Local Government

Daily Buzz | School Committee Investigating New Food Service Provider

And, Girl Scout Cookie Season is upon us

Nicci Kadilak

Dec 7, 2022 — 2 min read

Hello, Neighbor!

It’s everyone’s favorite time of year! No—not the holiday season. Girl Scout Cookie Time! Cookies will be for sale for the next few months. I won’t be announcing every single sale, but the town-wide premiere is this weekend, and I wanted to let you know where you can get a jump on your cookie shopping.

Booths will be set up in the following locations:

Saturday, December 10, 10:00 AM-1:00 PM - Dunkin’ Donuts at Town Center
Saturday, December 10, 1:00-4:00 PM - American Legion
Sunday, December 11, 10:00 AM-1:00 PM - Dunkin’ Donuts at Wilmington Rd.
Sunday, December 11, 1:00-4:00 PM - American Legion

School Committee Highlights

I attended the School Committee meeting last night, but—full disclosure—I was in full-on distracto mode. Some very high level highlights, because I am good for nothing more today.

There was a presentation by Wendy Pavlicek (Science Center) about the project undertaken by newly-minted Eagle Scout, Henry Morin. He did a lot of thoughtful work to create nature trails across from Francis Wyman, including getting permission from landowners, and they held a naming contest for the two trails! One is called Falcons’ Forest, and the other is called Golden Eagle.
Dr. Conti has a preliminary job posting for assistant superintendent. They’ll polish it up and post it in the near future.
The school is looking for a new food service provider. Right now, there are just questions about the level of involvement (Will they shop and we cook? Will things be prepackaged and we just heat up? There are a number of possibilities), requests for reassurance that we would keep all our staff, and inquiries about the level of waste and plastic use. Some Committee members felt it urgent that we work to eliminate plastic and Styrofoam now, and Dr. Conti said that by the next meeting he’d present a waste reduction plan.
Some adjustments are going to be made to the accommodated fund, due to a state-mandated increase in out-of-district placement tuitions. This increase is based on lobbying from schools working with students who need specialized instruction—they have had a hard time recruiting and retaining staff and would like to increase pay for those positions. We are also increasing the rate for tutors.
We had a designer walkthroughs at Fox Hill on Monday; representatives for 13 different firms showed up. That’s encouraging! Hopefully we get some strong design proposals out of it.

Today in Burlington

Meetings and Events

Today is Shawsheen Tech day in Burlington!

~~12:00 PM -~~ ~~Planning Board Sculpture Park Subcommittee~~ - CANCELED
2:30 PM - Shawsheen School Council will discuss progress toward meeting this year’s School Improvement Plan and begin considering the SIP for next year. They’ll also discuss a social-emotional learning and mental health grant they’ve received as well as postsecondary enrollment.
4:00 PM - Shawsheen Curriculum Subcommittee
6:00 PM - Shawsheen Policy Subcommittee will continue discussion of the payment procedures and authorized signatures policies.

Sports

Our basketball teams worked hard last night at their scrimmages, and the girls, at least, report improvement from their first outing. The season is young. Keep getting stronger!