At-large Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George says she's had enough with suburban parents who try to sneak their kids into Boston public schools - and no longer just the exam schools, but even pre-school, inclusion and special-ed programs.
At-large Councilor Michael Flaherty, meanwhile, is venting similar ire against suburbanites - and even people from New Hampshire - who use "mattress addresses" to get on the civil-service lists for jobs as Boston police officers and firefighters.
The council agreed today with Essaibi-George's request for a hearing to figure out how BPS can do a better job at ferreting out interloping students taking away classroom space from Boston kids.
"Tthis is theft," she said. "This is a theft of services that happens districtwide, at the same time some of our families are on wait lists. "
Essaibi-George said suburbanites smart enough to realize the advantages of Boston schools are smart enough to figure out how to avoid easy detection. She said she doesn't get why BPS has only one full-time investigator assigned to looking for suburbanites when a neighboring city to Boston's north, which she didn't name, with a far smaller system, has 2 1/2 people assigned to the same task.
Separately, the council approved a request to ask the state legislature to let Boston extend the amount of Boston residency required to apply for a BPD or BFD position from one to three years.
Flaherty said too many people from "Duxbury, the Cape, Winchester or even New Hampshire" set up what he called "mattress addresses" in Boston strictly so they can take the civil-service test for those jobs, possibly unfairly pushing out lifelong Boston residents who might also be seeking the positions - residents, he added, who would be familiar with the streets and neighborhoods of Boston from day one.
"Let's give city kids an opportunity to get on these jobs," he said, adding the proposal would also make it easier for the city to hire more women and minority candidates.
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Comments
"residents, he added, who
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 1:55pm
"residents, he added, who would be familiar with the streets and neighborhoods of Boston from day one."
So then give an exam to applicants, measuring their familiarity with Boston streets and neighborhoods. Don't assume skills based on an unrelated factor.
It's not just skills, it's
By Felicity
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:56pm
It's not just skills, it's factors like trust, and sense of community.
You're right, it's not just skills
By Saddlebrook7
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 3:47pm
...it's also having City employees who are also City voters. Councilors like to be able to do nice things for police and fire, so police and fire will vote for them. Out-of-towners can't return the favor.
Well, conversely City
By anon
Thu, 01/26/2017 - 12:38pm
Well, conversely City residents are generally taxpayers in the City. So Fire and Police that are City residents may consider the effect on the budget during contract negotiations. If they live out of town, they're not going to care about soaking the rich folks in the city.
Do you trust someone because
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 5:32pm
Do you trust someone because they're from Allston, and distrust someone from Brookline? Or do you trust people because they earn your trust?
you can ask a lot of people
By Scumquistador
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 8:48pm
and they'll offer their opinions on how they dole out trust based on what subway line a person commutes home on.
orange line? ho ho, never. i only let my timmy ride on the green line.
Knowledge and familiar
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 7:41pm
with the Beer Garden, Stats and the Lincoln.
Does that really happen?
By alkali
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 1:59pm
Is there actually evidence that this kind of thing occurs? I don't know either way, but it would surprise me very much if (for example) someone from Newton was trying to get their kid into BPS, because Newton's schools are just fine.
There's a lot more to eastern Mass. than Newton
By adamg
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:16pm
And BLS is still better than Newton North. And there are ways to game the system that don't involve mail drops or whatever - a lot of people still have relatives who live in Boston who might be willing to host Johnny or Janey, at least during the school year.
Cars at bus stops
By MikeBoston
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 4:30pm
Each morning and afternoon, my commute from the South End to JP and back again has me cross paths with a great many school bus stops. I am always amazed at the idling cars at each one, often one or two, with students who hop out when the bus pulls up. I never understood it, but perhaps this is an indicator of parents driving their child into the city from someplace else?
I don't know the full bus history in Boston, I remember reading about it at the time, it was tense and horrible for kids, but as a non-parent, I never understood the fleet of school buses that deploy every morning in this city seemingly picking up just one or two students at a time.
