BRATTLEBORO-Windham Regional Career Center (WRCC) Director Nancy Wiese has been named Vermont's Career Tech Center (CTC) Director of the Year.
"Over her six-year tenure, Nancy has been a transformative leader - securing vital grants for program equipment, providing unwavering support to students and staff, and expertly navigating the challenges of the pandemic during her very first year. Please join us in celebrating this well-deserved honor," reads a Career Center Facebook post announcing the honor.
"It's very nice to be recognized," said Wiese, who served as the Center's special needs coordinator for a year before taking on the directorship six years ago.
The Windham Regional Career Center is a career and technical school providing a diverse selection of career preparation programs for 240 mostly part-time students. They are mostly high school juniors and seniors, although the Center also offers an introductory program for 9th- and 10th-graders.
Program instructors work closely with industry representatives and state-of-the-art technology. Within each program, students have the chance to earn industry-recognized credentials, gain personal and workplace skills and, in some cases, dual-enrollment college credit. Students are also offered workplace learning opportunities.
Career programs range from aviation to automotive and culinary arts to criminal justice.
The Center is linked with Brattleboro Union High School, but students from around the county attend classes. Wiese says their attendance is reviewed as are their grades.
"We look at their grades, not so much to they have an 'A' or a 'B,' but more, 'Do they have the credits to move to high school graduation?," says the director.
Attendance is checked because "so much of our learning goes on almost at a job site; we have classrooms, but we also have labs and shops, so a lot of the learning is experiential," she says.
Wiese reports to both Windham Southeast Supervisory Union Superintendent Mark Speno and an advisory board.
"Nancy Wiese and her team have transformed the WRCC into a Career Tech Center that has become a model in the state," said Speno, describing Wiese as "dedicated, hard-working, and well-deserved to receive this honor and recognition."
Wiese "truly puts students at the center of everything she does," says Alvarez, a CTE business/entrepreneurship/marketing instructor at the Career Center who was named 2026 Vermont Teacher of the Year.
"She is a determined advocate for CTE education and understands how powerful hands-on, real-world learning can be for students," she adds. "Nancy leads by bringing energy, care for all of us at the WRCC, and a genuine commitment to helping young people find their path.
"Our school and our community is stronger because of her work," Alvarez says.
Wiese will receive a plaque noting her honor in August at Killington Mountain Resort.
The best part of her job?
"I really enjoy the people I work with," she says. "Both the staff and and students are amazing people. We adults who work at the center have the honor, the luck, of watching kids really grow. We try to teach them that learning is not always successful […] and really, the learning comes from trying again."
The most challenging part?
"Balancing all the responsibilities," says Wiese.
"Like most principals, I have staff and students that are my main focus, but this year, for instance, I've written just over $400,000 state and federal application grants and made a request for additional aid from congressionally-directed federal funds for $5 million," she says. "And we got almost $2.5 million for all of the career centers."
Finding money to make a difference is a crucial part of the work for Wiese.
"Living in a rural state is a blessing, but it's also a curse," she said with a smile.
"There are big mountains between us and Bennington, and rural poverty without transportation is very challenging for kids and adults and can be very isolating," Wiese says. "So anything we can do to help kids access career and technical education is an amazing gift.
"If we want to keep kids in the state of Vermont, we've got to be sure they have the skills to work here successfully and make a livable wage," she says.
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.