Massachusetts

Big questions on the future of Boston Public Schools are set to be answered Wednesday night, when the school committee will vote on the district’s new budget.

However, that vote is expected to come with some significant cuts. That’s because schools like the Thomas A. Edison K8 School in Brighton could lose about 18% of their staff.

What is Boston Public Schools looking at?

It’s about a $1.5-billion budget for fiscal year 202 but it includes a loss of millions of dollars in ESSER funds and “hold-harmless” funding, which are post-pandemic federal stimulus dollars that helped schools make ends meet in previous budgets.

Essentially, 70% of schools would lose staffing, including cuts to music and the arts.

What’s leading to these cuts?

There are several reasons, including declining enrollment. Boston Public Schools has lost about 8,000 students over the past decade, increased busing and facilities costs and skyrocketing student needs costs, like for special education and English Language Learners.

The school committee is scheduled to vote on this proposed budget during its meeting that starts at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

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The state of Massachusetts has a little under 8,000 bridges, with the Tobin Bridge being the largest in New England.

The Tobin is also a truss bridge like the one that collapsed in Baltimore, Maryland, and after the bridge tragedy, Gov. Maura Healey called agencies to reassess the state’s infrastructure safety.

“Look, with any situation, let’s take a look. If there are additional measures, we should have them in place. Let’s make sure that they’re in place, but I feel confident right now,” said Healey.

During her meeting and the one held by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation later Tuesday, officials tried to calm any concerns over bridge strength and safety.

MassDOT explained that the bridges they’re responsible for are inspected every two years and highlighted the differences between the Tobin and Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.

“We are not the same size port as they have in Baltimore, we don’t have the same size navigable waterways nor the same size bridges. But again, we do have similar situations,” said State Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver.

The Tobin does have maritime traffic underneath but infrastructure engineers stressed that all of Massachusetts bridges are sturdy. They’ll also be monitoring the information coming out of Baltimore as a precaution. 

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Temperatures get a much-needed boost Wednesday thanks to an end of the nagging northeast wind. Sure, we’re still on the cool side of things at the coast with a feeble sea breeze but away from the water, we have a chance to hit 60 (or better).

…

A beloved movie theater in Brookline, Massachusetts, unveiled a huge expansion at a Tuesday afternoon ribbon-cutting ceremony.

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A crash in Hanover, Massachusetts, left a person trapped in a car and people nearby without power.

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In a disclosure that hinted that further transactions, state health care officials received notifications Tuesday in connection with the proposed sale of Stewardship Health Inc. and the contracting Steward Health Care Network to OptumCare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.

The office of Sen. Ed Markey issued a press release that “Minnesota-based Optum Financial has purchased the physician group of Steward Health Care.”

Stewardship Health Inc. is the parent of Stewardship Health Medical Group Inc., which employs primary care physicians and other clinicians across nine states, according to the Health Policy Commission.

“This is a significant proposed change involving two large medical providers, both in Massachusetts and nationally, with important implications for the delivery and cost of health care across Massachusetts,” HPC Director David Seltz said. “Details of the proposal will be reviewed by the HPC to examine potential impacts on health care costs, quality, access, and equity. The sale cannot be completed until after the HPC’s review and any concurrent review by state or federal antitrust authorities.”

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Once all required information has been provided about the sale, the HPC will have 30 days to assess potential impacts of the transaction, according to the agency. If the sale is anticipated to have a significant impact on health care costs and market functioning, the HPC can initiate a full Cost and Market Impact Review, an option that it has often not pursued in the past.

Steward’s financial problems have received widespread attention in recent weeks and the outlook for its Massachusetts assets remains cloudy. The HPC said that transactions involving the sale of Steward’s eight Massachusetts hospitals would also require review by the agency, and review by the Determination of Need program at the Department of Public Health.

“After Steward recklessly took on massive debt that is continuing to … put hospitals in Massachusetts and across the country into financial crisis, the Massachusetts health care system must move away from Steward’s financial insecurity,” Democratic Sen. Ed Markey said in a statement. “With this announcement, Optum must demonstrate that it can meet the even greater responsibility to preserve and protect health care access in the Commonwealth, and I hope they will live up to that responsibility by controlling costs and putting patients and providers first.”

In its new notice of material change, Steward Operations Holdings LLC, in response to a question about other material changes anticipated in the next 12 months, wrote: “Steward anticipates providing Notices of Material Change regarding transactions concerning certain of its acute care hospitals and other provider operations in the next 12 months.”