Bennington board approves school calendars, curriculum changes and compensation; several items pass unanimously
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Summary
The Bennington Public Schools board approved amendments to the 2025-26 and 2026-27 calendars, accepted several curriculum and personnel proposals and approved a support-staff and administrator salary and benefit package, all by roll-call votes.
The Bennington Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously at its February meeting to approve several administrative items including amended school calendars for 2025-26 and 2026-27, a set of curriculum and personnel proposals and a salary-and-benefits package for support staff and administrators.
The board approved the consent agenda — covering the meeting agenda, minutes from the May 13 regular meeting, presentation of February bills and the personnel report — by roll call. Board members recorded their votes as Yes: Jeremy; Christie; Joe; Steve; Allison; and Jody Calderon. No dissenting votes were recorded.
Calendar approvals: The board approved proposed amendments to the 2025-26 school calendar that move a checkout day into a preservice day (adding a preservice day on Aug. 7), shift a summer curriculum day into the school year on May 1, and convert Sept. 24 to an early-release data day. The board also approved the 2026-27 calendar, which the administration said meets required instructional-hour totals and accommodates requests from parents and staff.
Curriculum and personnel proposals: The board accepted recommendations from the curriculum committee to implement five proposals for 2025-26, identified in committee paperwork as proposals 32, 33, 5, 15 and 19. The administration said proposals 32 and 33 add 10 contract days for behavior-program staff so facilitators and interventionists are on site for kindergarten roundups and summer start work; another proposal creates a 0.3 art position at Pine Creek to respond to enrollment growth there; others include a restructured math support course and a course-name change to Digital Production. The package carries an estimated one-time and annual cost of $40,834, and the curriculum committee gave the set a unanimous recommendation.
Executive session and compensation: The board entered an executive session for collective-bargaining strategy and reconvened in open session at 7:11 p.m. Following the closed session, the board approved the 2025-26 salary and benefit proposal for support staff and administrators. The vote on that compensation package was unanimous: Yes votes recorded for Jeremy; Christie; Joe; Steve; Allison; and Jody Calderon.
Why it matters: Calendar changes affect families' schedules and staff work days; the curriculum and personnel proposals change staffing and program structure at several elementary sites; and the compensation action sets pay and benefits for the coming year.
Quotes and attribution: When the curriculum committee recommendations were presented, the administration said the proposals addressed program capacity and student needs. "We found we were short some contract days for when we really needed them," the curriculum presenter said, describing why the additional contract days were requested. "We currently have an art teacher that's shared between Anchor Point and Pine Creek," the presenter added, explaining the rationale for the Pine Creek 0.3 art hire.
No amendments were recorded to the motions as presented. All formal roll-call results given during the meeting indicated unanimous passage for each motion listed above.
