Four meetings left to learn about Harwood renovation needs
January 6, 2024 | By Lisa ScagliottiUpdate: This post has been updated with a link to the online form to sign up for child care at the in-person meetings.
Opened in 1966, Harwood Union Middle/High School is in need of extensive renovations and updates. File photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Four more community meetings are scheduled this month for local residents to learn about proposed renovations for Harwood Union Middle/High School.
The Harwood Unified Union School Board’s Bond Planning Committee met this week to reschedule the Moretown meeting which was postponed in December to school flooding, and to set a date for a Zoom-only online presentation.
The schedule for the remaining meetings is:
Thursday, Jan. 11, at Waitsfield Elementary School
Tuesday, Jan. 16, at Fayston Elementary School
Thursday, Jan. 25, at Moretown Elementary School
Tuesday, Jan. 30, online via Zoom
All meetings are approximately two hours starting at 6 p.m. with refreshments at the in-person events. The three in-person meetings will also have child care provided by Harwood National Honor Society students. To help plan for that, parents who would like to bring children should fill out this online form in advance.
Details will be shared closer to the 30th for the online event. The Dec. 5 meeting held at the Warren School was recorded by Mad River Valley Television.
School board representatives along with administrators and project architects have been conducting a series of public meetings to discuss plans for updating the Harwood facility with a construction project that would begin in 2025. School officials are aiming to determine the scope of work in the coming weeks with the goal of placing a construction bond question on the November general election ballot for voters to consider.
The nearly 60-year old school needs extensive building and campus upgrades. Voters in November 2021 rejected a nearly $60 million proposed project to address the building needs, most of which remain. The current project discussions focus exclusively on the high school without any plans to reconfigure the district’s middle schools which were part of the 2021 plans.
School officials are visiting each of the district’s six communities to present the building needs and proposed fixes, answer questions, and get feedback from community members. They next will consider input from the public collected at the meetings and through an online survey to determine the extent of the project. Feedback also includes student surveys and upcoming discussions in progress at Harwood.
The list of potential work totals just over $92 million.
The meeting schedule is online at HUUSD.org along with the survey link. The information will be updated should any meetings be changed and with details for the Zoom meeting.
The slide presentation used at the meetings can be found online here.