EWSD School Board News

Hello Essex Westford School District!

Your school board has been BUSY! At the moment, our main focus is on the 2026 budget and the search for a new superintendent.

The search for our new superintendent has been very exciting. By the numbers:

• There were 23 applicants from all over the US

• We conducted 10 second interviews

• There will be 3 final interviews

Final interviews include not just meeting with the school board, but also with a select group of parents, students, and teachers. Final interviews will be shared with the community and there will be a mechanism for community feedback.

We are excited to present our new superintendent in early March.

The board has also been deeply involved in the process of building our fiscal year 2026 school budget. To see the factors influencing budget choices, please refer to the budget presentation from the 12/17/24 meeting.

The board is committed to keeping taxes as low as we can. Consequently, we asked administration to show us a draft FY 2026 budget with level funding. This means running schools in 2026 on FY 2025's budget.

EWSD employee health insurance costs will go up again in 2026. Keeping a level budget in 2026 means dealing with a (roughly) 6 million dollar loss in education funding.

Board member, Gretchen Bates, wrote this explanation of the steps involved in the school budget process:

1. The board set parameters for admin. to develop a budget proposal and at the 12/17/24 board meeting, asked to see a 2026 budget with the same funding as 2025.
2. Admin. proposed a budget on 1/21/25.
3. Over the next month, the board and admin. will work on details, meeting with the community as frequently as possible.
4. The board will vote to accept the proposed budget. This will ideally happen during a meeting in February.
5. Essex Town, Junction, and Westford vote on the proposed budget on April 8.

In addition to regularly scheduled board meetings on 1/28, 2/4, 2/11, and 2/18, we will have special community engagement sessions to talk about the budget on 1/30, 2/6, 2/13, and 2/20. Please attend one or all sessions to ask questions and learn more.

Please submit any questions about the budget or budget process below:

Governor Scott recently released his plan to reform education in Vermont. This 5-district plan raised a lot of concern and the Board Officers shared the following response:

Stay warm and healthy, EWSD community. We couldn't do this without you. As always, it is a privilege to serve this community.

Sincerely,

The EWSD School Board
Andre, Anne, Christine, Erin, Gretchen, Jemima, Laura, Marlon, Pankti, Robert, Sam, and Scott

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School Board Meeting Dates:

• 1/28
• 2/4
• 2/11
• 2/18
• 3/18

Note: Meetings run from 6:30 p.m. until completed and are held in the Essex High School library. Everyone is welcome to attend. Audience members are allowed two minutes each at the start and end of every meeting for public comment. You can watch via Media Factory on Facebook.

Community Engagement Sessions about the 2026 Budget:

• 1/30
• 2/6
• 2/13
• 2/20

The EWSD School Board

Board Officers

Robert Carpenter - Chair rcarpenter@board.ewsd.org

Laura Taylor - Vice Chair ltaylor@board.ewsd.org

Marlon Versamy - Clerk mverasamy@board.ewsd.org

Board Representatives

Gretchen Bates - gbates@board.ewsd.org

Scott Brown - sbrown@board.ewsd.org

Christine Gaynor-Patterson - cgaynorpatterson@board.ewsd.org

Erin Kennedy Knox - ekennedyknox@board.ewsd.org

Andre Roy - andre.roy@board.ewsd.org

Anne Marie Sharp - amsharp@board.ewsd.org

Jemima Talbot- jtalbot@board.ewsd.org

Student Representatives

Samantha Donahey - sdonahey@board.ewsd.org

Pankti Desai - pdesai1@board.ewsd.org

Please check out the EWSD website. Board meeting minutes are found under the School Board tab. Information about our search for a new Superintendent are under the School Board tab too. Budget information is linked on the main page.