October 9, 2024
Dear BSD Community,
It has been a very encouraging few weeks in BSD. On Friday, we raised the final beam of the BHS/BTC construction project into place. Before our big celebration, we saw scores of students, staff, community members, and alumni visit the beam and sign it. According to Whiting-Turner, signatures range from the first BHS graduating class of 1965 to the future first graduating class of 2031 and beyond!
In addition to BHS/BTC, Eagle Bay Academy is open, the BHS track and field project is nearly complete, and all the geothermal wells are complete at IAA and we are making a lot of progress updating the outside of the building. And last week the board approved a construction manager to begin work on BTC’s airport location. Paid for in part by a grant from Senator Leahy, we hope to have a contractor onboard and mobilized within the next month! The goal remains to have the project completed and the building ready for occupancy by the start of the 2025/2026 school year.
Inside our schools, we recently learned that 38 BSD students have been reclassified from English Learners to Proficient (WIDA Bridging or Reaching)! 23 of these students exited through the Spring 2023 WIDA ACCESS test and 15 students so far have exited via the Vermont Agency of Education’s (AOE) Alternate Reclassification Process, which is a new process that our Director of Multilingual Programs, Miriam Etesham-Cating, played a major role in developing with the AOE. I am also excited to announce that BHS students Connor Byam and Gretchen Fitzgerald have been named PSAT Commended Scholars. Last but not least, students in HMS’s enrichment class “The Power of Service: Youth Helping Youth” spent time in September mentoring and connecting with students at CP Smith, engaging in mindfulness activities, and spending time drawing with students and making friends.
Moments like this fill me with joy and remind me about the great things that happen in our schools every day. Thank you for being part of this work!
In partnership,
Tom
Professional Learning and Parent Teacher Conferences – Thursday, October 10th is parent conferences at BHS and BTC, a professional learning day for PreK-8 teachers, and a regular school day for Eagle Bay Academy. Throughout the year, principals and their school leadership teams are planning professional learning centered around three priorities tied directly to our Strategic Plan: anti-racist teaching practices, deeper learning in content areas, and a sense of belonging for inclusion and identity development. Thank you to all of our teachers and staff members engaged in this meaningful work!
We are Hiring! Want to make a difference today? We are hiring an associate director of teaching and learning, District Substitutes (who float to where they are needed), and Building-based substitutes (who move around in one school). We are also in need of custodians, food services staff, paraeducators, soccer and Nordic ski coaches, and more! Interested? Check out all of our openings and apply today!
Don’t Eat That! As some of you may have heard, three EES students got off a bus and found a package of THC gummies near the school and they ate them. Luckily, the students let adults know and the EES staff acted quickly, contacted parents, and provided access to medical treatment. Importantly, the students are all fine. Please remind your students, particularly those in elementary school, that they should never eat any food, candy, or substance they find on the ground.
VTCAP Results – If your student participated in the VTCAP state assessment last spring, you will receive your student’s test results with their first report card of the school year. Most students in grades 3-9 and 11 last year took these tests. While the score report does show your student compared to their school district and the state, the comparisons are preliminary. The AOE will release official statewide assessment results later this year. As a reminder, the goal of the test is also to assess our school’s performance: our success in teaching your child. These assessments are only one way of showing your student’s accomplishments. Talking with your student’s teachers and school leadership will help you understand your child’s performance.
School Safety Week a Success! Last month we held our second annual School Safety Week, with students learning to be safe and successful in school. During this week, our teachers taught students about our Restorative Code of Conduct and behavioral expectations in our schools, harassment, and bullying (and why they are not okay!), safety expectations, and students’ rights. Middle and high school students also participated in a Student Safety Presentation assembly where the overall message was to help create a culture of kindness and caring since the safety of our community is all of our responsibility!
