MIDDLEBURY — Logan Price, who until recently worked as a CPA with the Middlebury company Telling & Hillman PC, began his new career as business manager for the Addison Central School District on Monday, July 12.

Price, 38, was among a small group of applicants hoping to succeed former ACSD Business Manager Brittany Gilman, who left earlier this year in order to provide more support for her family during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Price becomes the ACSD’s third business manager in three years, and is taking the financial reins of a district that next year is set to shrink from seven towns to six.

The ACSD delivers preK-12 public education to children in Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge. Ripton recently won permission from the Vermont State Board of Education to become an independent school district. Ripton will strike out on its own after the upcoming, 2021-2022 academic year.

“Logan’s experience as a CPA here in Middlebury and his commitment to our community really struck our hiring committee as a perfect fit for the role of ACSD business manager,” Superintendent Peter Burrows said. “Logan has both the business and finance background to excel in the position and the community focus to help all in ACSD be a part of this crucial work.”

Price earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver in 2008, after having earned a Bachelor of Science in Sociology (with a minor in Economics) from the University of Oregon in 2005.

He and his spouse — AJ Vasiliou, associate professor of chemistry/biochemistry at Middlebury College — moved to Addison County eight years ago. They live in Cornwall with their three children — two young boys and a newborn girl.

Public service was a major motivating factor in Price’s pursuit of the ACSD job. He currently chairs the Otter Creek Child Center’s board, and he’s a member of the Middlebury Rotary Club.

While he was content at Telling & Hillman, Price researched the ACSD position after learning it was open for applicants. He liked the idea of crunching numbers for a district that someday will serve all three of his children, the oldest of whom will enter first grade in Cornwall this fall. Price is prepared to team up with Burrows, the school board and ACSD constituents.

“I am perfectly happy speaking in public and having that public interaction,” he said.

Finances have been a particularly tough challenge for ACSD and most other Vermont school districts during the past 20 years, during which time student enrollment has been declining while education costs have been rising. The ACSD has been working on a facilities master plan that calls for major building updates while reflecting elementary school consolidations.

Price acknowledged the upcoming challenges, and vowed to give ACSD officials the information they need to make informed decisions on school finances.

“(The school board) drives the objective, and we implement it,” he said. “I’m here to help us get to the best solutions.”

Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].