The Boston School Committee is hiring a new superintendent to lead the Boston Public Schools by the end of this school year. We need all members of the Boston Public Schools community involved in this process.

The survey is closed but you can still share feedback on the attributes, values, and experience you'd like to see in our next Superintendent by submitting video testimony or texting using the links below, or by emailing superintendentsearch@bostonpublicschools.org.

Read on for details on the search committee, timeline, and community engagement process, or visit boston.gov/BPS-search

Latest Updates:

The School Committee will meet remotely on Wednesday, June 29th at 5 pm to vote on the candidate to offer the position of Superintendent of BPS. (Note: The meeting agenda, Zoom link, and public comment sign up form will be posted here 48 hours prior to the meeting.)

If you would like to view this past week's interviews with the candidates, please see the videos, below:   

Mary Skipper (Thursday, June 23, 2022): 

• Mary Skipper Interview (Community Partners)

• Mary Skipper Interview (Educators and School Leaders)

• Mary Skipper Interview (Students and Families)

• Mary Skipper Interview (School Committee)

Dr. Tommy Welch (Friday, June 24, 2022): 

• Dr. Tommy Welch Interview (Community Partners)

• Dr. Tommy Welch Interview (Educators and School Leaders)

• Dr. Tommy Welch Interview (Students and Families)

• Dr. Tommy Welch Interview (School Committee)

We are excited to share that the Superintendent Search Committee has selected final candidates for the position of Superintendent of Boston Public Schools. The finalists are:

Mary Skipper, Superintendent of Somerville Public Schools. Mary Skipper is in her seventh year as Superintendent of the Somerville Public Schools (SPS). She joined SPS in July of 2015 following an outstanding career at Boston Public Schools and quickly made her mark in Somerville as an innovative and visionary thinker, a passionate advocate for all youth, and a strategic systems builder whose approach includes leveraging community resources to support students. Before going to Somerville, Superintendent Skipper was Network Superintendent of High Schools for BPS, where she oversaw 34 high schools serving approximately 19,500 students. During her time as Network Superintendent, Boston High Schools achieved the lowest drop-out and the highest graduation rates in BPS history. Among her most notable accomplishments while at BPS, Superintendent Skipper helped launch TechBoston Academy (TBA) as the founding Headmaster in 2002. Superintendent Skipper holds a Bachelor's in English and Latin from Tufts University. She earned a Master's in Education Policy from Harvard and a Master's in Education Leadership from Columbia Teachers College. Superintendent Skipper and her husband, Peter, reside in Dorchester and have three children.

Dr. Tommy Welch, Region 1 School Superintendent (K-12), Boston Public Schools. As the Region 1 School Superintendent, Dr. Welch supports 15 schools, serving over 7,000 students across Charlestown, East Boston, and the North End: two high schools, 12 elementary schools, and an early education center. Dr. Welch’s service in urban education spans over two decades. His work prioritizes the improvement of the academic outcomes of students and connects leaders and resources within the network to provide a coherent instructional vision for all schools. Prior to coming to BPS in 2015, Dr. Welch was the founding principal of a middle school and later a high school in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles. His classroom teaching experience focused on English learners and special education inclusion in the lower elementary grades, as well as English at the high school level. Dr. Welch is a graduate of Occidental College and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2020, he earned his doctorate in Educational Leadership at Boston College. Dr. Welch lives in East Boston with his wife and is a parent of two BPS students.

The public interviews took place on June 23 and 24, and included community panels and a public interview with the Boston School Committee. Please see the full schedule below. 

The finalists participated in a series of panel interviews over the course of a single day. These panel interviews were conducted remotely via Zoom, with live interpretation in nine languages, including ASL, and members of the public are invited to join. Questions were the same on both days and were drawn from both the panelists and the previous public responses to the Superintendent Search Survey.  Questions were also chosen live from the Q&A function in Zoom.

• 10:30 am-noon: Community Partners
• 1:30-3:00 pm: Educators and School Leaders
• 3:30-5:00 pm: Students and Families

Each day ended with a public interview with the Boston School Committee. These interviews were conducted in the School Committee chambers in the Bolling building and streamed on Zoom and on Boston City TV; members of the public were invited to join remotely.

