Harwood leaders to rework budget for third vote; conflict claim raised

May 8, 2024 | By Lisa Scagliotti

Leaders in the Harwood school district hope the third time is the charm for voters to back a budget for the 2024-25 school year. 

File photo by Lisa Scagliotti

A week after the second proposed school budget failed at the ballot box, the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board meets tonight to discuss a third version and a date for voters in the district’s six communities to go to the polls again. 

Before the board gets into the budget details, board Chair Ashley Woods said she will review the board’s Conflict of Interest policy with the group. The board last week received an inquiry from Duxbury resident and former school board member Brian Dalla Mura questioning whether Moretown board member Ben Clark has a conflict of interest given that his spouse is a co-principal at Crossett Brook Middle School.

The agenda for tonight’s meeting lists May 30 as a proposed date for the third vote. That’s three weeks away and after the Memorial Day holiday. Superintendent Mike Leichliter said the suggested date was chosen after checking in with town clerks across the district. 

The first proposed budget of $50.8 million presented for the March 5 Town Meeting Day ballot failed by 1,201 votes, 2,640 to 1,439. The split was much closer in the second vote held on April 30. The revised budget of $48.8 million lost by just 166 votes, 1,731 to 1,565.   

School leaders have their eye on the calendar as the end of the current school year approaches.  A new budget needs voter approval for the 2024-25 fiscal year which begins July 1. Without a successful vote by June 30, a school district may borrow funds up to 87% of the operating revenue for the last voter-approved budget. In Harwood’s case, that’s the current budget for the 2023-24 school year which was $45.4 million; 87% of that would be $6 million less or approximately $39.5 million. 

School officials have cautioned that scenario would require significant cuts to programming and staffing and therefore it’s preferable for a vote to succeed. 

To build the next version of the budget, the administration and school board likely will start with a scenario they discussed in early April when they chose the second budget proposal to put on the April 30 ballot. 

In March following the first budget defeat, school district Finance Director Lisa Estler presented several scenarios for lower budgets. By April 3, the board chose one that trimmed just three additional staff positions through attrition in addition to the 13.5 positions cut in the March 5 budget. The next-lower scenario came in at $47.78 million and that called for 10 more full-time job cuts in addition to the 16.5 in the earlier budgets. (Scenario 4 in the presentation at the April 3 board meeting.) 

While the first two budgets relied on resignations and retirements to meet staff reduction targets, the next scenario would likely require layoffs, school officials explained. 

Conflict of interest claim

In a budget informational meeting prior to the April 30 vote, Woods said that a detailed plan had not been made yet for another version of the budget should a third vote be required. She said that all areas, however, would be examined including administration and staff positions. 

On May 2, Dalla Mura emailed the School Board raising the issue of “a potential conflict of interest” regarding board member Clark whose spouse Jen Durren is a co-principal at Crossett Brook Middle School. 

State statute prohibits individuals who work in a school district from serving on its governing board but there is no prohibition for family members. 

“Given the recent budgetary challenges and future staffing discussions, Mr. Clark’s participation could be seen as biased. I respectfully suggest that the board discusses this matter and considers asking Mr. Clark to recuse himself from budget-related discussions and votes,” Dalla Mura wrote. “Given that these discussion[s] will be a very large topic throughout the year, it may be beneficial for him to resign, allowing someone without this conflict to serve.”

In an email to the Waterbury Roundabout and the Valley Reporter, Woods initially said the board has addressed the issue of potential conflicts involving Clark and Duxbury member Life LeGeros, who has a family member working in a support staff role in an elementary school. Woods said she told Dalla Mura that both board members “are aware of their specific situations and they are both diligent about recusing themselves when it is appropriate.”

The district has sought legal advice, Woods explained, and both members “have acted appropriately and they are doing everything they should, so the answer is no, we will not be addressing it at our meeting.”

LeGeros earlier this year did not take part in board discussions regarding the support staff labor agreement. So far this year, Clark has not recused himself from budget discussions or votes on the budgets the board has put forward on the two election ballots. 

When asked about the potential for Clark to have an appearance of a conflict in upcoming budget discussions that could involve impacts to administrative positions, Woods acknowledged that concern in an email to the newspapers. “I will bring it up to the board at the beginning of our budget discussion on Wednesday, and go over the policy,” Woods wrote, adding, “I hope that will be enough to clear the air on this.”

Dalla Mura shared replies he sent to the school board regarding the issue of Clark’s role. He said he’s concerned that Clark’s involvement in decision-making regarding staffing “could be perceived as influenced by personal interests.”

The circumstance could result in “perceived partiality,” he said. “Active participation by Ben in budgetary decisions could create a perception of bias towards protecting administrative positions. This undermines the board’s integrity and can foster community mistrust, especially if teacher cuts are more pronounced.”

In addition, having a board member whose personal situation could be impacted by a board decision “may inadvertently sway other board members, who might align with his views to maintain internal peace, to avoid awkwardness, to maintain camaraderie, or out of empathetic bias,” Dalla Mura wrote. 

Finally, the situation could be a source of ongoing transparency concern, he said. “Ensuring transparency in decisions about cuts becomes more challenging when a board member has significant personal connections within the administration. Maintaining transparency in board operations could become challenging if there's a continuous need to manage perceptions and reassure stakeholders about the fairness of processes.”

The school board’s Conflict of Interest Policy was updated in the fall. It lays out steps for the board to review a conflict of interest claim should the school board chair and vice chair and superintendent deem the claim “is justified and a conflict in fact exists.” It does not specify any action if those individuals disagree with a claim.

Waterbury Roundabout did not hear back from Ben Clark for comment on this story. Clark was elected to the board in March 2023. Durren was hired for the Crossett Brook co-principal position three weeks later and started with the district in July 2023.

At the time, Clark said he thought it would be manageable to navigate his role on the board given his spouse’s new job. “I remind everyone that it is the superintendent that supervises teachers and administrators – not board members – and I will recuse myself in all matters related to administration,” he said in an email to the newspaper last year.

Dalla Mura served on the Harwood School Board briefly in 2021 when he was elected to one of Duxbury’s two seats in March of that year. He resigned in June 2021 after accepting a position to join the staff at Brookside Primary School as a special educator that began that July. His circumstance sparked concern at the time because he shared his employment decision with board leaders, but not with the entire board until the issue was raised at a board meeting in May 2021. 

Dalla Mura acknowledges that his situation raised conflict questions, too. “Our district has faced its fair share of ‘conflict of interest’ concerns recently, including my own,” he said in an email to the local newspapers. “In a community of our size, it's often unavoidable for board members to have connections to the school that could be perceived as conflicts of interest. What sets Ben Clark’s situation apart is that his spouse holds an administrative position which is a position of power. If this situation isn't raising any concerns within the leadership, then I question why they have a conflict of interest policy in the first place.”

Tonight’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the library at Harwood Union Middle/High School and also will be available via Zoom for those who might wish to offer comments and streamed on the district’s YouTube channel and Mad River TV. The agenda link is here. 

Correction: The 2021 meeting referenced above was in May. The story originally had the month incorrect.