Boston Public Schools bus monitors will receive higher pay and improved benefits under a tentative agreement between the school administration and monitors’ union, after months of understaffing disrupted disabled students’ access to education, officials said.
A panel of BPS administrators at a City Council hearing Nov. 10 said the agreement, which has yet to be approved, will increase monitors’ yearly wages from the current $18,000, lengthen vacation times and create sign-on and retention bonuses. The measures are intended to draw prospective hires during a school year when 35% of BPS rides requiring a bus monitor haven’t had one.
Administrators at the hearing declined to disclose the exact changes to monitors’ pay until the agreement is ratified.
Bus monitors — who ensure passenger safety to and from school — are an accommodation included in some disabled students’ individualized education plans, according to the BPS website.
“Bus monitors, we know, play an integral role in the safe transportation of students with special needs,” assistant director of the BPS monitor’s unit Varsha Ramsumair said. “We are committed to improving these services for our district's most vulnerable students and committed to taking accountability for where we are falling short.”
BPS struggled this school year to meet the state’s standards for ensuring buses arrive on time, according to the panel’s slideshow.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education set a goal of 95% punctual bus drop-offs, according to the presentation. Half of BPS school buses arrived before classes started on the first day of school this year. In October, an average of 88% of buses arrived on-time.
Councilor Kendra Lara—whose son is autistic and attends BPS—said late school buses and absent monitors affect parents’ employment.
“My colleagues have first-hand experience of me walking into hearings late and missing things in the morning because the school bus didn't come,” Lara said. “If I wasn't an elected official I would have lost my job.”
When disabled students are late to school because of transportation failures, they can miss out on specialized programming, which instructors have to reschedule, interim assistant superintendent of special education Dr. Lauren Viviani said.
Councilor Julia Mejia said she called for the Nov. 10 hearing in response to the state Education Department’s report on BPS performance.
The May 2022 report commissioned the state found that a lack of efficient, stable leadership overseeing BPS transportation and special education has contributed to negative educational outcomes for thousands of students.
Stanislaus said BPS administration is dedicated to improving arrival times and specialized busing services for disabled students. She said challenges to progress include an 137% increase of students requiring monitors since 2015, limited competition among transportation contractors and current monitor contracts that do not include “a livable wage.”
City Council President Ed Flynn said the Transportation Department needs to utilize its $116 million budget — 10% of the total BPS budget — to ensure all students can come to school safely and on-time.
“We live in the wealthiest city in the country practically,” Flynn said. “We have the resources. There’s really no reason why we can’t address this issue.”
