Burlington School Food Project is providing free boxes of food for families available various sites throughout the city. Each meal kit is intended to cover breakfast, lunch, supper, and snacks for one child for one week (7 days)! You can pick up food boxes on Wednesdays and Fridays at the locations listed below. You can get one box per child in your household under 19 years of age, and you do not have to have your child with you to pick up food. Please see more information below or contact Doug Davis with any questions. 

***NEW*** We are also offering Vegetarian Meal Kits. See the images below for examples of the types of foods available in each kit. ALL FAMILIES ARE WELCOME with no eligibility requirements. 

***Schedule and Locations (Every Wednesday and Friday)***

3:00-4:30 PM – BHS Parking Lot, Sustainability Academy & Champlain Elementary Parking Lot

5:00-6 PM – Boys & Girls Club of Burlington

Students to Lead Ceremonies Throughout November and December –
By Autumn Bangor and Russ Elek

 In July, the Burlington School District (BSD) joined the City of Burlington and other community partners in declaring Racism a Public Health Emergency. As part of the announcement, BSD committed to flying the Black Lives Matter flag at all school properties. On Tuesday, September 15, 2020, the Burlington Board of School Commissioners passed a resolution to support this effort and this November and December, all students at all BSD schools, as well as several community partners, will begin the process of raising the flags in small, private ceremonies. The work began on Friday, November 13 when students raised the flag at BHS, CP Smith, and Ira Allen PreSchool.

“The raising of the Black Lives Matter flag symbolically represents the commitments of allyship, anti-racist practices, diversity and inclusion, justice, and equity set forth by Burlington School District,” said Superintendent Tom Flanagan. “This is a great symbol of equity, but it is only a starting point. I’m proud of our principals and teachers who have taken the opportunity to connect these flag-raisings directly to classroom curriculum and learning. By having students involved in the ceremonies and age-appropriate conversations around race and equity, we can ensure that the flags are truly an outward representation of what is happening inside our schools.”

BSD’s Office of Equity has spent the last several months working directly with students, teachers, and administrators to embed anti-racist curriculum and assist schools in raising the flag. They also developed Black Lives Matter FAQ to share with staff and community.

Because each school’s ceremony will be student-led, no two will look alike. Some will feature speeches, readings, or artwork, others will feature students singing or participating in drum circles, and one school will even feature a live performance from A2VT. Though every ceremony will look different, all will be rooted in themes of social justice, anti-racism, and equality. Schools are supplementing the events through classroom activities such as creating Black Lives Matter-themed artwork, crafting anti-racist statements, holding class-wide discussions, and utilizing Restorative Practices techniques such as community circles and one-on-one check-ins.

“We are living in a historic moment of racial reckoning as we watch our country come to terms with its history and present while living within the dual pandemics of racism and Covid-19 and the disproportionate impact on BIPOC communities,” said BSD Director of Equity, Sparks. “Systemic racism and racial injustice have a presence in our everyday lives, continuing to foster fear, trauma, and inequity, while undoubtedly denying our neighbors and fellow community members who are people of color their most fundamental rights. We at BSD strongly denounce racism in all its forms and we are dedicated to examining our practices, policies, and procedures in order to eradicate systemic racism in our school community. We believe Black Lives Matter and stand in solidarity with Black students, faculty, and staff, and we are grateful for the efforts of Burlington High School and Edmunds Middle School students who helped open our eyes and pave the way by working to raise the BLM flag at their schools.”

Sparks noted that student activists have long been asking for racial injustice to be recognized at the BSD. In February 2018, BHS Social Justice Union activists petitioned the BSD School Board to raise the Black Lives Matter flag at BHS, becoming the second school in Vermont and the second school in the nation to do so. The following year, EMS students, with the help of the University of Vermont-supported Youth-led Participatory Action Research group successfully petitioned to raise a BLM flag on the Edmunds campus.

“As our nation grapples with anti-Black violence, we recognize that systemic racism has persisted in our nation for centuries and we acknowledge the part that schools play in ending this plague,” Superintendent Flanagan added. “There is much work to be done and while the flag’s symbolism is important, our solidarity must be backed by actions such as the ones happening in our classrooms today.”

Due to COVID protocols, this year’s ceremonies will be smaller and will not be open to the public. However, many of the ceremonies will be captured through videos and photos and shared through school and District social media and newsletters in the coming weeks. RETN at the Media Factory will also work with the District to create a video showcasing efforts across the District. The public is encouraged to tune into the District’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts to see footage from the events.

***Schedule and Locations (Every Wednesday and Friday)***

In response to the August 11th update to the Agency of Education’s “A Strong and Healthy Start Guidance,” we have created a tool in PowerSchool that will allow families to complete student health screenings at home each morning before leaving for school. Please check out the video for a look at how to complete the daily form, then login to your BSD PowerSchool account to complete the screening.

