School overview
Rafael Hernández Dual Language School
Who governs this school, who chose them, and what of their decisions is actually written down.
Who governs this school, and who chose them?
Hernández is governed by the Boston School Committee: seven voting members, all appointed by the Mayor from a list produced by a nominating panel. Boston is the only municipality in Massachusetts that does not elect its school committee. Every decision that shapes this school — its budget, its grade configuration, the funding formula behind both — is made by people no Hernández parent votes for and cannot vote out.
79% of voters asked to change it, and it did not change
A November 2021 ballot question carried with more than 99,000 votes — a majority in every precinct of every ward. The City Council passed a home rule petition 7-5 in February 2023. The Mayor vetoed it, and the Council has no override on home rule petitions. A new petition was filed in February 2026 with ten of thirteen councillors sponsoring, and faces the same single veto point. This is a five-year record of an overwhelming and geographically universal mandate that cannot reach implementation.
Below the committee: the School Site Council
Two different bodies, easily confused. Every Hernández parent is automatically a member of the School Family Council — it meets first Wednesdays, 6-7pm, with dinner beforehand and childcare provided. The School Site and Equity Council is smaller and is the one with statutory authority: the school describes it as 'the central governing body at the school', and says 'Six parents are elected to the School Site Council (SSC) from the School Family Council (SFC). Six staff members also serve on the SSC.' So the Family Council is the body you join by having a child here; the Site Council is the body it elects six of you onto. That six-and-six split matches what M.G.L. c. 71 § 59C requires — parents holding 'parity with professional personnel', not an advisory minority.
It is the only body with school-specific authority
The statute gives the council two jobs: it 'shall assist in the review of the annual school budget and in the formulation of a school improvement plan'. That is more specific to this school than anything the School Committee does — the committee sets a district budget and a funding formula, while the council decides what this building does with its share. One caveat on reach: the 2010 Achievement Gap Act moved approval of the improvement plan from the School Committee to the Superintendent, so the council's main product no longer routinely passes through a public vote.
None of what it does is published
The Site Council's meetings are listed as a row of collapsible panels — the date is the heading, and opening one reveals the words 'Meeting Minutes' and nothing else. No document, no link, on any of the ten. BPS's own manual requires schools to file agendas and notes monthly with a central office 'for the purposes of demonstrating compliance with MA Open Meeting Law', and grades them on whether they do. The district collects the records and publishes none of them. The law is unclear too: § 59C still points at open-meeting sections repealed in 2009, and the Attorney General's guide to the replacement never mentions school councils at all.
Where the school stands
All funds. The school council is entitled to review the budget but publishes no record of doing so.
Entirely Title I — nothing from IDEA or other grants. The remaining $5,807,787 is general funds.
2025-26, prekindergarten through grade 6. The zeros DESE reports for grades 7 and 8 confirm the reconfiguration out of those grades, even though the district's budget table still labels the school K-8.
$5,911,258 FY27 allocation ÷ 332 students (DESE, 2025-26). Not a published figure — the allocation and the enrolment are each verified here, but the division is ours. It also counts only money allocated to the school: transport, benefits, facilities and central services are held by the district and are not in it, so this is far below what Boston spends per student overall.
One principal at 1.00 FTE, plus a single site-based secretary.
Major projects
Returning to an elected school committee
Filed again February 2026Boston voted 79% in favour of an elected school committee in November 2021. The City Council passed a home rule petition 7-5 in 2023; it was vetoed, and home rule petitions cannot be overridden. A new petition filed in February 2026 would phase in a 13-member committee over two election cycles — nine district seats first, then four at-large, with the nominating panel disbanded.
- Ballot question carries with 79% and a majority in every ward
- City Council passes a home rule petition 7-5
- New petition filed with ten of thirteen councillors sponsoring
Funding
Not a spending question — a governance one
A home rule petition needs the Mayor's signature to reach the Legislature, and the Council has no override.
School Site Council record
Calendar published, minutes absentThe council meets the second Tuesday of each month and the school lists ten dates for 2025-26, each with a 'Meeting Minutes' heading. None links to a document. BPS designates a central office as the repository for exactly these records and grades schools on whether they file them, but publishes none of it — which makes a public-records request, rather than a scraper, the way to see them.
- First listed meeting of the 2025-26 cycle
Funding
The council reviews the school's budget under M.G.L. c. 71 § 59C
No minutes means no public record of what it reviewed or decided.
Recent news
Figures from the district's FY2027 allocation table and the school's own pages are verified against those documents and cite the phrase. The governance facts come from Boston's municipal record rather than from this corpus, and are marked unverified because they describe the city, not a claim about a Hernández document.
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