BCAT News

Anonymized responses from School Committee members found Burlington Superintendent of Schools Dr. Eric Conti had met or exceeded all goals, and had ranked “exemplary” or “proficient” on four performance standards. 

School Committee Chair Chris Monaco shared anonymous comments, both positive and constructive, from committee members in response to each performance category. 

Instructional Leadership: Exemplary

“Dr. Conti empowers administrators to ensure all instructional staff collaboratively plan, adapt and implement standards-based learnings comprised of lessons aligned to state and local curricula. He continually monitors and reviews progress, then provides additional supports as needed. Dr. Conti sets high expectations for the quality of instruction.” 

“Curriculum areas were marked down based on MCAS scores falling below state average. I acknowledge there is a causal relationship due to time on learning decisions, however falling below the state average on a qualified metric of educational outcomes must be addressed.” 

Management and Operations: Proficient/Exemplary

Monaco paraphrased one member’s comments, saying the member had concerns about a “reactionary” approach to infrastructure management, saying there should be a more comprehensive maintenance plan aimed at ensuring the life-cycle sustainment of critical building infrastructure.

Another member said, “I am proud of the strides we have made in terms of diversifying hiring over the past few years. I think the budget process is communicated very well and done very thoughtfully.”

Another member writes, “Dr Conti has prioritized capital improvement projects based on the needs of our schools to ensure facilities support educational programs effectively.”

Family and Community Engagement: Proficient

“The district remains predominantly reactionary in identifying areas involving student intervention, and would like to place additional emphasis on implementing proactive measures and systems to identify at-risk students as early as possible.”

“Family and community engagement can be difficult in such a diverse community and with so many languages spoken. Dr. Conti has made the extra effort to reach out to families, even when it’s not easy. When one young man decided to drop out of school, Dr. Conti called his mom in South America to engage her help in keeping the young man in school. It worked. He stayed in school, and in fact he just graduated.”

Professional Culture: Exemplary

“Would like to see a more cohesive focus on a single district-wide direction and focus. The overall professional culture of the staff seems to vary at each school. The high school feedback seems to center on many teachers and administrators making their own rules with no accountability. There often seem to be no consequences or discipline for certain teacher actions.” 

“I’m impressed by the executive team Dr. Conti has working for and with him. Their presentations to the school committee demonstrate their caring and professionalism.” 

“Dr, Conti’s professional standards are impeccable. He’s highly intelligent, extremely well educated, and a kind and caring person. We are very lucky to have such a high quality, outstanding superintendent.”

Conti thanked the committee for their feedback. “As I want to emphasize any year, any superintendent achievement is the work of others, so many things that I get credit for in this position, other people do the work,” he said. “Where there are situations or areas where we need to improve, I have that responsibility, I am responsible for making those improvements,and I do welcome that feedback. Any organization can continue to get better, and I think we can continue to do that.”