Founded in 1963, the VSBA is a private, nonprofit membership association dedicated to serving Vermont’s elected school boards. We provide our members with services, support and counsel. As they lead their districts, navigate relationships and promote public education across Vermont.
Task Force on Collaboration to Benefit All Students
At the 2023 VSBA Annual Business Meeting the membership approved a resolution expressing long-standing concerns about state-level leadership and called for a Task Force on Collaboration to Benefit All Students to make recommendations to state leaders addressing the provision of appropriate support toward the education of Vermont's students. The Task Force was convened and met more than ten times over nine months, collected feedback from other education groups and met with the Interim Secretary of Education and the State Board of Education Chair. Information was synthesized into discrete and actionable recommendations, which are outlined in this report.
The report has been shared with Governor Scott, the Vermont Agency of Education, the Vermont State Board of Education and every legislator. Perhaps most importantly, this report is being shared with the Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont, because the recommendations in this report are only the beginning of the important work that needs to be done.
Thank you to the following Task Force Members: Clare Wool-Chair, Mark Koenig, Herbert Ogden, Tiffany Donza, Edye Graning, Tammy Revoir, Gaston Bathalon, Terri Vest, Lisa Miser, Stacey Peters and Jacki Murano. Your contributions were invaluable!
District Quality Standards: Governance
The Vermont Agency of Education’s District Quality Standards, which include governance standards for school boards, go into effect on July 1, 2025. The standards are general principles of good governance and provide boards guidance on their essential work. The first step in ensuring compliance with these standards is to find out where your board currently is. To help you with this, the VSBA has created a self-evaluation tool for boards to see where the gaps are between your current practices and the new governance standards. For more information you may see the webinar on this topic on our Webinar Archive page.
Joint Training for Chairs and Superintendents
In 2013, the legislature adopted 16 V.S.A. §561(b) requiring at least eight hours of joint training for the superintendent and board chair annually.
New this year is a self-guided opportunity, Leadership Expedition. Similar to a self-paced course, the chair and superintendent may select what, when, and how they learn together. In addition to providing more flexibility, this self-guided option offers differentiated learning to meet the needs of governance teams with varying degrees of knowledge and experience. Please let us know if you have any questions about this resource by contracting Debbie Singiser at dsigiser@vtvsba.aorg
