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The lowlands of Southeastern Massachusetts, though sometimes swampy in their own right, feel far away from the halls of power in the nation’s capital. But this year, New Bedford found itself on the forward edge of national political debate about how and whether to fund public education.
2025 IN REVIEW
Up-to-the-minute updates from Washington D.C. threw tens of millions of dollars into question for New Bedford Public Schools, while the Whaling City found itself as a case study in a multi-state lawsuit seeking to restore more than $6 billion across the country.
Meanwhile, the staff and students of the largely immigrant, working-class district confronted what it could mean for federal agents to raid their schools. Local leaders wrestled with their place in the fight.
But the business of running a nearly 13,000-student district, which is also New Bedford’s largest employer, had to go on.
Teachers fought for better wages and benefits, while district leaders continued to push for new buildings and renovations.
It was a year that history will remember. But many of its political and ideological questions — Should there be a Department of Education? Do immigrants still have a place in shaping America’s future? — remain in flux or under contest as 2025 ends.
New Bedford’s role in the federal fight over education
Early in the year, President Donald Trump reclassified schools as an acceptable location for immigration enforcement, rolling back a Biden-era order that designated schools as “protected areas.”
Superintendent Andrew O’Leary responded by saying that the real threat to New Bedford’s students and schools would be dismantling federal support for education.
O’Leary told The Light in an interview that the federal Department of Education had had a positive effect on New Bedford residents and schools. Its civil rights investigations protected students and families, and its research benefited low-income districts like New Bedford that can’t study curriculum effectiveness on their own. (These functions have since been shuttered.) The district also receives almost 10% of its funding from federal grants, O’Leary said.
“The first step in supporting public schools is realizing they belong to you and you should hold on to them,” O’Leary said. “They are your asset.”
Then, late on a Friday in March, district leaders received an email from Education Secretary Linda McMahon informing them (and 21 other Massachusetts districts) that previously approved pandemic-relief funds would halt.
The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation decried this move, which sought to withhold around $12 million from New Bedford schools and more than $100 million from Massachusetts schools.
Massachusetts joined a multi-state lawsuit to fight this action, and three friends from New Bedford marveled that their idea for a school-based health center (funded with these dollars) might feature in the legal arguments. When Massachusetts joined another multi-state lawsuit that fought against more than $6 billion in cuts, New Bedford became an example in the arguments.
“As a result of the freeze, the [New Bedford] school system will be forced to make difficult choices regarding staff dedicated to improving the lives of New Bedford students, with some staff likely to be terminated,” the filing read.
Both the $12 million in COVID-relief dollars and $2.6 million in other approved funding were eventually restored.
Building the future — Update on the schools’ building plan
At the end of 2024, New Bedford outlined its ambitious plan to replace seven century-old buildings and the half-century-old New Bedford High. Those replacements, plus major renovations to other buildings, would be funded in large part through the state’s School Building Authority.
This year, the district has made significant strides toward its goals. The new Congdon-DeValles building, which will consolidate two century-old schools in the South End, is under construction and on track for its spring 2027 opening.
Ashley-Swift, which will replace two more century-old schools, received approval for a feasibility study from the School Building Authority this year. The district hopes it might be open before 2029.
Meanwhile, the City Council just approved eight roof renovation projects, again largely funded through the state. (The eight schools: Campbell, Hathaway, Pacheco, Carney, Hayden-McFadden, Pulaski, and Gomes elementary schools, plus Whaling City Jr./Sr. High, the district’s alternative school.)
The old Parker Elementary saw its final day as a neighborhood K-5 school. This fall, it reopened as a centralized pre-school center. Renovations for its new, younger students included new traffic patterns and a new playground.
A new central kitchen has opened and is already delivering thousands of meals every day. A new health center is slated to open across from the high school in January.
Life in the schools — Teachers contracts, cell phones, a new literacy strategy
Amid all the political goings-on, students and teachers went about the hard business of building the future.
Teachers won a new contract this year that they saw as a large victory. For the first time, teacher contracts include a small amount of paid family leave protections, which all private-sector employees in Massachusetts have enjoyed for years. Teachers won this benefit by picketing outside of School Committee meetings for months, though New Bedford avoided the more-dramatic strikes that won the benefit in other districts.
Students entered a brave new world — or really a brave old world — forfeiting cell phones during the school day. At New Bedford High, students now keep their phones in rubbery Yondr pouches, locked during class hours. All middle schools are also piloting phone-free programs.
The youngest learners in New Bedford, meanwhile, are learning to read under a new curriculum, supported by a state grant that promotes evidence-based teaching strategies. A mother-daughter-monster team showed how it’s done.
Across the district, the arts have made a romping comeback. Music and theater classes have returned to every elementary and middle school. The feat was accomplished efficiently: “smart scheduling” rotated many existing teachers through more schools.
At year’s end, The Light found that enrollment trends showed a decline in the number of immigrant students. But O’Leary cautioned that it’s too early to know what these numbers really show — and said he saw no evidence that a “culture of fear” was driving these students away.
Other year-defining education stories
Here are other can’t-miss stories about education in New Bedford this year.
‘School Committee member Bruce Oliveira dies at 72’ — The long-serving member of the School Committee passed away unexpectedly, and condolences poured in from around the city and the state to remember a life in service of New Bedford.
‘Now is the moment for Voc-Tech admissions reform’ — Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech now accepts students using a lottery system, after years of criticism of its application process. Gov. Maura Healey proposed mandating further changes, though neither reform advocates nor school administrators got fully behind her.
‘New Bedford teacher charged with assault and battery’ — A Hayden-McFadden elementary school teacher was charged for physically assaulting a student with intellectual disabilities, and The Light broke the story.
The School Committee failed to pass, then finally did pass, a “Safe Zone Resolution,” which vowed to uphold the rights of immigrant students.
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
Federal funding for cities is a danger to the divided govt that protects individual right. Its short-range Pragmatism.
There have been plenty of articles that have come out about low test scores and issues with absenteeism, so it’s no surprise that not everyone believes in the leaders of this school administration and that they’re working in the best interests of students and the future of their education.