Not all farewells are for graduates
June 20, 2026 | By Sally Kulis | CorrespondentAs school lets out for the summertime break, it’s not just students marking transitions. Across the Harwood Unified Union School District, a variety of staffing changes are in the works as some teachers and faculty retire or resign, some shift to new roles, and new hires are made to fill key openings.
Unlike the past several years, the district did not trim many positions for the upcoming 2026-27 school year.
At Brookside Primary School and Crossett Brook Middle School, the transitions include several retirements of longtime staff members as well as a handful of resignations and reassignments. They include Sue Rooney, who is retiring from Brookside after 40+ years, Crossett Brook fifth- and sixth-grade teacher Colleen Barrett, also with 40 years to her credit, and longtime Crossett Brook para-educator Tammy Thompson. Also retiring is Brenda Hartshorn, whose final year with the district has been at Brookside, but who has spent 43 years in multiple schools in the Harwood district.
Former Brookside teacher Sally Kulis caught up with Rooney, Barrett and Thompson for interviews and shares their stories below. Also included here are excerpts from a recent piece published by the Valley Reporter about Hartshorn.
Other departures
According to the school principals, other staffers who are moving on from Brookside Primary School are: preschool teacher Rose Lovett, preschool assistant Phil O’Neill; instructional assistants Mercedes Ackel, Brandon Reynolds, Lisa Grout, Cathleen Brouillard and Gina Martin are all moving to Crossett Brook where they will work with rising fifth graders who just completed fourth grade at Brookside. Special educator Sarah Hildebrand is also moving to the middle school.
At Crossett Brook, French teacher Sophie Hade is departing, as are instructional assistant KC Shogren and physical education teacher Drew Lucier.
The Harwood School Board recently has signed off on multiple new hires and reassignments for the 2026-27 school year. Those lists were agenda attachments for the May 27 meeting and the June 10 meeting labeled as Professional Staff Employment & Change in Status memos.
~ Lisa Scagliotti
After 40+ years, hundreds of readers, ‘Sue Roo’ retires
Sue Rooney retires from Brookside Primary School at the end of this school year. Courtesy photo
Sue Rooney, affectionately known by most as “Sue Roo,” is retiring this year from Brookside Primary School. It’s hard to imagine the school without her. As she begins her well-earned retirement, we celebrate the incredible impact Rooney has had as a colleague, mentor, and friend. She has been an important teacher to generations of students as they have learned the joys of reading. Her influence will continue to be felt long after her final day at Brookside Primary School.
Rooney began her career as a special educator at Eden Central School in the Lamoille North Supervisory Union. In 1985, when what was then the Washington West Supervisory Union was looking for a special educator, a school board member recalled thinking, “We’re looking for someone who’s going to stay a while.”
Rooney said she could do that and was true to her word – that was 40 years ago!
At the former Duxbury Elementary School that merged with Waterbury Elementary to form Thatcher Brook Primary School in the mid-1990s, Rooney was the sole special educator and Title One teacher for students from pre-K to sixth grade. In addition to that busy teaching schedule, she raised her young family plus pursued and received her master’s of education from the University of Vermont.
When offered opportunities to further her professional knowledge, Rooney always said “yes.” As a special educator, she said she most enjoyed teaching literacy and wanted to further her understanding of how best to meet students’ literacy needs. She received certifications in the Orton-Gillingham approach, the Wilson Reading System and Reading Recovery Intervention. When Rooney transitioned to becoming a Reading Recovery teacher and then a Literacy Interventionist, this well-rounded background meant she had the tools to determine the exact help each student needed. She said she believes the Reading Recovery training, in particular, honed her skills in observing students’ reading and determining the best next teaching for them.
Classroom teachers, whose students worked with Rooney, knew those students were getting the gold standard in reading intervention. Any child who read with her was thoughtfully and caringly taught. Rooney’s generosity as a colleague meant there was always top-notch communication about students’ progress. She has been an invaluable resource to teachers. Hard-working, thoughtful, and endlessly supportive, Rooney leaves behind a legacy of learning, laughter, and lasting friendships.
An administrator said of Rooney that her “role as a Literacy Interventionist was integral for students who needed excellent specialized instruction to boost their literacy skills. Rooney’s background as a special educator was critical in her role as she was able to tailor her instruction to meet the needs of each student. She brought a different and welcomed perspective to the work than that of her colleagues, who had been classroom teachers. What impressed me the most was her kindness, compassion, and caring personality that benefited all students and staff. Sue Rooney has earned a place in the hearts of many former students and also those of us who were lucky enough to have worked with her.”
