BERLIN — Celia Guggemos is headed from one central Vermont principal’s office to another as she readies to replace Aaron Boynton at the helm of Berlin Elementary School while ending her four-year run as principal of Fayston Elementary School.
Guggemos was the last woman standing in a whirlwind search that boiled down to a choice between her and a sitting member of the school board — Diane Nichols-Fleming — that just approved her hiring.
Nichols-Fleming did not attend Wednesday night’s board meeting, when school directors formally accepted Boynton’s resignation and, with one abstention, approved Superintendent Meagan Roy’s recommendation they offer the job to Guggemos. School Director Maggie Weiss did not participate in the vote, which was preceded by questions about the process and an acknowledgment that some staff at Berlin’s pre-K-6 school were “unhappy” with the result.
Though she was never mentioned by name, that likely has more to do with Nichols-Fleming than Guggemos.
Nichols-Fleming has lived in Berlin since 1991 and taught preschool at Berlin Elementary School for 12 years. She is currently employed as the early childhood program coordinator in the North Country Supervisory Union. She has also been Berlin’s most reliable representative on the Washington Central School Board since she was elected as a write-in candidate in 2020.
Nichols-Fleming, who was elected to her second consecutive two-year term in March, came up short in the consultant-led search for Boynton’s replacement.
Before making the decision, board members sought assurance the district has a procedure for hiring principals, that process was followed, and the staff was represented on the hiring committee that narrowed the list of eight applicants from five to two.
Roy said the answer to all three questions was “yes” — crediting the committee for flagging five applicants and interviewing four of them after one withdrew.
Guggemos and Nichols-Fleming emerged from the first round of interviews earlier this month, and both were interviewed a second time and participated in an in-person forum with faculty and staff followed by a virtual community forum with parents on June 15 — barely three weeks after the job was first posted.
“It was a very tight timeline,” Roy said Friday, suggesting she was pleased by the caliber of candidates the job attracted so late in the hiring season.
Roy said Guggemos would be a solid addition in Berlin.
“She brings a strong instructional leadership background at the elementary level and a lot of enthusiasm,” Roy said of Guggemos.
“People who work with her (Guggemos) talk about (her) ‘building relationships’ and ‘getting to know a system’ and ‘putting roots in,’” she added. “All of that makes your ability to be an instructional leader that much easier.”
Roy said Guggemos, who has served as principal of Fayston Elementary School in the neighboring Harwood Unified Union School District for the past four years also has expertise in implementing curriculum.
A 2010 graduate of St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Guggemos spent the first nine years of her career teaching kindergarten. That includes the two years she spent at Hardwick Elementary School before shifting to the Harwood district and joining the faculty at Thatcher Brook Elementary School in Waterbury.
Guggemos earned her master’s degree in elementary education from Southern New Hampshire University in 2016 and in 2019 was hired as principal of Fayston’s pre-K-5 school.
Starting July 1, Guggemos will replace Boynton, who was hired late last month as principal of the Bristol Elementary School, which is located much closer to his home in Brandon.
Boynton served as principal in Berlin since 2018 when he was hired to replace Carol Amos who retired that year. Like Guggemos, Boynton came to Berlin with experience as principal, having worked for the previous six years as principal of Rutland Town School.
david.delcore @timesargus.com
