Last Night at School Committee – July 9, 2025

The only Boston School Committee meeting of the summer opened with a goodbye to a leaving member, included a summary of the Superintendent’s progress, and ended with more questions than answers. Here's what happened last night:

The meeting began with another goodbye to Committee Member Lima Barbosa who previously announced that she will be leaving the school committee for another professional opportunity. Chair Robinson commended her work on the committee and wished her well in the future. Of note, there is still no word on the process for filling her position.

The meeting included votes on various grants in the district as well as an ask from the district to ensure that the leased land permits for the Boys and Girls Martin Richard Foundation Field House Project were legally approved. The votes were approved unanimously. 

During the public comment portion of the meeting, there were 10 public speakers that advocated on behalf of different issues. There was a wide range of comments last night, including more testimony about the closing of the Dever, achievement gaps for English Language Learners, support for bus monitors, exam school policy concerns, and significant issues at the Mel King Academy. 

There were also several speakers focused on the poor support offered to students and families in need. One parent spoke to the cumbersome process of school placement related to the student’s IEP, and another parent testified about the district’s failure to adequately assist her medically-disabled son. Much of this testimony was heartwrenching, illustrating some significant gaps in the BPS' support for students with unique needs. 

Over the past six months, we have been closely following how the federal government’s cuts could impact the district. Last night, Superintendent Skipper offered some insight into resource allocation for next year and beyond. Superintendent Skipper stated that, as of now, no positions will be cut in ‘25-’26 due to funding cuts from the Trump Administration. However, the Superintendent did note that certain title funding may be in jeopardy that could strip away professional development opportunities as well as English Language Learner programming. This will be an issue we continue to monitor. 

At the last meeting, the School Committee outlined their evaluation of Superintendent Mary Skipper, and they deemed that Superintendent Skipper was "proficient." During this meeting, committee members unanimously voted to approve their evaluation of the Superintendent, yet certain committee members questioned some aspects of the district’s progress in terms of quantifiable data. Member Cardet-Hernandez inquired about how data was used to inform committee members’ decisions, specifically in terms of graduation rate, enrollment numbers, and achievement gaps. In response, the Superintendent stated that she would provide members with “memos” when this data becomes available. 

Here at the Shah Foundation, we decided to conduct our own analysis of the committee members’ evaluations, and we found a few notable pieces of data. First, across 48 written pages and more than 9,000 words of evaluation on the four standards, there were fewer than 50 data points cited. Second, two of the members did not cite a single specific number in their evaluation of the superintendent's performance. Third, just two members used more than 10 specific data points. Clearly, quantifiable data is not a crucial aspect of the members’ evaluation process.

With respect to media coverage of the evaluation, the Boston Globe ran a headline stating that “BPS Superintendent Skipper receives high marks in latest evaluation.” However, this attention grabbing title fails to adequately dissect and uncover the truth behind the committee’s analysis. In the body of the article, the Globe notes that “progress remains uneven across schools” and much of the analysis from members echoes the same.

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