Safety Drills – In BSD, we follow AOE and School Safety Center guidance on how to stay safe. This means we follow the mandatory drilling requirements of egress and evacuation drills, and we practice an options-based response to school threats (known as Run, Hide, Fight). Like last year, all students will be involved in intentional discussions on what we can and should do in an emergency. These conversations will happen in grade-level and age-appropriate, trauma-informed ways. Our intent is to prepare our community with knowledge of what to do in an emergency without causing fear. Our Safety Drill Team has created a District-wide drill schedule so that all schools practice the same drills in the same time frames of the year. Please take a look at the schedule, which families can use to talk with students about the drills at home.
STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATES
Instructional Framework – As part of our combined Strategic Plan Priority Areas 2&3: Deeper Learning for Every Student, BSD is collaborating with Leading Educators to set a vision for excellent and equitable instruction, surface existing strengths and barriers toward realizing that vision, and customize and socialize aligned teacher competencies and path forward to realizing this vision. This work will result in the creation of an instructional and teacher development framework. (Leading educators provided an overview and explained why an instructional framework is important.) To ensure the strategy reflects current strengths and areas for growth, Leading Educators will conduct a brief series of classroom observations next month, to see teachers and students in action doing what they do best. The data gathered will be used to guide the design of the instructional framework.
WestEd Report – As part of our work in Strategic Plan Priority Area 4: Educators Who Look Like Our Students, we worked with an educational consulting firm WestEd to review our current staffing practices and make suggestions. We received this report earlier this spring and will be using the findings to help us create new objectives for our goals in this strategic plan area.
Middle School Literacy – As part of our commitment in Priority Area 2: Deeper Learning for Every Student to implement high-quality curricular materials based on grade-level appropriate research, rigorous content, and deeper learning principles, we have started to pilot EL Education in both middle schools this year. During the 2023-2024 school year, middle school educators participated in a review of English Language Arts curricular materials based on evaluation reports from EdReports, and we decided to pilot EL Education’s materials from this process. Teachers at both middle schools participated in professional learning during the August in-service time, which was an opportunity to launch the EL Education practices, core principles, and materials.
STUDENT/SCHOOL STORIES
BSD Students selected to speak at VSA Celebration of Public Education – The Vermont Superintendents Association is hosting a Celebration of Public Education in Vermont on October 24, the night before the VSBA/VSA Conference. The event aims to represent the amazing work in public schools across the state. They are focusing on the areas of Youth Voice and Leadership, Community Connections, Future-Ready Learners, and Safe and Healthy Schools. BSD students from the Social Racial Justice Academy have been selected to showcase their leadership work!
Champlain to Rock the Vote – There is a “Rock the Vote” opportunity for students to help ease the stress at the polls on 11/5. Champlain students will perform a setlist at the polling site at Burlington Electric on Pine St. from 9-11 am on Election Day.
Outright Fire Truck Pull – IAA’s Team Spiral Sapphires participated in the Outright Fire Truck Pull! We had the biggest (smallest) team in the pull and it was amazing to see our students raising money for such a great cause!
Goodbye, Mr. Gailmor – Last week IAA had its first Town Meeting of the year. Jon Gailmor who is moving to New Orleans performed a goodbye tour for our students. Mr. Scott’s 5th-grade class surprised him with a song they wrote and performed.
HMS Students Study Stormwater – BSD Property Services Director Lyall Smith and HMS Stormwater’s project manager Andres from Poulin Companies visited HMS 6th grade teams last month. Andres spoke about his journey from elementary school to engineer and walked students through the purpose of the project. The kids learned a ton and loved poring over the plans, and Andres promised to continue to share photos and updates as the project progresses. The 6th-grade upcoming green stormwater infrastructure unit (aptly named “Don‘t Runoff!”) connects perfectly with this project, another great example of deep learning happening in BSD.
Playing Fields – Our now-annual partnership with the Flynn was a huge success! Hundreds of people came out for the performance even with the updated 4 PM start time. Big thank you to the HMS leadership team, our Property Services staff, the performers, and The Flynn for pulling this event off so successfully!
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