BOARD BUILD NEARS BALLOT
Janey’s OK is last step for elected school committee referendum
Voters will have the chance to voice their opinion about an elected school committee via a nonbinding ballot question during the November election, as it was passed by the City Council on Wednesday.
The question on the ballot will read, “Should the current appointed school committee structure be changed to a school committee elected by the residents of Boston?”
Advocacy group Boston Coalition for Education Equity had launched a petition to get the advisory question before voters, which will help inform a home rule petition to change the structure of the school committee that was filed by City Councilors Julia Mejia and Ricardo Arroyo.
Members of the City Council unanimously passed the docket to include the question on the ballot on Wednesday.
Arroyo said, “To see that put to a vote to the residents and citizens of Boston is going to be a big deal to get an idea of where and what they’d like to see the future of their schools be.”
Annissa Essaibi-George, chair of the education committee and mayoral candidate said, “Although I do not support an elected Boston school committee, I think this is a really important referendum and it’s, of course, nonbinding so it creates an added level of community discussion.”
Mejia said, “It’s important to seize this moment and acknowledge the power of the people.”
Lisa Green of the Boston Coalition for Education Equity said the time to have this question on the ballot is now. “So far there’s been very little opposition and it’s been years and years of disfunction and disenfranchisement with the school committee. People are ready.”
Green said she and her team are planning a full campaign to engage voters leading up to the November election.
They started handing out literature and speaking with residents at polls during Tuesday’s preliminary election. Green said, “It really resonated with people at the polls as a voting rights issue.”
The long-debated issue of an elected school committee picked up steam in the last year as four school committee members resigned over various controversial issues. The resignations included Michael Loconto, Alexandra Oliver-Davila, Lorna Rivera, and student member Khymani James.
Boston is the only city in the state that does not elect its school committee.
The last step in securing the question on the ballot is to get Acting Mayor Kim Janey’s signature. A spokesperson for Janey said the question is being reviewed.
Several local organizations have signed on as supporters for an elected school committee such as the NAACP Boston branch, Boston Teachers Union and Quality Education for Every Student.