I remember a moment, long ago in a much simpler time, when the Shumlin administration came under scrutiny for hiring communications staffers for multiple state agencies. In fact, hey, here’s the story from Seven Days way back in 2012, reporting that while candidate Peter Shumlin had vowed to cut communications people from state agencies, his administration eventually tried to hire even more of ’em.
Well, now we have a job listing from Gov. Phil Scott’s Agency of Education seeking a “Director of Policy, Strategy, and Communications” at an hourly rate of $40.83, which amounts to an annual salary in the $80,000 range.
Okay, so the idea that comms people are a luxury seems kind of quaint nowadays. But wait, there’s more!
The Director, according to the job description, “will oversee a team of three digital communications and policy specialists.”
Yep, that’s right. The Education Agency doesn’t just need a flack. It needs a gaggle of flacks to handle both external and internal communications. This “team” would not only handle the press, legislative relations and interagency communications — it would also serve as a middleman between AOE leadership and its own people.
This, from an agency that’s suffered chronic understaffing for years. This, from an agency responsible for an enterprise routinely attacked by the governor as being too expensive. I guess he’s got enough money to hire a brace of flacks, anyway.
This may be standard operating practice in the larger institutions of Florida, where interim Education Secretary Zoie Saunders cut her administrative teeth. But it seems excessive in a small place like Vermont. In fact, it seems more like featherbedding than anything else.
It is true that Saunders is in a public relations pickle, what with her nomination having been soundly rejected by the state Senate, the administration being sued over her workaround installation as interim secretary, and all facets of the public education system — teachers, staff, administrators and school boards — having publicly fought against her hiring. She’s got a big ol’ mess to clean up.
There are two ways to approach this. Well, there is a third: resign and head for the hills. But let’s assume Saunders is in it for at least the medium haul, having short-circuited her career by applying for the Vermont job even as she accepted and began work in a high-profile post in Fort Lauderdale. Even if she wanted to bug the hell out, she’d have a hard time convincing future employers of her commitment.
So, two ways. The first is to be truly open and transparent, to listen honestly and humbly to her many skeptics and try to find common ground. The second is to hire a brace of communications professionals and bullshit her way through.
This job posting suggests that she has made her choice.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
Follows close on Saunders’s heartwarming commentary in Vtdigger yesterday.
“I want to show you that I’m honest in the worst way.”
Before Saunders arrived on the scene, the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE) had more than 37,000 ‘fulltime equivalent’ employees. And, according to its own 2024 assessment of the Vermont public education system, published in February, its total spending was projected to be $2.7 billion, while K-12 enrollments had dropped to fewer than 74,000 students. The February 2024 report also noted the AOE administrative staff numbered 176 positions with a $55.7 million annual operating budget. Meanwhile, half our graduating high school students are below proficient in language arts (reading and writing), math, and science – with a 14% increase in property taxes this year alone.
Criticize Saunders all you like. But Vermont’s public education malaise has been apparent for a long, long time. Maybe… just maybe, we should give Zoie Saunders a shot.
If you’re so concerned with staffing at AOE, why would you accept Saunders quadrupling her PR staff?
What do I think about quadrupling PR staff? I wasn’t aware that Saunders did so. And I don’t know how many staff you’re talking about, or what they do, and who they may replace, if anyone. Do you know the details? And whatever Saunders does, my opinion will be based on results and depend on what happens to affect overall cost and student performance. If it’s more of the same, I would say – fire Saunders and the PR staff – and then pass the H.405 School Choice bill currently tabled in the Education Committee.
In fact, in any case, the legislature should pass the H.405 School Choice bill.
Not sure the admittedly bloated AOE administration has much to do with day-to-day work in the classroom. Ditto for some local district administrations, which (surprisingly?) bloated in the wake of forced consolidation.
What’s your source for “…half our graduating high school students…”?
Sorry, but Saunders’s commentary was another lukewarm bowl of word salad. I’m sure whatever door-stop the thirteen-member Commission on the Future of Public Education ends up with will be a real page-turner.
Ummm….. this was a position that was already at the agency. The current employee resigned, and the open job was posted. That’s how jobs work. Truly a great scoop! If you are really worried about a person with a terrible reputation, you might want to start by looking in the mirror. I think it’s fairly obvious why you were fired (twice!!!!) for being such a terrible journalist.
Umm… it’s not the position itself that’s the problem, it’s the addition of three more PR flacks. Maybe YOU should take a look in the mirror, and stop hiding behind false names.