November 13, 2024
Dear BSD Community,
At last week’s Board Meeting, we presented our yearly Strategic Plan update. I was happy to share that 20 of our 42 Strategic Plan measures are improving or have met their goals in the 23-24 school year. We made notable improvements in areas like deeper learning and relationship-based communities, and we’re also seeing improvements in literacy, and in belonging and well-being. Here are some highlights:
- Well-Being and Belonging/Relationship-Based Communities through Restorative Practices:
- 94% of families feel respected by school staff.
- 81% of students feel valued for who they are, including their language and culture—up 9 points from 2022-23.
- 87% of staff report being treated fairly by adults in our district, a 7-point increase from 2022-23.
- Deeper Learning for Every Student:
- Based on our internal assessment, Literably, reading proficiency for grades K-5 has increased by 10 points since 2022, and over 50% of students reading below grade level made more than a year’s growth.
- Students of the Global Majority made up 25% of AP course completions, an increase of 3 points. We also introduced a new AP African American Studies course!
- Our graduation rate reached 84.2% in 2022-23, an 8.2-point increase.
While we still have work ahead, these results reflect the hard work of our educators and school leaders and show our progress toward ensuring every learner is challenged, empowered, and engaged in our schools. I am excited by the positive shifts we’re making – I believe this work will have lasting impacts on our schools and also on our community, state, and nation.
Please take a moment to review the presentation or watch the recording of the board presentation to learn more about our progress. Thank you for your engagement, collaboration, and partnership to keep making our schools amazing.
In partnership,
Tom
P.S. If you want to become even more connected to the work we’re doing, please consider joining our Strategic Plan Guiding Coalition (see below).
UPDATES
Budget – Believe it or not, it’s budget season again! The timeline and budget survey for this year’s budget are now posted on our budget webpage, and I encourage you to share your thoughts. You may have seen in the news that Governor Scott recently sent schools a letter with information on expected tax impacts. Although the official tax letter won’t come until December, he wanted districts to have as much time as possible to plan for potential budget impacts. The letter says that, if projections are correct, schools may face a 7% tax impact even before adding any new spending or adjusting for other tax factors. This highlights ongoing challenges in school funding that will likely impact our budget planning. Please know our team will work hard to keep any spending increases as low as possible this budget cycle.
Returning Student Registration – We’re making progress, but have not received Returning Student Registration from everyone. Schools will be working to contact families in the coming weeks, but until then I have given the following permissions for schools:
- No student is allowed to go on a “walking” field trip unless the Agreements and Permissions form has been completed this year. This applies to 240 of our elementary students, and almost 460 of our middle and high school students.
- No student should have access to a chromebook until they have completed the 2024-2025 Device Agreement. This applies to just under 300 of our grade 6-12 students.
Please help us by completing these forms today! (Contact your school for help or with questions!)
AOE Listen and Learn Tour Comes to Burlington – The Vermont Agency of Education (AOE) will host a public engagement session on December 3rd from 6-8 p.m. at the King Street Center in Burlington. Please attend and participate in this session and have your voice heard. The AOE is asking for people to pre-register and you can learn more on their website. This event is happening on the same night as a scheduled board meeting, so stay tuned for any updates regarding either event!
Strategic Plan Guiding Coalition Seeks Members – The goal of the Strategic Plan Guiding Coalition is to help us stay true to the vision of the strategic plan. The Guiding Coalition meets six times per school year, usually on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, at BHS from 5:00-7:00 pm. Members of the coalition will be compensated at a rate of $25 per hour. We’re looking for students (grades 8-10), parents, community members, and BSD employees to join. If you or someone you know is interested, please use the sign-up link or contact Victor Prussack, Director of Engagement.
Kindergarten Workgroup – Stacie Curtis, Director of BSD’s Early Education Program, is leading a group of BSD staff in a Kindergarten Workgroup to look at bridging the gap between Preschool and Kindergarten within BSD. The group includes kindergarten teachers, preschool teachers, principals, and other BSD staff who serve all six Elementary schools. The focus of this group will be to develop a list of short and long-term suggestions to share with BSD’s leadership team by February 2025.
EMS and BHS Principal Searches – After last year’s principal searches at EMS and BHS, we realized we needed to improve our hiring procedures. These new procedures, finalized in May, guide how to hire for a role when there is an interim leader. Using this process, we began the EMS and BHS principal search this year by first opening the job to internal candidates who meet the requirements. The position was posted last month, and Interim Principals Oliver and Westdijk have applied for the EMS and BHS roles. Our next step is to gather community input and for the search advisory committee to hold interviews. By November 22nd, I aim to recommend either hiring an internal candidate or starting an external search process.
