School officials ask the public to weigh in on $92.2 million for Harwood renovations
November 28, 2023 | By Lisa Scagliotti Correction: This post was corrected to note there were seven public meetings scheduled.
Harwood Union Middle/High School was built in 1965-66 and opened in September 1966. Photo courtesy HUUSD
Faced with building repairs, renovations, and improvements now estimated at more than $90 million, Harwood Unified Union School District officials are taking their lists and plans and drawings to each of the district’s communities to ask the public to weigh in on the choices.
Plans to renovate Harwood Union Middle/High School funded with a bond that goes to voters in the November 2024 general election are gaining momentum with a series of community meetings that continues tonight in Waterbury.
The second of seven public meetings to discuss the school’s condition, the needed repairs and renovations, potential options, and costs starts at 6 p.m. in the gym at Brookside Primary School.
Last week, the Harwood Unified Union School District mailed a brochure to voters across its six member towns inviting the public to attend one of the upcoming informational sessions. Four more are scheduled over the next several weeks, ending in mid-January.
The package under consideration contains $71 million in priority renovations with an additional $21.2 million of optional improvements to potentially include in the project. The community discussions are meant to inform the choices school leaders make to determine what ultimately goes to the voters a little less than a year from now.
A second try
The current process to assemble a building renovation and improvement project is the second in two years for the Harwood district. In November 2021, voters rejected a $59.5 million bond proposal by a more than 2 to 1 margin. Plans then called for combining all of the district’s seventh- and eighth-grade classes at Crossett Brook Middle School. To accommodate the grade 7 and 8 classes at Harwood, an addition was proposed for Crossett Brook. That accounted for $6 million of the 2021 bond.
The middle school merger was controversial and at times overshadowed the pressing goal of updating Harwood which has many original systems and materials from when it was built in 1965-66. Transitions in district board and administrative leadership put the construction project planning largely on hold in 2022. Last spring, the school board voted unanimously to forego a middle school merger. That places the entire focus now on construction for the Harwood building and campus.
In August, a small committee of board members, school administrators and project designers from Burlington architectural firm TruexCullins began to map out the building’s most pressing needs, potential efficiencies, and some options to consider for a renovation project that could begin in 2025 if voters approve the funding.
Meeting format
The format for the community meetings is informal with a presentation by school administrators, project architects and school board members. After the presentation, there is time for questions from the audience and attendees are asked at the end to offer feedback, particularly regarding the possible options to be included in the project. There also is an online survey that people may complete to share their opinions on the details.
Superintendent Mike Leichliter explained that once the series of meetings ends, feedback will be reviewed with architects and school leaders revising design concepts in order for cost estimates to be fine-tuned.
So far, Leichliter stressed, the discussion is at the conceptual level and school officials want the eventual project plans to reflect the community’s preferences. “There are no detailed drawings or blueprints done yet,” he said.
School officials said they hope they can settle on a project scope and budget by the end of this school year. In the fall, the school board will finalize the bond question to put on the November 2024 ballot.
The first of the seven public meetings took place on Thursday, Nov. 16, in the auditorium at Harwood Union High School. A refreshment table offered dozens of cider doughnuts and several gallons of apple cider, most of which went untouched.
Not counting the school board members, administrators, school staff, and design team members, attendance was about 15 community members. Yet, school officials said they were pleased with the turnout so close to the Thanksgiving break and before the mass-mailing was sent out. The small group size gave attendees ample opportunities to offer multiple comments and ask a variety of questions.
Four categories
The presentation covered the building’s history and outlined three categories of repairs, renovations and improvements considered to be “needs.” The bulk of the work falls into the first category labeled Compliance and Repairs with a cost estimate of $64 million.
This covers all of the key replacements of essential systems such as heating and ventilation, electrical, plumbing, roofing, security, lighting, windows, fire safety. It also has campus line items such as stormwater management, parking lot overhaul, an addition for vehicle storage, fire pond maintenance, and replacing the gravel surface of the running track.
While many of these items were covered by the project scope in the 2021 bond proposal, some of the standards have changed resulting in additional costs. Facilities Manager Ray Daigle explained, for example, that the COVID-19 pandemic prompted new air-quality building standards that will now require upgrades to not just replace equipment, but also to install new ductwork throughout the building – something not considered just two years ago.
Another change involves fluorescent lighting that is being phased out in the marketplace making lighting replacement a must on the to-do list, Daigle added.
A second category estimated at $4 million addresses Efficiencies and Improvements. Examples here include replacing cabinetry and countertops, energy efficiency upgrades to equipment and insulation and traffic flow improvements on site. It also would relocate the Harwood Community Learning Center alternative learning program now run at a satellite building on Dowsville Road to the main building; the off-site building is being considered as a new home for the district’s central office in order to vacate leased space in Waitsfield.
A third category estimated at $3 million lists improvements labeled as Educational Alignment which address modern educational methods, space needs, etc. that have evolved over the nearly six decades the building has been in use. Examples include student wellness and flexible learning spaces, room for a STEM learning area, a community kitchen, expanded athletic changing rooms, art gallery space and new furnishings.
At the end of the Nov. 16 meeting, attendees were handed strips of dot-shaped stickers and asked to place them on a poster-sized version of the project options list, indicating which options people favored. Designers and school leaders were surprised to see the largest collection of stickers beside the “second gymnasium with new fitness center” item on the list. A second gym was proposed in 2021. Its $11 million price tag also makes it the most expensive of the 10 items on the options list.
School Co-principal Laurie Greenberg during the presentation explained how a second full-sized gym would improve scheduling for physical education classes and address the demand for indoor practice spaces for school sports teams that often has student athletes practicing in the evenings, sometimes as late as 12 hours into their school day.
Several of the other items on the options list include adding a playing field and a building with restrooms and concession space at the track and field facility for $4.5 million; updating the school auditorium’s audio, seating, theatrical rigging and lighting, etc. would add an estimated $1.5 million; replacing windows installed in 1997 would be another $2.2 million.
“This is everything,” said Ashley Woods, the Warren school board member who chairs the bond committee. She acknowledges that the list of options is aspirational. “We won’t get everything,” she added.
All of the items in each of the categories are listed on the online survey designed to solicit feedback as the project takes shape.
Architect David Epstein offered a comparison regarding the current project cost estimates that now exceed the 2021 bond by about 50%. His firm TruexCullins designed the recently renovated Winooski pre-K through grade 12 school facility. The project was broken into six phases over two and a half years, he said. And what was a $60 million project in 2020 today would most likely cost close to $120 million, he said.
All of the community meetings to discuss Harwood construction are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. After tonight’s meeting, the next dates and locations are:
Dec. 5: Warren Elementary School gym
Dec. 14: Crossett Brook Middle School cafeteria
Dec. 19: Moretown Elementary School cafeteria
Jan. 11: Waitsfield Elementary School gym
Jan. 16: Fayston Elementary School gym
Should any of the meetings be recorded with a video link available, this post will be updated to include it.