Grace Benninghoff
CENTRAL VERMONT — Steven Dellinger-Pate announced his resignation as superintendent of the Washington Central Unified Union School District earlier this month, stepping down after nearly two years in the role as the district continues to navigate turbulence.
The school board announced his departure June 10, and his resignation will be effective July 31. An interim superintendent has not yet been named, but at a school board meeting June 17 the board approved a contract with the Vermont School Boards Association to consult on hiring a replacement. Board member Flor Diaz-Smith said the district hopes to make a hire before school starts in August.
Dellinger-Pate, who spent 12 years with the district before becoming superintendent in March 2024, said his decision was personal.
“I really am stepping down to spend more time with my family,” he said. “… I know that timing is not opportune for the district, but I really did have to prioritize my own family.”
He is clear the district’s challenges did not drive him out. “That is not why I’m leaving,” he said. “I knew all of that when I started.”
Dellinger-Pate inherited a district under strain. Washington Central is a five-town district — including Berlin, Middlesex, Calais, East Montpelier, and Worcester — each with its own elementary school, all feeding into one middle and high school: U-32.
Over the past seven years, the district has lost 20% of its student population. Dellinger-Pate projects an additional 14% decline over the next four years. This year, the district graduated 131 students. Its incoming kindergarten class has 56 students enrolled.
“That’s an incredible number,” Dellinger-Pate said. “Losing a third of the student population within a decade requires faster change than most people are comfortable with.”
And that decline has financial consequences. Under Vermont’s education funding system, districts receive money based on the number of students they enroll, and their needs. As enrollment drops, the cost of maintaining services — a school nurse, a guidance counselor, a full course catalog — rises on a per-pupil basis. When spending exceeds the state-set threshold, towns are taxed at double the rate on each dollar above that threshold, a mechanism designed to cap school spending.
For a district losing students as fast as Washington Central, that threshold becomes harder and harder to stay beneath. At the June 17 board meeting, Dellinger-Pate said recently approved state legislation will pose an additional challenge for his successor: the district may need to cut between $2 million and $3 million in the upcoming budget season to avoid excess spending penalties.
“When we have declining student enrollment, to continue to do the things that we want to do, the cost per student goes up,” he said.
A decade ago, a class might have had 20 students. Today it may have 16 or 17 — still enough to require a teacher and classroom space, but generating less revenue to pay for either.
“When enrollment dips by just a few kids in every classroom, it’s really difficult to continue to sustain the cost of the teacher and school,” he said.
The district has spent the past several years trying to respond to falling enrollment. A committee including board members, administrators, and community members worked through criteria for what the district’s schools should look like — class sizes, services, transportation times. Out of that came a proposal to consolidate five elementary schools to three, which would have meant closing elementary schools in Calais and Worcester. But in February, town residents voted against closing their schools, leaving the district to find another path forward.
In May, Dellinger-Pate announced a grade reconfiguration plan — moving fifth and sixth graders from Rumney Memorial School in Middlesex to Doty Memorial School in Worcester, while consolidating pre-K through second grade at Rumney. The backlash was sharp. Parents in Middlesex said they felt blindsided, and dozens signed a petition calling for the decision to be paused until more community input was gathered.
In a letter sent to Dellinger-Pate and the board last month, Middlesex parent Natasha Stevens said the community forums held since the announcement had failed to answer basic questions families needed answered before school starts in the fall.
“Who will teach our children? What curriculum will they follow? What support services will be in place? What does day one actually look like?” she wrote. “We have not received answers. We have received potlucks, step-up days, and invitations to connect, most of which have not provided any concrete details. Those things have their place. They are not a plan.”
Divisions deepened at the June 17 board meeting. A separate petition, signed by more than 500 district residents — surpassing the threshold required by law of 5% of registered voters — was delivered to the district last week, demanding a special election to consider amending the district’s articles of agreement. If approved, the proposed amendment would make future decisions about school closures district-wide votes, rather than town-by-town decisions. The board, advised by its attorney that it was legally required to warn a special election within a 60-day window, nonetheless voted 6–5 not to schedule the election alongside the August primaries, leaving the timing and legal path forward unresolved.
Diaz-Smith, who served as board chair through much of the reconfiguration debate before stepping down from that role in March, described the past 18 months as “really brutal.” She said the conflict around reconfiguration has taken a personal toll.
“I’m always trying to create connections and not take it personally,” she said. “But it gets to a point where Vermont is a really small place, where everywhere you go you see someone.” She said she felt personal attacks on district leadership — herself included — were overshadowing the work the board was trying to do, and it was time for new leadership.
Despite the turbulence and Dellinger-Pate’s departure, Diaz-Smith expressed confidence in the district’s ability to move forward.
“We have a really, really strong leadership team,” she said.
Dellinger-Pate echoed that sentiment.
“I’m committed to making sure the transition is as smooth as possible,” he said. “Whatever this district needs, I’ve given 12 years to it — no regrets.”
He said he plans to continue working in education in some capacity but in a less demanding role, though he does not have a new position lined up.
The search for his replacement falls to a district managing significant institutional pressure. Vermont’s legislature has spent two years grappling with declining enrollment and rising school taxes statewide, with proposals ranging from voluntary to mandated district consolidation. For Washington Central, the path forward will require whoever leads next to navigate uncertainty at the state level while holding together a community that has clashed over how to move forward.
“Finding someone that can help lead through what will amount to a great deal of change both at the state and district level is going to be important,” Dellinger-Pate said. “Really finding a way to create a sustainable district and system so our kids can get the programming that our communities want, in a financial way that makes sense — that is the work.”
