Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Community Foundation is recognizing a gift to the Heart of Winooski’s “Uplifting the Winooski School District BIPOC Educator Workforce Program” from an anonymous fund. This initiative will enable current Winooski School District (WSD) professionals and members of the Winooski community to translate their certification and/or work experiences from their country of origin to the Vermont Teaching Licensure standards so they’re able to teach in Vermont schools.
Approximately 51 percent of Winooski Middle and High School students identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), however, only 6 percent of the district’s teachers identify as BIPOC. There are current staff members and community members from WSD students’ countries of origin and US-born People of Color (BIPOC) who do not hold teaching or administrative positions due to educational and financial barriers to licensure.
“The Winooski School District (WSD) is committed to having our workforce better reflect our student population,” says Sean McMannon, Winooski School District Superintendent. “This gift is an investment in the Winooski community, school district, and in the individual lives of our students.”
The need for this investment is supported by the WSD/City of Winooski Equity Audit, which was released in April 2022 and found “a lack of structures and resources at the schools that would enable them to recruit more diverse teachers.”
Mohamed Diop, WSD’s Multilingual Programs Director, said, “This gift of tuition and a living stipend will enable talented and committed members of the WSD team who often already have a teaching license from another country to earn their teaching license in Vermont. Investing in the BIPOC staff that the district already employs is consequential because students of all races experience greater levels of success and are better prepared to work and live in an increasingly diverse and connected world when racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse educators are present in their school.”
“The Vermont Community Foundation and our fundholders are dedicated to creating communities where anyone feels like they belong and they have the opportunity to succeed,” says President and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation Dan Smith. “This generous gift from one of our fundholders will help pave the way to more certifications and more representation in Winooski schools that will strengthen the sense of belonging for underrepresented individuals.”
Members of the community are invited to make a gift to the Heart of Winooski’s “Uplifting the Winooski School District BIPOC Educator Workforce Program” at howvt.org.
The Vermont Community Foundation inspires giving and brings people and resources together to make a difference in Vermont. A family of hundreds of funds and foundations, we provide the advice, investment vehicles, and back-office expertise that make it easy for the people who care about Vermont to find and fund the causes they love.
The heart of the Community Foundation’s work is closing the opportunity gap—the divide that leaves too many Vermonters struggling to get ahead, no matter how hard they work. We are aligning our time, energy, and discretionary resources on efforts that provide access to early care and learning, pathways to college and career training, support for youth and families, and community and economic vitality. We envision Vermont at its best—where everyone has the opportunity to build a bright, secure future. Visit vermontcf.org or call 802-388-3355 for more information.
Heart of Winooski Foundation (HOW) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to supporting education in the Winooski School District. The HOW Foundation was established both to fund projects and programs that encourage excellence in education and to close opportunity gaps for the most vulnerable students in Vermont.