It's not
By Sock_Puppet
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 4:46pm
It's an indicator of the current standard of helicoptering. Parents drive their kids a few blocks to the bus stop and wait in the car instead of letting them walk all the way around the corner by themselves. Because fear? I don't know.
And the fleet is because if you have ten kids on a block they are bused to ten different schools.
Makes sense
By MikeBoston
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 6:14pm
I appreciate the information. As I dont have kids, I didn't realize it was that complicated.
I grew up in an area that had your neighborhood elementary school (K-6), three junior highs (7-9) and two high schools (10-12). It was all based on geography where you went, you didn't have much choice in the matter unless your parents wanted you in one of the church run private schools. You had to live more than 1.3 miles from the school (seemed arbitrary even then) to take the bus. I lived 1.2 from the junior high, that was a long 3 years walking.
Some bus routes only make a
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 7:35pm
Some bus routes only make a handful of stops, so kids can be coming from several blocks away. Parents may also need to go straight to work from the bus stop. I drive mine because it's not yet daylight when the bus comes, and it's a cold (or rainy/snowy), 15-minute walk in the dark.
I had the same reaction
By erik g
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:21pm
This is the Left's version of immigration hysteria. The Others, who we can't identify but we're pretty sure there's a lot of them Because Reasons, are coming to our city and taking our
jobsseats. So, rather than try to fix the actual problems, let's scapegoat the interlopers and devote a bunch of resources to excluding them."The left's version of immigration hysteria" ???
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 3:23pm
Cute little fantasy there EG. But anyone who is familiar with the Boston Public Schools, parents, staff, neighbors, families and friends of parents, know this is going on . I haven't seen it quantified but it's definitely happening and needs to be addressed. As a homeowner and taxpayer in Boston, I want to pay for Boston students, not out of towners.
Ask the kuds
By Beth k
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 6:13pm
As a parent of students in the exam schools I can say the kids know lots of kids coming from Quincy and Medford among other places. Hard to track? If these teenagers who are pretty oblivious know, it's probably not that hard to find out - they just tell look at the trains.
Not quite that simple
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 01/26/2017 - 1:26pm
Some of these kids have a parent living in the city, but that parent shares custody with a parent living outside the city. Where they happen to sleep most school nights is not necessarily an indication of their eligibility.
I knew a kid who spent half her time in Boston but continued to attend Medford High because her mother lived in Medford and her father in Dorchester. Her father juggled shifts so that she could be there after school/overnight some days because her ailing grandmother could not be alone.
Technically, she could have reversed that situation and still gone to one of the Boston high schools.
It isn't up to Boston to interfere with that sort of custody arrangement.
That's not to say that people don't use grandparents or business addresses to outright cheat the system - but that what the kids say may not be entirely reflective of eligibility.
It's a big deal, if it's real
By Gary C
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 3:31pm
This comes up about once a year, but I have never heard any hard numbers on how much abuse there is (I'm sure there is some, but is it a meaningful amount?)
I know that the process of initially confirming residency is pretty stringent, so perhaps, if that IS working, it explains why we don't need an army of detectives to ferret out the cheaters. Maybe the system is working.
But...
By bosguy22
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 3:42pm
Let's hire 2-3 more investigators at $100k+ each to combat a problem nobody seems to be able to quantify.
No more toll takers
By Sock_Puppet
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 4:01pm
Relatives need jobs
Any Hard Numbers?
By KrakenPop
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:34pm
Did they reference any report or point to the number of children that aren't Boston residents in public schools?
I had a few friends at BLS
By bgl
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:35pm
I had a few friends at BLS who were from Somerville, Chelsea, and even Brookline. It happens. Also, our special needs program is actually really good compared to other places.
Good for them.
By SoBo-Yuppie
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:46pm
the richest, most powerful country in the world and parents need to "game the system" to get their kids a decent educatoin and the services they need...
