Mayor Michelle Wu tapped Rachel Skerritt, former head of school at Boston Latin School, to the Boston School Committee Monday, cementing a BPS veteran and education expert to the body for the next two years.
Skerritt, 47, an education consultant with the firm Attuned Education Partners, said she wants to help ensure success in the lives and careers of BPS students.
“The trajectory of my life was changed due to preparation and experiences I had as a Boston Public Schools student,” said Skerritt, who attended BPS schools from second grade. She is also the parent of a rising BPS fourth grader.
In a statement, Wu said she was thrilled to select Skerritt whose experience as a BPS school leader, administrator, teacher, alum and parent “will be impactful” in moving the school system’s work forward.
“Rachel is a remarkable public servant who has devoted her career to investing in our young people and working in partnership with BPS communities,” Wu said.
Skerritt will begin her tenure on the school committee in early September, according to the mayor’s office. She will fill the seat recently vacated by Chantal Lima Barbosa, a 2023 Wu appointee who became the first Cabo Verdean woman to sit on the Boston School Committee. The term is scheduled to expire in January 2028.
Asked about inclusiveness and identity in BPS leadership, Skerritt, a Black woman and daughter of immigrants, told GBH News that her identity is also reflective of many families within BPS.
“My mom came to the United States from Antigua when she was in middle school,” said Skerritt, noting that her mother graduated from Jeremiah Burke in 1965. “And my father is from Dominica, so two immigrant parents. That’s a hugely formative aspect of my life and my upbringing … and, I think, very representative of a lot of families’ stories in the city of Boston.”
While the BPS Data and Reports webpage does not offer any insight on the proportion of students who are children of immigrants, recent public research from the Brooklyn-based Vera Institute of Justice shows that three out of eight children within the Boston area have at least one immigrant parent.
“I think identity is a big deal because it’s so shaping and formative to who we are,” said Skerritt.
In a statement, BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper described Skerritt’s leadership experience as “extensive.” She said that experience and Skerritt’s connection to the community “will serve as valuable assets to our students and families.”
“As a BPS graduate, educator, parent, and former principal, she brings lived experience and professional expertise that will help us continue building a district where every student can thrive,” said Skipper.
Skerritt’s appointment comes as the question of a return to an elected school committee, a change that nearly 80% of Boston voters supported in 2021, looms over Boston’s political landscape. Wu vetoed a 2023 proposal from the City Council to shift the body back to an elected structure. While the mayor has indicated support for a hybrid model with an unspecified mix of elected and appointed seats, she has not moved to make that happen. Wu’s main opponent in the 2025 election, Josh Kraft, has vowed to implement the hybrid change if elected.
Skerritt also joins the school committee as the district faces multiple challenges, including a probe into the performance and safety policies of the systems school bus contractor, an increasing population of high needs and English language learning students and a controversial facilities plan to shutter multiple schools in response to declining overall enrollment.
Skerritt said that while many people associate her with her tenure as head of school at Boston Latin, her educational and leadership experience stretches across multiple roles and school types.
“I’ve led an underperforming turnaround high school. I’ve led a small pilot school in Boston, and now, I work with school systems all around the country with urban districts, rural districts and charter school networks,” she said. “So I do feel as if that breadth of experience will hopefully serve us well as we seek to be a district that every family in Boston seriously considers and feels is a wonderful option for their young person.”
A 1995 graduate of Boston Latin School, Skerritt began her professional career with BPS in 1999 as an English teacher at her alma mater. She served as a principal fellow and headmaster of the alternative college prep high school Another Course to College before serving as chief of staff to former BPS Superintendent Carol Johnson for a little over a year beginning in August 2009.
Skerritt also served as a school principal and a deputy chief of leadership development in District of Columbia Public Schools for seven years before becoming head of school at Boston Latin School in 2017.
