On Tuesday, voters in the six communities of the Harwood Unified Union School District will head to the polls to consider a new budget of $48.8 million to run schools for the 2024-25 school year.  The second vote is needed after voters on Town Meeting Day overwhelmingly rejected the first budget of $50.8 million.

With the second vote on a revised 2024-25 budget proposal less than two weeks away, the Harwood school board last week rolled out messages to the community and held a two-hour informational meeting to answer questions from local residents. The vote on a $48.8 million budget happens April 30. There is one more chance to hear a presentation and ask questions this Thursday, April 25.

Last Tuesday morning, Brookside Primary School first grader Liam Lande, skipped hopping on the school bus for an extra-special lift to school.

What’s become an annual springtime musical debut event for many young Vermont musicians  -- including Harwood school district students -- will take place soon after April school break.

The Fayston Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization has launched its second annual Every Day in May for FAYston raffle with tickets on sale now. 

The Harwood Unified Union School Board appointed three new members last week to fill vacancies representing Waterbury as the board prepares for a second vote on a proposed budget for the 2024-25 school year. 

New state rules will allow more Vermont families to qualify for financial assistance to help pay for regulated child care, preschool, and afterschool care, according to the state Department for Children and Families. 

Harwood Union High School presents its spring musical, “The Addams Family,” April 4-6.   

Voters in the Harwood Unified Union School District will vote on April 30 on a revised budget proposal of $48.8 million for the 2024-25 school year. 

It’s not often that the Waterbury Select Board holds a discussion about local schools, but Monday’s meeting had a rare item of business for town officials to address – interviewing and recommending candidates to fill three school board positions. 

New on Friday, March 15: Starting Monday, March 18, buses serving Waterbury, Fayston, Moretown and Waitsfield will resume their normal routes. Buses on routes in Warren and Duxbury remain on modified routes listed here until further notice.

The Harwood Unified Union School District School Board is aiming for April 30 to vote on a revised budget proposal that’s nearly $2 million less than the budget voters rejected on Town Meeting Day. 

In the recent online survey by The Valley Reporter/Waterbury Roundabout, 73 of the 315 responses commenting about the failed school budget on March 5 mentioned the possibility of closing Fayston Elementary School and at least 17 other responses mentioned closing district schools in general.

Gov. Phil Scott on Friday named Zoie Saunders, a Florida schools administrator and former Charter Schools USA executive, to be the next secretary of the Vermont Agency of Education, a year after the state’s last permanent education leader announced his resignation.

The transitions continue with Waterbury’s representation on the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board as board member Jake Pitman on Friday announced he would be stepping down in order to take the Harwood track and field team’s head coaching position.

This is the second of two parts reporting on the community survey by Waterbury Roundabout and The Valley Reporter regarding the proposed 2024-25 Harwood Unified Union School District budget that failed to win voter approval on Town Meeting Day.

Following a stinging defeat of the proposed 2024-25 school budget, the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board has so far met twice since the March 5 vote. Discussion has begun on how to revise the budget with the goal of earning voters' approval at the ballot box this spring. The board also hopes to recruit two new Waterbury members.

Faced with a resounding rejection of the proposed 2024-25 school budget at the ballot box last week, the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board met late last week ahead of schedule to reorganize and begin discussing next steps to bring a new budget to voters later this spring.  

The Central Vermont Career Center School District got the collective nod it needed from voters in 18 towns — most of them members of other districts where school budgets didn’t fare as well this week.