The Boston School Committee ranked BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper “effective” in an overall performance evaluation of her second school year in the job.

“I think I speak for all of our School Committee members when I say that we do have confidence in your ability to lead this district,” said School Committee member Stephen Alkins. “We do believe you are turning this district in the right direction and that we want to do what we can to support that.”

In a self-evaluation, Skipper gave herself an “effective” rating in categories of Instructional Leadership, Family and Community Engagement, and Professional Culture, and “highly effective” in Management and Operations.

Overall, the superintendent ranked her performance “effective” or 3.75 on a scale of 4, citing wins for inclusive education, facilities planning, community outreach, and more. This marks a similar score to her first self-evaluation last year.

School Committee members gave a more mixed review, ranking her within the “effective” range within all categories. Skipper’s highest scores remained in Instructional Leadership and Professional Culture, ranking 4.0 and 3.9 respectively. Scores dipped slightly for Management and Operations, 3.7, and Family and Community Engagement, 3.4.

Member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez was the only member to give Skipper her lowest marks, ranking her “minimally effective,” or a 1, in both Management and Operations and Family and Community Engagement.

In Management and Operations, Cardet-Hernandez stated the district does “not have a facilities plan,” there was “gaslighting” on facility planning issues, and there’s a lack of clarity on the “untenable” future of the budget. Cardet-Hernandez also critiqued a lack of implementation of family engagement strategies but complimented the expansion of language access and the BPS Helpline.

Several members highlighted family and community engagement. Member Chantal Lima Barbosa spoke to the “anxiety” school communities may feel as the district churns out large projects and hard decisions impacting them and their families and the importance of continuing to develop communication from “a place of care” and accountability.

Skipper received “highly effective” ratings from individual committee members in Instructional Leadership, Professional Culture, and Management and Operations.

Members praised many big initiatives taken under the superintendent’s tenure, including the rollout of Equitable Literacy; the undertaking of more current capital projects, 11, than in the last 40 years combined; improved recruitment and hiring practices; transportation improvement marked by a 2.4% increase in on-time bus performance from last year; and several more.

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In areas for improvement, members highlighted development of community and family engagement practices, implementation of priority programs like the long-term facilities plan and inclusive education, staff hiring and retention with an emphasis on staff of color and multilingual educators, and ironing out the budget process.

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School Committee Chair Jeri Robinson acknowledged BPS is “not where we want to be by a long shot,” but the committee and superintendent are committed to “steady progress on so many issues that have been stunting our district for decades.”

“While we as a district must work with urgency, we must also ensure that our work creates a solid foundation to build upon,” said Skipper. “Band aid solutions work for a period of time, but are also the reason that we’re in such need of better systems and structures in BPS. Serving BPS and the community I love and I live in every day is an honor and privilege.”

Boston School Committee Chair Jeri Robinson (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald, File)