Weekly Field Memo: Recent News and Items of Interest From the Agency

Contents:

Audience: All Audiences

Last month the State Board of Education formally assigned the statewide graduation requirements decision-making process to their student performance standards committee, which consists of Vice Chair Tammy Kolbe, Mohammed Diop, Tom Lovett, and student representative Caleb Greenwood. This committee meets from 6-7pm on the third Tuesday of each month. They will make recommendations to the full State Board in November so that a decision can be made in December of 2026. Next month they will begin hearing from stakeholders at their committee meetings to support their review of the AOE's recommendations report and their decision-making process. They welcome public comments at these meetings as well.

Since publishing our report, the Agency has launched the accessibility working group for graduation requirements, continued to meet with VACTED, and launched our partnership with UP for Learning to bring student voice into the decision. We are grateful to the sites who responded and have volunteered to host student focus groups about graduation requirements, including CTE centers.

For those who are interested in the report from US ED's summer 2024 monitoring visit to Vermont, including the findings about inconsistency of rigor in locally-determined graduation requirements and flexible pathways, we have added it to our strategic planning landing page. In order to prepare for new statewide graduation requirements, we encourage schools to begin now with an evaluation of their current offerings of students' learning opportunities, including coursework and flexible pathways, regarding their level of rigor and alignment to the State Board-adopted student standards.

Contact: Erin Davis ([email protected])

Audience: All Teachers, Administrators, and communities

All Vermonters are invited and encouraged to fill out a short form to nominate a Vermont teacher to apply to be Vermont's next Teacher of the Year. The mission of the Vermont Teacher of the Year Program is to promote the teaching profession and recognize educators who are modeling exemplary teaching practice in Vermont's schools.

The 2026 Teacher of the Year is Linda Alvarez.

The nomination link will be open through Sunday, April 12. Nominees can be either self-nominated or nominated by someone in their community. Nominated teachers will be able to complete their applications in April and May. Vermont's Teacher of the Year will also be eligible for selection as the National Teacher of the Year.

Contact: Katie Gagliardo ([email protected])

Audience: Education Administrators, School Board members, Educators and the General Public

The Vermont Agency of Education has developed a draft application packet for the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B funds and is making the application available for review and comment. The application packet, developed by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, includes a summary of the assurances, certifications, and IDEA use-of-fund descriptions the state will use to implement Part B of IDEA. Upon the Office of Special Education Programs' approval of Vermont's Part B application, the state will receive a federal grant award under Part B of IDEA for the period of July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027. Please provide public comment to [email protected] no later than May 8, 2025.

Contact: Erin Davis ([email protected])

Audience: Current and Prospective School BTA Team Members, School Administrators

The Vermont Agency of Education is pleased to host a half-day, virtual webinar for school BTA team members. Join presenter Dr. Stephanie Leite, national school threat assessment expert, to learn about current best practices and considerations for special populations, including students with disabilities, when conducting a threat assessment. This webinar is for current or prospective school BTA team members. This webinar does not count towards annual BTA training requirements. Please see the 4.7.26 BTA Webinar for Considerations for Special Populations webpage to register.

Contact: Taylor Goodwin ([email protected])

Audience: Grades K-3 teachers, literacy interventionists, principals, multilingual English learner teachers

Parent and guardian notification letter templates are now available in the 10 most commonly spoken non-English languages in Vermont schools. These include Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Farsi (Persian), French (Eur), Nepali, Pashto, Somali, Spanish (Latin America), and Swahili. These translated templates can be found on the Read Vermont webpage under the heading "Putting Vermont's Literacy Laws into Practice: Act 139: Parent or Guardian Notification."

Contact: Stephanie Vogel ([email protected])

Audience: School Administrators

April is the Month of the Military Child, a time to recognize the important role and sacrifices of children in military families. Across the country -- states, communities, and schools celebrate in many ways, including wearing purple. Purple symbolizes unity across all branches of service blending Army Green, Air Force Blue, Space Force Blue, Coast Guard Blue, Marine Red, and Navy Blue; it is the appropriate color to represent military children from all branches. In Vermont, the Army and Air National Guard currently have soldiers deployed in support of missions throughout the world, with many more available to provide support for local service missions. A resource link for schools with ideas for recognizing military-connected families during April is provided on the Agency of Education's website. A resolution recognizing the state's military families will be read before the Vermont State Legislature on April 21.

Contact: Lisa Helme ([email protected])

Audience: School and SU/SD Leaders

The Vermont Agency of Education is proud to introduce the Spring 2026 Strategic Scheduling Series, a set of professional learning opportunities designed to help principals and school system leaders strengthen one of the most powerful levers for student success: the school schedule. This statewide support will be hosted in partnership with New Solutions K12, a firm with expertise in designing and building best practice schedules that are good for students, teachers, and the budget, as well as deep experience with school systems in Vermont. New Solutions K12 will host a series of grade-level specific scheduling "bootcamps," virtual sessions, and coaching calls to help teams build schedules aligned with staffing and scheduling best practices and support implementation of Act 173. Read the full memo.

Contact: Lori Dolezal ([email protected])

Audience: All Administrators, Educators and communities

The Vermont Agency of Education is hiring. To support our ongoing recruitment efforts and keep the field informed, all current open positions at the Agency will now be shared in the Weekly Field Memo (WFM). We encourage you to review, share, and distribute these opportunities throughout your schools, districts, and professional networks. View four current openings on the VT Careers website. Thank you for helping us spread the word and connect talented professionals with meaningful work in Vermont education!

The following positions have been posted: