This week the Harwood Unified Union School District vision and building use committee discussed an ambitious report prepared by architectural firm TruexCullins.
For almost a decade, before it was a unified union school district, district leadership has been considering bonding to upgrade, at a minimum Harwood Union, and at a maximum, Harwood, Crossett Brook and some of the elementary schools.
The need is real. The Truex report identified $118,357,780 in repairs and upgrades needed in the Harwood Unified Union School District: $45M in work for the elementary schools and another $73M for Harwood.
A legislative subcommittee is in the middle of Act 73 which aims to reduce the number of school districts from 119 to 10-25. Clearly that is going to impact us, but it won’t become reality until the 2028-2029 school year.
Concurrently, on November 4, voters in our district join those in the 18-member towns in the Central Vermont Career Center district in voting for a $149 million bond to build a new 167,000-square-foot career center.
In our district and in the other CVCC towns we really need vocation/technical educational opportunities for our students. There are waiting lists in every town. The need for voc/tech has never been higher. It is real. Our students and Vermont students need it and not in five years. If the bond passes, the new center will open in 2028. A failed bond will just push that date out further and leave a bigger need.
But the legislative solution in terms of redistricting Vermont is three to four years out. Our schools need maintenance or upgrading sooner versus later.
We can’t reconfigure our district to close some elementary schools without spending a lot of money to expand/upgrade the schools that remain open to accommodate the displaced students.
We’re at a very critical juncture here. In terms of priorities, we need to provide voc/tech options for our students before we fall further behind, and we need to keep the lights on in our schools.
Let’s be cautious about any plans to spend any money until we see how the CVCC vote plays out and until Act 73 is addressed in the Legislature in January.
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