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A Community Vision for Boston’s Students and FamiliesChapter 1: Leading Together

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Chapter Summary

As Mayor, I’ll make transforming Boston Public Schools our community mission. This is personal for me. Great public schools changed my life. Throughout my childhood, my immigrant parents sacrificed so I could go to transformational schools where teachers nurtured in me more than I ever dreamed possible.

And as a BPS mom, I know the stakes and the urgency. In the midst of my mom’s struggles with mental illness, I raised my younger sister and navigated Boston Public Schools as her legal guardian through middle school and high school. Today I’m doing the same for my own kids—my 6 year-old is in Kindergarten at the Sumner School, and my 3 year-old will join his brother there next school year. 

The pandemic has deepened the long-standing inequities and struggles of our school system. These challenges are compounded when policy decisions are not made collaboratively or communicated transparently; when educators lack the resources they need to do their jobs; and when the responsibility for protecting the health and well-being of our children is siloed in particular City agencies rather than embedded throughout all City decisions and operations. We need more than a new policy approach to Boston Public Schools—we need bold, urgent leadership to lift up Boston’s children as a true community mission. 

  • Whole-child, community schools with wraparound services for children and families, a foundation of resources and staffing at each school, school buildings that are open to the community, and collaborative leadership through family engagement. 

  • Family Corps and Children’s Cabinet to connect and coordinate services, partnering each family with a guide to navigate their pathway from pre-K to graduation, advocate for the resources and services they need, and ensure that no child is ever lost in the system.

  • Student, family and educator voice through a more representative and transparent School Committee, a new Teacher Advisory Board and empowered Boston Student Advisory Committee, and direct channels for ongoing feedback from students and families.

  • Career pathways for educators, prioritizing the recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce, valuing educators as professionals, building a human capital pipeline to support and foster leadership development within schools and as a pathway to Central Office leadership, and supporting the human needs of educators.