Community meetings on Harwood renovations continue tonight at Crossett Brook
December 14, 2023 | By Lisa ScagliottiThe discussion around planning for major renovations to Harwood Union Middle/High School continues tonight with the fourth in a series of community meetings.
Harwood Superintendent Mike Leichliter presents information at a community meeting at Warren Elementary School on Dec. 5. A recording of the meeting is available online. (link below in story) Mad River Valley TV screenshot
Tonight’s gathering will be in the library at Crossett Brook Middle School, 6-8 p.m.
Like at the previous sessions at Harwood, Brookside Primary School and Warren Elementary, the format will involve a slide presentation by school district leaders followed by time for questions and discussion. At the end, attendees are asked to use stickers to note on a list of proposed renovations presented as options to provide feedback to help steer priorities in the planning process.
The meetings are one way that district administrators and school board members are presenting the building needs for the grade 7-12 school built in the mid-1960s and to gain public input on the extent of the renovations that community members are willing to support financially.
“We are not selling a bond. We are offering options,” explained Ashley Woods, a school board member who has chaired the bond study committee.
Superintendent Mike Leichliter stressed that point. “We don’t have a bond to present to you. We don’t have a project yet,” he said before listing the steps still ahead in putting together a proposal that could be on the November 2024 general election ballot.
The effort comes two years after district voters overwhelmingly rejected a $59.5 million bond that would have addressed many of the items still on the to-do list. That proposal however also included a $6 million expansion at Crossett Brook Middle School in order to consolidate the seventh- and eighth-grade classes now at Harwood into the grade 5-8 school in Duxbury. The current plan no longer merges the middle schools. It instead focuses solely on updating Harwood.
As outlined in materials mailed to district voters recently and in the slide presentation at the public meetings, the proposed renovations are broken down into several categories.
The main category titled Compliance & Repairs is estimated at $64 million and that list is considered the top priority items needed to bring the building into compliance with modern standards. Leichliter called the category the “things we don’t see” because it encompasses elements of the building that have reached or exceeded their intended life such as mechanical systems and ductwork for heating, cooling and ventilation; plumbing, electrical, roofing, alarms and security systems, windows, doors, lighting.
Efficiencies & Improvements is the second category estimated at $4 million. In addition to energy efficiency and steps such as replacing original cabinetry, this part includes accommodating a move for the alternative learning program known as HCLC (Harwood Community Learning Center) now located off campus in a small building on Dowsville Road. A result of that could mean moving the district’s central offices to the Dowsville building rather than using leased space.
A third category with a $3 million price tag is labeled Educational Alignment which focuses on improvements that will impact student wellness, add dedicated space for STEM programming as well as areas where classes could gather in small groups more easily than in current classrooms designed for lecture-style learning instead of today’s more collaborative methods.
Harwood Co-Principal Laurie Greenberg addressed these features during the presentations saying that some steps have been taken along these lines. “We’ve done a lot with furniture and paint and rugs,” she said, adding that more significant improvements are needed now. “Your environment makes a big difference in how our students feel when they walk into the building,” she said.
The final category is being presented as options where school officials are eager to hear public opinion. This list totals $21.2 million and includes items such as a second full-sized gymnasium for $11 million; adding a building to the track area with restrooms, concession space, etc. for $4.5 million; updating the auditorium’s lighting, seating, audio, etc. for $1.5 million.
School administrators address the rationale and details of each of these and the other items on the list in their presentation.
Together the estimated cost of all of the categories is just over $92 million, but school leaders acknowledge that they fully expect to pare back the list based on feedback from the public. The goal is to refine the scope of work in early 2024 to a package voters can support next November, they explained.
Presentation recording now available
So far, the public meetings have been sparsely attended. The first two each had about 30 attendees from the community. Last week’s session in Warren attracted a dozen.
The Warren meeting was the first to be video recorded by Mad River Valley Television. The entire two-hour session is now available online to view. Should any others in the series be recorded, they will be posted on MRVTV.com.
While the presentation that starts the meeting is the same for each session, the discussions at each gathering so far have varied based on the attendees’ questions and comments. Some common questions that have emerged include:
How long would the renovations take? Woods suggested “three summers and two school years” or about two and a half years, depending on the scope of work. Because the middle school classes would remain at Harwood, there would not be large spaces available to move into during construction, so temporary classrooms may be needed, school officials said.
Has the district considered building an entirely new school rather than updating a nearly 60-year-old facility? Leichliter said last week a new slide was added to the presentation to cover that topic that they put to project architects. A new building encompassing all of the elements on the list was estimated at $150 million, he said. That’s twice the amount of the current scope of work without the optional list. Woods called the notion “environmentally crushing” to envision demolishing the current school and building new. Leichliter noted that the design team members believe the structure is sound and worth renovating.
How much will a bond increase property taxes? Details on tax implications are still fuzzy. That’s partially because the cost will be driven by the scope of the project. So far, it’s still unclear what property tax rates will be to operate the district’s schools for the 2024-25 school year. “Tax rates will go up,” Finance Manager Lisa Estler said last week in Warren. Leichliter agreed. “We know that it’s going to be expensive,” he said. “We also know the costs aren’t going to come down.”
What about the district’s other schools and their facility needs? School officials say there are no major updates on the horizon for any of the district’s other six schools. They also note that addressing Harwood’s updates with a bond would allow the district to direct its maintenance reserve fund to smaller projects at the other schools.
Could funding come from other sources? Leichliter noted that the state has not contributed to school construction projects since 2007 but there is an effort underway at the direction of the state legislature to assess school facility needs across Vermont. It’s not clear if that will result in any state funding being committed to school projects anytime soon, however.
Could people visit the building? Some community members shared that they have not been inside Harwood ever or in a long time. School officials said they will consider having tours as part of this process.
More dates + an online survey
Survey form QR code
In addition to asking for input in person, the school district has an online survey which so far has had just over 120 people participate, school officials said Wednesday. A code for the survey is printed on a flier mailed to voters. The survey form can be found online here.
Following tonight’s meeting at Crossett Brook, the remaining community meetings in the series are:
Dec. 19 at Moretown Elementary School
Jan. 11 Waitsfield Elementary School
Jan. 16 Fayston Elementary School
Online via zoom. This session has not been scheduled yet.
All of the meetings scheduled so far will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. The meetings also have refreshments.