Updated at 5:13 p.m.
Burlington High School Principal Lauren McBride has announced her resignation, according to an email Superintendent Tom Flanagan sent to families, staff and students on Tuesday.
McBride will step down in January, Flanagan said.
“While I am saddened by this news, I understand that she has been presented with an opportunity that she feels she must pursue,” the superintendent said in the email.
Russell Elek, a spokesperson for the Burlington School District, said on Wednesday that McBride, who was not immediately available for comment, “is moving to the business world and has taken a leadership position in a local company.”
Flanagan said the district will name an acting principal who will serve for the remainder of the school year while it conducts a national search for McBride’s permanent replacement.
“We have a few great people who may be interested in leading BHS for the remainder of the year and I anticipate we will have an update on the acting principal before the winter break,” Flanagan said.
McBride became the permanent principal in May 2021 after holding the job on an interim basis following the sudden resignation of Noel Green in January 2021.
Flanagan acknowledged the high turnover among principals at the high school over the past two years and said he hopes to address that in the upcoming search.
“We want to make sure that the principal role is sustainable,” Flanagan said. “And one where principals can be in that role for a longer period of time so that they can kind of see the work through.”
A former principal himself, Flanagan described it as “the hardest job I’ve ever had” and said he thought it was a national trend that more principals are leaving jobs, pointing to the impacts of the pandemic as one major factor.
Flanagan commended McBride’s leadership during a time when students had to adapt to taking classes in the former Macy’s department store downtown following the closure of the Institute Road campus due to contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
“She has navigated the high school through really challenging times as we moved out of the high school and moved into Macy’s,” Flanagan said. “And she sort of navigated the pandemic throughout all that. I just can’t say enough about how good of a job Lauren has done.”
As the district works to begin construction on the new high school, Flanagan said McBride played a role in the planning for the $190 million project.
“Her willingness to lead from a place of humility and to be student-centered in decision-making has been an amazing resource for our high school and district, and her leadership will be missed,” Flanagan said.
