Boston Public Schools first day of school for students

Students at Boston Public Schools are set to return to the classroom next week, and before the first bell rings, the district is aiming to quell any concerns that parents may have.

The good news is that the district is nearly fully staffed with teachers, bus drivers, bus monitors and kitchen staff.

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Staffing was something the district struggled with last year.

The district also has 100 more bus monitors than it did a year ago, and is looking to hire even more.

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In the meeting, Superintendent Mary Skipper made a promise to parents that the district’s work this school year includes prioritizing and accelerating academic performance, strengthening access to social emotional supports in learning, streamlining operations, ensuring student safety, developing authentic family and community engagement practices and improving internal and external communications with families and staff.

Skipper said the biggest priority, though, will be continuing to make strides on reducing absenteeism, by working with the larger school community to remove any barriers to children making it to class each day.

Shelby Hewitt is now facing multiple charges, including identity fraud and forgery.

“We at BPS saw a drop of about 5% in chronic absenteeism and that was significant given nationally the numbers really went in the wrong direction, went up," Skipper said. "This is really the hard work of our families working together with supervisors of attendance, with our family liaisons, with our counselors in the schools, our teachers.”

The first day of school in Boston for grades 1-12 is Sept. 7.

K0-K2 all return on Sept. 11.