Mary Skipper became Boston’s new School Superintendent in September 2022. She is the 6th person to assume this critical role in the past ten years. Currently, the Boston Public School system teaches 49,000 students. Skipper had most recently successfully led Somerville’s schools as its Superintendent. Among other accomplishments in her career, including nine years as a Boston Public Schools Latin and Classics teacher, she helped found Boston Tech Academy which scores today in the top percentile on state testing and touts a 94% college placement rate. Superintendent Skipper spoke to Sampan about the road traveled and the road ahead for all Boston’s children and families
SAMPAN: In light of the horrendous news in Newport News, Virginia, Friday January 6 about a 6 year old shooting his teacher, and the 300 school shootings as of December 20, 2022, what immediate measures are being taken now to strengthen security in all Boston public schools? Have we reached a point where all Boston Public Schools need metal detectors?
SUPERINTENDENT SKIPPER: School safety has been a top priority for us since I came into this position in late September. We had a couple situations in our own schools that shed light on school safety and there’s nothing more important we do than protect our young people, both physically and psychologically. The Mayor and Police Commissioner have looked at access to weapons and appealing to the community for support in this because it’s not something that schools alone can do. We’ve been very engaged with the BPD, the faith-based community, and we’re having ongoing conversations about and with students who have dropped out or are chronically absent. It’s about brainstorming and working together to address needs. We build relationships with our students. The social workers, our entire staff, and our restorative justice practices are the best deterrent to violence. Regarding metal detectors, schools survey students and parents and if needed they’re requested. We train the staff of schools with metal detectors so they know how to use them and that they keep their relationships with students foremost when they go through them. That is one deterrent, but this has to involve the community and we can’t underscore enough the issue of psychological safety. Our anti-bullying program has been recognized for its effectiveness.
SAMPAN: You noted in a November 28, 2022 interview with NBC1O that your ideal within the next five years is to see to it that our school buildings “…are really mirroring what the expectations of the community are.” Will these be distinctly separate expectations or common goals that indicate a unified rather than fractured set of academic and social ideals?
SUPERINTENDENT SKIPPER: We have a unique opportunity with the Green New Deal that at least in my time with BPS we never had. The age of more than half our buildings is before WWII. This is an injection of 2 billion dollars over the next decade in addition to doing the basic level of maintenance that hasn’t been done in the past to help even these new buildings best serve our students educationally in the 21st century. As we look at the buildings we can invest in and those we can’t, there are a couple of different reports that are going to inform these decisions, including a Facilities Condition report coming in the Spring. We have some buildings without auditoriums, Science Labs, Gyms, and we need to take a hard look at where we’re going. We’ll be able to either add on to new buildings whose structure is strong enough to easily meet modern standards or we’ll be able to create new buildings. Cutting the ribbon on our new Arts Academy was a big deal. I was at the ceremony raising the beam for the Quincy Upper Middle School. We see these promises coming in many places that parents and students can expect school buildings to be the whole child academic program. I think this is a unique time for us.
SAMPAN: Could you speak to the importance of TechBoston Academy as a vanguard in its preparation of young people for the 21st century job market?
SUPERINTENDENT SKIPPER: TechBoston has worked hard to establish pathways that integrate technology and the arts in a way that prepares young people beyond just college expectations. I will certain look to that model as we push forward with Josiah Quincy, Dearborn, Arts Academy and others. I am excited to re-enliven this vision of college and career prep within BPS. Right now it exists as a source of inequity within Boston Public Schools and we intend to address it this year and going forward. All students will have opportunities in early college and dual enrollment. This will allow them to experience college in the safeguard of the high school world. This takes advantage, in a good way, of the post-secondary educational richness of Boston. It will also help them get beyond the remedial and deeper into credit-based college classes once they graduate from high school.
On the other side of this is career. Our students need to see in a very real way that they’re applying what they learn. We are working strongly with PIC, the business community, the chamber and Jim Rooney, to help these students internalize the skills they’re acquiring and explore their interests and passions. Marrying these two things in the high school experience will really be the piece we’re working on now and the next few years to bring to fruition.
SAMPAN: Do you foresee a time when Boston will be able to create and nurture more public schools devoted to arts and culture? Will the arts be relegated to the dustbins in favor of more concrete curriculums that can guarantee a stable and growing career for their graduates?
SUPERINTENDENT SKINNER: For too long, I think Arts and culture courses were seen as adjunct, not core to the whole child. We teach children, whole beings, their ability to express and connect with identity and culture. If academics are done well, like with equitable literacy, this can be accomplished. We are also asking teachers to be aware of cultural bias and to design or adopt a curriculum that is linguistically and culturally relevant to the students they teach. I’ve had the unique opportunity with our Mayor to have many of our celebrations expressed through pre-K on. We are building through alliances with non-profits this ability to integrate some of our on-periphery special programs into the center of what we’re doing. Our students have a common language in music and arts but different experiences and ways to express themselves. Mass Corps, for example, has done some great work in the high school level recognizing the need to have arts and culture as part of the curriculum in a deliberate, intentional way.
SAMPAN: ⅕ of the 49,000 total BPS students have a disability. How is that term different in 2023 than it was a generation ago? Is the ideal of educational equity for these 9800 students unrealistic?
SUPERINTENDENT SKINNER: We’re trying to look at different abilities and skills in an inclusion setting and how to best serve them through a strength-based IEP (Individual Education Plan.) Now, we’re building an inclusive district through collaboration with the Union. We are starting to develop environments where everyone can thrive, with inclusion as a philosophy, not just a program. This is one of the most exciting things to come in the BPS and we’re working with the entire community to create a vision of this inclusive philosophy in play, and we already have a cohort of 22 schools ready to enact this vision. It’s going to take a while to fully realize this ideal. .
SAMPAN: What are your plans to improve the services provided to our second language learners? At this date, 138 countries are represented with 74 languages spoken and SEI programs in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean Creole, Vietnamese, Chinese, and multilingual settings. Could you elaborate on immersion vs. submersion models in ESOL?
SUPERINTENDENT SKINNER: Our strategic plan for this has four or five facets, and number one is expanding access to native language through bilingual education. Our goal is to give full information during the assessment process and offer full opportunity for students to develop their native language and also become bilingual. Our multilingual learners with disabilities need full access to inclusion and bilingual education, like at Margarita Muniz Academy. That school is a bilingual school that will also become an immersion school next year. We need to look at how all multilingual learners are learning. In addition, the whole child centered approach is building up intercultural understanding, lifelong learning, and global citizenry. Finally, our community work to engage all of us in this process is essential. We want to tap into the richness of the culture around all of us.
