Voters asked to create a career center school district

Jan. 27, 2022  |  By Lisa Scagliotti

An aerial view of the Central Vermont Career Center in Barre from a school video titled, "ReEnvisioning The Central Vermont Career Center." Screenshot

Voters in 18 communities across the region on Town Meeting Day will decide whether to create a new school district to run the Central Vermont Career Center. 

The regional career and technical education school in Barre currently serves approximately 200 high school students from six school districts: Harwood, Barre, Montpelier-Roxbury, Washington Central, Twinfield, and Cabot. 

Students participate in programs at the center that provide hands-on training and experience geared to launch graduates into a variety of postsecondary career paths including the building trades, medical technology and culinary arts. 

Although state law requires such regional centers to have advisory boards with representatives from the sending school districts, the center’s operation currently falls within Barre Unified Union School District with only Barre voters having authority over its budget.

Together, the communities that would be part of the new district are: Barre City, Barre Town, Berlin, Cabot, Calais, Duxbury, East Montpelier, Fayston, Marshfield, Middlesex, Montpelier, Moretown, Plainfield, Roxbury, Waitsfield, Warren, Waterburym and Worcester.

The proposal before voters on March 1 would create a new district overseen by a 10-member board comprised of a combination of elected positions and representatives appointed by the school boards in the participating high school districts. 

Four of the board’s seats would be elected at large from the four largest sending school districts -- Harwood, Barre, Montpelier-Roxbury and Washington Central. 

The proposal creates staggered terms for the first four elected board members. Harwood and Barre representatives would serve three years each; the Montpelier-Roxbury director would serve for one, and the Washington Central member would serve two. Under the proposal, those individuals would take office only if the district’s creation is approved by the voters. Subsequent terms would all be for three years.

If voters elect to create the new school district, following the March 1 election each of the six sending districts’ school boards would then appoint one member from their school board to the new career center board, giving the larger districts including Harwood two seats at the table. 

The new structure is outlined in a plan approved by the state Agency of Education and the state Board of Education. More information about the center’s operations and programs, the new governance proposal, and the center’s future plans are online on the Central Vermont Career Center’s website, cvtcc.org.

A forum will be held on Feb. 15 for voters to learn more as well. That will be conducted both in person at the Career Center and via Zoom. Details on the meeting are on the center’s website.  

Jody Emerson, director and principal at the Central Vermont Career Center, has visited with school boards around the region in recent weeks including the Harwood board to outline the steps needed for this transition. 

She explained that Town Meeting Day ballots from voters in all of the 18 communities will be collected and comingled to be counted. There is a 10-day window for that to occur. 

If voters approve the proposal, the new district would begin operation July 1. The career center director would become the superintendent of the new district, and staff would continue to work under the Barre Education Association’s union contract. 

The new structure will give all of the districts that send students to the center more say in its operations, Emerson said. “Our state data shows that students who attend career and technical education programs are more likely to stay in Vermont,” she said. “This new district representation will allow us to make the decisions necessary to support students across central VT to access our programming.”  

Monday, Jan. 24, was the deadline for candidates to file to get on the March 1 ballot, including those seeking the new elected positions for the career center school district board. According to Emerson, two individuals filed to run for those offices: Jim Halavonich from Fayston for the Harwood seat, and J. Guy Isabelle for the Barre district seat. No one filed to run for the Montpelier-Roxbury or Washington Central positions. Candidates could still run as a write-in. Once formed, the new board would appoint members to the unfilled at-large seats to serve until the 2023 Town Meeting Day election.