Yes, and some Boston residents attend Quincy schools too
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 3:05pm
Some programs and some schools attract students from outside Boston. It's an open secret. Also some Boston residents, for example several of my neighbors, live in Dorchester and their kids attend Quincy Public Schools. Again, no big secret. They don't try to hide it.
Wu's proposal to crack down makes sense to me.
I meant to say Essabai George not Wu
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 8:26pm
I also agree with Wu's proposal on electricity, mentioned in a different post
Wondering myself
By anon²
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 3:11pm
Same thought here, is this an issue or just hearsay? Do they have a report to point towards?
This reeks of kicking welfare queen and drug users off welfare, which we know ended up being a more costly endeavor to the states that implemented those stupid laws in the first place.
I do know a lot of police (fire too?) move away from the city due to cost of living and compensation, but are there swaths of qualified candidates banging at the doors to get in? last I heard from LEO's not many people are trying to get on BPD because of the residency requirement, not in spite of it, and it's one of the easier police forces to get into for people starting out in the field.
I can point to 3 families
By Anon BPS Parent
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 4:04pm
I can point to at least 3 families who send their out-of-town children to BPS schools (at least one student in each of the 3 exam schools). Each have grandparents who live in the North h End.
A simple way for School Investigators to get a list to pursue is to ride the Red Line up from Quincy each morning. Plenty of BPS school colors on that subway line- exam schools and others.
Some consider BLS
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 5:26pm
to be better than their own town's high school - even in towns with good schools like Newton, Wayland, Lexington, etc. - and will do whatever it takes to get their children into BLS including renting an apartment in a Boston neighborhood when they don't actually live there. There are many advantages to having a child graduate from the exam schools or other Boston high schools including college scholarships. Now that a family is supposed to live in Boston by the time the child takes the ISEE in November of 6th grade, some families do what they can to get their child into a BPS school for 6th grade. Kindergarten in Boston is full day and free. Most towns don't offer full day kindergarten or free before and after school programs. Boston also has a great SPED program.
It also starts sooner. If
By Muerl
Fri, 01/27/2017 - 9:10am
It also starts sooner. If you can get a K0 or K1 slot.
I Know Of One Example
By AndyF
Thu, 01/26/2017 - 11:06am
Parents live in Randolph, grandmother lives in Boston. Kid goes to charter school in Hyde Park after the parents sent in paperwork from grandmother's address.
Um, yes, it does happen!
By Zoey Jane
Thu, 01/26/2017 - 1:02pm
Yes, it happens. I already have another mom with a toddler plotting how to get her child into BPS K1, but has two properties in a northern suburb. It's like, great, why are you telling me? I own a single family in Boston and pay property taxes. If I have to move because I can't get a kindergarten slot, I have to pay the real estate agents to help sell my home. I take the risk because I grew up in Boston and want to raise my kids here.
I won't even go into the number of kids sneaking into BLS while I was there in high school. I was never invited to their homes until the day they graduated. These kids were from Quincy, Cambridge, and yes, NEWTON. And oh, believe me, her parents were savvy enough to figure out that BLS was better than Newton because their daughter ended up at Harvard. I even know of a kid whose parents lived in Maine, but he moved in with his aunt in Boston just to attend BLS. Well, at least, the aunt pays property taxes. I can't say so much about all these other families.
I love living in Boston and BLS did right by me. I've also honestly have been impressed with the local Boston elementary schools in my neighborhood. So, yeah, Councilor please crack down on these interlopers.
I don't get it. Other than
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:26pm
I don't get it. Other than the exam schools, BL in particular, what advantage is there is sending one's child to a public school in Boston?
Pre-school, to start
By adamg
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:41pm
We have more of it. Also, as mentioned above, SPED. And as the councilor mentioned, inclusion programs for kids with disabilities.
