Dear members of our six town community,
At our last meeting on November 13, 2019, the Harwood Unified Union School District (HUUSD):
Board had an extended Q&A and Public Comment session to address the public’s questions on the Board’s PreK - 12 planning. Information on the PreK-12 planning work and process can be found here: https://huusd.org/prek-12-bond-plan
Ron Smith and Miranda McDonald from RHR Smith & Company presented their auditor’s report and answered questions from board members.
Board postponed discussion and decision on this proposed motion to the 11/20 meeting: Move to accept the administrative team’s recommendation to move all 7th and 8th grade students to Crossett Brook Middle School for the 2020-21 school year.
The Board took action on the six (6) items below:
Approved the following items as part of the consent agenda: Approve: Minutes of 11/5/19; Approve: Policy Committee Minutes of 11/4/19; Accept: Voucher 1103 for $276,070.84; Accept: FY2019 Audited Financial Report and Management Letter from RHR Smith & Company; Approve: Harwood Union overnight field trip to Hubbard Outdoor Center in Fairlee, VT on 12/5/19.
Adopted (after discussion for about 1.5 hours and a proposed amendment that failed): Move to continue exploration and development of a preK-12 plan, in accordance with the Articles of Agreement, that includes closing Fayston Elementary School, combining all 7th and 8th graders at CBMS, and moving Moretown's 5th and 6th graders to CBMS.
Adopted: Appoint Garett MacCurtain and James Grace to the Harwood Union principal search committee.
Adopted: Approve admin team to engage with our architect and construction management company for up to 40 hours in order to start planning and beginning work on the bond. (Note that these consultants were previously engaged through the requisite bidding and approval process and this motion allows the district to resume bond work that was put on pause during the summer/fall 2019).
Adopted: Add an additional board meeting on December 4 from 6-8:30pm.
Adopted: The administration to develop a recommendation as to minimum pupil count at Harwood Union Middle School for HUMS to operate effectively.
Our next meeting is Wednesday, November 20th at 6:00 pm in the Harwood Union School library. Please visit https://huusd.org/huusd-board to confirm time and place of meetings.
You’ll also find all board and committee agendas, packets and minutes, and the link to board meeting videos. The direct link to watch this and other recent meetings is: https://mrvtv.com/category/school-board-meetings/. An archive of older meetings can be found here: https://archive.org/search.php?query=Harwood+Unified+Union+School+Board&sort=-date
Thank you for your continued support and engagement.
Respectfully,
The HUUSD Board