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🌂Cooler, with clouds and a chance of showers. Highs in the 70s. Sunset is at 8:22 p.m.

Today we have a look at a proposal to address challenges at Mass. and Cass more regionally. But first: state senators moved forward with a bill to ban cell phones in Massachusetts K-12 schools. If the bill passes, students will not be allowed to use their phones during school hours starting in the 2026-27 school year. While senators expect the bill to go to a full senate vote this month, it’s not a sure thing: House Speaker Ron Mariano, a former teacher, said he knows phones are a distraction but also hears parents who say they want a way to get in touch with their kids during emergencies, according to the State House News Service.

Four Things to Know

1. Running a national criminal background check (as opposed to a more limited state check) on every person in the state’s shelter system would cost $2.45 million to $3.36 million a year, plus $430,000 to $765,000 in startup costs, according to a report from the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.

Right now, state employees check the names of anyone older than 10 against outstanding warrants and the Sex Offender Registry. They also check for criminal records in Massachusetts, but not in other states. The proposed background check, through the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, would cover criminal records, fugitives and missing people.

2. It’s been a decade since Massachusetts government officials promised to give more state contracts to businesses owned by military veterans — a goal the state has failed to meet every year since. State agencies have spent $324 million with veteran-owned businesses over the last decade, falling short of their goal by $1.3 billion.

“Either they don’t know that we exist or don’t care, or the money’s … not being correctly allocated,” said Jorge Rodriguez of Lawrence, an Army veteran who owns a medical equipment company.

3. Cambridge City Councilor Paul Toner, one of 28 men accused of being a customer at a brothel last year, said he won’t seek reelection this year. “I will continue to be active in Cambridge civic life as a private citizen,” Toner said. “I’ve thought about this a lot and have decided to complete my current term and take a step back from elective office to explore other opportunities.”

Councilor Patty Nolan had called for Toner to resign and said she believed not running again is the right decision. “It was clear this would have been a campaign issue,” Nolan told GBH’s Craig LeMoult. “That does a disservice to the community, since we have so many issues that we have to focus on.”

4. The Boston Modern Orchestra Project this week is performing an opera not staged since its premier in 1991 — “Frederick Douglass” by the composer Ulysses Kay.

“You might see the title ‘Frederick Douglass’ and think it’s sort of a biopic opera, you know, from cradle to grave, but it’s not. The opera focuses on the period after the Civil War and it’s a very human story,” said Gil Rose, artistic director of the Odyssey Opera and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. “It’s a very personal and psychological opera, not so much dramatic events, but dramatic people.”

Boston councilor pushes for neighboring towns to help pay Mass. and Cass costs

Today, Boston City Councilor John FitzGerald says he will introduce an order exploring what it would take to set up a regional fund that Boston and surrounding cities and towns can use to address substance abuse and other issues around Mass. and Cass.

Neighboring cities and towns collaborate on regional issues all the time, he said, pointing to things like school districts and waste management. This could work in a similar way.

“I think it gets everyone that has skin in the game involved, because it is a regional problem,” FitzGerald, who represents Dorchester and parts of the South End, told GBH’S Saraya Wintersmith.

FitzGerald said he hoped the process would help city officials figure out how to better serve people with substance use and mental health issues at Mass. and Cass and across the city. Some possible options on the table: a regional recovery hub and safe injection sites.

“What we’ve done has not worked, so there are going to be other sorts of methods we’d like to see,” he said.

So how realistic is this idea? Domingos DaRosa, a Boston mayoral candidate who co-founded the advocacy group the South End-Roxbury Community Partnership, said he doubts leadership in the suburbs around Boston will be on board.

“If the governor is not willing to take on this initiative, it’s going to be a tough task to push the agenda,” DaRosa said. “There’s no way in the world that I see Swampscott taking the initiative to bring in treatment centers within Swampscott town lines. …Folks are not able to get services in their own city or town, and that’s done deliberately because, again, everything’s being pushed to Boston.”

Get the full story from GBH’s Saraya Wintersmith here.