Additional Literacy Screens – Due to an initiative launched in last year’s Vermont legislative session, we will be required to test young elementary students on certain skills that go beyond our current literacy assessments. To meet the need, we will pilot additional Literably screeners this winter with a few classrooms at every elementary school. The pilot will include phonics and phonemic awareness screeners in Grades K-2 and vocabulary screeners in grade 3. Instructional coaches will be trained in using the new screeners and provide support. The Office of Teaching and Learning will follow up with schools regarding pilot classrooms and other details.
Spanish-Speaking Family Event – Over 20 Spanish-speaking families met with BSD representatives in our first connecting event of the year. Staff from Bridges to Health and the Janet S. Munt Family Room were also in attendance. We discussed several topics such as how we can collaborate more, how to better support our students’ identities in our schools, health-related topics, academics and so much more. We are planning to have similar meetings with other languages later this year, as part of our work in Priority Area 1 (Belonging and Wellbeing).
SCHOOL NEWS
Champlain Students Play for the Vote! Champlain 5th Graders brought live music to Burlington Electric, their local polling station, on Election Day. The school partnered with PlayfortheVote.org to organize and produce this experience for our students who used their talent to support democracy and remind everyone that their voice matters. Thank you WCAX for coming to see the show!
Eagle Bay Academy Exhibition Night – Exhibition Night at Eagle Bay Academy was a resounding success! The evening brought together students, families, and staff to celebrate student achievements and the vibrant community spirit that defines EBA. With a record turnout, EBA students proudly showcased their projects, each highlighting the depth of their learning and skill development through our proficiency-based curriculum. The atmosphere was lively and inclusive, and the support from families and friends underscored the importance of shared learning experiences within our community.
Students expressed pride in their work, many noting how the event pushed them to reach beyond their comfort zones. The positive feedback from families and visitors confirmed the impact of EBA’s flexible, skills-based approach, highlighting how our exhibitions foster confidence, communication skills, and strong community ties. This event has reinforced exhibitions as a vital component of our educational model, celebrating both our students’ growth and the strength of our program. We’re excited to build on this success, making exhibitions a cornerstone of the Eagle Bay Academy experience for years to come!
BTC Visits EMS! BTC students from the Homeland Security/Criminal Justice program taught by Rosa Giangregorio visited EMS students last week. The four students displayed a poster about vaping and its harms. They explained what vaping is, why young people are particularly vulnerable to it, and the harms that vaping causes everyone, especially young people. Then they passed around word searches and invited students up to answer questions about vaping. Students who got questions correct got some candy!
HMS Students Host “Make Art Night” – 6th-grade students lead a group of students and families in a guided art session making Zentagle Art! The 1-hr event was hosted by HMS Art Teacher Sandy Hawkes with support from the HMS PTO! Everyone had an amazing time!
BCA Collaboration – A group of BHS ninth graders spent time at the BCA Center with members of ArtLords, a global art collective originally founded in Kabul, Afghanistan. Learning collaborative methods and design techniques from the artists, BHS teacher Jory Hearst’s students will created artworks to be displayed in a BCA Center exhibition running from January 24-February 1, 2025. This BHS residency is the final installment of three residencies that comprise Becoming/Vermont, a program developed by BCA and funded in-part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The program will serve an estimated 70 students with extended exposure to contemporary visual art and artists during the three separate residency weeks. The program encourages high school students to reflect on the complexity and interest of identity. Each residency week, organized by BCA Curator and Director of Exhibitions Heather Ferrell and BCA’s Gallery Learning team, introduces students to a different artist and medium. A key goal identified by participating teachers from BHS and Burlington Technical Center is to encourage experimentation and risk. Learn more here.
Property Services Community Updates —
IAA – The project at IAA is progressing well, and we’ve launched a webpage with photos and updates. Check it out!
HMS – The HMS stormwater project should be complete in two weeks! In addition to being in compliance with stormwater regulations, we will have access to stored rainwater for irrigation when this project is complete!
Champlain At Champlain Elementary we have met with folks from the DEC and our IAQ consultants. We are developing a plan to move forward with the removal of some window caulking and some flooring material to solve the issue with the low levels of PCBs uncovered by our air sampling results. We are also scheduling the replacement of the red and yellow doors at the rear of Champlain over the Thanksgiving Break. There will be a small asbestos abatement project in preparation of this replacement. No PCBs were identified in the caulking associated with these doors.
BHS At BHS, the HS Track and field project is complete and we will be ready to celebrate in the spring! .
BTC at BTV We are eager to start the BTC Aviation hanger project, but we are waiting for permits to be approved before we can start. We are proactively meeting with moving companies to have a plan in place to move all of the large equipment when the time comes.
