VERGENNES — After a competitive process that drew a number of applicants, interim Vergennes Union High School Assistant Principal Ed Cook last week became the school’s permanent assistant principal.
VUHS Principal Stephanie Taylor announced the decision in an all-school email on May 9, not long after Cook had been chosen as one of two finalists by a search committee that included teachers, staff and community members, and students.
Cook had worked as a physical education teacher and department head at VUHS from 1997 until January, when he was picked as the interim assistant principal after another competitive process guided by a similar search committee.
One of Cook’s primary responsibilities at the school is overseeing its disciplinary proceedings and procedures.
Cook, a Monkton resident, earned his master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Vermont in 2006 and his undergraduate bachelor’s of science degree from UVM in 1995.
He also coached the VUHS boys’ varsity lacrosse program from 2010 to 2016, and transitioned to coaching the VUHS-Mount Abraham boys’ varsity lacrosse team this past spring. Cook has also coached JV boys’ lacrosse and basketball and middle school boys’ basketball and lacrosse.
Notably, in 2008 Cook worked with then Addison Northwest Supervisory Union curriculum coordinator Carol Spencer and Vergennes Union Elementary School PE teacher Robyn Newton to land the district a $1 million Department of Education grant that Cook then helped manage.
The grant was used to purchase equipment at the three district elementary schools as well as VUHS, including rope courses, snowshoes, in-line skates, and heart-rate monitors, and to build Frisbee golf courses.