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Herman Urges Vocal Role for School Boards
Editor’s Note: Our profile series on members of the VSBA Board of Directors continues with current President Peter Herman. On this issue’s cover is a message from Peter regarding Commissioner of Education Richard Cate’s recently released report on governance change and school district consolidation.
Peter Herman was raised in Mamaroneck, New York, the first of two children. His father was a building contractor and his mother worked part time as a nurse. He attended local public schools before attending Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1958 with a degree in geology. He continued his studies at Montana State College before serving five years in the US Navy where he was stationed on a destroyer.
Following his service, Herman moved back to the New York City area where he worked with his father as a contractor. He also pursued a doctoral degree in regional planning, a career that Herman believed would offer him a greater chance to make a difference in people’s lives. It was during this time that Herman first bought property in Vermont, a camp in West Fairlee. He had remembered the northern New England fondly from his days at Dartmouth, and the camp allowed him an outdoorsy escape from the city.
By 1971, Herman had completed his doctoral studies and decided to make a more permanent exodus from New York, buying a farm in Waits River. The Vermont State Budget Office offered him a job and he moved to Montpelier that year. He worked in the Budget Office for seven years, eventually being promoted to Director of Budget Operations, and afterward went on to serve as staff for the Vermont Assembly’s House Appropriations Committee.
In the mid-1980s, Herman took a management consulting position for the Arthur D. Little company in Boston. His role with ADL included organizational development and strategic planning for a diverse range of clients. Herman specialized in planning projects that incorporated opportunities for higher education into economic development in developing countries. His position allowed him to both travel widely and continue living in his Waits River home.
Herman first served on a school board in 1996 when he was elected to the Waits River Valley board. He later served on the Orange East Supervisory Union board, and he currently serves on the board of Thetford Academy. After several years on the VSBA’s Board of Directors, Herman was elected Association President last month. Since joining the Board, Herman has observed the challenges that local school boards face all over Vermont, and his experience has reinforced his belief in public education and its importance to our society. As President, Herman would like to emphasize the VSBA’s role a vocal supporter of public education. In a speech to members last month, he expressed concern with the state of educational policymaking in Vermont and remarked that, "We need to mobilize school boards and individual members, and I intend to make that priority number one."
Now retired, Herman lives in Waits River with his wife, Sheila. Their two grown children, Kristin and Nicholas, live in neighboring states.
