Kathy Bisbee, the executive director of Brookline Interactive Group (BIG), is leaving her position at the helm of the community media center after nine years. In a news release on Tuesday, Bisbee said that she’s departing to take a job closer to home in western Massachusetts. She said she will be joining a regional coalition… Continue reading Bisbee steps down after nine years leading Brookline Interactive Group
Category: Education
Brookline school district hires new leader for equity office
The Brookline school district has hired a new leader for its Office of Educational Equity. Claire Galloway-Jones, who has worked as a teacher and administrator in the Boston area for more than 25 years, was hired last month as the new senior director of educational equity, the district announced last week. Most recently, Galloway-Jones was… Continue reading Brookline school district hires new leader for equity office
In gardens across town, summer program teaches BHS students about food justice
One sunny morning last week, 12 Brookline High School students spread out across a garden outside Pierce School in Brookline Village to weed, water and harvest vegetables and herbs. The garden is one of several across town that they’ve been tending for four weeks this summer as part of a program, Growing Empowerment, designed to… Continue reading In gardens across town, summer program teaches BHS students about food justice
Schools announce plan to cut K-5 language classes this year amid teacher shortage
Citing a nationwide shortage of world language teachers, Brookline’s schools are set to implement a contingency plan that will eliminate world language instruction for kindergarten through fifth grade students this year unless more teachers can be hired, Superintendent Linus Guillory said during Thursday’s School Committee meeting. The shortage has left a quarter of the program’s… Continue reading Schools announce plan to cut K-5 language classes this year amid teacher shortage
K-8 World Language Program at “crisis point,” teachers say
Nearly half the teachers in Brookline’s K-8 World Language Program have quit or taken leave in the past two years, according to a group of language teachers who are calling attention to workloads they say have become unsustainable and put the entire program at risk. Proposed staffing cuts and teaching assignments for next year that… Continue reading K-8 World Language Program at “crisis point,” teachers say
Teachers union, schools agree on new contract for paraprofessionals
Brookline paraprofessionals and the School Committee have agreed to a new contract that will increase annual compensation for the bargaining unit’s lowest-paid workers from approximately $31,000 to $34,000 next year and nearly $40,000 by 2026, the Brookline Educators Union announced Thursday. The three-year contract, which will take effect September 1, will make Brookline’s paraprofessionals the… Continue reading Teachers union, schools agree on new contract for paraprofessionals
Brookline schools’ equity office faces a reckoning as two leaders step down
The two staff members of the Office of Educational Equity at the Public Schools of Brookline have announced they are leaving their jobs this summer, one of them citing long-standing cultural problems in the schools. Jenee Uttaro, senior director of educational equity, said in a letter to colleagues that she is leaving her position after… Continue reading Brookline schools’ equity office faces a reckoning as two leaders step down
Heath School to be renamed after pioneering musician Roland Hayes
Members of Brookline’s Heath School have voted to rename the school after Roland Hayes, a pioneering Black musician who lived on Allerton Street in Brookline for nearly 50 years. Hayes was chosen from four finalists in a vote last week by students, families and staff at the K-8 school. The other finalists were METCO founder… Continue reading Heath School to be renamed after pioneering musician Roland Hayes
BEEP 50 years later: Looking back at Brookline’s pioneering early childhood project
In the late 1960s, teachers began to alert Brookline School Superintendent Robert Sperber to a problem in their classrooms. Too many children were entering kindergarten with previously undetected developmental and learning difficulties. Sperber initially proposed expanding a new experimental preschool, but when he relayed the plan to Burton White, a Harvard professor and early childhood… Continue reading BEEP 50 years later: Looking back at Brookline’s pioneering early childhood project