Adam Bunting: Principal of the Year

Each year the Vermont Principals’ Association honors distinguished educational leaders at its annual VPA Leadership Academy in August.  We want to congratulate Adam Bunting, CVU principal, for recognition as Vermont's Principal of the Year. Last week he traveled to Washington, DC for more celebrations. 


Here are some thoughts about his recent travels, in Adam's words. 


It was an honor to represent CVU and Vermont in Washington DC this week. Of course, as I soon discovered, CVU was already well represented on the staffs of Welch, Leahy, and Sanders (see photos below: Hans Lynn, Lucas Hilker, Alex Beaton).

The trip was a homecoming of sorts as I grew up in DC public schools until the age of 9. Memories of elementary school flooded back as soon as the plane touched down: I hated school! It wasn’t until moving to Vermont — joining the organized, caring, and dedicated SCS — that I relaxed enough to understand that education wasn’t a punishment. We may not recognize it as kids, but we feel functional school systems on a deep level...and functional systems are often reflections of the cultures around them. I’m biased, but everywhere I turned made me remember how much I love our small state. Unlike many of my colleagues from around the US, I was excited to meet with our representatives. Most of the principals in my group got passing glances from their reps at best; Senator Leahy spent nearly 30 minutes with me. When I asked him what message he would like me to bring back to CVU students, he walked me to a photo hanging on his wall--one taken by the Senator himself years earlier in China.

The image was of a Tibetan man holding a forbidden picture of the Dalai Lama; the man had posed for the photo and risked imprisonment because -- in his words -- “the world [needed] to know.” Leahy’s message to me: Help our kids to live with purpose — ultimately nothing brings greater meaning.