OPINION: Mourning the loss of Harwood’s trees

August 7, 2024  |  By Maddie Thibault

Harwood Union High School exterior, 2021. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

The trees standing outside the front of Harwood Union High School have diligently watched over the school and its students for years, welcoming the new ones, greeting the returnees, and waving goodbye to the graduates.

The students, however, were unable to say their goodbye to the trees when, without warning, and mere weeks before the start of the school year, they were cut down. 

The school district did not give any notice to the community, or the staff at the school, that this was going to be happening. In response to being asked whether there was any announcement, a staff member took a moment to check their email and said, “Not that I can see.” 

Current and former students expressed distress, disappointment, anger, and exhaustion at the actions taken by the district. One rising senior said, “There's only one thing it could be, Harwood encourages climate change.”

Another former student who graduated remarked, “I don't know, it's Harwood. They're on a mission to actively make it worse.”

Harwood Union High School exterior, August 2024. Photo by Gordon Miller

Indeed, that is the sentiment among students. A third expressed concern at where the trees came from in the first place: “Weren't those trees a gift from a graduating class or something?”

The thought is not impossible, in fact there was a plaque near the sidewalk and the trees, but the exact words on it escaped the recollection of the students during the discussion. 

While there are many reasons the school may have thought it necessary to have the trees cut, in the student's opinion, nothing truly justifies it. Some of the possible reasons included the root system potentially damaging the sidewalk, or the fact that students did use the trees for climbing despite the concerns of their teachers. 

Harwood Union may well have been fearful of the future costs the trees harbored, but there were multiple ways to circumvent those rather than removing the beloved community trees. Ironically, there was money that could have been used on the trees' upkeep, redirecting the roots, or making the branches harder to reach. With funds from the COVID-19 pandemic set to expire, they could have put those to use here. 

There is a history of Harwood making baffling decisions, both in regard to their funding and their community. The school has previously directed money to unnecessary ventures, such as this year's Yondr pouches – magnetic bags that students will be directed to place their phones in during the day. The cost of the purchase comes out to about $21,000 – money which could have been used on repairs the school desperately needs, as outline in a previously failed bond and yearly maintenance budgets. Additionally, that same money could have been invested in classrooms, art programs or sports. 

To build on the increasingly strained relationship with the community as visible by the failed bond and the tense battle over the school budget, many people are upset at the action without any community input. Rather, much like other situations where Harwood has rebuffed the community's wishes and concerns, such as former Superintendent Brigid Nease's defense of the use of restraint on elementary schoolers or the strong dismissal directed at students who expressed concerns of bullying, violence, and drug use in the school after a student was seriously injured when attacked in a bathroom in 2022, such action only serves to further alienate the district from the wider community and build resentment from the students. 

The constant struggle for funding inside the district makes the decision to spend extra money on the removal of such a beloved fixture is beyond rationality, and it may even fuel the sentiment that Harwood's money woes are all self-inflicted, and thus demonstrate to the voters of Washington County that there is no justification for a bond, budget, or any other expenditures Harwood may deem necessary.

For many years, Harwood has stood out from other high schools only due to the fact that it was centered in nature and built upon shared community coming from the small towns which make up the district. With the passage of time, Harwood has only pushed away that image to its own detriment, as represented by the many failures the district has experienced in both the literal and social senses.

Perhaps the imagery of the trees growing outside the school may now symbolize the death of such growth. And the metaphor of the turning page overhang symbolizing the next chapter of life as students pass through Harwood's doors maybe now shows Harwood nearing the end of its book.

On behalf of the graduated, attending, and future students of Harwood,

Maddie Thibault

Harwood Class of 2023

Duxbury 

Editor’s note: School officials told Waterbury Roundabout that seven trees were cut down recently along the front sidewalk at Harwood Union Middle/High School because they were either “dead or dying.” So far there is no plan or budget to replace the trees. Anyone interested in helping with donations to replace the trees should contact the school.