[G]ov. Phil Scott has made two new appointments to the State Board of Education, picking a sitting school board member and a former elementary school principal to serve on the 11-member body.
The governor’s picks are Kim Gleason, 51, a longtime school board member from Essex Town, and Jenna O’Farrell, 49, a nonprofit director in the Northeast Kingdom and a former behavior interventionist and principal at St. Johnsbury School.
The two are Scott’s sixth and seventh appointments to the board, which oversees K-12 schooling in Vermont. Their terms last six years. They replace Mark Perrin, of Middlebury, and Stacy Weinberger, of Burlington, whose terms expired at the end of February. Twenty-four people applied for the posts, according to the governor’s office.
“It’s never easy to step up for public service so I appreciate Kim and Jenna taking on this important work,” Scott said in a statement. “As our demographics continue to shift, the State Board of Education, my Administration, local administrators, educators, local boards and the Legislature must all work together to ensure we provide high-quality and equitable education to kids across our diverse schools and school districts.”
Scott was criticized by some in his last round of appointments for a lack of diversity and ties to independent schools. And while the board remains all white, Scott’s latest picks get the board closer to gender parity and have extensive backgrounds in public education.
Nicole Mace, the executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said she was “very pleased” with Scott’s appointments. She noted Perrin had been, at the time, the only member on the State Board that had recently served on a school board, and said she was glad someone with similar experience would replace him.
“We think it’s really important to have that kind of local perspective represented at the table,” she said.
Vermont is also embarking on a massive, statewide overhaul of special education. Mace said she was happy O’Farrell had professional experience working with mental health needs in schools, with education officials say are only growing more acute.
Krista Huling, the board’s current chair, likewise said she was “really excited about these choices.” Huling, who is also a teacher in South Burlington, echoed Mace in noting the board had lost its board member with recent school board experience when Perrin left. And she noted it also hadn’t had a public school administrator among its ranks since Bonnie Johnson-Aten’s departure.
“I think these are both high-caliber choices,” she said. “I’m looking forward to serving with them.”
Gleason has been a sitting school board member since 2007, first on the Essex Town school board and now on the unified Essex-Westford board. The districts were the first to win positive community votes for a voluntary merger under Act 46. Gleason is also the treasurer on the board of the VSBA, and is a trustee of the Vermont Municipal Employee Retirement System, the state’s pension plan for municipal employees.
“I look forward to the opportunity to lend my experience in local and statewide governance to the work of the State Board of Ed, as we continue to pursue equity of opportunity for all learners, and adaptability, accountability and sustainability in our Vermont education system,” Gleason said in a statement.
O’Farrell is currently the executive director of Northeast Kingdom Community Action, an anti-poverty nonprofit. She took the job last year after resigning from her post as the co-principal at the St. Johnsbury School, where she had previously worked as a behavior interventionist. Before that, she worked with Northeastern Family Institute, a nonprofit providing support services to families with children struggling with emotional, behavioral and mental health challenges.
“I believe in our ability to move Vermont’s schools forward in meeting the needs of all of our learners,” O’Farrell said. “I am looking forward to working with the board in providing leadership around policy, advocacy and vision.”
Both state board members must still be technically confirmed by the Senate, but the upper chamber typically treats these confirmations as formalities. Their first board board meeting is Wednesday in Barre.
