A new school year launches in Boston

Jeremy Siegel: You’re listening to GBH’s Morning Edition. Tens of thousands of students are headed back to the classroom in Boston Public Schools this morning. Here to talk about the first day and what’s on tap for the school year is BPS superintendent Mary Skipper. Good morning, superintendent.

Mary Skipper: Good morning. Thank you for having me on.

Siegel: Thanks for coming on. So before we discuss BPS, I wanted to quickly mention the killing of four people, two students and two teachers, at a school in Georgia yesterday. Briefly, superintendent, how do you handle news like this as an educator yourself?

Skipper: Well, first, my thoughts and prayers, as of all BPS’s, are with the families and the victims and all that went through the tragedy yesterday. I just think it’s too common that we see these things nationally. And my hope is that nationally, we start to really take a deeper look at the policies that lead to some of these killings. Here in Boston, we’ve worked very hard. We have a new emergency management service department that works with each of our schools, and they submit safety plans. And so we’re feeling, you know, really prepared. We have our safety specialists who work deeply, while in relationship with our students. They’re all trauma trained, mental health trained. And we know that relationship is a key component of this. When students feel disengaged, you know, that’s when often they’ll take to really extreme kinds of measures. You know, yesterday the mayor and I knocked on doors. It was a campaign that we’ve now initiated for the last six years where we reengage students who may have been chronically absent, who may have dropped out. These are students that are not feeling attached to the district or to the schools. The mayor and I went and, you know, personally met with several of the students and their families, you know, in an effort that’s districtwide to make sure that we have a pulse on all of our students, whether they’re with us every day or whether with their struggle to make sure that they have the supports, mental health supports, supports to deal with chronic absenteeism in the systems. It’s all of these things working together that keep our young people safe and healthy.

Siegel: Let’s talk a little bit more about the district’s plans this year. BPS is under a state imposed improvement plan to fix major issues. One of them has been late buses and staffing shortages. This year you have announced school buses are fully staffed with drivers. What are we seeing so far this morning on the first day?

Skipper: So we’re feeling really good. I want to celebrate. This is our first day. This is such a special day in Boston. This is, you know, when our parents trust our students to us. Students are excited. Families are excited as they’re dropping their students off or their students are coming in. And they’re full of hope and optimism and readiness for the school year. And we share that. We feel really prepared. We’ve worked very hard with the team, I think, on transportation, as I’ve shared previously. For the first time, we’re over 100% full for our bus drivers and our bus monitors. You know, and they’re so essential to greeting our students every day and making sure that our students on the yellow buses are getting to school safely and on time. So, you know, we’re feeling really good about that. The buses seem to be rolling. I’m out on the roads right now on travel to schools, and I’m seeing them, you know, waving and so forth. And so I think, you know, everybody’s in a good — I think a lot of the issues that existed previously, we’ve worked hard on the system. We launched a new application called Zūm that we’re very excited about, and I want to make sure parents register for it. It allows our parents to know when their students get on and off the bus. It allows our parents to be able to see where the bus is live GPS. It’s also helpful for our drivers to be able to navigate our roads, which, as we know in Boston with traffic is not easy. And it also allows our parents to cancel a ride were a student to be sick or not attending school that day. And that means that that bus driver won’t be waiting unnecessarily at a bus stop for a student that won’t come. All of these things together, Jeremy and Paris, are going to work to make our transportation system the safest and most reliable.

Siegel: At this moment. When we’re speaking, some students are arriving at school or on their way to school. Other kids and parents might be making breakfast, getting ready to head out the door, maybe doing some pre first day of school rituals. Do you have any of those? What did you eat this morning before the first day?

Skipper: What I tend to always eat, which is a banana to begin with. I like my little potassium before I get on to, you know, on to the road. But, you know, for our parents, we had 800 families join us in a Zoom, the most of all time. And in that we talked a lot. We had parent leaders actually give advice to other parents and things like making sure students are getting breakfast, whether it’s at school or at home, making sure students go to sleep and have a schedule, making sure students have safety with technology and good boundaries. These were all pieces of advice that came from parents to parents, and I think many of the parents who are new to the BPS or returning were really grateful for that advice.

Siegel: Boston Public Schools superintendent Mary Skipper, thank you so much for your time this morning.

Skipper: Thank you so much for having me on.

Siegel: You’re listening to GBH’s morning edition.