Asked about how she describes her decades of experience, Rooney summed it up: “Teaching has never been about just delivering lessons – it’s about connecting with students, understanding their strengths, celebrating their successes and empowering them to believe in themselves. I’ve had the pleasure of working with so many incredible students, each with their own story, their own strengths and their own challenges. And every day, I learned just as much from them as I hope they learned from me.”
In retirement, Rooney said she is most looking forward to spending time with family – especially her grandchildren – and doing more gardening. Congratulations, Sue Roo, on your retirement. You will be deeply missed and fondly remembered.
Colleen Barrett: A Crossett Brook original retires
Colleen Barrett retires from Crossett Brook Middle School. Courtesy photo
Another 40-year veteran of our local schools, Colleen Barrett is retiring from Crossett Brook Middle School, where she has taught fifth- and sixth-graders for decades.
Barrett began her stellar teaching career in New Hampshire, where she taught for three years post-college. After that, she returned to her home state of Vermont to marry and begin raising her family. She began at Waterbury Elementary School in 1989 and moved to Crossett Brook Middle School when it opened in 1997. She has been there ever since – helping middle school students launch their educational careers.
Barrett’s excellence in teaching is reflected by her master’s of education in curriculum and instruction and her recognition as a “Highly Qualified Teacher” by the Vermont Agency of Education.
The Harwood district benefitted from her willingness to step into leadership roles. In addition to serving on multiple committees, she served on the Leadership Team at Crossett Brook and co-chaired the Local Standards Board (which focuses on teacher re-licensing and professional development). In that role, she has been an excellent resource for teachers navigating the rigorous re-licensing process. Barrett has also mentored many new teachers as they join the teaching profession.
Alongside her colleague Erin Dente, Barrett helped sixth-grade students pursue a community service project several years ago. The project was a collaborative effort involving other staff members Doug Lombard and Donna Constant, who pitched in to help. With materials donated by families and local businesses, students built and installed two Little Free Libraries, which were placed in downtown Waterbury. One sits in front of Brookside Primary School on Stowe Street and the other is on Randall Street, the neighborhood where school principal Tom Drake lived at the time.
The little libraries offer community members an opportunity to donate a book or take a book to read. Students were involved in all aspects of planning and setting up these resources, and the libraries are still in use today. Barrett said this project is a valuable reminder for students of what can be accomplished by working together.
That project illustrates Barrett’s love of watching students grow and mature and seeing their faces light up when they accomplish a difficult task. She said she believes middle schoolers in particular need opportunities to find their voices and make connections. What better way than to design and implement an enduring resource for their community?
“Being a teacher is all about relationships and connections. It’s about being a leader in the classroom and inspiring kids to want to follow where you’re leading, while at the same time encouraging them to find their own voice and be their own person,” Barrett reflected. “It’s one of the most difficult, yet most rewarding, professions, and I am proud to have been part of it for 40 years. I will really miss it.”
In her retirement, Barrett said she plans to find part-time work, but hasn’t decided on the specifics just yet. She knows it will be a role where she can continue serving the community just as she has done during her years teaching. Congratulations to Colleen Barrett for her dedication to so many middle school students!
Multi-talented Tammy Thompson bids Crossett Brook farewell
Tammy Thompson retires from Crossett Brook Middle School. Courtesy photo
Tammy Thompson is retiring from Crossett Brook Middle School after 26 years teaching there. She has been an outstanding para-educator and won para-educator of the year in her first year in the Harwood district. She went on to positively impact students, playing a variety of roles in their lives that put her many skills and talents to use.
Thompson says she is especially proud to have worked with teams at Harwood Union High School where she was a junior varsity basketball coach and as an assistant coach to the Harwood Girls Varsity Basketball team. She also worked with students in middle school nearly year-round on a variety of other basketball teams. She worked tirelessly to successfully coach two Odyssey of the Mind teams and worked to help students launch a band called The DEW.
In her work with musicians, she taught lifelong skills. She encouraged them to use the band as an opportunity to hone not only their musicianship, but also their collaborative skills. She encouraged them to think about their audience and how best to reach them.
Thompson was integral to Crossett Brook’s sustainability program, and enjoyed working with students on their sustainability projects. She’s been an excellent caretaker for the school’s flock of chickens, spending plenty of dark, rainy nights making sure the hens were safe and sound.
