For the 2026 fiscal year, Boston Latin School’s budget will increase by approximately 240,000 dollars for a total of over 20 million dollars.
Of the 240,000-dollar budget increase, approximately 114,000 dollars will be used to cover the salary of a new social worker, increasing the number of social workers at the School from three to four. The remaining amount will be divided between contract adjustments and special education allocation. The budget also contained a negative balance of 27,000 dollars, which was taken from the substitutes, supplies and stipends account to obtain a zero balance.
The BLS budget covers the income of 174.5 positions for faculty members and substitute teachers, as well as stipends and contracts. The budget does not, however, cover expenses such as food services, transportation and custodians.
Updates to the budget were covered in a Student Council Town Hall meeting with Head of School Jason Gallagher on February 12, during which Gallagher emphasized the importance of providing more professionals to support students’ mental health and expanding similar services.
Rayne Valentine (V), a student homeroom representative and attendee of the Town Hall, notes, “BLS is undeniably very high stress; the school is massive, often hard to navigate [and] has an incredible workload and a lot of students. Having an extra social worker for students to confide in not only benefits students, but might serve to reduce the workload of the other very busy members of the counseling team.”
As a public school, BLS’s annual budget is determined by federal funding on both the state and local scale. Each year, Boston Public Schools allocates a certain sum of money to schools in Boston. After this allocation is communicated with BLS and the School Site Council, the budget is approved and enacted.
The BLS budget is supplemented by funding from the Boston Latin School Association, an organization dedicated to fundraising for BLS students, largely through donations from alumni. Each year, the BLSA uses usually around 3 million dollars, to support BLS and its students. This includes funding programs such as the Athletics Department and Deitch Leadership Institute, in addition to various other expenses such as printers, books and certain faculty positions at BLS. BLSA president Peter G. Kelly ‘83 shares, “Every kid is touched by the BLSA every day in the School in some way.”
The budget increase for BLS comes in conjunction with a district-wide budget increase of about 3.4 percent across Boston Public Schools. The increase also contrasts the budget cut of 900,000 dollars in the 2025 fiscal year after the loss of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding from the COVID-19 pandemic and Title I federal funding given to schools with high poverty rates. The projected budget for BLS for the 2026 fiscal year, however, has become more stable since the loss of ESSER and Title I funding.
This year, the proposed budget for the Boston Public Schools hopes to continue providing for existing programs, especially those for special education students and English language learners. The budget also includes the closures of the Lilla G. Frederick Lilla Pilot Middle School and the West Zone Early Learning Center, the merger of the Philbrick and the Sumner schools and grade reconfigurations at five other schools. Overall, the superintendent proposes to close a net of 22 classrooms across the city. More recently announced school closures or mergers, however, are not reflected in the 2026 budget, as these changes will be implemented in the 2027 fiscal year.
The education budget remains an important topic of conversation, especially with recent changes to the federal budget. Gallagher states, “We’re always thinking: if we had more dollars, what would we do? And that’s a tough question, right? […] We’re always thinking about every department. […] We have to make sure we’re meeting the needs of the students.”