Boston’s School Committee gave Superintendent Mary Skipper high marks in her third year as the district’s executive, as members approved an evaluation of her work leading the district with a steady hand amid myriad challenges, including the financial uncertainty caused by federal funding turmoil during Wednesday night’s meeting.
Skipper, who began her teaching career in Boston in 1989, remains at her core an educator who deeply cares about every student, especially their academic experience and growth, said Michael O’Neill, the board’s vice chair, in his written evaluation of the superintendent.
“I deeply appreciate the commitment and the positive energy that you bring and the work that you’re doing to build your team, so I’m excited about the future under your leadership,” O’Neill told Skipper during Wednesday’s session.
The seven-member School Committee unanimously approved Skipper’s annual evaluation as superintendent Wednesday. The entire board also voted to allow Jeri Robinson, the board’s chairperson, to start talks for a new contract with Skipper.
Still, board members noted progress remains uneven across schools and called on Skipper to accelerate the closure of student achievement gaps. Skipper could also improve her engagement with district families, the majority of whom are low-income, according to the board.
“A strong foundation to better serve the students, families and staff of BPS has been laid under the leadership of Superintendent Skipper and the actions of her team,” according to a summative evaluation from the committee. “We all recognize, Superintendent Skipper included, there is more work to do.”
The district made the written evaluation public prior to Wednesday evening’s School Committee meeting.
Skipper, who was Somerville’s superintendent before she started in Boston in fall 2022, earned roughly $350,000 last year, according to city records.
Board members in written evaluations rated Skipper overall as either “effective” or “highly effective”; Skipper rated herself overall as “effective” in a self-evaluation.
In subcategories, Skipper received some lower scores, including the four “developing” ratings by Brandon Cardet-Hernandez across each area assessed: instructional leadership, management and operations, family and community engagement, and professional culture. (Developing, according to a scoring guide, means proficient.)
Cardet-Hernandez, in his fourth year on the committee, criticized Skipper Wednesday night for the pace of the district’s progress on student achievement.
State data show just 17 percent of Black and Latino students in Grades 3 to 8 met expectations on the English MCAS in 2024, compared to about half of Asian students and 59 percent of white students.
The achievement gap on the math test is even wider: around 60 percent of Asian and white students met expectations, while only about 15 percent of Black and Latino students did, according to the state.
“The evaluation acknowledges these gaps, but doesn’t provide a clear data-driven plan for closing them, and measuring progress year-over-year,” Cardet-Hernandez said Wednesday.
In his written evaluation of Skipper, he said advocates and families report that students with disabilities and English learners are “still not consistently” receiving required services or access to quality instruction.
Skipper previously acknowledged that older students still face learning loss and require further support. On Wednesday night, she noted that her work is ongoing.
“There’s a lot more work to do,” Skipper said Wednesday. Skipper expressed confidence that the district will make the systemic change needed “to really be serious about achievement growth in our district and closing achievement and opportunity gaps once and for all,” she said.
Skipper’s signature initiatives thus far in her four-year contract have included a plan to scale back the number of school buildings by one-fifth by the end of the decade, to move students to larger, more up-to-date facilities. Skipper also has pointed to National Assessment of Educational Progress scores that show Boston’s fourth-grade performance nearing pre-pandemic levels, which she has said validated the district’s investment in strong literacy instruction and high-quality learning materials.
There have been concrete signs of success.
In her first budget without federal pandemic aid, there were no layoffs. The district is no longer in a category of schools that are eligible for receivership, as it was when the state plan was implemented. And it is no longer in the bottom 10 percent of districts in the state.
Boston has also brokered a new contract with its teachers union, avoiding a work stoppage like the strikes that have erupted in other communities.
Skipper’s tenure, though, has not been immune to criticism.
Like many districts, Boston still grapples with learning loss years after the pandemic; there also remains wide achievement gaps between Black and Latino students compared to their white and Asian schoolmates.
A state improvement plan expired June 30, even as several commitments under that agreement had not been fulfilled. Many students who are English learners or who have disabilities continue to struggle, even as the district rolls out new programs meant to meet their needs.
Many school buses, which crisscross Boston as part of its school choice program, continue running late, though they have improved. But those improvements have been overshadowed by the death of a 5-year-old boy, who was struck and run over by his school bus in April.
And one measure intended to help buses run more efficiently — by eliminating stops of students who infrequently ride the bus — has sparked criticism over concerns the plan will disproportionately impact special education students.
Christopher Huffaker of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com or on Signal at john_hilliard.70. Follow him on Bluesky at iamjohnhilliard.bsky.social.