BRATTLEBORO — Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) Superintendent Mark Speno has been given a two-year contract.
WSESU board members Chair Kerry Amidon, Michelle Luetjen Green, Liz Adams, Kelly Young, and Tim Maciel voted unanimously on Jan. 11 to authorize Amidon to negotiate and sign the agreement.
“Congratulations,” Amidon said as applause erupted in the room.
“Thank you,” replied Speno.
“I am grateful and appreciative of the extension,” Speno told The Commons after the meeting. “I look forward to continuing to work with administrators, school boards, and school staff for a community that I am honored to serve.”
Speno’s current one-year contract expires June 30. He explained that typically superintendents are given two-year, rolling contracts.
The new one will start when the initial contract expires, but he perceives it as a “positive” move by the board to have reviewed his work and voted on the two-year contract now.
Prior to his tenure here, Speno was an elementary school teacher for nine years, the principal of Vernon Elementary School from 2009 to 2014, and the principal of Green Street School in Brattleboro from 2014 to 2021.
In 2020, he was recognized as a National Distinguished Principal by the National Association of Elementary School Principals and as Vermont Principal of the Year by the Vermont Principals’ Association.
As superintendent here, Speno has oversight for 10 schools in the Windham Southeast and Vernon school districts.
A one-year appointment after a months-long search
On June 10, 2021, former Superintendent Andy Skarzynski announced that he would step down on June 30. Speno, then Green Street School principal, was named interim superintendent in July.
A superintendent search started in earnest in August, but after a five-hour executive session on March 1, 2022, the WSESU board had not reached consensus, annual town elections were looming, and a new board was then seated.
In June 2022, after nine months as interim superintendent, Speno was given a one-year contract that included the requirement that he participate in training for new superintendents.
At the time, Amidon was the lone dissenting vote. After that meeting she said she had voted against the contract because it was for just one year.
“I believe the needs of our two districts are better served when our superintendent has the tenure to enact long-range plans,” Amidon said at that time. “I continue to fully support Superintendent Speno in his work to serve the needs of all our students.”
During his quest for the superintendency, Speno was supported by three Brattleboro Union High School students who penned a petition that garnered more than 860 signatures. Principals from every school in the supervisory union also signed a statement supporting Speno’s being named superintendent.
‘Keeping children at the forefront of all that we do’
Today, Speno participates in the Vermont Superintendents Association Superintendent Leadership Academy: regular monthly professional development with other superintendents and consultants, which the superintendent calls “wonderful.”
He also has a personal mentor as part of his first contract stipulation. He and a retired superintendent now meet weekly.
“It’s great,” said Speno. “I really appreciate the support.”
Asked what challenges he has faced to date in his tenure, Speno noted the effects of the pandemic over the past several years as well as teacher and staff member turnover.
“We have had a great amount of retirements over the last two years,” he said. “This brings the opportunity and challenge to train new staff while also balancing the need to move forward with new professional development.”
A look ahead, said Speno, said the “regular, collaborative, and daily work of our admin team has been inspiring.”
“We have developed regular systems and structures to collaborate and achieve goals, such as developing common district-wide ESTs (educational support teams) to regularly identify supports, interventions, and enrichment opportunities for our students [and] we’ve continued to develop school structures that support developing MLSS (multilayered systems of support) in our schools.”
Speno said his belief system is and has been to “keep children at the forefront of all that we do.”
“We got into education to work with children and to be mentors to them, teach them, make good decisions, [and] be good community members,” the superintendent said.
“And, if we keep that at the forefront and ask ourselves, ’Is this good for children?,’ that will serve us well, as it has me my entire life,” he added.