The Vermont Senate Committee on Education will hold its confirmation hearing for Gov. Phil Scott’s pick for education secretary, Zoie Saunders, on April 23.
The committee’s chair, Sen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington, initially considered holding the hearing next week, when Saunders plans to begin work. But Campion said in an interview on Thursday that the administration had requested the hearing be scheduled one week later.
“Seemed a little ambitious for her to arrive, and then the next day have a hearing,” Campion told VTDigger. “It seems quite — I don’t know — acceptable to give her some extra time to come up and meet people and have an opportunity to talk to people.”
Saunders’ appointment has drawn “grave concerns” from the Vermont Democratic Party and downright opposition from the state Progressive party since Scott announced her appointment last month.
Some senators, the state’s teachers union, and the associations representing superintendents, principals and school boards have questioned her qualifications, with many pointing to Saunders’ experience in leadership at Charter Schools USA, a for-profit education management company.
In her most recent job — a roughly three-month stint as chief strategy and innovation officer in Broward County Public Schools in Florida — Saunders led an effort to close and consolidate schools, which the district called “redefining.”
Like other high-level appointees, Saunders requires the approval of a majority of senators to be confirmed.
According to Campion, the Senate education committee’s hearing on April 23 will last about an hour and a half. Afterward, the committee’s members will publicly draft a report, the format of which remains an open discussion, to be submitted to the Senate, he said.
It would then be up to Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, to decide when to bring Saunders’ nomination to the Senate floor, Campion said.
In the meantime, Saunders, who spent some of this week shaking hands in the Statehouse, will have more time to get to know those responsible for confirming her.
“I’m guessing she’s probably had appointments with, I don’t know, maybe 30% of the Senate, individual meetings,” Campion said.
Those closed-door meetings are also opportunities for lawmakers to get to know Saunders before the public hearing in a little more than a week.
Asked why the administration requested the confirmation be pushed back, Jason Maulucci, a spokesperson for the governor, said Saunders “already had things planned” for her first week, including school visits and Agency of Education meetings.
“A confirmation hearing one week after an effective (start) date would still be very accelerated,” he said, noting that some gubernatorial appointments go months or even a whole session without receiving Senate attention.
Saunders will be staying with family in Shrewsbury, Maulucci said. Her family plans to move to Vermont once her two children finish their school year.
In an interview, John Bloomer, secretary of the Senate, said it’s standard practice for gubernatorial appointees to begin working at their effective start date, not once confirmed.
“It’s been done for decades and decades,” he said.
Bloomer also noted that people appointed to positions while the Legislature is out of session generally begin working when they are appointed, and then the Senate takes up the confirmation in January. Sometimes, though, the Senate chooses not to take up a confirmation at all, and an appointee continues in their role nonetheless, he said.
According to Bloomer, the last time a gubernatorial appointee was voted down by the Senate was under the administration of former Gov. Howard Dean, which ended more than 20 years ago. But, in that case, the appointments were of three people to positions on an environmental board. He could not recall a state agency head whose appointment was voted down by the Senate.
