Former Charter Schools leader
Press release
Governor Phil Scott today announced his appointment of Zoie Saunders to serve as Vermont’s next education secretary.
Saunders is an accomplished education leader with broad strategic and operational experience driving school improvement, increasing student outcomes and enrollment, closing service gaps, and optimizing school support services.
Currently, Saunders works as the chief strategy and innovation officer for Broward County Public Schools, the sixth largest school district in the country. In this role, she is responsible for aligning resources, maximizing facility usage, strengthening partnerships, and enhancing support services for 230 schools serving over 200,000 students. Using a collaborative approach, Saunders has led discussions with community stakeholders to develop the goals and criteria for redefining the future of education in the county from an equity lens.
“I have always believed that, given our enormous investment and commitment, Vermont is capable of having the best education system in the country, serving students from cradle to career,” said Governor Scott. “Vermont’s education system is at a turning point, and it will take all of us – teachers, parents, administrators, school staff, community leaders, and more – to work together to ensure we reach our full potential. Zoie’s exemplary resume, fresh perspective and impactful experience as a public school leader will be invaluable as we move forward. She has demonstrated a deep commitment to the success of students and the communities that schools serve. She will be a huge asset as we move forward, and I look forward to working with her and welcoming her and her family to Vermont.”
“I have devoted my career to expanding educational opportunities for underserved communities and believe in the power of education to drive positive community change and economic prosperity,” said Saunders. “It is my honor to serve as the secretary of Education in a state with a strong tradition of prioritizing education and the needs of children. With leadership experience across multiple states and a background in community development, I understand that local context matters and commit to collaborating with Vermonters to advance the State’s education goals. On a personal level, I am a mom of two school-aged children and will work hard to advocate for policies that prepare students for success in school and life.”
For five years prior to her current role, Saunders served as the City of Fort Lauderdale’s first chief education officer. In this role, she designed and led a new division to enhance educational opportunities for 180,000 residents. She expanded workforce training programs by launching the Avionics Systems Technician Program, designing a public works training-to-employment pipeline, and increasing college accessibility for historically underserved communities. To address learning loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Saunders extended afterschool and summer enrichment programs for 2,000 low-income children, resulting in improved literacy and skill development. Under her leadership, the city earned recognition for innovation in education and workforce development from Broward County Public Schools, the state of Florida, National League of Cities, and the U.S. Department of Labor.
Previously, she was the vice president of strategy for Charter Schools USA. In this role, she oversaw enterprise-wide strategic planning, school improvement, accreditation, a $20 million grant portfolio, and operational improvements for 84 schools across seven states, serving 70,000 students. She successfully led cross-functional initiatives that resulted in 100% school grade improvement among target schools and a 475% increase in the proportion of schools meeting enrollment targets. To scale effective planning, she worked with principals and classroom teachers to develop a school improvement platform that enabled integrated goal setting, progress monitoring and predictive analytics.
As a research fellow at Vanderbilt University, Saunders consulted on Nashville Promise Neighborhood, an education reform initiative designed to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty through a continuum of family-centered services. Early in her career, she held nonprofit leadership roles at HospiceCare of Southeast Florida and Children’s Diagnostic & Treatment Center where she expanded access to pediatric health care and wrap around services.
Saunders has conducted research on effective human service delivery, cross-sector collaboration, parent education programs, community change and social/emotional learning curriculum. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and Master of Education from Vanderbilt University.
Saunders replaces Interim Secretary Heather Bouchey, who will help with the leadership transition and serve as deputy secretary.
“I want to thank Heather for her tremendous work leading the Agency, and for her commitment to our state, its students, educators and communities,” said Governor Scott. “Her energy and passion have made her a valuable member of my Cabinet and she has been a tremendous teammate and leader.”
Saunders will assume the role effective April 15.
Categories: Education
Yay! Another new Ed Secretary who has never taught a day in a classroom. This should be good!
Interesting, Broward County is planning on closing and re purposing schools that have declining enrollment. Was part of the reason for hiring her a Mitt Romney style “turnaround plan?”
Anyone who wants to move from Florida to Vermont has got to be a bit suspect. Mental illness maybe?
It would appear to me that the Governors new Education secretary should be called
Indoctrination secretary………………………… Hope she proves me wrong !!
What’s this new secretary costing taxpayers, Oh yeah, that’s what I thought hold on to your wallets and Phil’s a conservative………… now that’s funny.
broward county/// ranks second in the state for human trafficking/// i knew i had seen many stories about drugs and human trafficking/// i wonder if their congress woman is still in washington/// who picked this woman for the govie to choose and appoint///
I wish you luck, dealing with the progressive/ liberal agenda in Vermont . First thing I’d suggest is getting all flags out of public schools except for the US and state flags.
Hey – it could be worse. Much worse. Someone like Rebecca Holcombe, for example. I wonder if Ms. Saunders has any idea about the extent of the rat’s nest she’s entering. We’ll see. It’s reasonable, then, to reserve judgment at this time.
