School budget work on hold until January
Also: New program at Brookside; staff labor contract overdue; CBMS teacher honored
December 19, 2023 | By Lisa ScagliottiHarwood Unified Union School District leaders have put discussions around the budget for the 2024-25 school year on hold until after the holidays due to incomplete information needed from the state Agency of Education to proceed.
That was the message from Finance Manager Lisa Estler and Superintendent Mike Leichliter to the School Board last week.
“I was hoping I was going to be able to present to you a preliminary budget this evening,” Estler told the board on Wednesday night. However, she explained, the district still needs data from the Agency of Education that’s essential to factor into the complex funding formula used in budget calculations.
The state agency sent information the prior week, Estler said, but it was incorrect. The state is implementing new parts to the funding formula for next year’s school budgets. The data in question involves calculations on how student counts are weighted.
The district received the new weighted averages, Estler said, “but they were incorrect.” The data snafu was not just with information for Harwood. “There were many errors across many districts,” she said.
The state is redoing its calculations and will resend the data, but Estler said she does not expect to have the information to be able to discuss it with the school board before the holiday break. The state’s formula comes with new guidelines regarding per-pupil spending. District officials are aiming to keep Harwood’s proposed budget for 2024-25 within a range that would mean property tax increases would not exceed 5%. Those discussions to prepare the budget proposal that voters will consider in March on Town Meeting Day will happen now after Jan. 1.
Leichliter said he agreed with Estler to hold off on the detailed discussions with the board until they could clearly map out the implications of budget priorities that are calculated using all of the accurate formula figures. “We don’t feel comfortable sharing a budget that could have significant wrong numbers,” he told the board.
The board decided to cancel a planned meeting for Dec. 20 where they expected to spend the majority of their time on the budget. Its next meeting is Jan. 10 and board members agreed that there may need to be an extra January meeting.
Across Vermont, school boards, selectboards and city councils need to complete their budget drafts for the coming fiscal year by the end of January, in time to print annual reports and paper ballots to be used for Town Meeting which will be Tuesday, March 5.
In addition to the abbreviated discussion about next year’s budget, the board meeting covered a number of topics this week including:
Comments from a former school board member now working as a paraeducator regarding the lack of a labor contract for unionized school district support staff.
A detailed presentation from the administration about a new approach being designed to address student social-emotional needs and programming with a plan to launch it at Brookside Primary School.
A recap of community meetings to date regarding proposed renovations to Harwood Union Middle/High School and a possible bond vote in 2024.
A resolution saluting Crossett Brook Middle School music Teacher Molly Dubois, one of two district teachers honored by the University of Vermont last month.
Currently a paraeducator in the school district, Deborah Hunter (right), addresses the HUUSD School Board on Dec. 13. The former Harwood School Board chair urged the board to resolve the labor contract covering district support staff. Left and center are Duxbury board members Cindy Senning and Life LeGeros; several district staff members wearing red stand in the audience. Screenshot
Impasse in support staff contract talks
During the public comment period at the start of the meeting, the school board heard from one speaker, Deborah Hunter from Moretown. Hunter is working as a paraeducator in the district this school year, a position she took instead of being a substitute teacher in the district. She said she applied after retiring in June from 38 years of teaching at the University of Vermont. She last was an Associate Dean of the College of Education Social Services and is a UVM associate professor emerita.
Prior to the Harwood school district’s consolidation, Hunter served for more than a decade on the Harwood Middle-High School School Board and the Moretown School Board.
In her current role, she said she is a member of the Harwood Union Education Association and its bargaining support committee. About eight other district staffers wearing red items of clothing stood in the audience section behind Hunter as she spoke. (Red has become a theme to support public education across the country.)
“I understand the commitment of time and energy that you are giving and I salute you for your service,” Hunter began. “I am also the mother of two sons who had an excellent education here at Harwood, so I have good feelings about what happens here.”
She then asked the board for attention to the union contract covering the district’s support staff that expired June 30. “As you know, this fall support staff came to work in good faith without a contract,” she said.
In her four months at Harwood so far, Hunter said, she has “witnessed the care given by support staff whether they are cleaning the building, mopping the halls, whether they are providing library services, prepping and serving food – breakfast and lunch – to our students, answering phones – supporting students and the teaching staff.”
At the end of last school year, Hunter continued, contract talks between the school board and support staff negotiating teams ended in an impasse. They now are at a “fact-finding stage” with a third party joining the process. “The work now is to find a resolution,” Hunter said.
Sticking points include wages that have not kept pace with the cost of living and sick days that are half what the teaching staff are allowed, she said.
She urged the board to work towards a resolution in order proceed to focusing on the school renovation project ahead. “We have important work to do together and must enthusiastically and in an unified way work to support the bond for next year,” she said. “I ask and I urge that we move past this impasse because we need to go forth in unity gathering support for the work ahead. So let’s resolve the impasse, because together we are Harwood strong and we are Harwood proud.”
As is their custom, school board members did not respond to Hunter’s comments. In an email following the meeting, Board Chair Kristen Rodgers confirmed Hunter’s information.
“After months of negotiations and mediation, the parties could not reach a negotiated agreement,” she said. “The district believes that it made significant concessions on working conditions and offered generous wage increases. Hopefully, a fact finder can help us bridge the gap that still exists.”
Rodgers said that the two sides have worked with the Vermont Labor Relations Board to choose a fact finder. “The district is awaiting information from the agreed upon fact finder for next steps,” she explained.
Harwood teacher Matt Henchen is co-president of the Harwood Union Education Association. He acknowledged that the process is taking longer than desired, but he said he’s optimistic that it is getting closer to a resolution.
Many involved from the union and the school board are new to contract talks as leadership on both sides has changed since 2021 when the previous contracts were negotiated.
Henchen explained that this new step is a post-impasse procedure in which both parties give their best offers to a neutral, third-party who has 30 days to make recommendations for reaching a settlement, he said.
“The parties then have the opportunity to continue negotiations with the fact-finder’s recommendations as a guide,” he said.
The support staff contract covers 99 employees district-wide, Henchen said. A separate contract covers twice as many teachers across the district. The latter agreement runs through June 30, 2024, Hechen said, and separate teams have already begun discussions with a goal of having a new contract by that date. Henchen said he’s hopeful that process will be completed on time. “They’re off to a good start,” he said.
New program aims to support students with social-emotional support
A new program to support students with social-emotional needs would start at Brookside Primary School. File photo by Gordon Miller
The board spent about 45 minutes hearing and discussing a proposal from the administration for a new program for next school year that would begin at Brookside Primary School.
Described as an intensive support program, the effort will aim to have trained staff working directly with students who need extra support for mental health-behavioral needs. The current system relies on contracting with two outside mental health agencies to provide support staff who work directly with students at a cost of approximately $100,000 a year per aide.
The issue came to the forefront in spring 2022 when a former school board member and special education teacher at Brookside called attention to the school’s alarming rate of using restraint and seclusion with students at the pre-K through grade 4 school. The district has since ended its practice of seclusion and the use of prone and supine restraints. It also has committed to working with an outside consultant to evaluate procedures to create new protocols. This program described to the school board is just that.
Leichliter, who joined the district as superintendent in mid-2022, introduced the topic at the board meeting noting that the district has been “in reactive mode” for the past year and a half. “We’ve made some tremendous progress in that area,” he said.
Administrators described the program as a “holistic” approach to meet students’ needs. They explained that it is still being developed for a gradual roll-out beginning in the 2024-25 school year, starting with just a few students at Brookside and an aim for it to be in place district wide eventually.
The presentation noted that mental health needs of school students have increased over the past several years across the nation. Brookside Co-Principal Sarah Schoolcraft cited a national statistic that approximately 20% of children and young people ages 3-17 in the United States have a mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral disorder.
Schoolcraft said that figure was not a surprise to school leaders here. Behavior referrals at Brookseide are up, she said, exceeding past trends and already are 100 higher than at this point last school year. Some students have one-on-one aides, several have two aides, according to the presentation.
Harwood administrators are looking to other schools in Vermont and elsewhere for examples of how to address the needs with a focus on students spending time in the least restrictive setting as possible, explained Mandy Couturier, the district’s Director of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support.
And one of the goals is for school staff to be involved rather than contracting with outside agencies to provide staff. The result over time should not require an increased cost, Leichliter explained, as it would essentially mean spending funds on district staff rather than contractors. Initial training may require additional spending as the program begins, however, he noted.
