A Conversation with Beth Kressley-Goldstein

As we ring in the start of 2026, Bridge Boston continues to celebrate 15 incredible years. 

This month, we heard from Beth Kressley-Goldstein, a long time friend of Bridge. Beth joined the school board in 2012, only one year after its founding. She served for 12 years total including terms in the Vice President and President roles. Last year, Beth joined the Bridge Boston Foundation Board, and continues to be an active member in our community. As a graduate of both Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy school, Beth additionally spends her time serving as a chair for the Board of Directors for Mass Audubon. We’re grateful for Beth’s years of service and her insightful input toward our growing school community. 

Ms. Kressley-Goldstein emphasized that especially in its early years, Bridge was constantly changing and growing, both to adapt to student needs and to become more sustainable. Issues felt by the school early on – novice teachers and high turnover rates – are industry-wide problems that Bridge has developed creative in-house solutions and programs to address.

Beth describes Bridge’s beginnings, saying, “Norms and standards were different across classrooms and grades. A lot hinged on teacher turn-over levels, the composition of the students in the class, and the ability to effectively on-board new, less experienced staff and mentor them over time.”

As discussed by Ms. Kressley-Goldstein, previously, Bridge students' success often reflected the teacher in the classroom. Flash forward to now, where we have strong, comprehensive systems in place to better support our educators as they also continue to grow to best serve our students. Through our BridgeYou program, diverse and novice teachers are trained to become effective lead teachers. By training our teachers in-house, we recruit passionate educators, build their skills over several years, and retain them for years to come.

As Beth indicated, staff retention was an area of growth for Bridge – and not an issue that can be solved overnight. Through years of supportive staff culture, community mentoring, and strong relationships, Bridge Staff have continued to stay with us year after year. At the end of the 2023-2024 school year BBCS retained 85% of our Lead Teachers for this school year. Further, we retained 91% of our administrative staff. As indicated by Beth, staff retention is essential to the flow of the school – and this is one issue we are proud to have addressed since then.

Beth goes on to explain, “Today, we have evolved to a school with clear professional standards, strong hiring and on-boarding practices, technology to allow teachers to monitor student progress, effective discipline and social emotional norms, supported by the right staff, a regular supervision and coaching system.” 

It’s easy to take for granted Bridge Boston’s evolution over the last 15 years. But every change came from somewhere: one leader who took the initiative to make an adjustment to move us closer to the school we are today. These changes were as big as moving locations to Warren Street and selecting challenging curriculums for each subject, to smaller – yet just as meaningful! – decisions like our kitchen menu for the week.

Our conversation with Beth allowed us to look back at how far Bridge has come: from a tiny school fighting for space and constantly evolving, to a steady, stable home for over 335 students and 100 staff members every year. Bridge has always been a welcoming place, and now many more people are able to call this space home. Of course Bridge has our eyes set on the future, as well: our upcoming strategic plan continues to challenge us to be our best for our students. We’ve evolved so much in just 15 years – imagine what we can do in another 15!

Thank you, Beth, for your service to Bridge Boston and your dedication to our students, staff, and families. Commitment like yours allowed us to continue to grow and change into the school we are today.