Strapped Hub schools target busing, tenure, charter funds

To control ballooning costs, Boston Public Schools is considering reducing long-distance bus transportation, re-configuring class sizes and grade alignment, pushing to change teacher tenure and demanding the state pay more for charter schools.

BPS is recommending 10 major changes that could save more than $100 million and are designed to control spending that has jumped $162 million over the past five years. The city spends $20,000 per student compared to $11,000 in comparison districts, according to a new long-term plan.

Over the next several months, BPS will hold public meetings to solicit community feedback and expects to provide the School Committee with a plan update on Feb. 1 before the start of the fiscal year 2018 budget process.

“We find ourselves right now in what seems like a contradiction,” said Erika Giampietro, special assistant to the superintendent. “Our revenue goes up each year. The key issue for us is that our expenses are going up more quickly.”

BPS projects that expenses could exceed revenue by $20 million to $25 million annually under the current system.

The report identifies the biggest cost drivers in the $1 billion school budget as transportation, the district’s footprint, teacher salaries and benefits, increasing student need and declining state and federal aid.

With a few weeks until the high profile Question 2 referendum on lifting the charter cap, the district charged that the state’s under-funding of Chapter 70 aid and the charter school reimbursement — that cost BPS $48 million over the past three years — is broken for Boston.

BPS found that at the current rate, by fiscal year 2028, the city could pay $800 million toward its charter school assessment.

If the cap is lifted, BPS says, the financial outlook would change drastically and the plan would have to be revisited.

The district is looking at a change in teacher wages, as the workforce currently makes more (an average $91,000) than national and neighboring districts. BPS said it could adjust the rate of wage growth.

It is also eyeing a change in tenure law to remove more than 100 displaced teachers who are no longer teaching in the classroom.

BPS is also examining how it transports students — possibly providing busses to only home-based students and adopting the state mandate that requires buses only for K-6 students who live two miles or more away from the school.