School board adds Duxbury member, looks to introduce new superintendent
May 28, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
Duxbury educator Life LeGeros is the newest member of the Harwood Unified Union School Board. Courtesy photo
And then there was one.
With the addition this week of Life LeGeros of Duxbury, the Harwood Unified Union School District’s School Board has just one remaining seat to fill – an opening for a school director from Fayston – as the school year winds down and the board’s summer recess approaches.
The 14-member board has not had full attendance since the end of 2021 and has been down several members particularly since the end of February when several seats did not have candidates on the March election ballot.
The group filled one of those vacancies at its May 25 meeting. LeGeros’ appointment runs through the next Town Meeting Day election on March 7, 2023. At that point, voters would elect a director to serve the remaining two years of that term and he could run to continue serving.
LeGeros was the only applicant for the position. A frequent contributor at school board meetings on a number of issues, LeGeros spoke for a few minutes about his interest in joining the board.
A parent of two children who will be attending Crossett Brook Middle School next year, LeGeros has a background in education as a teacher and administrator. He works at the University of Vermont’s Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education as a professional development coordinator for middle school teachers and administrators.
As a community member, LeGeros has participated in a variety of school district efforts including helping facilitate visioning sessions several years ago as well as race conversations in 2020 that led to the renaming of Waterbury’s primary school. As a leader of the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition, he earlier this month presented a statement from the group advocating for change to the school district’s use of prone restraints and seclusion as disciplinary measures.
LeGeros said he particularly is interested in seeing the school district take steps to improve culture and systems to “find ways to be more united and for everybody to be free and to be valued as their true selves.”
As a white, cis-gendered, heterosexual male, LeGeros said, “I am well aware that I carry the privilege of these social identities,” and he added, “I work in all spheres of my life to dismantle white supremacy and patriarchy; I personally believe this should be the central project for everybody, especially those who benefit most from these systems.”
Lisa Mason of Moretown spoke in favor of the appointment saying LeGeros has been a positive contributor already. “Coming to us with your thoughts and often times really challenging the board to move in really positive directions, that process-oriented mindset I think is really helpful,” she said. “I think he would fit into the culture of the board as far as coming from a place of humbleness and really looking for dialogue and listening as much as talking.”
Duxbury’s other representative on the school board is Cindy Senning.
The appointment now leaves one board vacancy, one of the two seats representing Fayston. The board also would fill that position through the March 7 election at which point the remaining two years for that term would be on the ballot.
Anyone interested in that position should send a letter to board Chair Kristen Rodgers and Superintendent Brigid Nease by June 15. The board typically takes a summer recess after its last June meeting, resuming regular meetings in late August. Email to: krodgers@huusd.org and bnease@huusd.org. More information about serving on the board is online at HUUSD.org under the Board tab.
Preparing to introduce a new leader
Among items for discussion was the upcoming transition of the district’s top administration position. Nease is scheduled to step down at the end of June and new superintendent Mike Leichliter starts July 1.
The board brainstormed ideas for introducing Leichliter to the community. No final decisions were made, but the group favored scheduling three informal in-person community gatherings in various locations in the district between July and September and an online meeting for the public to join. Board leaders said they would discuss with Leichliter and propose dates at their next meeting.
Finance director’s assessment
In her written report that was in the board’s meeting packet, Finance Director Michelle Baker – also stepping down at the end of June – reviewed recent steps taken by the Vermont Legislature that will affect school district finances and local property taxes.
For example, lawmakers applied surplus funds to lower the homestead property tax rate. However, changes to the state’s funding formula in how pupils are counted could result in increasing the Harwood district’s calculation of per-pupil spending and in turn, increasing property taxes. Baker said she hoped to have more detail on the impacts of those changes at a June meeting.
The legislature also appropriated $22 million to help schools pay for work to address contamination in school buildings from polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. Over the next several years, schools will be tested for PCB contamination which may require remediation.
Baker noted that lawmakers also funded school meal programs further which should enable schools to continue providing free breakfast and lunch to students, a practice that began during the COVID-19 pandemic using federal funding.
She also gave a big-picture financial assessment. “Given my departure from my position in a little more than a month, I thought I would share my perspective on some of the fiscal challenges the district is likely to face in FY24 and beyond as soon after the summer break you will begin work on the FY24 budget,” Baker said in her report.
Among the challenges she outlined were: increasing per-pupil costs, declining enrollment coupled with increased staffing, deferred maintenance at the high school, increased special education costs, loss of federal funding the district received during the pandemic, and increasing energy costs.
Baker said the district “has many strengths to help face these challenges” noting “new leadership who will bring new ideas and perspectives,” a strong administrative team, a good relationship between the district and its labor unions, and $4.6 million in the Maintenance Reserve Fund.
Other business
The board made several other decisions and discussed several other topics. Among them were:
Updating the district’s new flag policy which was adopted earlier this year. The board added a requirement that a request to fly a flag other than the U.S. and Vermont state flags at any district school comes with “written demonstrated student support for the proposed flag in the form of a survey distributed to the entire school” and that the survey indicates at least 51% support of the respondents to the survey.
Adopting a policy on substitute teachers.
Discussing a recommendation from the board’s Professional Development Committee to become more familiar with Robert’s Rules Order which the board follows in conducting its meetings.
The board meets next at 6 p.m. on June 8 in the Harwood Union High School library and via Zoom.
Recordings of HUUSD School Board meetings are found on the district’s YouTube channel and on Mad River TV.