School Department Prioritizes Supporting Newcomer Students

Burlington Public Schools teachers will begin the year with new supports in place for reaching Newcomer students, or those students who were born outside the United States, are in their first three years of living in the U.S., and are designated as English Learners.

Newcomers come from a large variety of contexts, including country of origin (29 are represented in BPS), home language (22 are represented in BPS), level of prior schooling, age, and disability status. This mosaic leads to a complex picture of student needs, and teachers in the district have identified needs in learning more about their students, increasing their repertoire of strategies, and having more equitable access to professional development opportunities (which are often optional and therefore do not benefit everybody). Burlington has 330 active English Learner students, of which 162 are Newcomers and 73 were in their first year in the country last year. An additional 169 students will be screened as this school year starts.

Following a free consultation by SupportEd, a woman-run organization that supports educators in meeting the needs of Newcomers, the district has established priorities for this year to help teachers develop the awareness, skills, and strategies they need to meet these groups most effectively.

Building on the strengths present in the district, including highly effective ESL and Newcomer teachers, a student:teacher ratio that is around half the statewide average, and a wide range of effective student engagement strategies and instructional practices already in place, the district's priorities will be to:

• focus staff training on culturally responsive teaching to build cultural awareness and connections with students
• help students activate their prior knowledge and build background knowledge
• promote discourse among students, as language learning happens through implementation.

This work is intended to be aligned with the work already being done on the ELA and math curricula as well as this year's focus on enhancing the effectiveness of Tier 1 instruction (the teaching that all students receive).

Also at School Committee:

• The superintendent and School Committee don't think funding for whatever form a new high school takes will be ready to go before Town meeting next September, but if ready they will submit it. "We're more than a year away from a comparable point in the Fox Hill process," said Dr. Conti, while Chair Monaco said they're eager to complete both Fox Hill and the high school and will bring the funding question to Town Meeting when it's ready.
• The software designed to track school buses for parents and caregivers is expected to go live on September 3. Users can use geographical points to have the app update them. Routes will be live tomorrow.
• It's been a busy enrollment summer in Burlington Public Schools. There have been an unusual number of enrollments at Francis Wyman and some decline at Fox Hill and Memorial, but the net so far appears to be leaving enrollment slightly higher than last year. Total elementary enrollment is 1647; projections from the enrollment study done by the Massachusetts School Building Authority predicted 1642. Middle school and high school enrollment remains pretty steady.
• The after-school program will begin charging $55/day for vacation weeks. The increase is due to increasing costs, especially field trips, and to increase predictability on vacation weeks. They'll be open for two of the district's professional development days but will be engaging in their own PD on the other two. Overall tuition won't change. BPS's after-school program is overall less costly compared with others in the area and will be charging less per day.
• A handbook for the high school was preliminarily approved pending some edits. The vote was 4-1; Member Brooks voted no because he didn't feel comfortable voting on something he knew would change without seeing the changes. In addition to Title 9 (civil rights) language, one addition will be made to ensure students receive homework assignments with enough time to complete them.
• The district will be training teachers on the social media and "teaching of controversial issues/controversial speakers" policies that were approved by the School Committee last year. The mandate in this latter policy is for teachers to remove their personal perspectives from discussion of these topics.
• The members of the field subcommittee were confirmed.
• The district's 21-year-old forklift is being disposed of now that the new one has been obtained.

School starts on Wednesday, August 28, for grades 1-12 and Wednesday, September 5, for PreK and K!