Vermont Principals Association Executive Council Meeting Reflection

Through my internship, I had the opportunity to attend the Vermont Principals Association Executive Council meeting on January 31, 2019, at the Stoweflake Mountain Resort in Stowe, Vermont. At the beginning of the meeting, some members announced they would be stepping down from their position on the executive council, and advised standing members to begin to fill the vacancies they would leave behind. This prompted one member on the executive council to ask the executive director if he could create a Google Map that showed where executive council members were represented in the state of Vermont. As the intern, I proceeded to create the Google Map the following week.

After listening to the conversation about their ideas for prospective members and considering my own reflections, I have two important takeaways in regards to the representation of statewide leadership: demographics and gender. Before the January meeting, the demographic representation on the VPA executive council heavily favored the schools in the southern part of the state, as well as schools in the far northern regions of Vermont. To an outsider, this may sound balanced, but to anyone that is aware of Vermont demographics, they would question the lack of representation from Chittenden and Washington. This was certainly a concern among members, and many requested to search for prospective members from these regions of the state. Chittenden County serves the largest number of public school students in the states, and it would only be appropriate to represent these students, teachers, and administrators as a statewide advocacy association.

Another important factor that executive council members were mindful of was the representation of gender on the council. Prior to the meeting, the VPA executive council was already balanced in the representation of gender, but the executive director stressed that they should keep an equal balance of numbers between male and female. Both a male and a female chose to step down from the executive council, so they plan to fill their positions, in regards to gender, accordingly.