WSWSU has come a long way in two years

Last week we reported on a recent meeting of the Windham Southwest Supervisory Union board with the headline “WSWSU will start year with a deficit, despite projected end-of-year surplus.”
During the meeting, the superintendent told board members that the supervisory union was expected to end the year with a surplus – not a huge surplus, but a surplus of about $15,000. He said it was good news. During the same meeting, however, the superintendent reminded board members that WSWSU would was carrying a deficit of more than $800,000 from previous years.
Staring up at you from the newsstand, the headline might have implied to the casual reader that the current supervisory union administration and board had been careless with or mismanaged public funds. Some might have thought the superintendent had lost his mind, crowing about a $15,000 surplus that would be a drop in the bucket toward an $800,000 deficit.
But it’s important to realize where WSWSU was just two years ago, when an internal crisis that had, apparently, been festering at the supervisory union erupted into public view. The superintendent at the time, Barbara Anne Komons-Montroll, had resigned in February, effective at the end of the school year. The board, working with the Vermont School Board Association, brought in consultant Dr. Kevin Dirth to conduct the search for a new superintendent.
Then in April, after a series of emergency board meetings, the board voted to place Komons-Montroll on paid administrative leave, and appointed Dirth as the acting superintendent.
The reason for the action was never explained to the public – personnel actions are held in executive session, and rightfully so. But the WSWSU office had been in great turmoil for months – numerous central office administrators and staff members had resigned, including several business managers, financial consultants and specialists, and other staff in the finance office. The resignations also included other key administrative positions, including the director of special education and the curriculum director. Some positions turned over several times.
After two months as acting superintendent, Dirth offered the board a frank assessment. The problems at the supervisory union, he said, were the worst he’d ever seen. For several years, there had been a lack of leadership at the central office. Employees hadn’t been adequately trained. Systems fell apart. School districts didn’t receive support or communication.
And financial problems were also starting to show. A financial consultant reported significant accounting errors in the supervisory union’s special education programs. Employees’ 403(b) retirement plans hadn’t been credited with some of the contributions they had made.
In July 2024, the board hired the current superintendent, Bill Bazyk. He said the most pressing task was to rebuild the supervisory union’s business office and create a solid financial foundation.
The task proved challenging. In the first few weeks, Bazyk identified a number of financial deficiencies, most importantly, the neglect of the previous administration to manage federal and state grants and reimbursements in a timely manner, risking a loss of funds, including special education funds.
In August 2024, Bazyk told board members that past financial mismanagement was even worse than initially estimated, and that the district had missed out on some state and federal funding because the supervisory union had failed to submit required documentation. The supervisory union also failed to submit timely documentation for COVID-era federal funding before the expiration date.
There was also good news. Bazyk said the supervisory union was on track to recover between $1.3 million and $1.4 million in state and federal funding going back as far as 2022.
Then, in November, Bazyk dropped a real bombshell: his team had uncovered more than $1 million in unbudgeted special education expenses. The discovery was made as a result of their work on their first budget – which was the current fiscal year 2026 budget.
It may be important to remind readers that budgets are planned and approved well in advance of the fiscal year in which they’re used. For instance, most municipal entities in Vermont are currently in fiscal year 2026, which started on July 1, 2025, and ends on June 30, 2026. It’s referred to as “fiscal year 2026” despite the fact that the first six months of the year are in 2025. The fiscal year 2026 budget was planned in fall and early winter 2024, affirmed by the municipal board sometime in January or February 2025, and approved by voters at the annual town or district meeting.
Most of the unbudgeted expenses, which created the deficit WSWSU and the board must now pay down, were for special education programs. At the time, Bazyk said it wasn’t possible to reduce or eliminate spending on special education programs that are part of a student’s IEP. Therefore, the cost couldn’t simply be eliminated for 2026.
And the deficit created by the unbudgeted spending in fiscal year 2025 couldn’t be rectified until after the books could be closed – something Bazyk’s team still hadn’t been able to do at the time the (current) 2026 budget was created, thanks to the confusion left by the previous administration. As a result, the first payment of the deficit would have to be left to the fiscal year 2027 budget – which will begin on July 1.
The deficit is a hangover from past administrative and fiscal turmoil, and the surplus can be seen as a sign of progress at the supervisory union.