On the evening of Tuesday, May 2nd during a special board meeting, the Winooski School Board announced the selection of Wilmer Chavarria as the next Superintendent of Schools for the Winooski School District (WSD). Chavarria will assume responsibilities on July 1, 2023. He will succeed Sean McMannon, who served the Winooski School District as Superintendent for 10 years and will be moving to a position within the Kingdom East School District.
The selection of Chavarria as superintendent comes after a nationwide search by the Winooski School Board in partnership with Hank Harris at Human Capital Enterprises. The search, which kicked off in January, started with a community survey and several school and community stakeholder focus groups that informed the creation of a profile of the next Superintendent for WSD. This profile drove the
remainder of the process which included several rounds of applicant interviews involving the school board, school employees, students, and community stakeholders. Additional school and community involvement came through a public meet-and-greet event at the school. “I am very thankful to the community for their involvement in the process. We received very thoughtful feedback from those involved. I also cannot thank Hank Harris enough for his hard work and guidance in conducting this national search” said WSD Board Chair Allison Burlock.
Chavarria first began exploring education while he was in college through different projects and partnerships, including co-founding a study abroad program for language immersion in Nicaragua and working with refugee youth in Jordan and the West Bank on multimedia. He began his career in public education in 2015 at Espanola Valley High School in New Mexico. From there he served in multiple roles across that district and became the principal of its largest elementary school- a school with a large population of families experiencing poverty or who were first-generation migrants. Since moving to Vermont in 2020, Chavarria has worked as a school principal and district-level director, most recently with the Milton Town School District.
Chavarria earned a Bachelor of Arts in Cinematic Arts from Earlham College, followed by a Master of Arts in Education Leadership from the University of New Mexico and a Master of Education Policy and Management from Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he now coaches Master’s degree candidates.
“I am enthusiastic to begin my work in Winooski for many reasons, but especially because of the energy I witnessed during our community meet-and-greet portion of the selection process. I was impressed by the level of student engagement and by the type of questions I received. I particularly enjoyed when students pressed for specificity and boldness–when they didn’t settle for generic answers. I believe that this is the spirit and commitment that the community deserves, from students to legislators, and I am thrilled to begin to play a part in it. I look forward to students keeping me and our teams honest, humble, and innovative” said Chavarria when asked why he was excited to serve as WSD’s next superintendent.
Because representation matters, Chavarria introduces himself wearing some of his permanent and visible identities. Chavarria is a refugee, born inside a fenced camp during the Sandinista-Contra war in Nicaragua. He is a multilingual, multicultural learner, and “a migrant with an accent” who began learning English during his high school years. Chavarria expressed that his unique experiences and identities have and will continue to influence his leadership and decision-making styles.
Burlock continued, “I am extremely excited to begin working with Wilmer as the Superintendent of WSD. Not only does Wilmer bring a dynamic personality and shared experience with some of our most vulnerable students, he has a unique ability to absorb and analyze information of all kinds quickly. He has impressive policy and governance expertise that I believe will serve WSD students and the community well.”