Busy first session for post-election Harwood Union school board

March 13, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti 

Thatcher Brook Primary School principal Denise Goodnow helps unload school meals during the spring 2020 remote school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Goodnow retires in June and the HUUSD School Board approved hiring a new administrator, Chris Neville, to work as co-principal alongside Sarah Schoolcraft who presently is assistant principal at TBPS. File photo by Gordon Miller

In its first meeting post-Town Meeting Day, the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board got down to business electing new board leaders, announcing new principals for the district’s largest elementary school and reversing a decision to cut one of the two teaching teams at Harwood Middle School next fall. 

Superintendent Brigid Nease explained the procedures for the board’s annual leadership reorganization that occurs after an election. This was the first meeting for new members Brian Dalla Mura elected from Duxbury, Jonathan Young from Warren and Marlena Tucker-Fishman from Waterbury.

Waterbury representative and former Chair Caitlin Hollister declined a nomination to continue in that role. The board then proceeded to vote to choose between former Vice Chair Torrey Smith of Duxbury and Fayston representative Tim Jones. 

The roll-call vote initially leaned in Jones’ favor with seven members voting for him, six voting for Smith, and one abstaining. Given the board’s system of weighted votes, that was a split 46.65% to 43.5%. But, just before Nease declared a winner, newly elected Waterbury representative Marlena Tucker-Fishman said she wanted to change her abstention. “I’ll throw in a vote,” she said. She chose Smith, giving Smith the winning 53.35%.

In the choice for vice chair, Jones was the only member nominated and was elected on a voice vote. Next Theresa Membrino of Fayston and Michael Frank from Waterbury were nominated for finance officer. Membrino won that vote which was followed by Frank’s lone nomination as assistant finance officer that was decided on a voice vote. 

Moretown member Lisa Mason was named recording secretary and Waitsfield member Christine Sullivan was designated the board’s delegate to vote on the statewide health insurance plan for public schools. 

Smith then took the reins to run the rest of what was a more than four-hour meeting. 

New principal at Thatcher Brook

A search committee of school staff, school board members and parents meeting in recent weeks made a unanimous recommendation to the board to hire a new principal for Thatcher Brook Primary School for the 2021-22 school year as current Principal Denise Goodnow is retiring in June. 

The committee also recommended that the school shift to a co-principal leadership with Sarah Schoolcraft, the current assistant principal, and the new hire, Christopher Neville, who would move to Vermont from Colorado where he presently is principal at Maple Grove Elementary School in Golden. 

Waterbury board members Kelley Hackett, Frank and Tucker-Fishman took part in the selection process and said the committee was enthusiastic about their choice of Neville. 

Superintendent Nease said Neville has family ties to New England and upstate New York; he’s been a principal for 10 years and previously was a teacher and special educator, she said. 

When asked about the co-principal arrangement, Nease said both Neville and Schoolcraft supported that plan and that a similar structure is working well at Harwood Union High School this year with its new co-principals. 

The board unanimously approved the recommendation. 

Looking ahead, the board also voted unanimously to ask Finance Director Michelle Baker to draft a request for proposals for the school district to seek a consulting firm to assist with the search for candidates to replace Nease whose contract ends in June 2022. 

About-face on Harwood Middle School teachers

On the video call for the meeting were a number of people who addressed the board urging it to reconsider a vote taken at the last meeting in February before the March 2 election. The board on Feb. 17 voted 6-6 on whether to cut four teaching positions at Harwood Middle School for next fall. Because of the board’s weighted voting structure, the apparent tie was actually a split of 45% to 39.95% in favor of the cuts; two board members were absent for that vote. 

The move would have reduced the grade 7-8 middle school to one teaching team next fall with students in four classes instead of spread out with eight teachers in two teams. The rationale was presented to reorganize the class structure so that Harwood Middle School’s classes would be larger and more comparable in size to the seventh and eighth grade classes anticipated at Crossett Brook Middle School next fall. 

Enrollment has been increasing at Crossett and declining at Harwood as families have requested to send their children to the larger middle school and that trend is anticipated for the fall. The district has been eyeing a move to combine both middle schools but then was paused this school year in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That shift is anticipated for the 2022-23 school year. 

The board heard from four teachers who are leaders of the Harwood Union Education Association, the labor union representing school teachers and staff in the district. They all urged the board to reverse the decision to cut the teaching positions. The cut would have been accomplished through attrition for three of the four teaching jobs, with just one layoff required, school officials had explained. 

The board spent some time on a discussion about class sizes, the impact of the pandemic and the pros and cons of shrinking the middle school teaching staff next fall.

Duxbury resident Life LeGeros also addressed the planned teacher cuts in comments to the board. LeGeros works in the University of Vermont’s Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education as a professional development coordinator with a focus on middle-school education. He said he believes from involvement in community conversations about education that “people want transformation” in the schools. “They want something different. They want something bold and better. And when we are talking about back to class sizes of 25 that is the wrong direction,” he said. He urged the board not to stick with an approach that appears to say “Some students have it bad, so let’s make it bad for everybody.” 

Union co-president Steve Rand, a Harwood English teacher, pointed out that the board’s decision to cut the positions came before the union was able to weigh in with its assessment of the impact that would have. 

Veteran Harwood history teacher Kathy Cadwell agreed saying that morale among staff is low as the board and administration debate major changes without close consultation with teachers. She pointed to the “to merge or not to merge rollercoaster” debate from last year that left staff frustrated and confused. 

Cadwell also drew on her 40 years of experience in the classroom to argue against creating larger classes, especially after the pandemic where students will need extra attention to catch up both academically and socially next year. “I’m here to suggest to you that we can do better,” Cadwell told the board. 

The board debated the issue and ultimately held a vote with eight members in favor of rescinding the February decision to cut the teacher positions. The four opposed to rescinding the move were Waterbury representatives Hollister and Frank along with Waitsfield members Sullivan and Jeremy Tretiak. Neither Duxbury member voted with Dalla Mura abstaining and Smith not voting as chair.  

Support for former coach

Another topic that had the board’s attention for a significant portion of Wednesday’s meeting was the recent firing of boys hockey coach Jacob Grout. He was dismissed last month after sending a controversial message to the team that contained profanities. 

The board heard from several members of the public who urged the board review and reverse the decision by administrators to let the popular coach go. A Harwood alumnus and former hockey player himself, Grout joined the Harwood coaching staff in 2019 and led the team to the 2020 Division II state championship. 

The board did not discuss the matter publicly. It spent time in two separate executive sessions related to the issue. One was to review advice from the school district’s attorney. Another included Nease and the high school co-principals. The board returned to public session afterward and took no action. 

Meetings of the HUUSD School Board are recorded and available to watch online on the Mad River TV website or the district’s YouTube channel.