School board adds former principal for Duxbury seat; Waterbury applicants line up

July 15, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti 

In a brief, one-topic special meeting Wednesday evening, the Harwood Unified Union School District Board filled a vacant position representing Duxbury, choosing Cindy Senning, a former principal at Duxbury Elementary School prior to the merger of Duxbury and Waterbury schools in the 1990s.

The board is set to repeat the process this week when it meets to fill a second opening with a new Waterbury representative that’s already attracted four applicants. The deadline to send a letter of interest is Sunday. (see below)

Former Duxbury Elementary School Principal Cindy Senning was appointed to one of Duxbury’s two seats on the HUUSD School Board. Courtesy photo

The board on July 14 voted 8-1 in favor of appointing Senning; three members abstained and the 14-member board had two open seats at the time. 

No stranger to the local school system, Senning served as principal in Duxbury in the late 1980s and early 1990s ahead of Duxbury and Waterbury merging their elementary schools into a combined district that led to the construction of Crossett Brook Middle School which opened in 1997. Senning also served on the Waterbury-Duxbury School Board that oversaw that transition. 

Senning began working in the school district in 1982 as a school nurse and health teacher at Harwood Union High School. A resident of Duxbury since 1971, Senning said her two now-adult children went through the local public schools and currently live in Duxbury. She said three of her four grandchildren are now in the school system. 

The board also considered Duxbury resident Patrick Zachary for the position. A civil engineer at Global Foundries and previously IBM in Essex, Zachary serves on the Duxbury Development Review Board.

Both candidates attended Wednesday’s meeting and addressed the board about their interest in the position. The board met for fewer than 30 minutes with some members present in person and some attending over Zoom video conference.

Hearing from the applicants

Both Senning and Zachary told the school board that they were open to continuing in the position for the remainder of the term if they were chosen. 

The board asked both candidates to discuss their interest in the position at this time. Zachary went first, commenting that schools are vital to communities and explaining how he is most interested in containing the cost of K-12 education which he said is creating “a cost of living problem in Vermont.” He cited statistics on per-pupil education spending nationally, comparing Vermont to Utah where outcomes for students are similar, but Vermont’s cost is nearly three times Utah’s. “I’d like to work on that problem,” Zachary said. “That’s why I want to be a part of this – to understand what’s going on to make this better.” 

Given his experience evaluating construction projects, Zachary said he was interested in the upcoming bond to finance a variety of school renovations and improvements at Harwood Union High School and an expansion at Crossett Brook Middle School. The school board is looking to put a bond to voters in early November; its scope and cost remain to be decided in September. 

He said he was interested in being able to review what goes into the proposal to help ensure that Duxbury taxpayers can afford the upcoming bond. “We need to be sure we’re building only what we need and not what we want,” Zachary said. 

Senning, who holds advanced degrees in education administration, said she thought her past experience in the school district would be valuable now as the district faces new challenges. She said she appreciates the complexity of the district moving to a unified model with all schools in the six communities under one umbrella in the past several years. 

Senning agreed with Zachary about containing costs, but said decision-makers need to weigh many factors. “Obviously we need to keep education affordable,” she said. “But it also needs to be effective and work well for all the communities we represent.” 

Senning said she is interested in the search for a new superintendent as Superintendent Brigid Nease plans to step down when her contract ends in 2022. The upcoming merger of the middle school students from Harwood Middle School’s seventh- and eighth grades into Crossett Brook also has Senning’s interest. “How we get that right is important,” she said.  

The local process 

Prior to Wednesday’s school board meeting to fill the position, the Duxbury Select Board reviewed both applicants’ letters of interest in the seat. The process for filling a vacancy allows the local legislative body to make a recommendation to a school board to consider although the ultimate choice is up to the school board. 

The Duxbury Select Board recommended Senning but acknowledged that  Zachary’s interest and qualifications would also be of benefit to the school board. They supported the school board interviewing both candidates. 

The vacancy came about last month when one of Duxbury’s two members on the school board, Brian Dalla Mura, resigned ahead of starting a contract for a teaching position at Brookside Primary School in Waterbury. Dalla Mura was elected in March to the seat that had two years remaining on a three-year term. By law, a school board member cannot be an employee of the school district. Prior to Dalla Mura’s election, Alec Adams held the seat for one year and he stepped down in January. 

Senning’s appointment runs until Town Meeting Day 2022 at which point the voters would fill the position for the remaining year. Duxbury’s other seat is held by board Chair Torrey Smith whose term ends in 2022.

Waterbury vacancy remains

The HUUSD board will repeat this process this coming week to fill a vacant seat representing Waterbury. Michael Frank, one of Waterbury’s four representatives to the board, also resigned in June after being elected in March to a three-year term. His replacement would also serve until Town Meeting Day 2022 at which time voters would fill the spot for the remaining two years. 

As of Friday afternoon, there were four applicants for the position according to the agenda posted for the Waterbury Select Board’s Monday meeting. They are Glenn Andersen, Jacqueline Kelleher, Victoria Taravella, and Scott Culver. On Town Meeting Day, Culver was the third-place finisher in a race to fill two seats representing Waterbury; he also volunteered in April 2020 when James Grace resigned, creating an opening. At that time, the board appointed Michael Frank.

Waterbury residents interested in applying for the position are asked to email a letter of interest to board Chair Torrey Smith at tcsmith@huusd.org and Superintendent Brigid Nease at bnease@huusd.org by Sunday, July 18. The Waterbury Select Board at its July 19 meeting plans to review choices in order to make a recommendation to the school board. The school board will meet Wednesday for a special meeting to make that appointment. The school board is otherwise on a summer recess. It will resume its regular meeting schedule at the end of August.

The July 14 school board meeting was recorded and can be viewed online on the district’s YouTube channel.