Order for a hearing to address the lack of athletic opportunities for our students. On motion of Councilor Murphy, Rule 12 was invoked to include Councilors Louijeune and Breadon as co-sponsors.
In other aspects, it is appropriate for us to go into that committee. Mr. Clerk, please read Docket 04400440. Councilor Murphy offered the following order for a hearing to address the lack of athletic opportunities for our students. The chair recognizes counsel and Murphy. Counsel Murphy. You have the floor. Q I'd like to suspend the rules and add Counselor Louisiana and also my colleague, Counselor Braden, as original co-sponsors. Seeing and hearing no objection. Mr. Garrett, please add those two city councils. The chair recognizes Counselor Murphy. Thank you. So I'm calling for this hearing because our public school students deserve a full range of athletic opportunities. In nearby towns like Concord, the public school department spends $821 per student on athletic programs for their kids. The state average is $161. But here in Boston, we only spend $76 per student. That is less than one third of 1% of the $1.3 billion school budget. And it's not like we're not spending money. In fact, at close to $24,000 per student. Boston spends more per pupil than most other cities and towns in the state, $24,000 per student, and we can't find a few hundred dollars for our children. I think it's not right. This is a shameful statistic and a sad reminder of just how poorly our public schools are doing at fulfilling its responsibility to the holistic education and mental health supports that our children need so badly. The current state of the athletics program is not good. Too many middle and high schools have only a small handful of teams, and some schools have no athletic programs at all for the schools that do offer sports. The funding, resources and guidance from central office is severely lacking. The recent closure of the highly successful Scholar Athletes Program by its private funders adds to the loss of meaningful school sports for most of our public school students. The problem, like so many problems plaguing our public school system, is not funding. We have the money. What we need is the will and the leadership to follow through. Teachers, coaches and volunteer parents work so hard for our kids. This has to stop. And I will fight for our students here at the the council. It's the right thing to do because we know that sports are good for everyone. Sports provide our children with way more than just the opportunity to exercise their bodies. The physical benefits are just the beginning. There are social health and physiological benefits that allow our kids to do better in life. Kids who participate on school teams are far more likely to have improved grades, better school attendance report, healthier social behavior, and to reach higher academic and professional success after high school. As a mother of student athletes go dragons who benefited in so many ways from their time on school teams. And as a public school teacher, who knows that educating the whole child has to include physical and social wellness to be successful? I will fight for school sports for our kids. Boston Public School kids need this outlet for their social and mental health. Now more than ever, and I believe we should be doing everything possible to get our Boston Public School Sports back on track. Our own kids have the will, the talent and the right to all the wonderful, lifelong benefits the sports offer. I hope today my colleagues will join us on this and join the fight to be there for our Boston Public School students every step of the way. Thank you. Thank you, counselor, if you would anyone else, so to speak, on this matter. The Chair recognizes councilor consultation. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to Councilor Murphy for introducing this hearing order. You know, the current focus of BEPS and I think we should be doing is adding a lot more school councilors, family liaison, social workers, and we are headed in that direction and we need to continue to push in that direction. For a lot of us to go and visit schools. You know, Maddison Park, you go and you hear students complain about the lack of sport options, a lack of teams at what they once had that have been taken away. We need to make sure that we are addressing the whole child, which means their emotional, social and physical intellect. And we also know that making sure that our students have access to sports helps to deal with the issue. Issues of absenteeism. That's both for just sports and for our kids. The more that we allow our students to exercise different parts of their lives in the school building, the better it is. And we're talking about all these capital improvements that we need to make to our schools. Almost 25% of our schools don't have gym facilities, and we're in a city with world class sports teams. That disparity of of being in a city that with those teams, but yet having schools that don't have any teams at all and they don't have the physical structure to support that is unacceptable. And so I'm in support of this hearing order so that we can see what we can do to support more and more of sports in our schools and to make sure that we are supporting our students as a whole. Thank you and thank you, counselor. Thank you, Counsel. And the chair recognizes counsel. All of our counsel. You have the floor. Thank you, President Flynn. And I want to extend my gratitude to the sponsors of this hearing order. Okay. Sorry. Talking to me. I first want to add my name to it, please, if I can. As a student athlete, my self, both through BP and in college, I understand the importance of investing in our student athletes and investing to make sure that all of our students have access to sports. I wanted to rise to talk particularly about the problem of our fields and our athletic fields in the city. As the chair