FY22 School Budget $1.3B
Priorities: Recovery & Reopening Amidst Enrollment Drop
Boston Public Schools’ (BPS) $1.3B FY22 general fund budget is a $36.1M or 2.9% increase from FY21, expanding on the district’s FY21 commitments with a focus on recovery and reinvestment in response to COVID-19 impact. The School Committee approved the budget on March 24th. In April the budget will go to the City Council for review and appropriation or further action.
|
General Fund by Acct. |
FY2022 Budget (in $ M) | % Change from FY21 | % of Total |
| Salary | 866.5 | 3.2% | 66.9% |
| Administrators | 87.3 | 5.4% | 6.7% |
| Aides | 80.7 | 1.1% | 6.2% |
| Custodial/Safety/Tech | 61.6 | 8.3% | 4.8% |
| Employee Benefits | 7.9 | 0.0% | 0.6% |
| Part-time | 35.4 | 4.8% | 2.7% |
| Secretarial | 13.9 | 7.4% | 1.1% |
| Support | 85.5 | 8.6% | 6.6% |
| Teachers | 490.3 | 1.5% | 37.9% |
| Temporary Teachers | 13.5 | 2.5% | 1.0% |
| Salary Savings | -9.6 | 0.0% | -0.7% |
| Non-salary | 428.2 | 2.2% | 33.1% |
| Grand Total | 1,294.7 | 2.9% |
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Salaries, which make up the largest share of general fund spending for the School Department, total $866.5M or 66.9% of the BPS’s general fund budget. Per-pupil spending will increase almost $1,700 per pupil from approximately $21,800 in FY21 to $23,500. more than in prior years, mostly due to fewer than expected new students entering the district. The FY22 general fund budget supports 9,950 FTE positions, a 2.5% increase of 241 positions.
General Education and Special Education combined account for 48.4% of the total FY22 general fund budget. This is a $11.9M (4.1%) increase in special education spending and a slight decrease of $3.5M (1.1%) in General Education. The major increases in special education come from a $45.2M (13.6%) increase in autistic programs, $6.4M (6.9%) increase in SPED inclusion programs, and a $1.1M (42.6%) increase in SPED education and social development programs. In General Education there is a slight drop in overall spending, while early education spending will see a $2.6M (23.3%) increase in FY22 funding. The FY22 budget will also invest an additional $10.7M in Student/School Support, an 8.9% increase over FY21.
Key investments in the FY22 budget include $18.5M to support schools experiencing enrollment declines, $10.0M for elementary social workers to provide increased student support, and $6.8M for multilingual family liaisons (MFL). This funding will allow for 95 new FTE social workers and 80.5 new FTE MFL to guarantee one in every school in the district.
External Funds for BPS in FY22 Budgeted external grants total $141.2M, a $3.3M (2.4%) increase over FY21, for a total all funds BPS budget of $1.4B. State grants include $18M in Circuit Breaker funding for special education and approximately $3M in other grants for a total of $21M. The $141.2M of external grants includes $4.2M of the $32.3M awarded to Boston as part of the federal CARES Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) I fund. Though not included in the FY22 external funds budget, BPS will also receive additional federal aid through the second round of ESSER grants available through FY23 to address critical pandemic-related needs within the community. With the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act on March 11, 2021, BPS will receive additional federal aid via the ESSER III fund, the full amount of which is still being determined. The City of Boston estimates that total funding from all three rounds of CARES ESSER grants will end up being approximately $397M.
