6-6 vote prevails as school board cuts middle school team teachers for fall

February 20, 2021  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

The Harwood Unified Union School Board meets via video conference on Feb. 17. Meetings can be viewed on Mad River TV and on the school district's YouTube channel. Links are on the board's webpage at huusd.org/huusd-board. Screenshot.

Contrary to its name, the Harwood Union School Board was anything but unified this week as it voted 6-6 on cutting four teaching positions at Harwood Middle School for next fall.

Because of the board’s weighted voting rules, the “yes” votes in the tie prevailed 45% to 39.95%. The board took the step despite comments at the start of the meeting from Harwood Middle School Principal Duane Pierson and a letter to the school board signed by 10 of the school’s teaching staff all opposing the step. 

Pierson told the board that since 2019, the staff at Harwood Middle School has been working to align curriculum with that at Crossett Brook Middle School by creating a two-team multi-age approach for seventh- and eighth-graders.

District administration and the school board have prioritized the eventual merger of the two middle schools although they last fall decided not to push ahead with that step for fall 2021 given that students in grades 7 and 8 this year have been attending school only part-time in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

District leaders are eyeing fall 2022 for the potential consolidation which also will possibly involve a bond to fund construction at the Crossett Brook campus. 

In anticipation of the ultimate blending of students and staff from both schools, middle school principals and staff have been working to align their programming. “Removing a team would dismantle the work that the Harwood staff has done throughout the year to move this to the new model,” Pierson told the board. A veteran administrator in the district, Pierson has held principal positions at Harwood Union High School and Moretown Elementary School prior to his current job at Harwood Middle School for the past three years.  

“As we, the HUMS community, head toward a proposed merger decision we see clarity and direction of a timeline from the board that will allow us to thoughtfully support a transition process for our students that provides the most stability at an already vulnerable stage of their lives,” he said. 

The board’s debate about cutting four of Harwood Middle School’s eight core team teachers centered on enrollment projections for seventh and eighth grades at both middle schools for next fall.

Both schools have two teams of seventh- and eighth-grade students presently, each with four core teachers. Projections show that class size at Harwood Middle School would be about 15 students per class in the fall and Crossett Brook would have 18 students per class. 

But that would be before the district factors in requests from families of 17 incoming seventh graders who normally would be headed to Harwood Middle School to instead attend Crossett Brook under the district’s school-choice policy.

Harwood Middle School serves students in grades seven and eight from the district’s communities in Mad River Valley -- Moretown, Waitsfield, Warren and Fayston -- while students from Waterbury and Duxbury in grades five through eight attend Crossett Brook. 

Adding the 17 students to Crossett Brook would increase class sizes there to 20 students per class and it would leave Harwood Middle School’s classes at about 14 students each. 

Choice affects enrollment

The board’s action was based on the belief that 14 was too small. By cutting the teachers for one team at Harwood Middle School and combining all students there into one team, class size would average 25. 

During public comment, the board heard from two parents opposed to the larger class size. Becky Allen, a math teacher at Harwood Union High School and parent of a sixth-grader headed to Harwood Middle School next fall, said the larger class size will make it difficult for teachers to give students needed individual attention. 

Former Waterbury school board member Maureen McCracken also addressed the board calling 25 students per class “problematic.” Both she and Allen noted that students currently in grades 7 and older are only in school two days a week given the COVID-19 pandemic and state distancing guidelines. 

“We are still in the middle of a pandemic,” Allen said, noting that it’s possible that distancing will still be needed in the fall and that would be impossible to accommodate 25 students in a class. 

McCracken noted that keeping students attending the schools intended based on their communities would result in more even class sizes. “The district’s choice procedures have created this problem,” she said.    

School choice in the past two years has allowed for more families from the Mad River Valley to send their students to Crossett Brook rather than Harwood Middle. Enrollment data show that in the 2018-19 school year, the schools had even numbers of seventh and eighth graders with 136 at Crossett and 135 at Harwood. In 2019-20 Crossett had 162, Harwood had 119; this year the split is 154-107. Transfer requests would result next fall in 160 at Crossett Brook and 102 at Harwood Middle. 

In what school officials said was a coincidence, parents of students from Pre-K through grade 7 for next year received an email from the school district on Thursday notifying them that they may make late applications to request a different school for their child for next fall under the intradistrict choice provision. In an email to school board members, Superintendent Brigid Nease assured them the communication was in keeping with procedures to administer the policy which relies on managing a waiting list until a week before the new school year begins. “Nothing is new or different with the implementation of [intradistrict choice],” Nease wrote.

Too small? Too large?

The board discussion then debated the merits of various class size models. Chair Hollister suggested that the staff cuts also might come through attrition rather than layoffs, although those details were not clear. Superintendent Nease was absent from the meeting and did not send any written comments ahead of the discussion. 

The vote came at the board’s final meeting before the March 2 Town Meeting Day election where voters in the district’s six communities will consider the proposed $40.39 million budget and elect members to seven of the board’s 14 seats. 

Yes votes on the measure were from both Waitsfield representatives Christine Sullivan and Jeremy Tretiak, Warren member Rosemarie White, Vice Chair Torrey Smith of Duxbury, and Waterbury members Michael Frank and board Chair Caitlin Hollister. Waterbury member Alex Thomsen was absent and the other Duxbury seat is vacant after the resignation of Alec Adams earlier this year. 

Chair Hollister cast the deciding vote saying that her professional experience as a teacher and a teacher-educator informed her decision. “I am well-versed in the debate and research on class size,” she said. “Twelve or 13 middle schoolers in a class is too small.” 

Hollister said classes of 25 or so are a more healthy size for student learning and social interactions. She also pointed out that in a class that large, teachers would likely have other adults assisting to increase the attention students would receive. 

Following the vote, Fayston representative Tim Jones commented on how the decision was made. “I don’t mind robust discussion, but I don’t really care for the tone that the deciding factor is going to be because the expertise of one person over another says so. It just makes me uncomfortable to hear that,” Jones said.   

Board leaders said they thought it was important to discuss the matter ahead of teacher contract decisions for next year which are typically finalized in the spring. 

The staffing cuts will also reduce school spending for 2021-22 by approximately $300,000, leaving that sum unallocated in next year’s school budget. The amount for next year – $40,390,158 – is already established and on the March 2 ballot. Reached following Wednesday’s meeting, Hollister said she did not know how the district would spend the funds intended for the staff that would now be cut.