Boston City Councillor John M. Tobin, Jr. last week was reappointed as Chair of both the City Council’s Education Committee and the Committee on Arts, Film, Humanities & Tourism.

Councillor Tobin’s appointment was announced by City Council President Michael Flaherty at the council’s weekly meeting on Wednesday, January 27.

Councilor Tobin, who represents West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale, was also named Vice Chair of two committees: City & Neighborhood Services and Intergovernmental Relations. He was appointed as a member of the following committees: Aviation & Transportation; Environment & Historic Preservation; Health & Human Services; Housing; Public Safety; Public Utilities & Cable Communications; Rules & Administration; and Ways & Means.

“I am honored to lead the Council’s Education Committee and the Committee on Arts, Film, Humanities & Tourism for another year,” said Councillor Tobin. “I will continue to work hard to improve the quality of the city’s schools and to fight to make more funding and resources available to the city’s arts and culture community. I also look forward to participating on several committees I have not worked on before. I am excited by the opportunity to take on different challenges and develop new ideas.”

Councillor Tobin was first named Chair of the City Council’s Education Committee in 2004. Over the past two years he has proposed numerous ideas and initiatives to improve the city’s schools. Councillor Tobin:

• Successfully advocated for the installation of a Global Positioning System on the city’s fleet of school buses to ensure the safe transportation of students.
• Developed recommendations for changing the city’s student assignment policy. Some of his ideas have been instituted by the School Department.
• Unveiled an agenda to combat obesity among the city’s school children and successfully pushed for healthier foods and beverages to be made available in vending machines located in the city’s public schools.
• Advocated for the creation of more K-8 schools. The School Department is now working to create more K-8 schools and to develop partnerships between elementary and middle schools located near each other.
• Helped institute a school RSVP policy to help parents and administrators get a better picture of where students plan to attend school each year.
• Worked to tighten the city’s residency policy to ensure that seats in the city’s Public Schools are being assigned to Boston students.

As Chair of the City Council’s Committee on Arts, Film, Humanities & Tourism, Councillor Tobin has continued to fight to restore funding to the Mayor’s Office of Art, Tourism & Special Events and has initiated innovative ways to increase funding for the arts including the creation of a special license plate.

Last year Councillor Tobin proposed the “Boston Walk of Fame” as a way to honor local people who have made a lasting contribution to the arts and to promote tourism. He continues to be a strong proponent of resurrecting the city’s Film Bureau arguing that the movie industry creates jobs, generates revenue, and showcases the city to the world. Councillor Tobin also sponsors an annual art contest challenging Boston students to design his holiday greeting card.