The South Burlington School District’s superintendent, Violet Nichols, resigned from her position on Tuesday night following months of pressure from the district’s local teacher’s union, who cited a toxic working relationship between the superintendent’s office and staff.
The district’s school board received a resignation letter from Nichols on Friday, according to board chair Seamus Abshere. She announced her decision during a special meeting on Tuesday, at which the board voted unanimously to accept the letter.
Nichols’ resignation, effective Aug. 1, was first reported by The Other Paper.
“It is with a heavy heart — but with clarity and conviction — that I announce my resignation as superintendent of the South Burlington School District,” said Nichols, who has led the district since 2022, at the public meeting. “It was a privilege to show up every day and to lead this district with professionalism and purpose.”
Her resignation, and the weeks of contentious board meetings that preceded it, underscores what became a deep rift between the district’s administration and the local teachers’ union as the district responded to an increasingly tight budget for the coming school year.
One of the larger school districts in the state, the portion of state education funding allocated to the Chittenden County district was reduced following Act 127, which made changes to the current funding formula that went into effect last year. The district’s budget restrictions led the school board to cut 15 full-time positions.
The district, meanwhile, remains in open contract negotiations with the teachers’ union, Abshere said.
The South Burlington Educators’ Association said that their grievances do not stem from budget difficulties but rather from Nichols’ leadership and her handling of those challenges. Union officials and staff at board meetings over several months said Nichols created a chaotic and toxic work environment within the district.
The relationship between Nichols and the board spilled into the open in April, when members of the South Burlington Educators’ Association came out en masse to a board meeting to publicly voice their grievances with the district’s leadership.
There, tensions spilled out over two racial discrimination complaints that had been filed against Nichols. An outside investigator was brought in and ultimately determined that no wrongdoing occurred.
Union leadership called for a change in leadership for the district in a press release issued last month, citing a survey of more than 300 teachers and staff members that they said showed educators had a “distrust and fear of district leadership,”
Beth Adreon and Noah Everitt, the co-presidents of the union, wrote in the release that it was “overwhelmingly clear to faculty and staff that we need and want new leadership for our students in South Burlington. It is time for change.”
Everitt, in an interview on Wednesday, noted that when the district has been forced to cut programs in previous years, “it’s been very clearly communicated how we’re going to continue to do this work.”
“In this cycle, it was chaotic at best, including a last minute adoption of a budget that had cuts that nobody had seen,” he said.
Abshere also cited a different survey conducted by the central administration months before the union’s, showing poor morale among staff. Nichols did not share the results with the board until April, he said.
Abshere said that and other performance issues guided the board’s process. He emphasized that the union’s actions did not influence the board’s actions.
Over the last several weeks, Nichols pushed back on criticisms of her tenure. Before her announcement on Tuesday night, she asked the district’s human resources director, Daisymae Brayton, to note that there were no officially recorded grievances filed against her by staff members.
But, after a more than hour-long executive session Tuesday night, Nichols announced she had tendered her resignation, effective Aug. 1.
“I am incredibly proud of the transformative work we’ve accomplished together,” she said.
Board turnover
Nichols’ resignation marks a continuation of what has been a dysfunctional year for the South Burlington School District.
The board’s former chair, Chelsea Tillinghast, resigned from the board in May, just the latest departure in a spate of turnover on the board since Nichols’ tenure began.
On Monday, Tim Warren, a school board member, announced his resignation in a press release, citing “several months of growing concern about the board’s direction, particularly in its treatment of our superintendent.”
“Over the past several months, the board has devoted a disproportionate amount of time and energy to efforts aimed at removing the superintendent, rather than building a constructive, working relationship,” he wrote. “The majority seems unconcerned with the consequences of this effort or what comes next.”
He added, “This focus has come at a significant cost, not only in legal fees but also in lost time, trust, and progress. As we face pressing matters such as contract negotiations, budget planning, and a looming, seismic change in the education landscape, I consider the board’s continued preoccupation to be a harmful distraction.”
The board now has to fill two vacancies on the seven-member school board, and begin the process to find an interim superintendent with less than two months before the start of the new school year.
During a meeting earlier this month, board members voted to make an amendment to board policy governing that the superintendent “shall not retaliate against or discipline a District employee” for speaking to the board or to central administrative staff.
It appeared to be a direct response to the allegations aired in April. But Nichols alleged the on-the-fly amendment violated open meeting laws, as well as the term of her contract.
Some at Tuesday’s special meeting expressed dismay with the board’s treatment of Nichols in previous meetings. Three former board chairs of the South Burlington School District — including House Rep. Bridget Burkhardt, D-Chittenden — decried what they characterized as unprofessional treatment of the superintendent.
Kate Bailey, former chair of the board, said that holding the special meeting with little notice was “not transparent,” that the board was “coercing our superintendent to follow what you say, instead of the district’s own policies and procedures,” and that it was “pressuring her to resign.”
Tillinghast, the former board chair who resigned in May said that the board was “purposefully colluding with members of staff to fire the superintendent.”
Burkhardt, a former chair of South Burlington’s school board, cast doubt on whether the board was equipped to face challenges ahead “with regards to… changes that are coming from the state level.”
“For this district to move forward and face the challenges it’s going to face, there needs to be collaboration between the board and the superintendent, we need to be moving in the same direction,” she said.
Abshere said during Tuesday’s meeting that the board will begin the process to find Nichols’ replacement in the coming weeks.
Clarification: This story has been updated to provide more detail from the South Burlington school board chair about its review of the superintendent’s job performance.
Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story incorrectly implied that the school district’s board initiated an improvement plan for the superintendent in response to unsubstantiated complaints. An improvement plan was initiated for other reasons.