She says she “enjoyed seeing the students grow and develop their understanding and ability to express their ideas. It is priceless to see the expressions of wonder while working on science experiments, performing a role in a play and completing a challenging assignment. It was impressive to see them develop debating skills, to listen and then counter ideas with their peers. They took ownership of their learning. It is exciting to see the motivation and confidence they have gained as they go on to high school.”
Thompson has continued providing a rich learning experience for students even during a cancer battle this year. And students were there to show her their support and appreciation. Just before the students vs. staff basketball game this past winter, as she entered the gym to coach the eighth-grade student team, she was greeted by the entire student body cheering for her and heart decorations were all around the gym to show their encouragement.
Thompson said she “was overwhelmed” at the outpouring she received. “I will never forget how I felt in that moment!” she said.
Thompson attended eighth-grade graduation on Thursday, accompanying the seventh- and eighth-grade chorus on guitar during the program. She said she’s moving through her treatment and is looking forward to summertime to reconnect with family and friends, recharge and focus on her recovery. In her retirement, as a cancer survivor, Thompson said she intends to spend time with her two lovely grandchildren, ride her VRod throughout New England, play guitar and pickleball, and spend time on the water swimming and kayaking.
Hartshorn wraps up 43-year district career at Brookside
A veteran staff member in the Harwood district, Brenda Hartshorn has spent her final year before retirement at Brookside Primary School.
Brenda Hartshorn (second from left) celebrated her retirement with several of the principals she’s worked with in the Harwood district over the years. Left to right: Jean Eisele, who originally hired Hartshorn, Mandy Couturier, Roberta Barone, Sarah Schoolcraft and Chris Neville (kneeling). Not pictured are Duane Pierson and Kate Liptak. Courtesy photo
Hartshorn’s educational career across the district spans 43 years, starting in 1982 as a paraprofessional at Waitsfield Elementary School before serving as a student teacher under the guidance of Jean Eisele; she began teaching at Moretown Elementary School in 1985, working in classes in kindergarten through third grade. Most of her time there was structured as a multi-age educator, forming strong multi-year relationships with students and families. In 2021, she retired from the classroom and continued working as a school administrative assistant at Moretown Elementary and then at Brookside until this month.
During her career, Hartshorn was involved in education outside of the elementary classrooms she taught in. She served as a literacy consultant for the Vermont Department of Education and the University of Vermont through the Vermont Reads initiative, helping schools improve literacy instruction and student achievement. She helped create a mathematics assessment system used throughout Vermont and beyond to support elementary mathematics instruction. She served as an instructor for Castleton State College’s Educating Children Outdoors Institute, supporting teachers to develop outdoor education curriculum for elementary students and she contributed to the book, “Educating Children Outdoors: Lessons in Nature-Based Learning,” by Amy Butler.
Hartshorn was recognized with UVM’s Outstanding Educator Award and was named a Presidential Awardee in the Teaching of Mathematics and Science, one of the nation’s highest honors for mathematics and science educators.
When asked what she has enjoyed most about education, Hartshorn pointed not to awards or accolades, but to the people.
“Building trusting relationships with children, families, colleagues, and community members has always been at the heart of teaching,” she said. “Every child deserves to feel valued, capable, and included. Helping children discover their strengths and watching them grow over time has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.” She said one of her greatest joys is having former students contact her through visits and correspondence, filling her in on where life has led them.
Hartshorn said she treasures the many opportunities she had to collaborate with fellow educators, particularly her teaching colleague for 26 years, Kati Orr. “We were a dynamite teaching team and I learned so much from Kathi and her experience as an educator. We worked so well together that we began to finish each other’s sentences during planning sessions,” Hartshorn said, recalling years of teaching local Moretown history and trips to Montreal with first and second graders and their parents.
Hartshorn’s tenure at Moretown spanned teaching in tents during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, leading kindergarteners and their caregivers in the new territory of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, and later building an outdoor classroom with parent help. All along, the priority was keeping kids safe, secure and joyful in their learning, she said. A more recent project beyond the classroom that she worked on involved fundraising more than $22,000 in two years for the backpack food programs, that support students experiencing food insecurity.
Reflecting on her years in education, Hartshorn said teaching has always been about much more than academics. “Education is about relationships, belonging, curiosity, and hope,” she said. “The most important thing we do is help children see their value and potential while creating communities where everyone feels welcome and respected.”