Schools

Daily Buzz | Dr. Lisa Chen Joins BPS, Outlines Entry Plan

And summer programs well underway

Nicci Kadilak

— 3 min read
Daily Buzz | Dr. Lisa Chen Joins BPS, Outlines Entry Plan

Good Morning, Neighbor!

Not many municipal meetings tonight, but there’s plenty to do in Burlington today, including a Farmer’s & Artisan Market and dance lessons! Look below for more info on these.

School Committee Talks Assistant Superintendent Entry Plan, Summer Projects, and More

  • Dr. Lisa Chen has officially started as Assistant Superintendent, and she shared a little about her entry plan and initial impressions. (One impression is that it’s been fun!)

    • Establishing trust is a priority. She’s been reaching out with various members of the school, local government, and religious community to seek input and learn more about Burlington and BPS.

    • Some things she’s eager to look into:

      • establishing clear communication

      • putting together curriculum nights for math and literacy

      • keeping an eye on the state’s family life curriculum (I am assuming this is what she is referring to)

      • math curriculum, especially aligning Algebra I to best serve all students

      • reviewing the equity audit report

      • building sustainable processes

      • using Open Architects for data reporting at both the staff and parent level

  • Equity audit update: the full report is expected soon, and Dr. Conti and Dr. Chen will use the result to develop focus areas for the district. These focus areas will be used to shape the job posting for the DEI Director position this fall.

  • Transportation: Bus routes are planned to be posted on the website on August 23. (School starts August 30.) This is the last year of our school bus contract and the request for proposals will be sent out this fall. They’re going to look at the bus routes to see if they can readjust the high school starting time back to 8:30, after it was changed to 8:40 last year so bus schedules could work out.

  • Elementary School Building Committee: next meeting August 1.

  • Burlington High School Building Committee is forming, and they’re following the MSBA process without being in MSBA—which means more flexibility. The feasibility study, funded by Town Meeting this year, will be underway soon by the selection of an Owner’s Project Manager (OPM). There are many different options for how the high school project could play out, and it won’t be cheap. But the feasibility study will tell us more. One hope for this study is that we could approach the MSBA (Massachusetts School Building Authority) once more with more concrete needs and possibly secure funding.

  • Summer Projects:

    • Middle School air conditioning: there are 28 portable units plus fans, and the project is out to bid. They’ll know more about the company they’ll be using in 2 days.

    • DPW is going to redo sidewalks in front of Pine Glen and therefore needed to remove 4 dead trees that were in the way.

    • BECC bathrooms are in process. Their summer program is at Memorial for this reason.

    • Some room conversions are underway.

    • Francis Wyman stair treads are on order and the grease trap work is underway.

    • MSMS scoreboard installation is underway.

    • Soffit work and instructional space work at Pine Glen will happen later in the summer.

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That’s it for today. I hope you have a great one, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Nicci

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