Greetings BHS Students & Families! I hope this letter finds you well and that you’ve been enjoying a restful summer break. School will be back in session before we know it, so I hope you take advantage of every moment of downtime and sunshine.
Things to Know for ‘26-‘27
It goes without saying that the highlight this year is our new campus, and this letter is much longer than usual because our new campus comes with a variety of updates and changes we want students and families to be aware of before the first day of school.
- First Days of School:
- Wednesday, August 26 is our 11th and 12 Grade Orientation Day Each grade will attend on a half day, either morning or afternoon. Please see the Orientation Day schedule here (p. 1 for 12th & p.2 for 11th).
- Thursday, August 27 is our 9th and 10th Grade Orientation Day. Each grade will attend on a half day, either morning or afternoon.Please see the Orientation Day schedule here (p. 3 for 10th and p. 4 for 9th).
- Friday, August 28 is our first full day of school, and is a White Day.
- New Facilities & Opportunities! We are very excited to bring back pep rallies, routine student and grade level assemblies, outdoor learning, and opportunities for students and staff to enjoy fresh air and sunshine. In addition, we have big plans for our new state-of-the-art gym, multipurpose room, and auditorium, including hosting our band, orchestral and choral concerts, drama program productions and guest speakers and performances. During the summer, teacher teams met to plan out some new and returning traditions that fire up school spirit, and our Student Government is also excited to embrace all the possibilities our new campus has to offer, both indoors and outdoors. We will aim to provide routine updates both on our website and via our biweekly newsletter so you can see how we’re making the most of this beautiful learning environment our community has entrusted to our care. You will also get to experience the school and meet your child’s teachers during Open House on the evening of Wednesday, September 16. More details to come on that soon.
- School Lunch: Another highlight of our new school is the industrial kitchen, which will allow a broader and more exciting menu of fresh, healthy, hot lunches. We look forward to increasing the number of both students and staff who take advantage of our freshly made lunches, especially given that we are shifting to a closed campus for 9th-11th graders (more on that below), and are much farther away from other eateries at our new location. Here is a letter with important information about our School Nutrition program.
- Attendance, Closed Campus & Senior Privileges: Strong class attendance is also a continued goal for this year – not just in terms of students coming to school each day, but also attending their assigned classes consistently. Attendance is essential for academic success at the high school level, and it also impacts our school’s culture and sense of safety and routine. Because attendance is critical as both an academic and school community issue, we will be working hard to ensure that students and families truly understand the importance of consistent attendance, as well as the ramifications of nonattendance. In keeping with our focus on keeping students in class and campus during the school day, BHS will be a closed campus for all students in grades 9-11. For the 2026-27 school year, 12th grade students who have earned at least 17 credits at the start of the school year, may leave campus during lunch and free blocks during the three-week trial period at the start of Q1, provided they attend the mandatory orientation and submit a signed contract. First-quarter privilege levels—Full or Trial—are determined by the student’s AU (Unexcused Absence), LC (Left Class), and TX (Extended Tardy) records from the previous semester. Please refer to the BHS Student Handbook, p. 41-42 (linked in the Helpful Resources section below).
- Cell Phones & Smart Devices: As you know, last summer the state of Vermont passed legislation strictly limiting the presence of cell phones in schools during the school day. We adopted a full day cell phone ban last year in anticipation of that law going fully into effect this school year, and we will stay the course (see our cell phone procedure below). I encourage all BHS caregivers to review the current phone procedures with their children before school resumes so that everyone knows what to expect. We saw amazing results last year in terms of how the cell phone ban promoted focus in class – and connection and play during passing periods and lunch – and we continue to strongly believe in our phone procedure. We look forward to partnering with families to help our learners maintain strong boundaries around phone use during the school day.
- Time Sensitive: Parking Passes & Locker Requests: As usual, we will be issuing parking passes to eligible students; this year, since we are not being charged for parking by the city, parking passes will be substantially less expensive. In addition, we will have student lockers in our school building. In both cases, the supply is less than the total number of students eligible to receive them. Therefore, we have a request process for both parking passes and lockers, with a priority deadline of August 21. Students who apply by that priority deadline and who meet eligibility requirements will be entered into a lottery; after that date, once initial parking passes and lockers are issued, students can apply on a rolling basis as long as supplies last, or will be entered on a waitlist if spaces open. Please see these forms for details information:
- For eligible juniors and seniors only: Parking Pass Info & Application Form (please read eligibility info and expectations/contract carefully before applying)
- For all interested 9-12 students: Locker information and request form
The Day-to-Day Routine
- Blue/White Day Schedule: BHS uses a White/Blue Day schedule. Mondays/Wednesdays are Blue Days, Tuesday/Thursday are White Days, and Fridays alternate between Blue and White. Classes are 75 minutes long and meet every other day. You’ll find the daily bell schedule also included in this mailing.