of the Environmental Justice Resiliency and Parks Committee. Our office has been working with a lot of the youth sports organizations in the city to have a conversation around how we can increase access to our athletic fields. And so I think that this is a perfect place for collaboration and a perfect place to extend conversations. I think that provides a lot of the athletics for our young people. But we have Pop Warner, we have youth soccer and all of the other teams that ultimately provide respite for our young people during the summer and after school hours. So we have to have a conversation around the financial investment, but we also have to think about the structural investment. How are we making sure that we have athletic fields and parks available in all of our neighborhoods, to all of our students and to all of the places in the city of Boston who are providing enrichment to our students and our young people. So I look forward to collaborating with the sponsor on that issue as well. Thank you. Thank you, counsel. Laura. The chair recognizes Counsel Brayton calls. Operator and I failed to call on you earlier as an original co-sponsor, so I apologize. Mr. President. I was a late addition, and I want to thank Counselor Murphy for having me as a co-sponsor. I'll speak to this issue. I really do feel that school sports are a vital component of the healthy development of young, young people. And I speak to my own experience. When I was 14 years old, my father passed away very suddenly, and it was my participation in school sports that really was a lifeline for me as a young person facing a sudden and sudden loss in my life and for my family and the school sports teams, my my fellow teammates , my coaches and my teachers involved in the sports realm were instrumental in helping me weather that time in my life. And I really do understand how vitally important it is for young people to have access to sports in school. Many of them don't have other opportunities to join clubs and the why or whatever. So school sports is a critical lifeline. I also thinking about my earlier conversation about pilot and relationship with our institutions or educational institutions in the city. I really feel that this this hearing of order also offers an opportunity to perhaps explore potential opportunities for our local schools, to partner with our local colleges to access some of their incredible world class sports facilities. In the off season, when there's no students in town, we have a lot of resources in the city of Boston. My colleague Councilor Flannery speaks about this all the time. We have so many world class institutions, incredible educational opportunities for higher and further education, but we really need to pay attention to our our public school population in the city. And I also want to give a big shout out to Boston High School teams. Go Bengals. They do us proud every time they hit the field. So thank you so much. I really welcome this opportunity and think it's a really critical part of a well-rounded education for our young people in our schools. Thank you. Thank you. Counsel brightened. The chair recognizes counsel. Clarity. Content, clarity. View of the floor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Please add my name. Commend the lead sponsor and the co-sponsors. As mentioned, sports in general keeps kids in school, keeps them away from drugs and alcohol and in gangs. It fosters competition, sportsmanship, school pride, friendships, not to mention the potential for college scholarships. And if. Folks are really that good potential drafts and maybe even an. Opportunity of a professional. Career, the state of school board sports with respect to the CPS is in complete disarray. The fact that we had teams that were not able to compete in the MPAA because of whether it was a clerical or an administrative issue, whatever the issue was, not only was it a statewide embarrassment, probably a national embarrassment, those kids missed out on an opportunity. The buck stops at the top of the athletic director. I challenged my colleagues to try to get in touch with the athletic director. Good luck. I think the lights are on. No one's home. So more than appropriate to have a hearing on the state. Of the Boston Public School Stock School sports. School sports is a game changer for kids, for a whole multitude of reasons and why we are not more competitive, why we are not providing more opportunities for kids in schools as it pertains to their athleticism and the connection, there's a whole problem. Former State Representative Kevin Fitzgerald created sports and society over at Northeastern. They've done great work over here and the link between folks that are playing sports and again, that could be on the ice, that could be on the field, it could be at the gym. There could be anywhere you want in the pool. School sports in general can change the trajectory of someone's life. On a number of fronts. And so time has come. To address this issue. So I'll look forward to that. Hopefully be an expedited hearing because as we're heading into the budget season, some folks need to answer some questions regarding the state of affairs with respect to school sports and Boston public schools. