Boston Public Schools will get a $10m bailout

The Boston Globe reports:

Averting imminent school closings and deep classroom cuts, Boston will bail out the cash-strapped school system by giving it a one-time infusion of $10 million from city reserves, school and city officials said yesterday.


The funds will help the district close a $30.7 million budget shortfall and give its new superintendent some breathing room to tighten operations.

Dealing with her first budget since she arrived in August, Superintendent Carol Johnson said she also has identified $18.7 million in cuts, mostly by reducing central office staff, deferring maintenance on school buildings, installing energy-saving software on computers, and limiting the number of teachers and principals who go through training programs.

While she tried to steer cuts away from classrooms, she said, it was impossible to make ends meet without affecting students.

She will reduce stipends for teacher development, cut the number of math and reading coaches, and eliminate the jobs of 10 social workers that were previously funded by grants that had expired.

The school system also plans to raise $2 million by increasing the tuition non-Boston students pay to attend the city's Horace Mann School for the Deaf; being more aggressive in seeking Medicaid reimbursement for students with disabilities who get health services through schools; and asking other communities to share the costs of transporting homeless students who may live in a shelter in one city and go to school in another.

Officials said the bailout defers difficult choices, including school closings, until next year. Johnson said that a handful of schools, which have not been decided on, would probably be closed because of enrollment declines. The system, which currently has 56,000 students, has lost 10 percent of its enrollment in the last five years.

You might say Boston isn't the wave of the future.