- Lunch & Advisory Schedule Changes: This year, our daily bell schedule looks a bit different. We will have three lunch shifts this year, rather than two, all scheduled at either the beginning, midpoint, or end of Block 3 (which lunch students are in depends on which Block 3 classes they are enrolled in, and could be the same or different on Blue/White days). In addition, advisory is now scheduled between Block 3 and Block 4 daily; having all students and staff in advisory at the same time will improve our ability to provide critical information, callback academic support, and Connections opportunities. The start and end of our school day will remain the same.
- Block 0 Academic Support: All BHS faculty host student office hours from 7:55-8:55am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays weekly. Teachers can schedule students to come in for help at these times, and students can also schedule themselves to come in for assistance. We strongly encourage students to take advantage of this resource!
- Afterschool Programming: At the secondary level, afterschool programming begins on Sept. 8. Please keep an eye for more information directly from the Afterschool Program in a couple weeks.
Class Schedules
On Tuesday, August 11, students received access to their course schedulesvia their district email account and through the PowerSchool portal. We also encourage parents and guardians to access their students’ schedules and, in case students have not checked their school emails recently, to alert their students to do so.
Want to make a change to your schedule? In the vast majority of cases, if student requests were not met, it was either due to the class being full or conflicting with another class which may be a priority for graduation. All that said, if you do wish to make a change, please fill out this change request form. We ask students and families to be thoughtful because you can submit this form only once. To complete the form, students must log in via their BSDVT email. Counselors will review the forms and make adjustments and/or provide a response back to you as quickly as possible – please be patient. There will also be an Add/Drop Period from September 2-5 when students will have a chance to meet with counselors to request changes.
Progress Towards Graduation & Grade Level Classification: 9th graders must have 6 credits including English to advance to 10th grade status; 10th graders must have at least 12 credits including two English credits to advance to 11th grade status; and 11th graders must have at least 18 credits, including 3 English credits, to advance to 12th grade status. Students’ grade level in Powerschool matches the number of years they have been in high school, rather than their earned credit. This approach prevents unintended and stigmatizing impacts to learners across multiple systems, but it also means that students and guardians should rely on their report cards to monitor their progress towards graduation, rather than their grade level classification in Powerschool. Students may take additional classes if there is room in their schedules (or through summer, dual enrollment, and/or VTVLC/virtual classes) in order to recover missing credits.
Helpful Resources
Please check out the documents below for the info you need to have a great start to the new school year; this includes all the documents linked above in one convenient place. Admittedly, there are a lot of resources here for your review, so please take some time to look through them before the first day of school.
- BHS 8/27 & 8/28 Orientation Day Schedules
- BSD Academic Calendar
- BHS B/W Day Calendar
- BHS Daily Bell Schedule
- 2026-2027 BHS Student Handbook
- BHS School Floor Map
- BHS Campus Grounds Map
- Parking Pass Info
- Locker request form
- School Food Project Info Letter & August/September Lunch Menu
- GMT transportation & student drop-off/pick-up information will be sent separately.
- BHS Cell Phone Procedures
- Parent Drill Information Letter
- BSD Drill Procedures – Info for Parents, ‘26-’27
- School Emergency Information Guide for Parents & Guardians (PDF)
- The BSD Restorative Code of Conduct
- The Hazing, Bullying and Harassment overview for all schools. Our staff who support this work are:
- Designated Employees: Jada Payea, Heather Win, Molly Doran, Kevin Garrison
- School Based Title IX Staff: Jada Payea, Heather Win, Sabrina Westdijk
- Non-Discrimination Coordinator: Sabrina Westdijk
- BHS Lead Pretest Notification Letter (PDF)
Important: BSD Returning Student Registration
2026-2027 returning student registration is now open for all students. To maintain the most up-to-date information about our students, we ask families to verify and update the information of all returning students, every year. Please complete the Returning Student Registration forms in the PowerSchool Parent Portal by August 26, 2026. A huge thanks to all the families who have already submitted these!
Please DO NOT USE the New Registration forms to update student information; please only update and complete the Returning Student Registration forms. You can complete the forms on a computer or download the PowerSchool Parent app on your mobile phone. Need help logging into your Parent Portal Account? Our “How To” document has the answers you need. Thank you for your help with this.
In upcoming newsletters, I look forward to providing routine updates not only about happenings in our new school, but also about the continued work we are doing at BHS to refine an aligned, guaranteed curriculum across all academic departments. While the work we’re engaged in as a school will take years of concerted effort, I’m very excited about the ways it already is and will continue to positively impact all our learners.
We really look forward to seeing you again, or meeting you for the first time in a couple weeks. Until then, enjoy these last days of summer!
In partnership,
Sabrina Westdijk
Principal, Burlington High School
“Educating and inspiring all students to influence and shape the future.”