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you, counsel. February. The Chair recognizes. Councilman. Here, Councilman, here. You have the floor. Thank you. And thank you to the makers for this very important conversation. You know, I'm not going to hijack it, but I will just say, you know, there are a lot of young people who are working two or three jobs that can't participate in athletics. And I just want to name that as we start thinking about this conversation, is that we really need to look at some of the things that prevent people from participating in sports. And so that should be a part of the conversation in terms of how we're going to remove barriers so that young people can actually participate. Because otherwise, you know, it's just another conversation about another conversation. And I think that we need to really remove barriers so everybody could participate. And then the other piece that I'd like to just uplift is that I've gotten so many phone calls from folks who are looking for access to gyms, who are doing not school sports, but like are trying to supplement and create space for for folks to be able to and for young people in particular to to continue to participate in sports. And so I think there is an opportunity for the city to recognize the role that they play in opening up some of the centers and working more collaboratively with other folks , nonprofits. There are places and spaces that I think we need to include in this conversation so that it goes beyond the school sports, but that we're looking at 360 and that everybody is here to participate and create space for that sort of well-rounded opportunity for all kids. So thank you. I believe that my. Name is that councilman. His name, the chair recognizes council Fernandez Anderson. Thank you, Mr. President. Councilor Murphy, I think this is a phenomenal idea. It's fantastic. Everything that you've been talking about in doing around mental health and education, amazing ideas. You sit there and all of this brilliance comes out and I can't wait to collaborate or talk to you more about it. And we've been talking to Berkeley and a few other schools about bringing in music and facilities as well. And it's like my colleague here saying, we get calls about opening up gyms and facilities and possibly, you know, doing like how do how two Muslim young girls swim separate from or whatever. So access and talking about that, I just want to say like as so for me, sports saved my life. I grew up in the projects. Everybody knows the story, right? I came immigrant, poor. I had to work two jobs. I was in throughout middle school, in high school. I fun fact I actually practiced martial arts for ten years. So doing that martial arts being in sports and for all those years, yes, I can kick butt. No kidding. So doing that all those years and it really did save my life like I had a subunit I'm a trainer that would really literally like work my behind if I did it if I didn't keep up to school. And then when I grew, as I became a young parent, I put my kids in medical, right? So my oldest was an athlete and they went to Weston, the best school in Massachusetts. Like when I see the best you walk through, literally, it's an emotional experience to see all of the facilities that they have, everything. How I get involved as a parent there in West in, and then to have clients in VIPs and see the difference, the stark difference, it's very depressing. I look forward to working with you on it. Thank you. Thank you, counsel for his innocent. I would also like to thank Counsel and Murphy in the. For her work on this important issue. Sports and school is is critical. During the pandemic our students suffered didn't have access the right access to sports and it really hurt their development. I think it hurt their development, especially academically, certainly, certainly physically and mentally as well. But when we hear that there's 25% of students that don't have access to an athletic gym at a school, that's that's outrageous. We had a conversation. I know Councilor Braden mentioned it. We had a conversation on pilot a few minutes ago, but we also have to get our colleges and universities more involved. I'd be embarrassed if I was a college college president right now, hearing this hearing this topic of of being discussed here, knowing that Boston public school students don't have the access to a gym either. Our college president called the mayor up in 5 minutes and and say, what can and what can we do to be helpful? How do we get involved? How do we donate more money? So as as a parent of a son that's in the same place, play sports. Sports is critical. So I just want to thank my colleagues and especially Council and Murphy for leading on this important issue and just following up on a comment of council salary. It's it's it's important for us during the council budget process to effectively advocate for spending, for athletic programs, to see where that money is going and to have the athletic director of of here testifying in person about what the about the state of affairs of the sport. So just want to say thank you to my colleague Council Murphy Council Murphy of the floor. Thank you, everyone. I do just want to thank you for bringing that to our attention. And I want to make sure that when we are in these working sessions, the conversation needs to include what athletics are being offered during the school day. Also, if it's before school or during the day, and also not limiting to traditional sports that we're making sure we're including color guard, dance, share, martial arts, that we're not just thinking boys playing hockey or like crew, all of these. So thank you. And also the open spaces will definitely be a concern because if you visit schools and you walk through the door, they look very different. Some don't have gyms at all and making sure that how do we get to use those spaces if it's the park next door or if it's getting into the gym? I know. There's issues around union. And custodians opening the doors and we've had many of those conversations during COVID with hoping that BCI could get back into spaces and knowing the importance of our kids playing athletics. So thank you everyone and I look forward to our work ahead. Thank you, Councilor Murphy. If you'd like to add your name, please raise your hand, please, at Council of Royal Conservation Council Book Council, Edwards Council. Fernandez Innocent Council, Florida Council, Borough Council and Council were all pleased. The Chair. Docket 0440. Refer it to the Committee on Education Personnel. Mr. Clerk, please read Docket.