In the wake of declining births in both Vermont and Washington County, the Harwood Union school district is centralizing early childhood education. Currently the district offers 11 preschool sessions, employing 5.5 teachers. Next year there will be eight preschool sessions, employing four teachers.
Vermont recorded the fewest births in the nation in 2024, and the state’s birth rates have been falling since 1990. Washington County recorded 482 births in 2023, and local towns have fared badly: Warren had one birth in 2024. With falling birth rates comes declining school enrollment and smaller class sizes. HUUSD student enrollment was at 1,787 at the start of the school year, down 1.5% from the prior year’s 1,814.
“What we’re looking at administratively has nothing to do with supporting or not supporting preschool and everything to do with taking a look at classroom numbers,” said Superintendent Dr. Michael Leichliter at a January 7 school board meeting. “We feel that we have to be not only responsible educationally but that we also have to be responsible via enrollment and to our taxpayers to not have classes that are underenrolled.”
The 11 preschool sessions offered this year are spread across the district, with four sessions at Brookside, employing two teachers; three sessions at Moretown, employing one and a half teachers; and two sessions each at Fayston and Warren, employing two teachers.
MAXIMUM 15 STUDENTS
The Vermont Department of Children and Families, which controls public preschool regulations, restricts pre-kindergarten class sizes to a maximum of 15 students. With 11 sessions and 15 students per session, HUUSD could host up to 165 preschool students.
According to the district’s October 2025 enrollment report, they have 196 pre-kindergarten students who are funded by Act 166, the Universal Prekindergarten Act, though not all of these students attend Harwood public preschools. Across the 11 offered sessions, 127 students currently attend one of Harwood’s public preschools.
In a January 6 email sent to parents across the district about 2026-2027 pre-kindergarten plans, Leichliter said, “Even after reducing two pre-kindergarten classrooms at Waitsfield this year, our district programs remain under-enrolled. More than half of the 11 sessions currently offered have space for at least five additional students. Based on current data and extensive outreach efforts, we anticipate that maintaining the same number of classrooms next year would result in more than 40 unfilled pre-kindergarten slots.” Pre-kindergarten programs are essential to early childhood development by creating interactions with kids of the same age in a structured, formal environment, but classes under five students “do not provide the robust peer interactions and learning experiences we [HUUSD] strive to offer.”
COMMUNITY BACKLASH
These closures have attracted considerable community backlash. Recent school board meetings have seen public comments from parents and preschool teachers attesting to the benefits that the HUUSD public preschool programs have brought to the students, their families, and communities.
Carla Francis, a Moretown parent, said at the December 17 meeting, “We as parents feel more assimilated into the Moretown community, so I think by going to public preschool it’s affecting the whole family… It really goes beyond the student.” She spoke about how she struggled to find a private preschool for her son, and that, if preschool programs were cut, it would be “less accessible for families. Some families won’t be sending their kids at such a crucial age.”
Jenny Lyle, a longtime Moretown preschool teacher, said, “When we cut pre-k programs, we send a strong message to our district and our community that we don’t value preschool. Will pre-k ever return to Waitsfield or Fayston? Once a program is cut, it is not likely to return.” When she applied for her job, she did so thanks to the public preschool programs offered by the district prior to Act 166. “This community is special. Let’s continue to support our young children and the families that moved here for our schools.”
Theo Hanna, a Waterbury parent, cited a study from the National Institute for Early Education at Rutgers University, which found that “studies of high-quality preschool programs show that every dollar spent is $17 in social benefits. Attending a good preschool is associated with higher grades later in school, less grade retention, higher job earnings, less delinquency and crime, and better long-term outcomes.” A frequent volunteer in the Brookside preschool classroom, she testified to its benefits and added, “Vermont towns like ours need young families and cutting incredible preschool programs does not make a strong case for moving to our district.”
At the January 7 meeting, Libby, Shelby Semmes, Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver, Catherine Naden, and Patty Martley each spoke to the importance of HUUSD public preschool programs. Elaina Foxx, a Warren preschool teacher, added, “It’s difficult to quantify intention, responsiveness, and emotional presence, but these elements are the reality of early childhood education and are foundational to the children’s learning and well-being. As classroom numbers increase, meeting these needs becomes increasingly difficult and inevitably, the quality of a child’s experience declines.”
‘WE DO HEAR YOU’
School board chair Ashley Woods of Warren assured members of the public that the board does read their emails and to reach out with concerns. “We do hear you,” she said. “We do take it in. We do talk about it. This is no vacuum; we are listening.”
Leichliter added, “We are not looking to cut preschool. We are not looking to tell parents that we don’t have space.” He reiterated this in his email: “All HUUSD resident students who wish to attend a public pre-kindergarten program will be accommodated. We are confident that we will have sufficient space to serve interested families.”
The district is currently working to create child care partnerships for full days of care or for program off days. More details about these partnerships will be shared on or before pre-kindergarten screenings begin in March to assess Act 166 eligibility.
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