Cities seek new plan to replace aging schools
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MAY 13, 2025…..As public school officials registered support Monday for overhauling the state’s school construction financing formula, the Senate’s education point person said the Legislature may need a dedicated plan for Boston Public Schools.
School districts in communities of color and so-called Gateway Cities, which are home to predominantly working-class and lower-income families, are not getting enough state funding aid to build new schools or repair decades-old buildings, advocates and educators told lawmakers.
“Our facilities are in a dire need, and students in Boston have the misfortune of attending schools that are often crumbling and don’t have the space for the needs of education today,” Johnny McInnis, a music teacher at Boston Public Schools and political director at the Boston Teachers Union, said at a hearing. “In particular, the renovation of our vocational school, Madison Park, is pending, and we hope that the state can support our efforts to rebuild this vocational school.”
McInnis testified before the Joint Committee on Education as part of a panel backing legislation from Rep. Daniel Cahill and Sen. Brendan Crighton (H 526 / S 318) that would pump more money into the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
The bill increases the amount of sales tax revenue dedicated to the School Modernization and Reconstruction Trust Fund, allows school districts with a “disproportionate need for school building renovations or replacements” to use up to 1% of their Chapter 70 aid on renovation or replacement expenses, and removes the 80% reimbursement cap for school building projects, among other reforms.
Committee co-chair Sen. Jason Lewis indicated a follow-up conversation is needed with Boston stakeholders, and the Winchester Democrat said he would also be happy to speak with BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper and Mayor Michelle Wu.
“The challenge obviously with Boston is it’s so much larger than any other district, and there’s so many school buildings that are in need of renovation,” Lewis said. “Seems to me we need to come up with a dedicated plan and partnership with the MSBA. I know there’s been some conversation about that. My understanding is that Baltimore came up a number of years ago with a plan, working with their state legislature and all their local stakeholders because they, similar to Boston, had many old buildings that needed renovation or to be rebuilt.”
Lewis later acknowledged that other school districts — including Worcester, Springfield and Lynn — also fall into a “unique” category of needing a substantial volume of building renovations.
Crighton, a Lynn Democrat, pointed out the city has more than 13 schools that are over a century old.
“This bill, as you heard earlier, certainly is intended to help the MSBA,” Crighton said. “We appreciate the work that they do to continue to build schools across our commonwealth, but we believe that these well thought-out and vetted reforms could go a long way to really help Gateway Cities like Lynn.”
Lynn has built only one new school in the past 25 years, Mayor Jared Nicholson said. Another new school building project is also “on the brink of financial viability,” which he credited to the Legislature and to the MSBA for boosting its reimbursement level.
“But without reform, we’re going to have to go another generation to be able to afford to build another school under the current system that we have,” said Nicholson, who outlined “creative solutions” Lynn has deployed like transforming a former bank office building into a high school.
“We’re a whole elementary school short as it is,” the mayor added. “That’s just in terms of capacity — never mind the quality of the facilities and that the increase in construction costs, as you know, create a huge disparity in the formula, which is disproportionately borne by municipalities, given the cap on the reimbursement rates.”