Robert Millar

@robtheprog.bsky.social

259 Followers 292 Following

Activist, organizer, and occasional politician. Current Winooski School Board President. Current Winooski Progressive Party Chair. Former Winooski City Councilor, WSD Treasurer, Housing Commission Chair, Justice of the Peace & More.

Friends and Neighbors, As always, I want to start by thanking the voters of Winooski for your past and continued support of our Schools. Winooski has made clear in recent years that you support the District’s work and the direction the Schools are heading. And that support is yielding results! Recent standardized test scores have shown improvement across grade levels in math and English. While we have a long way to go, it’s clear that investments in curriculum, in the multilingual liaison program, in the school building itself, and elsewhere, are making a difference. It’s also important to remember that, given the reality of the world we live in and the way Vermont chooses to fund human services, your support means much more than just improvement in academic outcomes. It means children being fed who might not otherwise have access to nutritious meals. It means children with access to medical and dental care they might not otherwise have. It means investments in mental healthcare amidst a spiraling youth mental health crisis. It means support for families dealing with housing insecurity. It means a stronger, more connected community for all of us. But believe me, your Board of School Trustees understands that our tiny City can only take on so much. That’s why, over the past several months, we’ve once again worked closely with administrators to build a budget that both meets the needs of our students and is hopefully affordable for taxpayers. This year, we not only had several adult “Budget Buddies” from the community join us for our discussions, but also a few High School students, whose input was invaluable. The budget the Board adopted and that you will vote on March 3rd represents an increase of 4.59% from last year. With the information we currently have from the State, this should mean a slight reduction in the education tax rate for most Winooski taxpayers of about a penny. This minimal increase was accomplished despite many complicating budget factors. Healthc…
Dear Winooski community, The Winooski School District received significant news from the state today: for the first time in recent memory, all three of our schools have moved off the "Comprehensive Support and Improvement" list. Congratulations to all. This great achievement is a testament to the investments this community has made over the years and the tireless work of Winooski educators and staff. I want to say that this is yet one more thing that makes me feel incredibly proud. There is much work ahead, but let this be a reminder that our work together can have a tangible impact on all fronts. With pride and appreciation, Wilmer
Statement from the Winooski Board of School Trustees: The Winooski Board of School Trustees was devastated and horrified to learn this week that one of our 2nd grade students and his mother were abducted by federal agents over the Thanksgiving break and are being held in a facility in Texas. There is no justification for detaining a student – it is amoral, unjust, and inhumane. This is not only a direct trauma to this student and his family, but has rippled throughout the entire School and Winooski community. We are grateful for the decisive and compassionate leadership Superintendent Chavarria has shown in supporting this student, his family, and our District during this time. We call on our local, state, and federal elected representatives to advocate on behalf of this student and his mother and secure their immediate release. We call upon all Vermonters to stand in solidarity with our community and demand their immediate release. Families belong together, and students belong in the classroom, not in detention facilities.
NOTICE Winooski Progressive Party City Caucus All Progressive voters of the City of Winooski, in the County of Chittenden, are hereby notified, in accordance with 17 V.S.A. § 2303, to meet in caucus on Saturday, September 20th, 2025, at 1:00 pm, at the O’Brien Community Center, 32 Malletts Bay Ave. The Agenda for this Caucus is as follows: I. Election of City Committee II. Election of Officers by the City Committee III. Election of County Committee Members IV. Discussion: 2026 Elections V. Discussion: Organizing in Winooski VI. New Business Robert Millar, City Chair For more information, email info@progressiveparty.org LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY AT WWW.PROGRESSIVEPARTY.ORG!
Hello Everyone! It’s an honor to once again have the opportunity to stand up here as Winooski’s School Board President and welcome you all to another new school year. I’m so consistently proud of the work all our teachers, staff, and administrators do here every day to make sure our City’s kids get the best education possible. You all are truly amazing. But I’m going to be honest with you. I can’t just stand up here like last time and try to claim this is going to be a great, wonderful year. I won’t sugarcoat what’s obvious to all of us. We all know these are difficult times, especially for anyone working in education. Especially for anyone working with students like ours. None of us can really say for sure what education is going to look like here in Winooski – or in Vermont – in the coming years. None of us knows for sure what the Legislature or the Federal government might throw at us next. On top of that, it feels like almost every day now brings some fresh attack from Washington on the basic humanity of our friends, our neighbors, our families, and ourselves. It’s exhausting. It’s overwhelming. And I don’t know about you, but it leaves me feeling unsure what to do next, what I can possibly do to make a real difference in the face of just so much… noise. So what I do want to talk about today are two things that have helped me keep my bearings and keep moving forward, even in the face of all of that. They aren’t solutions. But they help me and they might help you. The first is rest. That might sound strange, given the constancy of everything that’s going on. But the reality is, rest is revolutionary. You can’t take care of anyone else if you don’t take care of yourself first. If you burn out, if you push yourself too hard or too long, you won’t be of help to anyone.
The Board Chair holds up the lovely plaque for an outgoing Board Member that he just dropped on the ground.
A picture of two very chilly candidates at the Winooski polls
Winooski Schools. We are the future. Resolution
The Winooski School District will continue to abide by its existing policies designed to protect, respect, and value the dignity of each and every single one of our students. These policies are publicly available on our website and are to be strictly followed by the Winooski Educational Community. Regardless of what the news says, we retain our local power to come together and ensure the safety and sense of belonging of those most vulnerable, and we will not reverse all the progress we have made. I invite all families and Winooski community members to join me in that endeavor.