EWSD students remain curious about a new superintendent coming to the district next fall. It was announced by email on July 1, 2024, that Superintendent Beth Cobb was to go on temporary medical leave and retire at the end of the 2024-25 school year. 

During Cobb’s absence, Jackie Tolman, EWSD Director of Learning and Impact, who also holds a current Vermont Superintendent License, stepped in as the acting superintendent. 

“I think the first thing to know about being a superintendent is that you are ultimately in service to the entire learning community,” Tolman said.

Tolman said she recognizes that in order to have a successful school district, all must be supported and valued. 

 “And so for me, the way I sort of bring that down to boots on the ground is just to support, definitely, our principals, our instructional leadership team, in making sure that they have what they need, so that then they can support teachers, so teachers can do the best absolute job for each and every student that we have in the district,” Tolman said.

Tolman is working closely with the school board as well to make sure that together they are implementing policies and ensuring that the system is running smoothly. This requires someone with a strong background in education and administration.

“I worked with UVM and St. Michael’s College to develop training programs for educators, for classroom teachers, special educators and para educators or instructional assistants who were working with students on the spectrum,” Tolman said. “From there, I had a superintendent suggest to me that I would make a really good administrator. And so I leaned into that.”

Tolman received a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, a master’s degree in special education and a master’s degree in educational leadership administration. 

“I was a dean of students at a middle and high school for a while, then an assistant principal, and then a principal,” Tolman said. 

She was then encouraged to become a director. 

“I became Director of Curriculum and did that in another district for a little while, and came to EWSD in 2019,” Tolman said. “And I’ve been here since.” 

Robert Carpenter, EWSD Board Chair, who began his term in November 2021, believes that the work of the school board and how they pair with the superintendent helps things run efficiently. 

One of the main responsibilities of any school board in Vermont is hiring and evaluating their superintendent.  

“We don’t evaluate or manage any other employee in the district other than the superintendent,” Carpenter said. “Our main role is to partner with them in support, accountability, thoughtful partnership, and making sure that we have the right person there to be able to lead the district forward.”

The Board has launched its search for our next superintendent and has contracted with the search firm Alma Advisory Group to support them with the process. 

“Superintendent Cobb went out on leave around mid July, and then Superintendent Tolman [arrived],” Carpenter said. “Our whole thing is proactiveness. Best practice for boards is actually not to have to make decisions in the crisis moment, but actually have a plan.” 

Carpenter understands the significance of this decision and shared by email that the board is committed to leading a process that is transparent, accessible, and that is guided by the input and needs of the whole of the EWSD community.

“When Superintendent Cobb is off leave, she’ll come back and then finish out the remainder of this year, but then she is planning to retire as of June 30,” Carpenter said. 

Serving as the interim superintendent, Tolman is considering the possibility of continuing in that role. 

“Yeah, I’ve definitely been interested,” Tolman said. “And I would say that doing the job now for these few months has definitely opened my eyes to the possibility and helped me better understand the skills and the qualities that I would bring to the job that I think, yes, it’s definitely something that I’m interested in.”

Ben Johnson, a taxpayer, father of three daughters in the EWSD, and Director of the EWSD ARC Center, answered questions regarding what he knows about Jackie Tolman.

“She is a thoughtful and engaging leader,” Johnson said. “Her experience as a curriculum and PLC [professional learning community] leader bring a tremendous amount of value to our district.”

Johnson also shared how he personally feels about the new interim superintendent.

“Her leadership abilities will continue to help our district meet the academic and social-emotional needs of all our students,” Johnson said.

The School Board has a strong plan set in place regarding the superintendent search, but it will require help from the community as well. 

“From now until about November the Board will be collecting information from the community, from students, parents, from teachers, staff, everyone to basically identify what are the key competencies we need in a leader?” Carpenter said. “We really feel that it’s important to make sure that we get that right.”

The community will have opportunities to engage in several ways.

“They’re going to come in doing both virtual and in-person focus groups with different stakeholders across the community, as well as in the district,” Carpenter said. “Then in November and December applications will open. People submit their applications, and from there, we’ll go through a vetting process using all that detail that we came up with.”

Afterwards, a secondary and final pool will be narrowed down to three to four candidates.

“They would go through the district, be interviewed by different panels of students, teachers, principals, community members, other stakeholders in the community,” Carpenter said. “From there we would solicit more feedback from everyone to figure out who is the finalist, and then that person would be the new superintendent, who would then start after Superintendent Cobb retires.”

In the end, the number one thing is community engagement.

“I would just encourage students to keep an eye on their emails because we will be sending stuff out, and we would really desire that engagement,” Carpenter said. “Because as we look for the new leader, our whole goal is, at the end of the day, it all goes back to student impact.”

Tolman agrees that interacting with the students themselves is crucial when it comes to hiring a leader to support the district, especially when the person finds joy in the work that they do. 

“Making connections with families and students is also a really important part of the job and something that I really enjoy,” Tolman said. “I enjoy it, I really do enjoy teaching. I think it’s definitely a lifelong passion.”