School boards, Essex tech center urge caution on single-state CTE district in committee hearing

BURLINGTON (House Commerce & Economic Development Committee) — Leaders representing Vermont school boards and one of the state's largest career and technical education centers told the House committee on March 20 that a draft bill to form a single statewide CTE district needs more clarity, funding and time before the state moves ahead.

Sue Zaglowski, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, told the committee the draft bill lacks a findings section explaining its purpose and raised several governance concerns, including a provision she quoted that “the board of the statewide CTE school district shall be composed of 15 voting members concurrently serving as members of the member supervisory union boards appointed by the superintendents of each service region.” Zaglowski added that the draft makes the superintendent of the statewide district a nonvoting member and allows other nonvoting appointees, including students.

The VSBA executive director said her group worries that shifting rulemaking authority to the Agency of Education and moving away from elected local boards would weaken democratic accountability, and that the Agency must demonstrate capacity to meet current statutory obligations before taking on an expanded rulemaking role. She also noted the bill’s proposed timeline as aggressive: with…