Burlington Public Schools to Pilot Collaborative Care Program

An innovative program to meet student needs was proposed at last night's School Committee meeting.

Collaborative Care is an increasingly common way to meet individual mental health needs via collaboration between primary care and mental health practitioners. This model involves care coordinators, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals, working under the umbrella of a primary care clinician, to help lower the friction that is often involved with getting and maintaining mental health support. According to the American Psychiatric Association, this model has been shown over decades to improve patient outcomes.

In Burlington's schools, many students present with mental and behavioral health struggles; at times these challenges prevent students from accessing the curriculum or even getting to class on a regular basis. This model would allow students to get the support services they need without being referred out and being subject to months-long wait times. Services would also be billable to a student's health insurance, meaning the program does not have a district cost associated with it--simply put, implementing such a program would just provide space for kids to get the support they need and make it easier to obtain.

Families would still need to consent to services, and they'd need to allow the clinicians to bill their insurance.

After a brief discussion, the School Committee voted to allow the district to implement a pilot Collaborative Care Program at Burlington High School beginning in September 2024.

Also at School Committee:

• The 2024-25 school calendar was approved. The calendar will be similar to this year's in that students and teachers will have no school on Good Friday. This version of the calendar passed with a 3-2 vote, with Ms. Massardo and Ms. Simon voting against it. The original calendar proposed by Superintendent, Dr. Conti, was "secular" and did not have Good Friday as a day off school, but the Committee requested a second one with no school on Good Friday. The argument was made, as it was last year, that staff and student attendance will be so low on Good Friday, which is a Christian holiday, as to amount to a wasted school day. In the end, the majority of the Schol Committee agreed and the Burlington Public Schools calendar for 2024-25 school year is now approved.
• The mathematics curriculum review is ongoing, and the literacy curriculum review is planned to begin, though both are long and involved processes. Ms. Monaco and Mr. Brooks both pressed Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Lisa Chen, for more swift action on the literacy side, suggesting that some students, particularly those with dyslexia, miss being identified early and then don't receive the services they need. Dr. Conti stated that overall, student achievement is improving and that families and teachers should be reaching out for extra support if they don't see progress.
• The budget requests were presented for:
  • All elementary schools
  • Marshall Simonds Middle School
  • Information technology
  • Library
  • Student Information Office
  • Health
  • Facilities

• Capital warrants were also presented and voted to be placed on the May Town Meeting Warrant.

The School Department, like all town departments was asked to keep within a 4.5% budgetary increase, and the proposed budget currently comes to a 9% increase. Most budget requests fall under ensuring all students get what they need whether it is an English Learner teacher to support the growing population of students whose first language isn't English or an additional administrator to effectively support students without stretching any one staff member too thin. A request was also made to add an assistant to Facilities Manager, Bob Cunha. This is the second year such a request has been made, and with two potential building projects on the horizon (and those building committees already happening regularly), School Committee Chair, Martha Simon, said that seemed to be a reasonable request.