View from my workspace. I was surprised how hard it came down yesterday, but I knew those huge flakes wouldn’t last for long. Photo by author.

Good morning and Happy Friday, Burlington!

Seeing the trash barrels out reminded me to tell you that Christmas tree pickup is scheduled for next week. So, if you’ve been meaning to kick your needle-shedding inside-tree out of the house, this weekend’s your time.

Also, Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday holiday and Thursday is a professional development day for teachers. As such, there will be no school in BPS on Monday or Thursday of next week.

On Thursday, the high school staff will be engaging in professional development through the Highlander Institute, geared toward enhancing culturally responsive teaching practices in our schools. The MSMS staff has already engaged in their first full-day training session and, according to principal Cari Perchase, they got a lot out of the session. This has the potential to grow into a longer relationship for the district and expand into the elementary schools.

The middle school has also hired an instructional coach to help with DEI at the school level, and the School Committee has committed to adding a similar role for the high school for the upcoming fiscal year. Dr. Conti affirmed their intention to also re-hire for the DEI Director position.

Speaking of posting positions, the Assistant Superintendent position is posted now and interviews are going to happen in the next month or two.

Something else that was discussed at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting was school lunches and composting—two different but related discussions. We have received three responses from our Request for Proposals regarding meal service providers in the schools. This is a two-step process during which a committee needs to review each company’s qualifications before the district can open the pricing proposals. The review should be done by next week, and then they’ll start considering prices.

The committee is also reviewing designer proposals for the new Fox Hill building and will select one by the end of January.

The composting conversation was a long one, and I’m not going to summarize it here, but you can take a watch at around the 1:45 mark on the School Committee meeting from Tuesday.

In partnership with Nicci’s Notes