December 30, 2024

Greetings, BHS Families & Community Members. As we prepare to bid 2024 farewell, I wanted to close out the year by sharing some of the great things that we've been working on here at BHS, so you have a sense of where we will be heading in the new year. Current projects include:

• developing our master schedule and course offerings for 2025-2026;

• beginning our Spring faculty-wide book study of Making Grades Matter: Standards-Based Grading in a Secondary PLC at Work;

• the administration and instructional coaches will begin using our newly-developed walkthrough tool to gather schoolwide data on engagement and classroom practices; this non-evaluative data will be used to inform future professional learning, coaching and strategic planning;

• finalization of BHS's '25-26SY RISE allocations; these investments, totalling just over $500K, will be a major driver of school improvement work benefiting students and teachers;

• shifting into the data review and strategic planning stage of our grant-funded JED Foundation work, which will fuel development of a comprehensive counseling curriculum centering students' emotional well-being; and

• the Student Support Team developing and maintaining new systems to be very intentional about providing targeted behavior intervention and even more proactive in building relationships with students who need the most support to be academically successful in school.

Finally, an update on staffing at BHS. I have to begin by sharing how honored and excited I was to be confirmed as BHS's permanent principal earlier this month. I truly believe that serving this school and community, especially as we are on the cusp of so many big and wonderful transitions, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In upcoming issues of the newsletter, I will be sure to share a detailed vision for the coming years, in terms of the leadership team's strategic plans. The planning includes a steady shift back to proficiency-based teaching and learning, and laying the groundwork needed to make a responsive school-wide intervention system possible. It also includes exciting preparations for our move to our new building, and establishing new rituals and traditions (and community events!) to fully take advantage of all possibilities the new facilities have to offer.

Of course, my shift into the principalship also means that BHS can now hire a second permanent Assistant Principal. The role has been interim as I've served as an interim principal, occupied by Jada Payea. We will be following a process similar to the one the district used for the principalship. This means we will have posted the position internally at first, and we will form a standard hiring committee in January to run a complete interview and review process. If you are interested in serving as a parent representative on this committee, please send me a quick email to let me know. If the committee is able to recommend an internal applicant, they will do so prior to the end of January. If not, we will post the position externally and hire an AP by early Spring. 

I can speak for us all, I think, when I say that everyone at BHS is looking forward to what we hope is a new era of leadership stability after many years of disruption and displacement. While our teachers and students have demonstrated amazing resilience and positivity through it all, the reality is that stability is important, and will allow for sustained growth and improvement work.

Thank you, and best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!

With appreciation,

Sabrina Westdijk

BHS Principal