Agreed. Despite her credentials, there’s a good chance she has no idea what she’s walking into.
“Using a collaborative approach, Saunders has led discussions with community stakeholders to develop the goals and criteria for redefining the future of education in the county from an EQUITY lens.” Just want we don’t need, DEI!
“I have always believed that, given our enormous investment and commitment, Vermont is capable of having the best education system in the country, serving students from CRADLE TO CAREER.” said Governor Scott. “Vermont’s education system is at a turning point, and it will take all of us – teachers, PARENTS, administrators, school staff, community leaders, and more – to work together to ensure we reach our full potential.” A curious statement from the Governor, cradle to career! Why are the parents listed second after teachers?? It takes a family to raise a child and not the teachers or especially the government!
Re: “Using a collaborative approach…. etc., etc..”
Madeline: consider who wrote that sentence. Was it Ms. Saunders? Was it Gov. Scott? No. It was a public relations wonk in the Governor’s office who likely doesn’t know his or her ass from their elbow. ‘Equity’ is a political talking point. I suspect nine out of ten of us on this forum don’t know the difference between ‘equity’ and ‘equal access’. So, I’m not hanging my hat on that one point.
And that “it will take all of us – teachers, PARENTS, administrators, school staff, community leaders, and more – to work together to ensure we reach our full potential” is typical political jargon. It’s unassailable logic. Of course that’s what ‘it takes’. All of us.
But what Scott never tells us, and what we have yet to learn from Ms. Saunders, is how they are going to facilitate this logic. What’s the tangible next step? Scott doesn’t know. And neither do I. No one person or family knows – except as it may apply to their own specific circumstance at a given point in time. And circumstances change. That’s life.
The only systemic process that can handle the infinite educational nuances we all encounter from day to day is a voluntary educational free market. Period. Anyone who says otherwise has an unrealistically inflated opinion of themselves. And they are almost always wrong.
You don’t believe me? How is the centralized monopolistic control working for us so far?
Let’s wait and see what Ms. Saunders tells us. Then we can bite off her head later… if she deserves it.
I was just about to post that very same information..
You can bet she was carefully chosen by the marxists in the state of vermont to head up our indoctrination system.
I know we should be patient and wait but we have been waiting for too long to do something about education in the state of vermont when they teach 5-year-olds to question their gender..
A friend of mine sent me a book that her grandchild brought home from school.
Our kids are feeling on every front and this is the garbage that we are that it’s being taught to them in the school system.
Phil Scott is directly involved with the CCP and the education of our children is a part of the indoctrination..
Vermonters you better wake up soon..
They are going to teach your kids to write nonsensical sentences like the ones quoted in this article. Why not just let AI do it all at this point, for a monthly internet access cost (which will be reimbursed to all the “underserved”)? The teachers can be door greeters like we have at Walmart. They can dress up and wear wigs and stuff.
The fact that she’s coming from FL what is a plus, she should do good to get rid of DEI andCRT crap
The Sun Sentinel reports she was hired as chief strategy and innovation officer for Broward County Public Schools in December 2023. The article is pay to read, but it appears she took that job three months ago and split for Vermont? I wonder what incentives could possibly lure her here?
Dean Trantalis, Mayor of Ft. Lauderdale shared this February 2022: “So what has the commission been doing with the help of Zoie Saunders, the chief education officer, and our Education Advisory Board? Let me share the details…The city is working to expand early education for our residents through a unique partnership with Bezos Academy and the school district. The Bezos Academy was started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and provides full-day, year-round preschool for underserved communities without any tuition fee.” Bezos Academy? Yikes!
Broward County is also the home base of Congresswoman, former DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Yikes!
Infilitration of more grifting community activitists appointed by the nation’s most popular Governor. The corporation is doubling down and tripling down to ensure the implosion and take-over is complete. The Republic of Vermont no longer exists.
thank you m. c. i know all about d. w. schultz /// that is another dirty movie///
why do we have an education secretary? why do we have superintendents? what do they do… but suck resources from the schools and do nothing but lobby the legislature to create more leaches that suck the life out of a good old education.
I often wonder how my grandparents successfully made something out of nothing in their one room school houses and I am sure there weren’t any blankety blank (is that allowed because it does represent a swear) education secretaries and superintendents with their high salaries and long meetings far far far far removed from the kids they purportedly are working for.
But as the Super said in a recent article in the Shelburne News: “Sanchez, at the start of the meeting, said that he and the other superintendents acreoss the state are “”continuing to lobby the Legislature to make sure that we have a cohesive education financing program that helps our school districts and our students to be successful.”
Now if I were to read between the lines and maybe make and ass..umption : it seems he is saying that he needs more funds to hire more bureaucrats and the children come second… please prove me wrong…
susan/// study metro 13 13 regional government and all the people that are employed in a bureaucracy run government/// there is a long list of groups of people connected to this///
I knew right away when Phil picked someone there had to be a good reason why..
Because like every good marxist, including Phil Scott our governor, she looks at things through an equity lens…
Forget about educating our children and indoctrination is the word of the day in our educational system.