Newton City Council’s Finance Committee approved the appropriation and spending of $338,119 for McKinney-Vento Homeless Student Transportation and $2 million for the Newton Public Schools’ Stabilization Fund on Wednesday.
The grant for the $338,119 for McKinney-Vento Homeless Student Transportation will be used as a reimbursement to Newton Public Schools for the transportation of homeless students inside and occasionally outside of Newton, according to Liam Hurley, assistant superintendent, chief financial and administrative officer for Newton Public Schools (NPS).
“This is money that we have spent … for students—transporting students within Newton and sometimes outside of Newton, depending on the situation,” Hurley said. “We certainly have seen a number of homeless students that happen to be here in Newton, so this is just generally a reimbursement for us that we count as a budget offset.”
Ward 5 Councilor Bill Humphrey expressed some concern about possible difficulties with McKinney-Vento transportation due to a recent switch in emergency shelter administration.
“I had heard that there was some concern that the changes from the governor’s administration regarding emergency shelter was going to create a lot more chaos with providing or transferring transport of students to education if they were homeless,” Humphrey said.
The recent change was a policy signed by the Massachusetts Legislature in April 2024, stating that families can only stay in the Emergency Assistance Family Shelter program for nine months.
“One of the challenges certainly is … finding vendors to support these students,” Hurley said. “But we, at this point, have not seen or experienced … policies that are making this more difficult. I can imagine there’s more people coming into the system that will make things more challenging statewide and in Newton.”
The motion to approve the grant passed in a 6–0 vote. The motion was also previously approved by the Programs and Services Committee on Nov. 6 in a 6–0 vote.
The committee then moved on to discuss a new $2 million grant for the Newton Public Schools’ Stabilization Fund, the purpose of which is to provide funding for many educational services by the NPS.
The grant will be used to increase the longevity of the fund itself, explained Maureen Lemieux, chief financial officer for the City of Newton.
“We put $22 million in the fund last year,” Lemieux said. “The school department used $4.1 million toward their budget. This year, this will add another $2 million that will earn interest. Our intent is to hopefully extend the life of the fund.”
The motion passed 5–0 with one abstention. The motion was previously approved by the Programs and Services Committee on Nov. 6 in a 6–0 vote.
The abstention came from Ward 4 Councilor-at-Large Leonard Gentile. Gentile said he did not expect an additional sum to go into the fund so suddenly.
“Last year, when we were talking about establishing this fund, I was extremely supportive of it … I was proud that we were able to do it,” Gentile said. “I had no idea that in less than a year’s time we would be providing an additional $2 million into the fund. It was not discussed when we set up the fund.”
Gentile said he could not support the grant when there were a variety of other issues in Newton that would benefit from $2 million as opposed to a stabilization fund.
“I can think of a number of … better ways of spending $2 million today than putting it into the fund … especially since we’re talking about this money coming into play several years down the road,” Gentile said. “There’s a lot of needs in the city.”
Gentile explained that he understands the city’s attention toward education, but that he would be focusing his own attention on the city.
“It’s a big city with a lot of needs, and I think sometimes the city side gets a little short shrift,” Gentile said. “If nothing changes, then I’ll vote against it at full council. I’ll be the only one.”