Remember, it will be important to complete the screening before 7:30 AM each morning, if possible, because at 7:30 each morning, staff will download a report to see who has completed the screening. Those who did not complete the screening prior to 7:30 AM will have to complete the screening on-site prior to building entry. Once students arrive, staff will verify which students still need to be screened and confirm students are fever-free.

English

Arabic

Burmese

French

Karen

Kirundi

Maay Maay

Somali

Swahili

Spanish

We need your help!

BSD is entering into an agreement with the AOE to allow for all students to receive free lunch at Champlain, Edmunds Elementary, Edmunds Middle, and Burlington High School this year. This includes take-home meals for remote learning days. In order for this to happen, we need all families to complete the online Free and Reduced Meal application as soon as possible. Coronavirus has had many financial implications for our families; if your student attends any of these schools, please fill out the application even if you haven’t qualified before. 

We need the applications completed in order to get the best possible funding for this program and to have the Free and reduced lunch data that many programs need for grants and other funding. If successful, there is a possibility we could offer FREE LUNCH at these schools until school year 2023-24! All students at all schools already receive breakfast and supper at no charge, and these four schools are the only schools which have not been able to offer free lunch… so the addition of free lunch at Champlain, EES, EMS, and BHS will go a long way to combat hunger. 

Please remember, you should complete this form using your current income, even if you expect your income to resume/increase in the coming months. This program is fully funded by the Federal Government, and your participation will not cause other children, students, or families to lose any of their current benefits… there is enough to go around, we just need help to bring the program to Burlington and serve our students the best way we can!

Please complete the online Free and Reduced Meal application as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact Doug Davis, Director of Food Service: (802) 864-8416 OR ddavis@bsdvt.org

July 23, 2020

Dear Families,

I am writing to provide you with an update on our plans to reopen our school buildings. To start the school year, Burlington School District, along with all 16 school districts covering Addison, Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle Counties who are members of the Champlain Valley Superintendents Association (CVSA), will implement a hybrid instruction model that will include both in-person and remote learning. This plan to return to school is student-centered, focused on social-emotional needs, and designed to keep our students learning at a high level. Most importantly, a hybrid model affords the ability to offer in-person learning in the safest environment possible while adhering to the best practices of the guidance issued by the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE). Here’s how the hybrid model will work:

• Students will be divided into two groups.

• Groups will attend school in-person two days a week and learn remotely three days a week.

  • Students and staff attending in person will wear masks and practice physical distancing.

  • Groups will be thoughtfully created so they best support families, including grouping family members together whenever possible.

  • We are working on scheduling and will have that information to families as soon as possible.

• Almost all students will be learning remotely on Wednesdays. We will use this day to provide individualized support to students, engage in professional learning and planning for our staff, and deep clean our buildings.

While we all agree that nothing compares to the benefits that students receive from in-person instruction, after extensively reviewing the AOE’s guidance and evaluating how to operationally implement those requirements and recommendations in our schools, reviewing survey submissions from our families and staff, and consulting with our reopening committee, we feel the hybrid model will best address the health and safety of our students and staff given the current health data available.

Having fewer students in the building at a time will help reduce contact with others and allow for better distancing. The smaller groups will also allow teachers and staff more time to assess the academic progress and needs of our students. With fewer students in the building, we can better help them adjust to new expectations while fostering healthy routines throughout the day, such as regular hand washing. In these pandemic conditions, it is also imperative that we continue to improve our remote systems so that we can be ready to adapt if health data requires a shift to full remote learning again.

While we move forward planning to implement this hybrid model, we are also continuing to explore other options, such as offering remote-only options. More information regarding this will be available soon, though we do know that additional learning options will be determined by the capacity of our staff and our community’s needs.

We acknowledge the hardships that hybrid and full remote models may place on families, including our own faculty and staff. Although it will be a challenge, the overwhelming majority of families and staff surveyed preferred opening schools in a hybrid learning environment. By working together, openly communicating, and being creative and flexible, we can overcome these challenges together. That said, please understand there are many moving pieces to these plans, and we will need to adapt as the situation surrounding COVID-19 evolves and we receive further guidance from the AOE and the Department of Health.

Finally, in addition to academic work, I want to assure you that our teams will work tirelessly to support your child’s social and emotional needs through this transition. School is going to look and feel different this year, and we know all of our students will need support. We are here for your children and for your family.

We will send more communication in the coming days and weeks as we finalize plans, but in the meantime, I encourage you to continue to reach out and stay engaged.

Sincerely,
Superintendent Tom Flanagan

If you or someone in your family is losing pay due to the coronavirus epidemic, you should fill out a Free and Reduced-Price Meals Application today, and apply for 3Squares Benefits, even if you have already filled out these applications this year or have never been eligible in the past.

The thresholds have been lowered and more benefits have been added.

More information on both below, please do this TODAY!