February 23, 2026

Greetings, BHS students, families and community members! I hope this newsletter finds you and your family enjoying a safe, restful and happy February Break!

Prior to the start of the break, all returning students completed course registration for next school year. If you have a 9th-11th grader at home and have not yet checked what they signed up for, this is a great time to have that conversation (and push your student to push themselves!). As you may have seen in recent updates from the Superintendent, we've been having conversations at BHS about how to encourage students to take rigorous coursework that really challenges them, and how to reduce barriers to access to Honors and AP courses. That work is still in its early phases, focused on gathering data from enrollment and grade records (high altitude data) and students (street data), but I am confident that as we gain a better understanding of the challenges driving persistent racial and socioeconomic disparities, we will also be able to implement creative solutions to address those challenges. 

February Break is also a great time to chat with your student about any newly formed or evolving plans for life beyond high school. As much as we like to pretend otherwise, the high school years are fleeting! One of the things that we're hearing from students is that we need to start talking about college and career paths earlier -- not just at home, but also at school. We are working to respond to that need, piloting a small professional internship program this spring to expand next year. In addition, we are laying the foundation for work-based learning options in the coming years, a career exploration elective course, and our very own college and career fairs next year in our new high school building. I believe that these offerings, combined with our already-vibrant tech ed, early college, and dual enrollment programs, will greatly enhance our students' readiness for life after graduation.

Immediately after February Break, on March 3, we will host a full day of Spring Parent Teacher Conferences. If you've not yet signed up, it's not too late -- please just look for an email from me sent on 2/13 with complete instructions. We hope to see you there, either in person or remotely (whichever works best for you and your family). Students will return for a half day of school on Wednesday, March 4. Then we will be back to business as usual, with full school days until March 20, when BSD schools will be closed in observance of Eid. If your family observes Ramadan, please check out the last issue of the Newsletter, archived to the right, for details about how we support our Muslim students during Ramadan.

That's it for now. If you are away for the break, I wish you safe and happy travels. If you're staying close to home, I wish you all the joys of late winter in Vermont. See you in March!

With appreciation,

Sabrina Westdijk

P.S. The bell-to-bell cell phone ban continues to be very effective (in large part because of students themselves doing such a great job adhering to it, and because of parents' support). As expected, the new limitations have improved the overall climate of our school. Parents, please be reminded that should your student have their phone collected three times, you will be required to come to the school to pick up the device; we can hold onto phones for more than one day if that's what works best for parents, but we prefer to return phones to families in a timely manner whenever possible. When phones are collected three or more times, we also ask that parents keep the phone at home for a couple days to help reset schooltime habits. Thank you for your support and assistance!