The Boston Public School board selected a new superintendent. She is Mary Skipper, who has had many years of teaching experience in Boston and is currently superintendent of the Somerville, Mass., district.
Currently the head of Somerville Public Schools, Skipper will take over at a crucial juncture for Boston, which only days ago fended off a state takeover by agreeing to a long list of improvements that she will now be charged with seeing through. She narrowly edged out the other finalist, BPS regional superintendent Tommy Welch, in a 4-3 vote.
The 55-year-old Skipper previously worked in Boston for nearly two decades, teaching Latin at Boston Latin Academy before working her way from principal to district administrator overseeing three dozen high schools. She earned a reputation for innovations at a high school she previously led. A decade ago, then-president Barack Obama held up Skipper’s school, TechBoston Academy, as a national model when he delivered a speech there.
She’s been superintendent of the roughly 4,700-student Somerville district since 2015.
Skipper was not available for comment after the vote. But she previously has said that teachers were surrogate parents to her, playing a deep role in her life, so she felt teaching was something she needed to do.
The job she’s stepping into has already been largely redefined by an agreement finalized this week between Mayor Michelle Wu and state Education Commissioner Jeff Riley, who had threatened to label the district as “underperforming.” In exchange for maintaining autonomy and the district’s reputation, Skipper will have to carry out a long list of mandates from a district improvement plan agreed upon Monday that aims to overhaul special education, services for English learners, and transportation, among other things…
Skipper’s selection could carry some risk for the district, since she’s not available to take over full time in Boston until late September, after the deadline for completing 10 of 24 action steps required by the joint agreement for improving Boston’s schools…
Skipper will also have to overcome frustration from some community members that the superintendent search did not yield Black or Latino finalists. Civil rights leaders and education advocates called on district leaders to halt the vote or extend the process after the search committee presented only two finalists; Skipper is white and Welch is an Asian American.
Two other would-be finalists, a Black woman and a Latina, withdrew before the list was finalized and made public. The panel overseeing the search selected Skipper and Welch from a field of 34 applicants.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
SO good 😊 to hear some G😊😊D news!
Thanks, Boston.
I love the idea that the new superintendent of Boston was a Latin teacher, not a corporate executive
The last thing the fascist Destroy Education Crime Syndicate (DECS) wants is someone that is qualified and knows what they are doing in charge of any public school district.
I want this to happen again and again until the DECS is no more. One victory is not enough.
She is a good choice. After a couple of less than optimal experiences with outsiders, hopefully BPS has learned that it helps to have someone there that won’t have to spend three years trying to grasp the ins and outs of the district.
I hope the new superintendent rebuilds the fractured relationships in the community. Sometimes local people are the best choices. They understand the culture of the district and its needs. Someone that has worked in the system is unlikely to destroy it.
Mary Skipper is a good choice for superintendent. I met her when she was overseeing the renovation of Snowden High School, about 1994, I think. That was a large undertaking because it is a designated historic building on downtown Newbury Street, subject to many more restrictions than a typical building. She did an exemplary job at keeping things moving smoothly while classes went on around her. Boston has many facilities issues that have to be addressed, so this will be valuable experience.
She and my husband took classes together in a graduate Computer Education program several years before she was the founding principal at Tech Boston Academy. Her three kids and mine attended school together and played on some of the same sports teams in our working class Dorchester neighborhood and at the Boys and Girls Club. Due to those interactions, my personal opinion is that she’s a capable, down to earth, no nonesense regular person who knows what it’s like to juggle a family and a high powered job in the public eye.
I did not work directly under her, but she would know much of the history that goes under the radar with BPS. She knows where the bodies are buried and who put them there. She’ll be more than able to go toe to toe with Commission Jeff Riley and she has far more experience than he in the school system. I think Riley was hoping to install himself as supernintendo, but changed course on receivership when he saw who the finalists were. Boston has not had a local superintendent, except for interims or actings, since Tom Payzant arrived from the DOE in 1995. It’s time. For the first time I can recall, Skipper is a candidate whose superintendency I can wholeheartedly support.
Great news!