Mayor Cahill’s Legacy: The Decline of Beverly Public Schools

I entered a recent meeting with Mayor Cahill cautiously optimistic. We spoke for nearly two hours about the state of Beverly’s schools and the urgent need for investment. While he did not commit to anything, I appreciated the dialogue – something he has historically avoided with constituents.

But imagine my surprise when, shortly after our meeting, I discovered the Mayor’s FY26 budget proposal includes $2.67 million in school cuts and the elimination of 30 staff positions. This, just one year after cutting 20 positions. He never once mentioned these reductions during our discussion.

To make matters worse, at the subsequent budget public hearing, Mayor Cahill doubled down on his “historic funding” narrative. He made this claim with a straight face; even after hours of heartfelt public testimony from educators and families explaining how devastating these cuts would be to our schools.

Let me be clear about what Mayor Cahill is trying to obscure: while the school budget shows a numerical increase, that increase is entirely driven by inflation, contractual obligations, and mandated special education costs. It does not reflect any new investment in our schools. In fact, the proposed budget falls $2.67 million short of what is required to maintain the current levels of service. Simply put: staffing, resources, and services are being cut, not expanded.

Our conversation, in hindsight, felt hollow and disingenuous. The Mayor opened with personal grievances, unrelated to our students. He complained about criticism of the summer reading program being named after him and frustrations over his salary being publicly scrutinized. For someone entrusted with leading our city, this kind of fragility is troubling.

Data Does Not Lie: A Decade of Decline

Publicly available data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) paints a clear picture of Mayor Cahill’s impact. Here is how Beverly Public Schools fared in 2013 (the year before he took office) compared to 2023 (most recent data):

Additional data points highlight further significant areas of concern:

• Advanced Course Completion: 49.9% of students (259th in state)
• Digital Literacy/Computer Science Enrollment: 13.32% of students (285th in state)
• 9th Grade Course Completion: Only 79.7% of students passed all courses
• Public School Enrollment: 87.1% of Beverly children attend public schools (292nd in state)
• Arts Course Participation: 10% of students do not take an Arts class
• Attendance Rate: 93.2% (217th in state)
• Student Retention Rate (kids held back a grade): 319th in state
• Elementary (Cove) Student Restraint Incidents: Ranked 910th out of 957 schools
• Post-Secondary Enrollment: Only 70.1% of graduates attend some type of college
• Graduation Rate: 185th in state
• Performance Against Improvement Targets: 288th in state

It is important to acknowledge that MCAS scores have declined across the state since 2013, influenced by the 2017 shift to Next-Gen MCAS and pandemic disruptions. But even accounting for these factors, Beverly’s decline has been disproportionately sharper than other districts statewide. More than half of our students (thousands of children) are not at grade-level proficiency!

This is what long-term underfunding looks like.

These numbers show damage already done, and they do not yet reflect the reductions of staff, resources, and programs over the past two years or the looming FY26 reductions.

Mayor Cahill has quietly defunded our schools, enabled by a lack of transparency and oversight, weak advocacy from superintendents, and a long-standing myth that Beverly schools are still “good enough.” He has relied on the legacy of stronger schools before his tenure, and on the flawed assumption that his background as a teacher means he understands or cares about schools. That assumption has proven disastrously wrong.

Instead of taking responsibility, he points fingers: at the state, at the ESSER cliff, at the teacher contract. But, every district in Massachusetts faces these same challenges and manages to prioritize education. Others rise to the moment. Why can’t Beverly?

• State funding issues are real, but so is Beverly’s below-average local tax effort. Our city ranks 263rd out of 351 municipalities in residential tax rate.
• ESSER funds were temporary, supplemental resources. Most districts used them for one-time initiatives. Beverly used them to backfill its operating budget.
• The teacher contract simply brought salaries in line with regional norms after years of underpayment. This was not a luxury; it was a necessity.

The result? A school system teetering on the edge: burdened by oversized classes, minimal mental health supports, under-resourced special education programming and services, escalating behavioral challenges, inadequate professional development, limited intervention support, and declining outcomes across the board. The list goes on and on.

Mayor Cahill is not investing in the future of our students or community. He is managing the slow decline of a once-strong school system. But it does not have to be this way.

If you believe in strong public schools as the foundation of a thriving community, now is the time to act. Speak out. Contact the Mayor, School Committee, and City Council. Show up at public hearings. Or run for office yourself.

Here are key upcoming opportunities to make your voice heard:

Upcoming City Council Budget Meetings:

• June 5th @ 6:00 PM – School Budget Presentation to City Council (No public comment)
• June 18th @ 7:00 PM – City Budget Hearing (Public comment encouraged)
• June 23rd @ 7:00 PM – Final City Council Budget Vote (No public comment)

All meetings are held at Beverly City Hall, Council Chambers, 3rd Floor.

We need to stop accepting less. Let it be known that Beverly values its children. Beverly supports public education.

Dr. Matthew C. Ferreira

Beverly Resident, Parent, and Associate Superintendent of Schools on the NH Seacoast