Buxton School Teacher Awarded 2017 Kapteyn Prize

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Linda Burlak, front and center, with her 2017 Buxton graduates.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Linda Burlak, a science teacher and academic dean at Buxton School in Williamstown has been awarded the ninth annual James C. Kapteyn Prize for excellence in teaching,the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation has announced.

She will receive a $10,000 award for study or travel to enrich her teaching, and the school will receive a $2,000 grant in her name.

Currently in her 29th year at Buxton School, Burlak has taught biology and physics, algebra and geometry, and popular electives in marine science, astronomy and nature writing. She has served as a soccer coach, dormitory parent and college adviser; is a long-time member of the school's orchestra and chorus; and has traveled with her students to the Grand Canyon region to explore geology and to the Florida Keys to study ocean life.

"I teach because it gives me the chance to constantly learn — about myself, the larger world and the children I work with," Burlak wrote in a statement. "It provides the joy of sharing hairy Yeti crabs, quarks and gluons, walking motor proteins, the possibilities of life on Europa, and every other beautiful, weird, wonderful, logical, and illogical thing I can think of with my students."

Burlak earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Carleton College and an M.S. in biochemistry, molecular and cell biology from Cornell. She was in her second year of a Ph.D. program in molecular biology when she realized she would prefer life in a classroom to life in a lab, and that teaching high school science would help keep her focused on big picture science rather than forcing her to specialize in a sub-discipline.



Called a model teacher, generous mentor and invaluable asset to the Buxton community, Burlak has in turn helped nurture the science careers of many former students, several of whom now teach at the high school and college level.

"Linda is recognized by all of her students at Buxton as an excellent and extremely devoted teacher, and one who continually looks for ways to engage her students in how they can have a more direct hand in their own education," wrote Peter S. Smith, co-director of the school, in a letter nominating Burlak for the prize.

Burlak will be honored at an event to be held in October.

The James C. Kapteyn Endowment Fund was established at Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation in 2009 to honor the memory of beloved teacher Jamie Kapteyn, who over a 20-year career taught English and coached soccer and lacrosse at Deerfield Academy, the Williston Northampton School, and Cushing Academy. The fund's primary mission is to honor its namesake's memory by recognizing and rewarding extraordinary educators.


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Williams Seeking Town Approval for New Indoor Practice Facility

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week gave Williams College the first approval it needs to build a 55,000-square foot indoor athletic facility on the north side of its campus.
 
Over the strenuous objection of a Southworth Street resident, the board found that the college's plan for a "multipurpose recreation center" or MRC off Stetson Road has adequate on-site parking to accommodate its use as an indoor practice facility to replace Towne Field House, which has been out of commission since last spring and was demolished this winter.
 
The college plans a pre-engineered metal that includes a 200-meter track ringing several tennis courts, storage for teams, restrooms, showers and a training room. The athletic surface also would be used as winter practice space for the school's softball and baseball teams, who, like tennis and indoor track, used to use the field house off Latham Street.
 
Since the planned structure is in the watershed of Eph's Pond, the college will be before the Conservation Commission with the project.
 
It also will be before the Zoning Board of Appeals, on Thursday, for a Development Plan Review and relief from the town bylaw limiting buildings to 35 feet in height. The new structure is designed to have a maximum height of 53 1/2 feet and an average roof height of 47 feet.
 
The additional height is needed for two reasons: to meet the NCAA requirement for clearance above center court on a competitive tennis surface (35 feet) and to include, on one side, a climbing wall, an element also lost when Towne Field House was razed.
 
The Planning Board had a few issues to resolve at its March 12 meeting. The most heavily discussed involved the parking determination for a use not listed in the town's zoning bylaws and a decision on whether access from town roads to the building site in the middle of Williams' campus was "functionally equivalent" to the access that would be required under the town's subdivision rules and regulations.
 
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