Skipper previously worked for Boston Public Schools as a teacher and administrator and most recently served as Somerville’s caretaker.
Somerville Public School Superintendent Mary Skipper poses for a portrait at the Edgerly Education Center in Somerville. Craig F. Walker / Globe Staff
Somerville Superintendent Mary Skipper was voted in by the Boston School Board to be appointed Boston Public School Superintendent pending an agreement agreement Wednesday night during a School Board meeting. Skipper was one of the two finalists for Boston Public Schools. The other was Boston Public School District 1 Superintendent Tommy Welch. “I am excited to welcome Superintendent Mary Skipper as the experienced leader and dedicated partner Boston needs for our youth and families,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement. “In this moment of challenge and opportunity, Mary is uniquely prepared to advance the systemic reforms and immediate results that our students deserve.” The vote was close, with Skipper receiving four votes and Welts three. Most school committee members said they would be happy with any candidate, even though they were not happy with the search process itself. President Jeri Robinson, Vice President Michael O’Neill and members Rafaela Polanco Garcia and Quoc Tran voted in favor of Skipper, while members Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, Stephen Alkins and Lorena Lopera voted for Welch. “Tonight’s decision by the School Committee is a huge step forward for the District,” Robinson said in a statement. “…Under [Skipper’s] Leadership We will continue to prioritize the needs of our students so that they can receive the support and quality education needed to excel in the classroom. I would also like to thank Dr. Tommy Welch for his continued commitment to BPS, our students and our city. ” School board members cited Skipper’s history of working for equality for colored and English-speaking students, as well as her experience as a district-wide supervisor, as reasons to support them. During the public comment, both Welch and Skipper received supportive comments, but Skipper supporters came out in large numbers. Other commentators said they were frustrated with the search process due to lack of transparency and the fact that no finalists were Latinos or blacks. Some even asked for the search process to be extended in an effort to find more candidates. In response, many school committee members said they thought it was unlikely that expanding the search process would lead to more candidates. “Given the shortage of candidates across the country for this kind of high-profile, important job, I am strongly opposed to restarting the process. “We have to honor the two candidates before us,” Tran said during the meeting. O’Neill added that other major cities have interviewed 12 to 20 candidates for inspector posts, while Boston has interviewed 34. He said he had even contacted qualified supervisors he knew from across the country, but said few were interested in getting a job interview. “What I heard over and over again was one of two things: either they are very tired of what they went through, they have burned out and they are ready to leave the profession; or they felt the call to stay in their region. “I’m out of the pandemic,” O’Neill said. Boston public schools also found it difficult to attract candidates for supervisors because, by Monday, when the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education finally reached an agreement with Mayor Wu on the district’s future, the state was considering taking over the district to help improving academic results. The members also clarified that the supervisor’s investigation actually gathered four candidates, two of whom were women of color, but that these two candidates left for “personal reasons” before the final evaluation. Skipper has extensive work experience in Boston public schools. She previously taught Latin at the Boston Latin Academy and helped start the Tech Boston Academy and served as its director while she was Director of the High School Network in 2002. Since 2015 she has been the supervisor of the Somerville Public Schools (SPS). According to Skipper’s CV, under her leadership, SPS has taken steps to achieve equality for minority students and special education. During her tenure, Skipper said, the district adopted new equality policies, hired a director of justice, added justice teams with experts in each school, expanded its multilingual student program with new and specialized academies, and reduced placements outside development of specialized programs and services to meet the needs of students. Under its leadership, the district also created its own student data system and increased the presence of counselors and social workers in schools. In 2019, four years after Skipper’s tenure, Somerville High School reached an all-time low of 0.5% and an all-time high of 92.5%. “I feel honored and humbled to be chosen to lead the district that raised me as a teacher and strengthened my passion for making a difference in students’ lives,” Skipper said in a statement. “This is a pivotal moment in the history of Boston and BPS, and nothing less is at stake than the future of our students and our city.”
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