CVU principal to become interim superintendent

On an early May morning as the school day began, principal Adam Bunting was standing outside the Champlain Valley Union High building waving to arriving students.

He can often be seen walking the halls and grounds of the school, greeting students and stopping to talk about their successes or, if they appear upset, to check in with them and see if there is anything he can do to make things better.

Interacting with students is clearly something he enjoys doing. Anyone who has attended a CVU graduation can attest that Bunting is a hugger. It appeared that during COVID, one of the hardest things for him to do was refrain from hugging the recently graduated.

With the last day of school coming the second week in June, it may be something he won’t be getting to enjoy as often.

Bunting will be moving to the school district’s central office, to take over as interim superintendent from Rene Sanchez on July 1.

The Champlain Valley School District board voted to accept Sanchez’s resignation in March. He said he was resigning to pursue a new opportunity, but didn’t say what that opportunity is.

Bunting has been principal at Champlain Valley Union High since 2015. He was named Vermont Principal of the Year in 2018.

He earned a bachelor’s in English at Connecticut College and a master’s in education in school leadership at Harvard.

A graduate of CVU, Vermont’s largest high school, Bunting’s first classroom job was teaching English at CVU.

During his time as principal, Bunting “has led collaborative teams to envision, design, and implement personalized, proficiency-based learning for CVU’s 1,300 students,” a release from the school district said.

The school district would like to have an interim principal at CVU by the end of the school year. The search for a permanent superintendent should begin in the fall.

For now, Bunting has only applied for the position of interim superintendent which is just for a year, when it is hoped that a permanent superintendent will have been hired.

He was noncommittal about whether he was interested in applying for the permanent superintendent position.

CVSD board chair Meghan Metzler of Charlotte said that if Bunting decided to apply for the permanent superintendent position he would be considered. The board plans to go through a full search, soliciting community input, gathering other information and nominating several candidates.

She said the board hopes to find a candidate who doesn’t just reflect what she wants in a superintendent but what the whole board and the community want.

“We want a clear leader who thinks about students, who thinks about student needs, understands the challenging landscape that we’re in and is ready to help lead our district towards our strategic plan and our vision,” Metzler said.