Boston Public Schools officials told the school committee on Nov. 19 that mid-October enrollment stood at 46,824, a decline of roughly 1,700 students from the same point last year. Superintendent Mary Skitma attributed much of the drop to declines in international immigration and longer-term lower birth rates.

The most immediate effect on next-year operating revenue is limited, the district said, because the city's appropriation and state Chapter 70 aid mechanics blunt some year-to-year volatility. "Our general fund appropriation is set by the city council independent of enrollment," said David (CFO Bloom). He added that many enrollment-based federal grants are calculated on prior-year counts.

But the enrollment shift has fiscal consequences moving forward. The district's school budgets approved last year amounted to just over $800 million for about 50,000 projected students, or a little more than $16,000 per pupil. "Times 1,700, that's about $27,000,000," Bloom said as a ballpark figure for the amount of school funding that would not flow to schools next year absent offsetting adjustments.

Transportation: oversight and OTP trends
Superintendent Skitma also addressed transportation, saying the district is providing quarterly updates on on-time performance (OTP) following a statewide improvement plan. She cited day-one OTP of 66% morning and 75% afternoon and said morning OTP had reached 95% on nine days through day 45 of the school year. "We're averaging 94% morning OTP so far in November," Skitma said, while noting sustained effort to improve service quality.

Committee members raised concerns about past contractor misconduct tied to Transdev and asked what structural changes are in place to avoid recurrence. Skitma said the most recent contract contains strengthened accountability provisions and offered to convene the district's legal office for members who want a formal briefing.

What to watch: District leaders said the persistent enrollment decline is likely multi-year and could require adjustments to staffing and school capacity planning over several fiscal cycles. The committee asked for further breakdowns by student subgroup (multilingual learners, special education) and school-level trends to inform budget and assignment planning ahead of the FY'77 process.