CVCC shifts to self-promotion of career center bond
September 4, 2025 | By David Delcore | Times Argus Staff Writer Editor’s Note: On Aug. 26, the Times Argus reported on concerns of Central Vermont Career Center School District leaders around the choice of a marketing firm to help with promoting the $149 million bond that the district is looking to put before voters in a special Nov. 4 election. This week, the CVCC district announced that it will handle the project marketing without hiring a consultant. The CVCC board has not yet formally warned the vote that would be held in all 18 communities comprising school districts that send students to the center, including the towns in the Harwood district.
Here is Times Argus staff writer David Delcore’s latest report.
BARRE — Dreams of building a $149 million new home for the Central Vermont Career Center now hinge on an in-house marketing campaign, and turnout for an off-cycle special election that is just two months away.
It’s one that will be held in 18 area towns from six separate school districts that collectively cover more than 610 square miles. Ballots — from Barre and Duxbury to Waitsfield and Worcester — must be cast by Nov. 4, but, due to logistical reasons associated with the sheer size of the sprawling CVCC district, results won’t be available until Nov. 6.
All of that assumes the CVCC board doesn’t balk next week — and there has been absolutely no hint that it will — when it is asked to formally warn the bond vote.
The new CVCC proposed for a site in Graniteville would more than double the current center’s capacity with room to serve 500 students. The $149 million construction bond would be the second-largest in Vermont, after the $165 million that Burlington voters approved to build the new Burlington High School now under construction. Image courtesy CVCC.
The proposal is the product of years of planning, and the $149 million price tag would, according to
estimates, cover the cost of permitting, designing, constructing and equipping a new 167,000-square-foot center on a 27-acre property that the district has an option to acquire in Graniteville.
The conceptual design is complete, the cost estimate is in hand, and the district has taken a rough cut at town-specific tax implications associated with the bond’s approval. The next step is relaying that information to voters, most of whom — Barre and possibly Berlin are exceptions — will have no other reason to vote in what amounts to a single-issue special election.
Spreading word about the bond dominated discussion of the CVCC board’s facilities committee during a Tuesday afternoon session that started with Superintendent Jody Emerson reading a prepared statement.
“Last week, after our board meeting, we received a strong draft of press releases … an op-ed, and social media content from Place Creative,” she said. “While we ultimately reached an impasse with Place Creative, and they’ve stepped away from the project, we’re grateful for the materials they’ve developed on our behalf.”
Contacted for comment on Wednesday, Steve Crafts, partner and chief of brand strategy and creative development for Place Creative, indicated the Burlington firm had supplied CVCC with the blueprint for a successful campaign.
“We’ve provided them a strong communications and design foundation and wish them the best as they move forward,” Crafts wrote in an email.
Emerson told the committee Tuesday, executing that campaign will largely be an in-house effort.
“Our team is moving forward with this critical work and remains committed to sharing timely and accurate information with our communities,” she said.
Emerson said that effort is already underway, and will lean on some of the work, from the press releases and op-eds to drafts of stakeholder interviews, performed by Place Creative, as part of what was a $48,500 contract.
According to Emerson, the bulk of that money — about $36,000 remains unspent, even as lawn signs that were designed in-house are ready to be ordered, and the finishing touches are being put on informational postcards that will be mailed to all residents in the district.
Printing and mailing the postcards will cost as much as $10,000, while the lawn signs represent a $3,000 expense. Add in the $1,000 expense associated with a Facebook upgrade that will amplify CVCC’s online messaging, and roughly $22,000 remains uncommitted.
It could go quickly, though committee members agreed a poll proposed by Radio Vermont that would set the stage for a $60,000 advertising campaign on WDEV with the station chipping in $15,000, wouldn’t be a wise use of those resources.
Members struggled to understand what a poll that Emerson said would cost the district $12,500, would tell them what they don’t already know. Even if the strategy would somehow yield useful information, more than one noted it was “late in the game” to go down that path.
“Our money is better spent elsewhere,” said Patrick Whelley, who serves on the committee and represents the Washington Central School Board on the 10-member CVCC board.
The committee passed on the proposal, and while it flirted with a colorful “trifold” that could relay more information, they ultimately opted for a simpler postcard that could convey both the need for and the cost of the project.
Whelley didn’t have a preference but did have a clear expectation for any mass mailing.
“It needs to be like slap-you-in-the-face obvious what the message is from … one side of the mailer,” he said. “If they (voters) are interested in more information, then they can open it up and interact with it.”
Envelopes were a nonstarter, according to Whelley.
“I think simple, on the front, so that somebody can look at it once ... throw it away, and still get the message that they need to support this effort,” he said.
The committee embraced that less-is-more approach, and opted to mass mail a postcard as part of theirs, while preparing a brochure that could be available at strategic locations in the district’s 18 towns.
Posting testimonials from former students on social media is part of a multipronged marketing plan with no one to run it. Committee members agreed investing some of the remaining money in a “project manager” made sense, and, given the tight time frame, offering stipends to one, or more than one, staff member willing to keep various aspects of the campaign on track, outside the contracted school day, might work.
Emerson is expected to explore that option and prepare a timeline for the board’s consideration when it meets to warn the bond vote next Monday.
More information about the CVCC project is online on the Central Vermont Career Center School District website here.
The next CVCC School Board meeting is Sept. 8, 2025, at 6 p.m. Find the meeting agenda and link to watch online in Education Notices here.
This story was originally published by The Times Argus on Sept. 3.