• 5:30-7:30 pm: Boston School Committee

Thursday, June 23, 2022: Mary Skipper 

(Via Zoom and live-streamed on Boston City TV)

• 10:30 am-noon: Community Partners
• Link: https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/85688851970
• Moderator: José Valenzuela, a teacher at Boston Latin Academy
• Panelists: Shawn Brown, Becoming a Man; Kate Barrand, Horizons for Homeless Children; Aisha Francis, Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology; Denise Kasrawi, YouthConnect; Marta Rivera, Boston Centers for Youth and Families; Marinell Rousmaniere, EdVestors; and Daysa Santana, Boston Public Health Commission

• 1:30-3:00 pm: Educators and School Leaders
• View video here
• Moderator: Dr. Carline Pignato, School Leader at Channing Elementary School
• Panelists: Neema Avashia, Boston Community Leadership Academy–McCormack Middle School; Kafunda Banks, Curley K-8 School; Dr. Michelle Eisan-Smith, Ph.D., School Leader at the Horace Mann School; Jason Gallagher, School Leader at the Harvard-Kent Elementary School and incoming School Leader at Boston Latin School; Raul Garcia, Boston Arts Academy; Francis Pina, Charlestown High School; and Dania Vázquez, Margarita Muñiz Academy.

• 3:30-5:00 pm: Students and Families
• View video here
• Moderator: Marcus McNeill, a student at Fenway High School
• Panelists: Edith Bazile, community advocate; Elinald Desroches, a student at TechBoston; Mario Fils, a student at New Mission School; Marilyn Fitzgerald, a student at Henderson K-12 Inclusion School; Tanya Nixon-Silberg, a parent at Mendell Elementary School; Sugey Scannell, a parent at Hurley K-8 School; and Reverend Cheng Imm Tan, Citywide Parent Council.

• 5:30-7:30 pm: Public interview with the Boston School Committee
• Watch video here
• Moderator: Chair Jeri Robinson

Friday, June 24, 2022: Tommy Welch 

(Via Zoom and live-streamed on Boston City TV)

• 10:30 am-noon: Community Partners
• View video here
• Moderator: Pam Eddinger, President at Bunker Hill Community College
• Panelists: Shawn Brown, Becoming a Man; Kate Barrand, Horizons for Homeless Children; Aisha Francis, Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology; Denise Kasrawi, YouthConnect; José Massó, Boston Centers for Youth and Families; Marinell Rousmaniere, EdVestors; and Daysa Santana, Boston Public Health Commission

• 1:30-3:00 pm: Educators and School Leaders
• Link: https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/81499255365
• Moderator: Dr. Carline Pignato, School Leader at Channing Elementary School
• Panelists: Neema Avashia, a teacher at Boston Community Leadership Academy–McCormack Middle School; Kafunda Banks, ABA specialist at Curley K-8 School; Dr. Michelle Eisan-Smith, Ph.D., School Leader at the Horace Mann School; Jason Gallagher, School Leader at the Harvard-Kent Elementary School and incoming School Leader at Boston Latin School; Raul Garcia, a teacher at Boston Arts Academy; Francis Pina, a teacher at Charlestown High School; and Dania Vázquez, School Leader at Margarita Muñiz Academy.

• 3:30-5:00 pm: Students and Families
• View video here
• Moderator: Marcus McNeill, Fenway High School
• Panelists: Edith Bazile, community advocate; Elinald Desroches, a student at TechBoston; Mario Fils, a student at New Mission School; Marilyn Fitzgerald, a student at Henderson K-12 Inclusion School; Tanya Nixon-Silberg, a parent at Mendell Elementary School; Sugey Scannell, a parent at Hurley K-8 School; and Reverend Cheng Imm Tan, Citywide Parent Council.

• 5:30-7:30 pm: Public interview with the Boston School Committee
• Link: https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/86027020418
• Moderator: Chair Jeri Robinson

Superintendent Search Listening Sessions:

Read the Superintendent's Job Description.

Read the technical proposal from the selected executive search firm JG Consulting here.