Note from Principal

I would like to thank our outstanding custodial staff for all their hard work yesterday and last night. Custodial staff worked throughout the entire night. It was through their diligence and hard work we have school today. I would also like to thank Dr. Conti who was personally here working through the night helping to keep the water at bay. If not for Dr. Conti’s support in sending additional custodial staff here last night and him personally helping out, we would have had to cancel school. Some people do a job because it is their job. Others make a job a career. In my mind a career is when you go to a place of work and give it everything you have because you believe in your heart and mind you are doing something that is making a difference. In the case of last night and everyday, it also means making difference in the lives of children.


Yesterday I did formal classroom observations (the month of March is typically a time that we do MCAS and Principals do a lot of observations). During one of my post conferences, a first grade teacher told me how much she had enjoyed, the opportunity for teachers at grade levels go into other grade levels and see instruction. This primary grade teacher told me how much she enjoyed seeing the amazing things the teachers were doing in fourth grade. I have heard several similar statements from the intermediate teachers that went into the primary grades. This is much like the medical model of doctors watching other doctors do surgery. This type of professional development can only happen when teachers are incredibly competent and skilled.

In addition to MCAS yesterday, we had a film crew and a gentleman for the Italian consulate at Pine Glen. The film crew was doing a news story on students in Burlington learning Italian. The crew filmed a second grade classroom having Italian. The episode will air on Italian television. I talked to the group about our school and instruction for a short time. When leaving the building yesterday, the gentleman from the Italian consulate and the film crew described Pine Glen School to me as a “cream of the crop suburban school.” I did not disagree but, I wished I had mentioned we also have a cream of the crop superintendent and custodial staff.