Winton Goodrich Hired as New Franklin Northwest SU Superintendent
Winton Goodrich, a seasoned Vermont education leader, emerged from a strong candidate pool of experienced school administrators and was recently hired by the Franklin Northwest Supervisory Union Board. The new superintendent is no stranger to Franklin County, having previously worked with local school boards and administrators to help hone their leadership skills in his role as the former associate director of the Vermont School Boards Association. Most recently Goodrich served as the assistant superintendent for administration in the South Burlington School District. In the late 1990s, the new FNWSU CEO was formerly a school administrator at Peoples Academy in Morrisville, Vermont, and then later became the executive director of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce Business-Education Partnership.
Goodrich has been charged by the SU and local school boards to guide the continued development of a high quality education system for students who attend the Franklin, Highgate, Missisquoi, Sheldon, and Swanton Schools. Winton, or “Win” as he prefers to be addressed, summarized the big job he has before him by saying, “I am absolutely thrilled to take on the challenge of supporting educators as they provide a world-class education for students in the FNWSU. Vermont continues to lead most other states in the student performance department and, if considered its own industrialized country, Vermont would rank seventh in the world. My priority is to work with all stakeholders in creating the conditions for FNWSU to soon become one of the highest performing education systems in the state.”
Goodrich is a doctoral candidate in the College of Education and Policy Studies at the University of Vermont, where he is conducting school transportation research with nine Chittenden County supervisory unions/districts. His dissertation focuses on what he touts as the 3-Es:
· Education: Expanding student access to AP, college dual-enrollment courses, personal learning plans, and community-based learning;
· Efficiency: Districts pooling resources to reduce the cost of bus purchases, maintenance, and operations; and
· Environment: Exploring alternative bus energy sources to reduce pollution, i.e. compressed natural gas and hybrid electric, to name a few.
Winton Goodrich is not the only educator in his family. His wife, Valerie, is a kindergarten teacher in Randolph, Vermont, and was a former Teacher of the Year in that district. Daughter, Hilary, now mother of two young children in Tennessee, led the U-32 High School team to a state championship, played nationally on an AAU team, and went on to become a basketball standout at the U.S. Naval Academy. She was a former corporate wellness manager for the Mars Corporation in Chicago. Son, Garrett, was the top Div. II high school golfer in Vermont, graduated from Arizona State in professional golf management, and is now the head golf professional at TPC of Valencia, California, where he and his wife are raising two young children.
Mary Wood, FNWSU Board Chair, had this to say about the new superintendent: “The search committee worked diligently with the SVSU Board to complete a thorough and comprehensive recruitment process. We are all very pleased to bring forward an educational leader who has strong leadership experience, extensive state connections, and experience with boards and system development. These skills can help us provide the best educational opportunities for the children in our community.”
Stay tuned for future school news as Goodrich works with FNWSU staff to keep the communities informed about education happenings through monthly “FNWSU Today” Public Access TV talk shows, news articles, web site postings, and blog spots.
Goodrich begins his new duties in the Swanton Superintendent’s Office on July 1st.