AOE outlines reorganization and "accelerated initiatives" including CTE changes and literacy work

Deputy Secretary Jill Brooks Campbell told the joint House and Senate Education committees the Agency of Education completed a major reorganization in 2025 and is aligning work around strategic pillars to drive accelerated initiatives in the coming year.

Campbell said the Secretary's Office will contain policy, communications and legal teams; operations will house finance, data management, grants, child nutrition and approvals; academics will include special education and curriculum; and a new strategy and accountability area will oversee assessment, evaluation and school improvement work. She said the agency is hiring a chief of strategy and accountability.

Campbell highlighted several accelerated initiatives: CTE transformation and modernization, chronic absenteeism work, Read Vermont literacy efforts and a planned math pilot. She said the agency aims to implement Act 73 and Act 139 policy changes with fidelity while building internal capacity to support districts.

On literacy funding, Campbell explained the agency wants to reappropriate under-spent ARPA SFRF IT modernization dollars to replace roughly $700,000 in federal ESSER funding that the agency lost; she described this reappropriation as a funding-designation change rather than new money.

Committee members asked for more detail on program line items, flexible pathways (early college, virtual learning, secondary-school reform and early-college programs) and how the school facilities position among the five requested posts would support long-term district planning. Campbell said the proposed school facilities position would help districts with consolidation and 10-year portfolio planning.