Harwood board considers when to address restraints, PCBs, attrition

May 11, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti 

At its meeting this week, the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board is looking to appoint a new Waterbury member and it will consider scheduling time to address several issues including whether to review the policy on restraint and seclusion of students. 

The board’s regular meeting is at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 11, at 6 p.m. in the Harwood Union High School library and online via Zoom and YouTube. The board’s agenda and packet documents with links for viewing are online. 

On the agenda this week are three topics listed as agenda requests where the board would consider if and when to schedule time at future meetings to discuss the items. 

The first is a request made by member Theresa Membrino of Fayston to review the school district’s policy for restraint and seclusion of students. The topic was recently raised by Brookside Primary School special education teacher Brian Dalla Mura who voiced concern about how the policy is implemented and called for a review and changes to be made. 

In their leadership memo ahead of the April 27 school board meeting board Chair Kristen Rodgers and Vice Chair Kelley Hackett addressed the request to review the district’s restraint and seclusion policy that Dalla Mura raised on April 13.

They noted that the board would discuss on May 11 whether to take up this issue, and if it agreed to do so, it would happen in September. “This topic is extremely important and deserves to be looked

at thoroughly and with the right amount of due diligence and not be rushed. With the change of

leadership both Kelley and I felt this topic should happen once [new superintendent Mike Leichliter] is officially on board; this way the same Superintendent is involved from start to finish,” Rodgers wrote.

The board currently does not have a policy committee, but Rodgers said one could be created: “That way if certain board members are passionate about a particular topic they can choose to become involved.”

Should the board choose to act on the request, a committee could be formed at the board’s first September meeting with the new superintendent and several board members.

The next agenda request for the board to consider is from Christine Sullivan of Waitsfield to discuss PCB testing of district buildings. The state of Vermont is launching a testing program over the next several years to test the air in schools built before the 1990s where materials containing polychlorinated biphenyls likely were used. The materials are now banned from use. 

All of the Harwood Union district schools are on the state schedule for testing with the exception of Crossett Brook Middle School which was built in the late 1990s and testing is not needed. Warren Elementary is scheduled for testing this fall; Moretown, Waitsfield and Fayston schools in late 2023; Brookside Primary School and Harwood Union High School are listed for the first half of 2024. 

The late date for testing at Harwood may be an issue because the district last fall pursued a nearly $60 million bond largely for renovations to the high school built in the mid-1960s. Voters rejected the bond and school leaders have not revisited construction planning since then. 

In a recent memo to the school board, Superintendent Brigid Nease said that the state in sharing the schedule for testing asked schools to respond should they want to request any changes regarding testing dates. She also noted concern among superintendents that state government has not allocated any funding for mitigation of PCB contamination should any be found through testing. 

The third future topic for which the Harwood school board was to consider scheduling discussion time was a request made by Kim Laidlaw of Fayston regarding attrition of students from the district, particularly in middle and high school classes. 

“Having data that shows if/when students are leaving our district, where they are going, and why they are leaving will help us understand what we, as a district, need to change or improve to keep more students in the HUUSD,” Laidlaw wrote in her request. 

Filling a Waterbury seat

The board this week also had on its agenda filling a vacant seat on the board representing Waterbury. 

The opening came about in March when newly elected member Jacqueline Kelleher resigned just two weeks after being elected on Town Meeting Day. She had requested the district’s assistance in getting a computer device to use for board business and school district officials said they were unable to grant that request. Kelleher then stepped down. 

Waterbury resident Iana Gabriela Fraser has submitted a letter of interest applying to fill the seat. The board’s appointment would run through the 2023 Town Meeting election at which point the final year for that seat’s three-year term would be decided by the voters.

As is customary with the process to fill a vacancy in between election cycles, Fraser was to meet the Waterbury Select Board at its meeting last week but she did not attend. As a result, the town board did not forward any recommendation to the school board.

The school board still has two other positions to fill with appointments that would run until March 2023 – seats representing Duxbury and Fayston. Anyone interested in those spots should email board Chair Kristen Rodgers and Nease at krodgers@huusd.org and bnease@huusd.org. 

The board also has two topics on its agenda for Wednesday to discuss in executive session – labor relations agreements and a communication from the district’s lawyer.