Harwood board, licking wounds on budget, looks for a way forward

With no budget, a room full of parents and residents looking for answers, and the deadline looming for coming up with a school construction bond, the Harwood Union school board tried last Thursday to forge a path forward.

It was the first time the board had met since residents rejected its budget proposal for the 2020-21 school year by almost 800 votes, and there was no consensus on where to go next and if a vote on a $40 million to rebuild schools — which the board has been talking about for more than a year — is even feasible.

The board heard from several residents about the situation. Most explained why they voted against the budget, but one exchange was so abrasive that it led James Grace of Waterbury to resign from the board on Sunday.

And now, with public and private spaces closing en masse because of the coronavirus, it's uncertain when the board will meet next.

“I expect we will be adjusting our board meeting timeline as well as our next budget vote to minimize public contact in the coming weeks,” board chair Caitlin Hollister said in an email on Tuesday.

‘I’m sick and tired of it’

A few residents attended the meeting to talk about the budget vote.

Scott Culver of Moretown said the board had rushed its decision, and he’d vote for a budget that saved teachers’ jobs.

Tom Drake, principal of Warren School, agreed, saying the board should take its time getting numbers together before shuffling students around. The board has talked about shifting students around, but has changed its mind repeatedly.

Brian Burgess of Moretown said that, as a teacher in another district, “it hurt to cast that (no) vote,” but it was a vote against a rushed budget that he charged school Superintendent Brigid Nease had pushed through.

Greg Shepler, head of the Harwood teachers union, said it’s time to stop fighting. “We need to pass a budget,” he said. “We want to be a part of that process.”

Jonathan Young of Warren said he represented a group of residents calling for the resignation of board member Rosemarie White, who represents Warren.

And there was a resignation, that of Waterbury representative James Grace, because of a metaphor painted by Brian Fleisher of Waitsfield. “When you’re considering this small but vocal minority, who became a large majority, said no, think of sex. It might be easier to get it into your head that no means no,” Fleisher said.

“I’m so deeply offended,” said board member Torrey Smith of Duxbury. “That’s disgusting. You basically called us rapists.”

“I totally agree. Disgusting. Reprehensible. I’m sick and tired of it,” said Grace, who was clearly aggravated and left the meeting an hour before it adjourned.

He sent his letter of resignation to the board chair on Sunday: “Although I have been considering this action for a while due to the unexpected negative impact my board service is having on my family, Brian Fleisher’s public comment at the last meeting, comparing the board to rapists, made it clear me that I needed to resign immediately for my own mental health and well-being,” he wrote.

Grace could not be reached for comment.

Budget options

In trying to figure out what voters will accept in the 2021 budget, the board quickly narrowed its options to three of the six budget choices the board had considered earlier. The options will be updated to account for three more retirements, but this is how they stood on Thursday.

• The status quo budget has no interdistrict choice and no mandate to move children. It totals $40,472,342, up 4.85 percent from current spending.

• The second and third options allow intradistrict choice, but the first wouldn’t include an additional music teacher at Crossett Brook Middle School. They total $40,317,342 and $40,314,842, a 4.45 percent increase.

• The budget voters rejected would have moved all Harwood Middle School seventh- and eighth-graders to Crossett Brook, and reconfigure Moretown Elementary from a K-6 school to a K-4 school, and totaled $39,427,342, a 2.1 percent increase.

Building plans

David Epstein, managing principal of TruexCullins, updated the board on construction plans for Thatcher Brook, Crossett Brook, Waitsfield and Harwood.

Harwood Union High School needs $20.9 million of upgrades to fix problems at the 50-year-old school, plus expansions at the other schools. Adding renovations and expansion at Harwood would bring the cost to $34,198,062.

The board has been talking about a construction bond vote in June, which requires a decision on which students would go where.

The board debated whether to spend $25,000 for TruexCullins to draw up more detailed plans.

“I would suggest we authorize that work,” Hollister said.

“This has been swirling and swirling since fiscal year 2019,” said board member Christine Sullivan of Waitsfield. “If we don’t move this forward tonight, this is an injustice to our schools and community.”

But other board members thought the community’s opinion is an issue.

“I would say a theme in the feedback we’ve gotten recently is a concern: ‘Is there a plan?” Grace said.

“To me, a plan is about things that include student outcomes, they include goals,” said board member Theresa Membrino from Fayston. “They’re not about buildings.”

The board decided to go ahead with the designs, but Grace called for administrators to compile a report on all the work done at Harwood, Thatcher Brook and Crossett Brook trying to get a bond vote in the past. He said that if the board is going to forge a solid plan, it needs all the information it can get, in one place.

Nease objected, saying there is no way she could handle the work.

“We’re barely managing coronavirus on top of everything else,” Nease said.

Hollister and Smith volunteered to do the work, and anyone who wants to help is welcome to do so.