By Guy Page

North Country Supervisory Union school district Superintendent John Castle last night requested and was granted a release from the third year of his contract. He will remain on the job through June 30, executive assistant Liz Butterfield told Vermont Daily Chronicle this morning. 

The board released him from the contract with appreciation for his services and best wishes for his future, Butterfield said. 

Castle will become executive director of the Vermont Rural Education Collaborative, a not-for-profit organization for which he is currently treasurer. 

Castle has been a lightning rod for the anti-Critical Race Theory and masking controversy in Northeast Kingdom schools. On August 13, he accused an anti-CRT activist of “McCarthyism” for criticizing the Marxist-based CRT underpinning the district’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion instruction. On Nov. 4, under his guidance a Vermont State Trooper told a mother she would either be arrested or lose custody of her child if she and her husband didn’t take their non-mask-wearing daughter out of school. 

Vermont Rural Education Collaborative is a Northeast Kingdom based not-for-profit providing grant funding and other support for educators in NEK public schools. Its website shows it is a strong supporter of equity education, including offering equity literacy grant awards. 

At least one other NEK public figure, Sen. Russ Ingalls (R-Essex/Orleans), won’t be unhappy to see him go.

“I think it’s a great win for all of the kids and parents in the district,” Ingalls said. “Castle is a staunch supporter of dividing our kids by color, Black and white, right or wrong. This way of divisive thinking is starting to be defeated even in the most liberal settings as the parents of Virginia and New Jersey just showed. The message of ‘leave our kids alone’ is winning. Please quit using them as political pawns.”

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