Thirty-four years ago, Wilmer Chavarria was born in a refugee camp in Nicaragua during a civil war. On Tuesday, the Winooski School Board announced it had selected Chavarria as the school district's new superintendent.

He'll begin on July 1, taking over for Sean McMannon, who has served as Winooski's superintendent for a decade and plans to take a job leading the Kingdom East School District based in Lyndon Center.

In Chavarria, Winooski has chosen an educational leader who has much in common with many of the district's students.



Chavarria didn't begin learning English until he was in high school, according to a school district press release. In Winooski, 59 percent of its nearly 800 prekindergarten through 12th grade students are people of color. Thirty-three percent are multilingual learners, the majority of whom came to Vermont through refugee resettlement. Sixteen languages are spoken by families in the district.

In a written statement, school board president Allison Burlock expressed excitement about Chavarria's appointment, which came after a nationwide search.

For the past two years, Chavarria has worked as Milton Town School District's director of equity and education support systems. In that role, he has worked on curriculum, instruction and assessment and helped to develop an equity policy that the school board will consider this spring.


Before coming to Milton, Chavarria spent a year as principal of Readsboro Central School, a small K-8 school in southern Vermont. From 2015 to 2020, Chavarria worked at Española Public Schools in New Mexico as an English language arts teacher and then a principal.

Chavarria also holds two master's degrees — one in educational leadership and administration from the University of New Mexico, and another in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

In an interview on Wednesday, Chavarria said that, after a rigorous selection process, he is looking forward to getting started.

He said he's excited to work in a newly renovated, state-of-the-art building where the preschool, elementary, middle and high schools are all under one roof. The district recently completed an extensive construction project — which included a new performing arts center, gymnasium and playground and an additional 75,000 square feet of new space — using a voter-approved $57.8 million bond.

"Representation does matter," Chavarria said. "Seeing models that you can aspire to, especially as a young person, it has an effect on you."

It can be "a scary thing to give a top position to someone who doesn't look like or sound like the standard," Chavarria said. "That's why we have a status quo — because we stick to the things we think are safe."

Chavarria added that he was "grateful and impressed" by the Winooski community for choosing him to lead.