Vermont's newest school district now ready to launch

May 13, 2022  |  By David Delcore  |  Times Argus Staff Writer 

BARRE — It’s a tongue-twisting mouthful, but the Central Vermont Career Center School District is officially ready for its July 1 launch after Monday night’s organizational meeting in the auditorium at Spaulding High School. 

Though there were a lot of empty seats and “a lot” means almost all of them, there were enough people in the near-empty auditorium to take care of the scripted list of procedural business that accompanies the creation of a new school district. 

Most of those in attendance were either clerks from area school districts whose member-towns — 18 in all — collectively voted to create an autonomous school district to run the Barre-based career center, or members of the new district’s new board.

Neither group was fully represented. 

Clerks from the Barre Unified Union School District, the Harwood Unified Union School District, the Washington Central Unified Union School District were all on hand, but the clerk of the Montpelier-Roxbury Public School District wasn’t and neither was the clerk of the Cabot School District.

The board will eventually have 10 members and while nine of those seats have been filled through appointment or election only seven were on hand to be sworn in. Two — Jonathan Young and Jason Monaco — were unable to make the organizational meeting, but are expected to attend next Monday’s first official meeting of the career center board. 

Young also serves on the Harwood Union School Board, and Monaco is a school director from Cabot. Both are among the new board’s six appointed members — one from each of the participating districts. Three of the other four seats were filled in at-large elections on Town Meeting Day — one representing the Barre district, another Harwood, and a third the Montpelier-Roxbury district. The board’s fourth at-large seat — representing Washington Central — will have to be filled by appointment, but that hasn’t happened yet.

Worcester Town Moderator Paul Hanlon, who was elected moderator of the new district, handled swearing in duties. 

Jody Emerson, the career center’s current executive director and soon-to-be-superintendent, was briefly elected to serve as its “temporary clerk” before those in attendance picked a woman who wasn’t — Tina Lunt, town clerk in Barre Town — to serve in that capacity for the rest of the year.

Barre City Clerk Carol Dawes was elected treasurer of the district, and those in attendance approved compensation for the district’s new officers. Lunt will be paid $1,500 for her services as clerk. Dawes will get $500 for her role as treasurer and Hanlon will be paid $500 as the district’s moderator. Board members will each be paid $1,000 with the exception of a yet to be elected chairperson, who will be paid $1,500. That compensation is comparable to what those who serve on boards of surrounding districts receive. 

A microscopic sliver of the district’s voters also authorized its new board to borrow in anticipation of taxes and finance the operation of what will soon be an autonomous district responsible for running the regional career center.

The organizational meeting featured a brief presentation of the budget, which for the last time, was approved by voters in Barre and Barre Town in March. Next year’s spending plan for the career center will be collectively considered by voters in all of the new district’s 18 towns. 

Those voters approved the creation of the new district, 7,493-1,688, in March and will be asked to weigh in on the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2023, next Town Meeting Day.

This year’s budget — $3.5 million — is fixed and will finance operation of the career center when its governance shifts from the Barre Unified School Board to the one that will meet next Monday. 

As promised, Dawes renewed her suggestion that the district amend its articles of agreement to eliminate a requirement that ballots from all 18 towns be commingled before being counted. 

That was literally a days-long endeavor in March, when weather wasn’t a factor. 

Dawes said that isn’t always the case. And with town clerks busy handling their own local elections, transporting ballots to a central location for counting isn’t realistic absent a change.

Amending the articles of agreement would require approval of two-thirds of the new board’s members. 

This story originally was published by the Times Argus on May 10, 2022