School board to discuss next steps for FY21 budget; March candidate Michael Frank fills Waterbury seat
May 5, 2020 | By Lisa Scagliotti
The HUUSD School Board held its first online meeting via Zoom video conference on April 8. Mad River TV has the video on its website mrvtv.com.
UPDATE: The school board met Wednesday, May 6, and discussed options for adopting a fiscal year 2021 budget that may or may not involve a public vote. The board meets next on May 13.
Figuring out how to establish a school budget for fiscal year 2020-21 is back up for discussion when the Harwood Unified Union School Board meets Wednesday night via video conference.
The board canceled its scheduled April 29 meeting hoping for clearer guidance this week from state lawmakers. House and Senate education committees have been holding hearings regarding the next steps for the 19 school districts across Vermont that do not have budgets in place for FY21 which begins July 1.
Lawmakers are even considering how districts may move ahead without holding public votes before July, given the public health concerns surrounding the COVID-19 virus outbreak.
In some districts, including Harwood, voters rejected proposed budgets on Town Meeting Day in March. Other districts conduct annual school votes later in the spring and have postponed those elections.
The economic fallout from the coronavirus shutdowns is another factor state and local school officials are considering. Forecasts under review predict a shortfall in state funding that will impact all school budgets.
The Vermont Secretary of State’s office has also issued some new guidance for districts that need to hold votes with recommendations on relying on mail-in ballots, drive-up voting and other strategies to reduce in-person voting given public health concerns.
In a memo ahead of the May 6 meeting, School Board Chair Caitlin Hollister and Vice Chair Torrey Smith said their goals this week are to determine if they want to move ahead with scheduling a public vote, and then honing in on what budget plans the board will want to consider to put to voters. They also suggest the board would meet again May 13.
Voters on March 3 rejected a budget of $39.4 million by a 3,048 to 2,254 vote. That plan called for adding the seventh and eighth grade students from Harwood Middle School Schools into Crossett Brook Middle School next fall; it also would have added the fifth and sixth graders from Moretown Elementary School into Crossett Brook.
Voters in March also approved putting a $1.8 million surplus from fiscal year 2019 entirely into a maintenance fund.
Earlier this year, the board had planned to ask voters in June to consider a bond for school building projects. Although the board discussed a construction bond when it last met in early April, its focus now is on establishing an operating budget for next school year.
The board’s Wednesday agenda also includes discussion of the Intradistrict Choice policy by which families may request their child attend a different school than the one children from their town attend.
The policy was a key factor in the board’s decision to recommend combining middle schools for next fall when it drafted its first FY21 budget -- last fall there was high interest among families requesting their children attend Crossett Brook rather than Harwood Middle School.
The board meets via Zoom video conference at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6. The public may join online to watch and listen. Instructions to do so are on the meeting agenda online at www.huusd.org under the Board tab. An updated memo from Hollister and Smith is in the meeting packet file along with the meeting agenda and other materials.
Last day of school set
The board meets as all public schools are closed for the remainder of the academic year due to COVID-19. Teachers and students have been managing lessons remotely since mid-March.
School principals this week shared with families that June 12 has been set as the final day of school for this year. So far no plans have been announced regarding graduation ceremonies for Harwood Union High School students or for ceremonies for students moving on to and from middle school in the district.
New board member for Waterbury
A little more than a month after he came up short in the Town Meeting Day election, Michael Frank was appointed to one of Waterbury’s four seats on the Harwood school board.
At its April 8 meeting, the board voted 7-6 to appoint Frank who ran in the March 3 election. Kelley Hackett won that race by a vote of 961 to 817.
A new seat came open soon afterward when Waterbury representative James Grace resigned on March 15.
The board put out a call for applicants to fill the seat until Town Meeting Day 2021.
A Waterbury native and Harwood graduate who attended many board meetings ahead of the March election, Frank applied for the opening. Frank has a background in information technology and is a volunteer firefighter in Waterbury.
The board had one other applicant for the spot, Scott Culver, also a lifelong Waterbury resident and Harwood graduate. Culver works at Engelberth Construction and has been involved in the community with little league baseball for many years.
Both Culver and Frank attended the board’s online meeting by videoconference where they addressed the board and answered questions. The choice divided the board and its discussion around filling the vacancy took about an hour and a half.