The working name for the program is an acronym, RIVERS. Brookside Co-Principal Chris Neville said that stands for “regulation, inclusion, voice, education, relationships and safety.” By having a program based in the school, students can work with aides as needed while having opportunities to spend time with peers and be included in daily activities. Parents and teachers would be involved in determining placements for the program, Neville said, but the first step is having staff in place.
“We need staff on the ground level with training,” Neville said.
School board members asked a number of questions but overall commended the proposal. Warren board member Ashley Woods, who led a committee to review the district’s restraint and seclusion policy, said she was happy to see what is coming together to address a critical need. “You just came to the table with solutions,” she said.
Community meetings on Harwood renovations
Community meetings seek to collect public comments on proposed renovations to Harwood Union Middle/High School. Photo courtesy HUUSD
The School Board heard a short summary of recent community meetings held regarding renovations at Harwood that would be paid for with a bond that voters would consider next November. Meetings so far had been held at Harwood, Brookside Primary and Warren Elementary as of the Wednesday board meeting with another planned for the following night at Crossett Brook Middle School.
Board member Ashley Woods who has been leading the bond study committee, thanked board members who have attended the sessions so far. She said the gatherings have had “a very friendly atmosphere” with conversations in each setting covering different points based on comments and questions from attendees. “It quickly evolves into a real conversation,” she said. “I would say it’s going pretty well.”
The first two meetings each had about 30 people attend. The Warren meeting attracted a dozen and the Crossett Brook meeting on Thursday had another 30. One session so far has been recorded by Mad River Valley Television and is available online to view the presentation and discussion.
An online survey to gather community feedback had received just over 120 responses by Wednesday, Leichliter told the board. That had grown to 174, he said on Friday.
In addition, Harwood students are working on gathering feedback from middle and high school students using a separate survey they have drafted, according to Harwood senior Naomi Myers, a student representative to the school board.
Woods said school officials are eager to include student input in the process to determine the scope of work to address in the project. The administration and school board will use input from the surveys and meetings in early 2024 to determine the extent of the work to fund with a 20- or 30-year bond. Proposed work is divided into categories including $64 million for what are considered essential upgrades and $21 million in optional items.
The community meeting for Dec. 19 at Moretown Elementary School has been canceled due to Monday’s flooding damage to the school. It will be rescheduled. Additional meetings will be held in January. A schedule is posted on HUUSD.org.
District educators honored
Early in the meeting, the board called Crossett Brook Middle School Music Teacher and Duxbury resident Molly Dubois to the table. Duxbury board member Life LeGeros read a resolution from the board honoring Dubois who is one of two district educators honored this year by the University of Vermont.
Last month, UVM held its 43rd annual ceremony to announce 84 honorees chosen from every school district and supervisory union in the state. The program also names a Vermont Teacher of the Year for the coming calendar year. UVM’s College of Education and Social Services presents Outstanding Educator Awards along with Vermont’s school districts and supervisory unions, the Vermont Agency of Education and the Vermont chapter of the National Education Association.
Dubois and Warren Elementary School Physical Education teacher Ross Greene are the Harwood district’s two honorees this year. Greene was unable to attend the board meeting this week. Board Chair Kristen Rodgers said a resolution acknowledging his recognition will be shared with him at a Warren school assembly in January.
In the event program, UVM includes information about each honoree from their nominations. It said that Dubois “goes above and beyond to meet the needs of her music students each and every day” by creating opportunities for students to explore their interests individually and in groups. “Her enthusiasm and excitement for music and music education makes coming into her class a joy each and every time.”
LeGeros noted that he has both worked with Dubois and has children in her classes. He described the music teacher as being “very student-centered” and one who sets students up for success. For example, LeGeros said, Dubois is known for welcoming all students who want to participate in the annual school musical, no matter the number.
“Anybody who wants to be involved – [you say] ‘you’re in and we’ll figure it out,’” he remarked. “You’re amazing. We appreciate you.”
Greene’s entry in the UVM program praises his approach for teaching that’s “infused with compassion, positivity and student accountability.” It says, “He has brought our school unabashed love for traditional sports and outdoor recreation, creating a physical education program that is contemporary, diverse, and beloved by each and every student in the school.”