The Recreation Department is hiring! If you or someone you know is looking for seasonal grounds maintenance and landscaping work, check out how you can help keep Burlington’s parks and recreation areas beautiful!

Good Morning, Burlington, and Happy Birthday to You!

That’s right—today is the 225th anniversary of Burlington’s incorporation into its own separate municipality. The town was settled as a part of Woburn in 1641, delineated as the Second Parish of Woburn in 1730, and officially broke off into its own town in 1799.

For much of Burlington’s history, the town was rural and its primary industry was agriculture with an emphasis on pig farming. All that changed in the 1950s when the 128 freeway was built to connect the suburbs and technology businesses started popping up. Now Burlington is a center of retail and commerce.

Drop in to celebrate the town’s anniversary this afternoon between 3:00 and 7:00 at Grand View Farm. There will be cake, music, historical displays, and the chance to vote on the final design for the 2024 “I Voted” sticker from the five finalist designs created by BPS students.

The busy bees at the Buzz hope to see you there!

If you plan to attend the Cookbook Book Club on Friday, you’ve still got time to pick up the cookbook from the library and make a dish!

Schools Get Creative with Capital Requests

As a part of the budgeting process each year, the School Department reviews the big-ticket items it needs and makes funding requests to town meeting for the items of highest priority. This year, you might recognize a few items on the list of capital requests, which have been reworked in order to make them both more likely to be approved and more useful to the district and town at large, despite what happens to the buildings they’re associated with.

The Burlington High School music room floor, for example, was on the Town Meeting Warrant in May of 2022. The school was granted $450,000 to install a poured concrete floor to improve accessibility in the building, but there was a long conversation about why we would spend that kind of money on a school that might be demolished in a few years. That money was then repurposed to partially fund a feasibility study for the high school, and that study is currently underway. The new request will be for $175,000 to install semi-permanent risers that will achieve the same aim of accessibility but will also be able to be repurposed for school and town events and other uses after they’re no longer needed at BHS.

Fox Hill cafeteria tables, too, will be able to be placed in other schools to replace ones that exhibit wear and tear rather than being thrown out with the old building after the new one is constructed.

Other proposed capital warrant articles aim to install or repair building systems, enhance security, make deliveries and transport of materials easier, conduct curriculum review, rework the bathroom and locker room spaces at the middle school so their layout is in line with today’s uses, and more. The School Department will take these proposals to the Capital Budget Committee within the next few weeks, and the final articles are due at the end of March for the May Town Meeting.

Also at the (record-short sub-one-hour) School Committee:

• BPS hopes to engage in limited school choice as it has in years past, opting out in grades K-8 and opting in for 10 freshman spaces and 5 spaces in each of the other high school grades. This program has allowed for students who move to neighboring towns to finish out their high school careers in Burlington.
• The Puberty lesson overview for families will be tomorrow evening, February 29, at Francis Wyman.
• On April 8, the school district and the Science Center will be sponsoring an eclipse event at the Senior Center.
• The math curriculum review is ongoing and the district’s consultant, Dr. Thunder, will be visiting and observing in some classrooms ahead of her report, which will come out this summer and focus in on what the district is doing well with regard to math curriculum alignment and access for students, and where they can grow. There will be a similar ELA curriculum review, for which the district plans to place a capital article on the May Town Meeting Warrant.
• In the coming year, teachers will have more time to collaborate and implement the learning they do at professional development sessions; they’ll also be offered voluntary on-your-own-time quick virtual PDs to enhance their practice in areas they’re interested in.
• The MSBA Board will be voting this morning on the Fox Hill preliminary design. The project won’t likely go to Town Meeting until September.
• Tappé Architects has been officially contracted for the high school feasibility study.

Today in Burlington

Municipal Meetings and Community Events

• 8:30 AM-7:00 PM - Early Voting for the Presidential Primary at Town Hall
• 8:00 AM - Ways & Means Town Hall I Subcommittee Meeting will discuss budgets for Human Resources and Accounting departments, as well as the town’s debt. (Town Hall Main Hearing Room)
• 12:00-6:00 PM - Cousins Maine Lobster - come grab a taste of summer! (Wayside Commons)
• 1:00 PM - Handpan artist Gabe Cabral will treat seniors to a performance of this unique turtle-shell-shaped percussion instrument. (Council on Aging)
• 3:00-7:00 PM - Burlington’s 225th Birthday Celebration - Two and a quarter centuries—we look pretty good for our age! Join with your neighbors and celebrate our town’s anniversary!  Enjoy historical displays, music, cake, and an opportunity to vote on the student-designed “I Voted" sticker for the election.  (Grand View Farm)
• 4:00-7:00 PM - All Elementary School Kindergarten Registration
• 5:00 PM - Democratic Town Committee will vote to elect delegates to the June 1st Democratic Convention. (Town Hall Center Basement Meeting Room and Virtual)
• 5:30-7:00 PM - Community Dinner at Presbyterian Church in Burlington, 335 Cambridge Street - Gluten free, vegetarian options available, no need to be a member; dinner is free, though donations are appreciated. Come learn more about your neighbors in a backdrop of tasty food!
• 6:45 PM - Ways & Means Town Hall II Subcommittee - discussion and vote on the FY25 budget for the Sealer of Weights and Measures. (Town Hall Admin Offices)
• 7:00 PM - Ways & Means will discuss and vote on FY25 budgets for human resources, conservation, legal, Select Board, accounting and many more. (Town Hall Main Hearing Room and Virtual)
• 7:00-8:00 PM - Teen Event: Pom Pom Penguin - Teens in grades 6-12 can create a super adorable penguin from yarn and felt. Just click the link to see this incredibly cute creature - we dare you to resist making it! (Library, Register)
• 7:00 PM - Democratic Town Committee - Phyllis Neufeld will be the featured speaker and present a Travelogue of her recent Antarctica Trip. Phyllis provides Burlington Buzz with stunning photos every week! Thanks Phyllis! (Town Hall Annex and Virtual)

Sports and Activities

The girls’ hockey team takes on Medway this afternoon at 6:10 on home ice at the Ice Palace. Best of luck in the Round of 32, girls!

Wasting no time between winter and spring programs, candidate meetings are starting this week for athletes interested in spring sports. Boys’ volleyball, baseball, track & field, lacrosse all have meetings tomorrow, February 29. I haven’t seen anything about tennis yet.

That’s all for today. We hope to see you at Grand View this afternoon!

Nicci

Share this Buzz with someone whose land used to be a pig farm..