Central Vermont Career Center board names superintendent

May 20, 2022  |  By David Delcore | Times Argus Staff Writer 

Jody Emerson is now superintendent of the Central Vermont Career Center School District. Courtesy photo

BARRE — Vermont’s newest school board on Monday appointed Vermont’s newest superintendent amid a flurry of decisions that set the stage for the looming launch of the Central Vermont Career Center School District. 

The career center’s school board was busy Monday night, making decisions — some more consequential than others — during its first-ever meeting at the Barre-based career center. 

The biggest decision made by the board, which includes a mix of elected and appointed members, was among the most predictable. Jody Emerson, who is still in her first year as director of the career center, was tapped to serve as superintendent of the soon-to-be-autonomous school district.

Collectively created by voters in 18 central Vermont communities on Town Meeting Day in March, the new district’s sole focus will be the regional career center, which has been governed by a school board in Barre since it opened under a different name in a wing at Spaulding High School more than 50 years ago. 

That will change on July 1 as part of a carefully planned transition that recently required the Barre Unified Union School Board to issue “reduction in force” notices to the entire faculty and staff at the career center even as Emerson issued letters of intent on behalf of a board that hadn’t yet met. 

It has now. 

In a move designed to ensure no break in employment, the career center board approved a plan to offer contracts to all of the career center’s unionized employees who are currently covered by a labor agreement negotiated by the Barre Education Association. 

The final year of that contract coincides with what will be the first year of the new school district and the board agreed its terms will dictate employment conditions until it negotiates its own labor agreement for the contract year that will start July 1, 2023. 

Board members approved a two-year employment contract with Emerson and authorized their newly minted superintendent to enter two-year employment contracts with the center’s assistant director, special services director, counselor, as well as a newly created business manager’s position. 

Acting on Emerson’s recommendation, the board agreed to use the policies adopted by the Barre Unified School Board until further notice as well.

Most of the board members attended the meeting in person, although two — Guy Isabelle, the Barre district’s elected member, and Cabot School Board representative Jason Monaco — were virtual participants. 

The board includes appointed members from all six school districts that send students to the career center — Barre, Cabot, Harwood, Montpelier-Roxbury, Twinfield and Washington Central — as well as elected representatives from the four largest districts (Barre, Harwood, Montpelier-Roxbury and Washington Central). 

All of those seats have been filled with the exception of the elected Washington Central position. Candidates on the Town Meeting Day ballot and write-in campaigns mounted by Adam Rosen and Rosemary Morse came up short. 

The board plans to interview candidates and fill the vacant seat when it meets again on June 6.

The board made several other key decisions: Jill Remick, who serves on the Montpelier-Roxbury School Board, was elected chair; Twinfield School Director Janna Osman was elected vice chair; Flor Diaz-Smith, chair of the Washington Central School Board, was elected clerk. 

While filling the lone vacancy on the 10-member board will be on next month’s agenda, other issues aren’t as pressing. 

A proposal to add at least two student representatives to the board will likely wait until fall, and members agreed there is time to weigh possible amendments to the district’s articles of agreement that would address concerns about a requirement that election ballots from all 18 towns be commingled before they are counted.

The board didn’t appoint committees Monday night, but likely will in the near future. 

All of the decisions made by the board were unanimous — including the one that gave Emerson a new title and expanded responsibilities. 

Remick said the district was “incredibly fortunate” to have Emerson at the helm as the regional center shifts to a truly regional governance structure. 

This story was first published on TimesArgus.com. 

A video of the May 16 meeting is online on the career center website.