The April 29th School Committee meeting focused on the required annual decision by the district to opt-in or opt-out of the state’s School Choice program. This program allows Newton Public Schools (NPS) to open a specified number of student slots to students from other Massachusetts school districts. As she did two years ago during the same required vote in 2024, Superintendent Anna Nolin recommended to the Committee to participate in School Choice, which Newton has not done in recent years. This year, Dr. Nolin’s memorandum to the Committee proposed offering 80 seats to out-of-district students, spread across multiple grades, for the main purpose of increasing NPS revenue.
When this issue was last debated, in 2024, the majority of the School Committee was skeptical. Concerns cited included the $5,000-per-student tuition rate that NPS would receive from the home district of each School Choice student, as this falls below the current NPS per-student total cost of over $20,000. The debate then moved to how much of that $20,000 cost is fixed vs. variable, under an assumption that the correct comparable for the revenue of any incremental student would be only NPS’s variable costs.
Another notable consideration was the possibility of routing children of NPS educators through School Choice (as a way to monetize $5,000 per year for each of those students). (Currently children of NPS educators are able to attend NPS at no cost to the educators’ families.) Also under consideration was the requirement that any out-of-district student who enrolls in NPS via School Choice has the right to stay in NPS until high school graduation (or a maximum of 22 years of age).
Committee member Ben Schlesinger (Ward 5) asked Dr. Nolin about any “non-financial” reasons to approve School Choice, and Dr. Nolin replied saying that NPS “has a lot of empty elementary seats” and “those are the ways I have used School Choice in the past.” Dr. Nolin cited the Ward Elementary School currently with two artificially small classrooms for some grades of about 14 students per class. Mayor Laredo pushed back on fewer occupied seats per classroom being an issue, stating “I don’t think anyone’s gonna complain about that.”
The Committee did not vote on implementing School Choice at this meeting. The statutory deadline for Newton’s decision is June 1. The discussion concluded with Committee members requesting forecasts from Dr. Nolin for some more detailed School Choice scenarios, such as opening specific grades or offering fewer slots. However, these requests conveyed the impression of Committee members wanting only to receive more finely detailed analysis, without corresponding intent to vote to approve.
Bullying
Following the School Choice discussion, NPS General Counsel Jill Murray Grady returned to the School Committee to present a “second read” of the revised NPS policy regarding anti-bullying, following the introduction of the topic on April 7, when Ms. Murray Grady delineated between the policy document, which is drafted to align with state regulations, and the more detailed “plan and implementation,” which contains NPS procedures. The policy revision passed unanimously, and the plan and implementation will be put out for community input next fall.
Superintendent Nolin also informed the Committee that the NPS Fiscal Year 2026 Annual Report had been published. The meeting replay is available on NewTV.
