Boston Public Schools

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Located:	Boston
Students:	57,000
Staff:	8,814
Schools:	144, pre-K through Grade 12
Founded:	1647
Budget:	$782 million in FY2008
Website:	http://www.bostonpublicschools.org

Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts.

The district serves nearly 57,000 students, in pre-kindergarten through adult education, in 144 schools. Although Boston is relatively wealthy compared to most cities, since busing began, the public school system has served mostly low-income, minority students—even though Boston is nearly 49% Non-Hispanic White,^[1] the majority of white students are enrolled in private schools.^{[citation needed]} Nearly 75% of the students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch. Approximately 20% of students have disabilities and are served in special education programs. Almost 17% of students are learning English as a second language.^{[citations needed]}

1 Leadership
2 History
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Leadership

Dr. Carol R. Johnson (back row, far left), Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools, meets students and their teacher and principal at the Bates Elementary School in Roslindale.

The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the Boston School Committee, a seven-member school board appointed by the Mayor after approval by a nominating committee of specified stakeholders.^[2] The School Committee sets policy for the district and approves the district's annual operating budget. This governing body replaced a 13-member elected Committee after a public referendum vote in 1991.^[3] The Superintendent serves as a member of the Mayor's cabinet.

From October 1995 through June 2006, Dr. Thomas W. Payzant served as superintendent. A former undersecretary in the US Department of Education, Payzant was the first superintendent selected by the appointed School Committee. Upon Dr. Payzant's retirement, Chief Operating Officer Michael G. Contompasis, former headmaster of Boston Latin School, became Interim Superintendent, and was appointed superintendent in October 2006. Dr. Manuel J. Rivera, superintendent of the Rochester City School District, had agreed to become the next superintendent of the BPS, but instead accepted a post as deputy secretary for public education for New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. In June 2007, the Boston School Committee voted unanimously to appoint Dr. Carol R. Johnson as the next Superintendent, beginning in August 2007. Dr. Johnson had served as Superintendent of the Memphis City Schools since 2003.

The Mayor and Boston City Council have control over the overall appropriation for the Boston Public Schools, but the School Committee has control over how funding is allocated internally, and has control over policy.^[4]

[edit] History

Pictured, from left to right, Eli Broad presents the 2006 Broad Prize for Urban Education to Boston Public Schools officials at a September 2006 ceremony in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City: Elizabeth Reilinger, Chair of the Boston School Committee; former Superintendent Michael G. Contompasis, Superintendent; Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and former Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant.

BPS is the oldest public school system in America, founded in 1647.^[5] It is also the home of the nation's first public school, Boston Latin School, founded in 1635.^[5] The Mather School opened in 1639 as the nation's first public elementary school,^[6] and English High School, the first public high school in the country, opened in 1821.^[5]

In the mid-1970s, conflict raged in Boston's schools over forced busing of students. The state had enacted the Racial Imbalance Law in 1965, requiring school districts to design and implement plans to effect racial balancing in schools that were more than 50% "non-white". After years of consistent failure by the Boston School Committee to comply with the law, the U.S District Court ruled in 1974 that the schools were unconstitutionally segregated, and implemented as a remedy the busing of many students from their neighborhood schools to other schools across the city.^[5] The busing aroused fierce criticism among some residents—there were a great many protests at schools, some of which turned violent. The result was an exodus of the city's white middle and working-class residents which coincided with a continuous decline in the quality of education.

In September 2006, the district was named the top city school system in the nation, winning the Broad Prize for Urban Education. The prize, sponsored by philanthropist Eli Broad, includes $500,000 in college scholarships to graduates from the winning district. Each year since the prize program began in 2002, Boston has been one of five finalists, earning $125,000 in scholarships each year.