Former school board member responds to Kerrigan on school bond

October 29, 2021 | By Ben Smith

As a Harwood parent, former school board member, and partner of a current school board member, I would like to respond to John Kerrigan’s Oct. 28th letter. 

The Harwood he describes is a cruel caricature, and in no way reflects my family's experience. My kids have had dynamic, engaged, passionate teachers, and they are thriving. We also have a kid doing great in college as a sophomore despite the pandemic, building on the skills she learned at Harwood. Our kids have embraced proficiency-based learning (a state law, by the way, not a decision by Harwood) and in no way has it damaged their prospects. In fact, it has enhanced their ability to engage and be proactive in their learning. John's letter insults teachers, staff, leadership, and most of all the students themselves, whose spirit is most definitely not "broken." 

In addition, Harwood has handled the incredible difficulties of the pandemic with skill and grace, while keeping our kids in school. The overwhelming stress and challenge of this success – which is nowhere near universal across the country – deserves all the respect, thanks, and honor due all of our frontline workers, not the open scorn so evident in John’s letter.

His comments about the school board are just as silly, not to mention profoundly disrespectful. Board members are volunteers who have dedicated countless hours to their community to try to find common ground and make this work. If you go online to huusd.org and look at the Bond Plan page, you can understand the incredible amount of planning and research that has gone into this over a period of years. Reasonable people may disagree about whether this bond is appropriate – but saying the board hasn’t done its research is flat-out wrong. 

The long-range picture for the schools is something like this: there is a solid cohort in our community which will almost always, unfortunately, vote against school funding – somewhere in the neighborhood of 40%. That means it only takes a swing of about 10% of voters to reject something. There is an additional cohort that  is generally supportive, but would like to see more efficiencies in the system, which can only meaningfully come from consolidation of our small schools. There is a third cohort solidly and vocally against any consolidation, and have demonstrated their willingness to vote against school funding based on this issue alone. Both of those latter two cohorts can choose to vote no and – whether they mean to or not – can block any meaningful progress. 

Caught in the middle is a great high school – the flagship of our system – in desperate need of upgrades (check out the video on the huusd.org Bond Plan site, or dig into the data available there if you want more information.) 

The board, with great difficulty, has crafted a common ground among these competing points of view. No one is getting everything they want. It was difficult, emotional work – the work of local democracy. They have done that on behalf of our community, and our kids. They are keeping the next generation squarely in view. This is a generational, hopeful, long overdue, and deeply important investment in our community’s future. It’s an investment that benefits all our kids, regardless of income or background. Is it a big number? Yes. Is it the right number? Yes. 

Sure, we could limit it, and only repair Harwood. Then there would be no increased efficiencies, and we would have a circa 1965 high school with a solid roof and good HVAC, and still spend around $36 million. Or we can spend the right amount, and have the school we need for the next 40 years. 

Harwood is a great school, with great people, in dire need of the support and affirmation of its community. Please vote on November 2nd, and support the bond! 

South Duxbury resident Ben Smith served on the former Waterbury-Duxbury School Board and on the executive committee of the Washington West Supervisory Union board before the Harwood district merger. His spouse is HUUSD School Board Chair Torrey Smith.