Boston Public Schools Superintendent Tommy Chang announced today that he has chosen veteran school leader and former BPS chief of staff Rachel Skerritt as Boston Latin School’s 28th headmaster. Skerritt, who graduated from Boston Latin School (BLS) in 1995 and taught English at her alma mater, will become the first person of color and the third woman to lead the institution in its 382-year-history.
Skerritt, a Dorchester native who is currently the deputy chief of leadership development for the District of Columbia Public Schools, was selected by a school-based screening committee that unanimously recommended her to Superintendent Chang.
“We would be hard pressed to find another educator better suited to lead Boston Latin School than Rachel Skerritt. Rachel’s passion for her alma mater, her deep familiarity with its traditions, and her commitment to equity make her uniquely qualified for this role,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh said.
After graduating from Boston Latin School, Skerritt attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in three years and received a master’s degree in education the following year.
In 1999, she returned to BLS as a 7th-grade English teacher, a role she expanded to include instructing English literature each year to 150 students in 7th, 10th and 12th grades. In 2006, she received the Crystal Award for excellence in teaching, an honor given out by the school’s students.
Following a one-year principal fellowship in which she received administrative training and interned at Another Course to College, Skerritt was appointed headmaster of ACC in July 2007. In August 2009, then-BPS Superintendent Carol Johnson appointed Skerritt chief of staff.
Skerritt left the Boston public schools in November 2010 to become principal of Eastern Senior High School in Washington, D.C. In June 2016, she was appointed deputy chief of leadership development for DCPS, overseeing the district’s professional development programs for school leaders and aspiring principals.