SVUSD taps new special education director

The Sonoma Valley Unified School District at its June 16 board meeting announced the appointment of Toni Vernier as special education director, and welcomed a new executive assistant.

“We are honored to have such an experienced perspective in this position,” said Socorro Shiels, superintendent of Sonoma Valley Unified School District. “We appreciate the leadership Dr. Elizabeth Kaufman has shown during the interim. In a short time Toni has been listening , building relationships and making an impact as part of the educational services team. We are excited to see the coming school year(s) contributions.”

Vernier held the same role for the past 15 years in the Marysville Joint Unified School District in Yuba County. She started her career in education as a school psychologist moving on to become site administrator and then a director.

She has experience in multi-tiered systems of support in special education and the legal components of an effective Individualized Education Program (IEP).

She is married to a special education teacher and together they have four daughters. In her free time she enjoys hiking at Fort Ross, cooking, exercising and reading.

District officials also announced at the meeting that Marcus Silvi, who had been the executive assistant to SVUSD Superintendent Socorro Shiels for the past year, retired at the end of the school year. Kyra Sherman, who was the assistant in the human resources department, has taken the role.