes to events. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Murphy. Would anyone else like to speak on this matter? I would like to briefly state that. I think this is an important fold. Both are important hearings, especially services for special education. In our public school system. You know, I wanted to highlight my sister's. My sister's son also has a special needs child. Out of, out of out of Burning Tree. And I know the critical role. That special education plays in the lives of families. And I also know Counsel Laura has been exceptional. On this issue as as all my colleagues, including Councilor Murphy, to educating, educating so many children. Um, and I highlight my, my nephew because my, my parents have watched him for about three or four days a week, usually when my sister's working, but they're not able to do it anymore just because of their. My my parents have not been feeling well, but I, I do know the incredible role that parents and grandparents play in educating our special needs children. And our parents and parents like console are they're really unsung heroes in our city of of the love and compassion they provide. So many, so many children recording, including all of Boston Public School teachers as well. So I just want to highlight the incredible role families play on this issue. So. On Docket 0724. Would anyone would anyone like to add the name on 1.0724? Please raise your hand, please. At Council of Royal Park and Religion Media Murphy to cheer Dawkins 0724 will now be added to the Committee on Education. Mr. Clarke, we're going on 20725. But I. Think. It's a. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And on talking 0725. Please raise your hand. If you'd like to be added to. The. Council BLOCK Council, Royal Council. Fernandez Anderson Councilors and Council Councilor Murphy in the Chair. Councilman here. The chair recognizes. Councilman here. Councilman here? Yes. You have the floor. Thank you. President, I have to stand up and thank you. I just wanted to ask if it's possible to put it into the Government Accountability and Transparency Committee. Because what I really want to do is start moving a lot of the conversations that we're having about the budget and supports and BEPS to the post audit. And that is what the committee is set up for is to do to talk about post auditing and transparency. And so I just would like to advocate that that specific these to dockets are more in regards to transparency and accountability, even though they're education related items. So I just want to ask if that would be possible. Okay. Thank. Thank you, Councilman, here. We did discuss earlier that it could go to either committee. But having heard the recommendation, we will assign it to your committee. Councilman here. So government. Mr. Chair, please assign it to Government Accountability and Transparency Committee on seven. On on the docket 0724 in on docket 0725. Okay. We are. We are on. Okay. We're on. We're on two personalities. Mr. Clerk, please read docket 0727. Duncan number 70727 Council of Flint Full Councilor for an end of.