John Castle, former superintendent of schools for the North Country Supervisory Union, has been named executive director of the Vermont Rural Education Collaborative. He succeeds Margaret Maclean, a 20-year VREC employee who served the last four years as executive director.
Castle's career in education spans almost 30 years. His past roles have included superintendent at Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union, teaching principal at Holland Elementary School and principal at Lake Region Union High School. He also has served as a board member and treasurer at VREC for the past four years.
“I greatly value all that Margaret accomplished, her wealth of knowledge and her commitment to rural schools," Castle said. "VREC is now poised to expand our capacity and deepen our support to schools in our region."
VREC is one of 13 rural collaboratives across the country and offers regional professional development and student-led mini-grants to support place-based/project-based learning. The organization also provides grants to advance equity literacy and partners with the NorthWoods Stewardship Center on a middle school leadership program.