Flys to honey
By Gary C
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 3:35pm
There are definitely families who have special-needs kids that move to Boston specifically because they have all the services. What's the statistic? Something like 50% of BPS kids are special needs or ESL?
also intimidation
By cinnamngrl
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 3:49pm
I am working with a family that moved to Milton and hasn't been able to complete the paperwork to register her kids for school. They want a landlord living agreement which is fine but it also needs to be notarized. So those kids continue to go to school in Boston. I did contact an official, an they told me it was standard, everyone does it and they have to redo it when their kids graduate from elementary to middle to high school.
Getting something notarized
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 6:42pm
Getting something notarized is really not that difficult. You may have to take an hour or two office work to facilitate it, but really?
If your landlord wont show
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 01/26/2017 - 1:29pm
You can't get it notarized.
I am sure it is easy if you
By cinnamngrl
Thu, 01/26/2017 - 5:36pm
I am sure it is easy if you own a car and live in a city, but it is less easy if you moved to a suburb with no car.
Statist crap
By Will LaTulippe
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:27pm
Why aren't they Bostonians? If Boston hadn't annexed Brighton 200 years ago, Brighton wouldn't be Boston. They wouldn't be suburbanites if Boston annexed said suburbs.
Huh?
By bgl
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:41pm
You do realize that Boston attempted to annex Brookline in 1873, and it was voted down by Brookline, thus ending Boston's attempts/abilities to annex. More recently, Mayor Flynn offered to annex Chelsea when it went bankrupt in 1991, and Chelsea went with going into receivership/taken over by the State instead. If towns want to use Boston's resources like public schools, then, by all means they can ask the city to annex them. Also - why aren't they Bostonians? Because they don't live inside the city limits of Boston. Pretty simple.
Brookline wasn't the quite the end
By adamg
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 2:43pm
West Roxbury (today's West Roxbury, JP and Roslindale) voted for annexation around the same time Brookline was saying no.
And then, in 1912, the town of Hyde Park voted to leave Norfolk County for the fairer pastures of Boston and Suffolk County.
That is no fun
By bgl
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 3:38pm
Meh - how else am I supposed to direct my superior Bostonian anger at Brookline ;) ?
You're making my point
By Will LaTulippe
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 3:13pm
I know they don't live inside the city limits of Boston. They could do so without moving. Get the annexation going.
I hear a lot of talk about banning and exclusion, and not a lot of talk about welcoming and inclusion. Of course, all this patter distracts from the real question: What can we do, and what will we do, about the chasm which exists between the very best public school in Boston and the very worst one?
Two plus two is four, no matter how rich your family is, or what color you are. Why is that being disseminated less effectively by one teacher and school than by another?
of course, why didnt i see it before?
By Scumquistador
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 4:10pm
the solution was so simple and right in front of me. simply get my city annexed by another and my problem is solved!
Actually that's true
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 4:25pm
Unify the school district inside I-95 and a lot, lot of problems are solved. Of course, folks out in Newton and Winchester are mostly only progressives as long as it doesn't impact their ability to help get their kids a leg up over the less fortunate.
And new problems created
By Sock_Puppet
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 4:47pm
Think how much busing we'd have then.
Pooled budgets not so much schools
By anon
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 8:12pm
They want to opt out of providing a share of low income housing? Fine, lets pool our resources. Same as homeless and mental health and drug addiction services.
great idea vaughn
By Scumquistador
Wed, 01/25/2017 - 8:49pm
we'll call this new invention of yours a commonwealth
Not exactly
By anon
Thu, 01/26/2017 - 8:59am
Someone living in say Palmer is not likely directly tied into the economic engine that is Boston in the same way that people who live inside 128. Let's take Brookline - they get all the economic benefit of being directly next to the economic hub of Boston via multiple MBTA lines but don't share the economic costs of supporting a wide range of humans that come with living in a metro area. It's basically a giant gated community.
The Mbta collects an
By cinnamngrl
Thu, 01/26/2017 - 9:22am
The Mbta collects an assessment from Brookline. It is 5-6 million.
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