The Register talked to Principal Beaupre on October 3, 2023, before she was put on adminstrative leave.
BHS and the Burlington School District in general has had very high turnover rates for administrators in recent years. What are your thoughts on this, and how long do you hope to stay with BHS?
“I don’t necessarily know the dynamics in terms of the previous personnel. But I do know that this job is hard. You have to be brave to be a principal. You have to be willing to have hard conversations with people day after day after day. And that’s exhausting. It’s an incredibly demanding job. I’m lucky because I have Mrs. Westdijk who used to be the principal at Edmunds Middle School so she really understands all of the work that’s involved. Mrs. Crothers, who used to be an ESL teacher, is an interim, who really knows a lot about this school. She’s been here for almost 25 years. Most principals don’t stay to watch the freshmen of that year graduate. But that’s not my plan. My plan is to stay here for anywhere from seven to 10 years and then I’d like to retire.”
Why did you decide to come to BHS?
“I was impressed with the mission and the vision of the school’s strategic plan. I’ve also always liked Burlington. It reminds me of Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is very near where I’m from… This high school really reminds me a lot of my own. I liked that mix of cultures, I’m used to having lots of different kinds of people all around.”
What is something you want students and teachers to know about you?
“I became a teacher because I hated school [as a kid] and I wanted to be a teacher for kids who find school difficult. [I found that] the reasons why I hated school could be avoided. I was interested in learning – I just didn’t like it the way it was set up, it didn’t click for me. [It was all rote] memorization, they called it ‘sit and get.’ There was a lack of deeper learning. I had a hard time focusing since all ‘sit and get’ it was very rarely ‘get up and move.’”
“Another thing people should know about me is that I have three children. My children have had varied success in school. As a student, I spent time in the principal’s office in elementary school, but I’ve also had occasion to have phone calls from the principal’s office for my own children. I know what that’s like. So it’s very important to me that we figure out how to remove barriers for parents who want to be involved in their kid’s lives. In high school we’re not really set up for visitors in the same way [as primary school]. Parents are like ‘I don’t know anything about [these teachers].’ I’m really hoping that there are ways that we can make things as transparent to parents as possible. Because the school just saying ‘trust us,’ is not enough.”
How has your experience in education informed you as an administrator?
“Until I worked [at Hanover High School], I had not worked in a really well resourced school. My entire career had been with underserved populations. Not enough of this, not enough of that… There’s poor kids, there’s people struggling with trauma. There’s all kinds of kids… I want a chance to show them a different version of themselves and their possibilities… I’m always trying to figure out new ways to reach kids and to [give them] opportunities.”
What are some short-term goals and some more long-term goals you have as principal for this year?
“[In the short term] I’m hoping to be able to create affinity spaces for various groups of students who have been traditionally marginalized. I’m also hoping to create groups, therapeutic groups, for kids who have struggled with attendance, who maybe are impacted by having to resettle, or who’ve experienced bereavement, for example. You’d be surprised how many kids lose a parent or somebody really important to them. All of those things make school a little less difficult. I know a lot of people hate school and I’m trying to figure out all the ways to help people hate it less”
“Long term, I would love to see us, for example, have regular school assemblies that students need and that are more like all-school meetings than a ‘show,’ if you get what I mean. It would be a great way for different groups to get up to talk about and show what they do. It’s very challenging now because we don’t have an auditorium space. But that’s still something I’d like to do this year.”
