School board packs agendas with big-picture decisions before summer break
May 14, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
Harwood Unified Union School District officials are working on plans for Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury to be the future home to all seventh- and eight-graders in the six-town district. File photo by Gordon Miller
Like students headed toward final exams, the Harwood Unified Union School Board has a significant number of subjects to juggle as it heads toward its summer recess at the end of June.
The list includes:
Preparing to present a bond question to voters as soon as this fall to pay for renovations to Harwood Union High School.
Deciding whether to stick with its plan to send all seventh- and eighth-graders in the district to Crossett Brook Middle School as soon as fall 2022, and how to ensure the Duxbury campus has adequate classroom space and staffing.
Moving ahead with the process to rename Thatcher Brook Primary School in Waterbury to drop the surname of an 18th century figure who owned Black children as slaves.
Finalizing labor union contracts with the district’s staff and teachers as current agreements expire at the end of June.
In addition, steps are in motion to begin the search for a new superintendent as current Superintendent Brigid Nease plans to step down in June 2022. A request for proposals has been approved to search for consultants to assist with that process.
All of this comes as a year of operating during a pandemic draws to a close. All schools currently are operating on a somewhat-hybrid schedule with students attending in person four days per week and learning remotely one day. Several dozen students have been attending remotely full-time in a program designed due to the pandemic.
Recent steps to make the COVID-19 vaccine available to children as young as 12 and the relaxing of state public health restrictions have school administrators anticipating a return to full-time in-person instruction this fall.
Thatcher Brook renaming survey is out
At its April 28 meeting, the school board approved the process that will be used to recommend new names for Thatcher Brook Primary School. Last fall, students and community activists researching local history looked into the background to the school’s namesake, Partridge Thatcher, an early landowner in Waterbury in the latter half of the 1700s. A native of Connecticut, Thatcher never settled in Waterbury but spent a short time here surveying the newly chartered town where he was granted land. The Thatcher Brook was named for him. The primary school on Stowe Street was renamed in the late 1990s after the brook.
The school board decided this winter to approve a request to rename the school brought by students and community members who said Thatcher’s history as a slaveholder should prevent using his name for the school.
A survey to solicit new names is circulating online and can be found here. The school board at its April 28 meeting approved criteria that it will use. They are listed on the survey and include: that the name be inclusive, welcoming and represent the diversity within the community; that it contributes to a positive energy, inspires and encourages student growth; that it uphold or add to the school’s values. The criteria ask that suggestions to use a person’s name should offer candidates who are controversy-free, of positive morals/character, have accomplishments in the community and a connection to the school, and to have had some positive impact on education. Finally, the name “must not perpetuate divisive stereotypes or contribute harm to any community members.”
The process envisions a new name for the school as soon as this fall. The survey is open through Wednesday, May 19.
Middle school merger survey closes May 20
The discussion over merging all seventh- and eighth-grade students in the district into one school has been ongoing for years and has remained a top priority since the district merged in 2018.
The school board has paused the move multiple times however for a variety of reasons, the most recent being the COVID-19 pandemic that hit soon after voters in 2020 rejected the school budget that relied on closing Harwood Union Middle School.
The decision to move ahead appears imminent once again with the board devoting considerable time in the past two months to discuss the implications on facilities, class sizes, staffing and programming. Middle school Principals Tom Drake from Crossett Brook and Duane Pierson from Harwood attended the April 28 meeting to answer many questions from board members.
Last month, the board agreed to put on its May 26 meeting agenda a proposed vote on whether it still wants to pursue the merger.
At this week’s meeting, board Chair Torrey Smith polled members on their preferences around the facility question, one of the key hurdles to clear before moving ahead. She asked board members what they thought they could support regarding the extent of the expansion needed at Crossett Brook to accommodate all of the grade 7-8 students, how they felt about adding onto the school with either new construction or temporary buildings, and how to pay for the project.
While there appeared to be general agreement supporting combining the students, board members expressed varying opinions on the steps to accommodate them in one school. The principals told the board previously that an addition of four classrooms would be a “bare minimum” needed.
Several board members said they believed that temporary buildings could be used while construction happens. Most said they wanted to avoid temporary structures becoming permanent or long-term fixtures.
Some said they would be most comfortable moving ahead only after voters approved funding for the building project.
The board has since drafted an online survey for community members to weigh in on whether to continue with the merger plan. The survey is open until this Thursday, May 20, and can be found online here.
Harwood Union High School building needs
Part of the difficulty of the middle school merger issue is the simultaneous and much larger project on the horizon for Harwood Union High School where deferred maintenance has created a growing list of repairs and renovations that need attention. In addition to listing items such as heating and ventilation system work, a new roof and window replacements, school administrators have done a top-to-bottom look at the facility to propose a series of alterations to improve and modernize the environment for learning and better utilize space.
Co-Principals Laurie Greenberg and Meg McDonough made a detailed presentation at the April 28 meeting discussing ways to add light to science labs, reconfigure interior spaces to allow for better collaboration and reintroduce hands-on work spaces.
A specific cost proposal has not yet been completed. However, at this week’s board meeting, the latest estimate for building costs that school officials would like to pay for with a bond presented to voters in November is upwards of $50 million with a separate $2.6 million estimate to upgrade the Harwood Union running track.
The cost to expand Crossett Brook either with a permanent or temporary building addition would be rolled into that figure.
That estimate was compared with the smaller-scale 2015 facility project that was projected to cost $17 million.
The goal so far would be to ask voters to approve spending for work at both campuses at the same election time.
The school board discussed the need for community engagement to explain the facility proposals as they come into clearer focus in the coming months.
Housekeeping at May 19 annual meeting
The Town Meeting Day votes on school business were limited to electing school board members in the district’s towns and questions on the $40.39 million school budget and $2.2 million surplus.
Typical housekeeping items that are addressed at an in-person meeting in March were postponed given the pandemic and restrictions on gatherings. Those items will be taken up this week at an in-person meeting to be held at the gazebo outside at Harwood Union High School starting at 6 p.m.
The agenda calls for electing a moderator, clerk and treasurer for a year, to hire an accountant for the district, to borrow in anticipation of taxes, etc. The warning for the meeting is online on the HUUSD.org homepage.
HUUSD School Board meetings are recorded and available to watch on the district’s YouTube channel or Mad River TV. Recent packets of information ahead of board meetings have had summary materials regarding the middle school merger project, particularly the May 12 meeting packet.