ACSD School Board News
Spring 2025
Dear ACSD Community,
Happy June! Since the Winter 2025 update, the ACSD Board has been engaged in many things, including welcoming new board members and reorganizing our committees. Some areas we’d like to highlight are:
Education Reform in Vermont: The Board has been closely monitoring the conversation about education transformation in the Vermont legislature. Earlier in the legislative session, the Board submitted written testimony to the Education and Finance Committees opposing the governor’s education proposal, citing many things including its rushed timeline and lack of local input. This testimony advocated for a more transparent process, informed by research and content area experts, and ensures that reforms are student-centered. The conversation around education reform has turned into both the House and the Senate working on bill H.454. The legislature has yet to come to agreement on major pieces of H.454, but the Board remains committed to following the bill’s evolution closely. As you saw in Superintendent Baker's email this morning, a vote is expected today.
Board Goals: Continuing with the theme of community engagement, the ACSD Board has chosen to focus on the creation of a communications and engagement policy and plan to be one of its goals for the year. The Board will center its upcoming retreat on the topic of community engagement, and this goal will serve as a guide for Board work this year.
Community Engagement: This has been a year full of community meetings. From community forums in Ripton to conversations in Shoreham and Bridport, ACSD towns have shown up and the Board has been grateful for each one of those opportunities to connect. Dr. Baker and the administrative team has been instrumental in creating these spaces and the thoughts, feedback, and stories shared by community members have been tremendously impactful and informative to the work of the Board. Because of this, the Board is very excited to continue getting out into ACSD towns and connecting with communities in the coming year. This will happen by way of our Community Engagement Committee hosting one meeting each month (September - March) in a different ACSD town. These meetings will be scheduled in cooperation with town clerks and community stakeholders and serve as a space for conversations, input, and resource sharing. We hope to see you at one of these meetings (locations TBA)!
Bridport: September 15, 2025
Cornwall: October 20, 2025
Ripton: November 17, 2025
Salisbury: December 15, 2025
Shoreham: January 19, 2026
Weybridge: February 23, 2026
Middlebury: March 16, 2026
Committee Updates:
Policy: The policy committee has completed a legal review of our policies on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students (C28) and our Equity Policy (C29). We are also continuing our work on our School Residence Policy (C30), which determines where and how students are assigned to schools, including relevant exceptions.
The Student Outcomes committee has met three times as of 6/11, with a fourth meeting on 6/13, focusing on understanding ACSD's current evaluation tools and identifying gaps in measuring comprehensive student success beyond academics. The committee is working to define major focus areas for this year and determine what information to present to the Board, and when.
Finance: The finance committee recently reviewed the Q3 financials and the projected fund balance for FY25 and is looking forward to kicking off the FY27 budgeting process.
Facilities: The facilities committee has been engaged with the capital improvement planning process A (for ACSD facilities located in the town of Middlebury) to analyze the condition of buildings, their use and possibilities for targeted investments and improvements. Over the next few months, we'll expand the process to include process B (ACSD facilities located outside the town of Middlebury) with the hopes of concluding the planning work by December 2025.
The Negotiations Committee has spent the spring finalizing side letters covering issues that have come up since the full contract negotiations. The committee is also preparing for our next round of contract negotiations starting in the fall.
Have a great summer!
ACSD Board