Warren school board member resigns; voters have 9 Harwood seats to fill on March 3

January 20, 2026  |  By Lisa Scagliotti

Friday’s resignation of Warren representative Jonathan Young from the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board now brings to 9 the number of seats that will be decided in the March 3 Town Meeting Day election. 

It also means the board is looking to temporarily fill two positions for the few meetings between now and Town Meeting Day. 

Young notified Harwood School Board Chair Ashley Woods, Warren’s other representative on the board, on Friday, Jan. 16, that he was stepping down from his position immediately. He did not give a reason for his decision in his short email communication that simply stated, “I, Jonathan Young, resign my position on the HUUSD School Board, effective immediately.”

Young did not attend the most recent two school board meetings held on Jan. 7 and 14. The last meeting Young attended was on Dec. 17, when he made lengthy comments during a budget discussion calling strongly for the administration to provide more detail on spending for extracurricular activities and sports in particular, to find budget cuts. 

“I have said before that I don't think it's fair that any one group gets golden protection from cuts and I still haven't heard or seen any indication that that's been considered or what the ramifications of any cuts towards extracurriculars, including sports, would look like,” Young said. “I know there is money being spent on this stuff that could probably save a number of [full-time-equivalent positions] if cuts were handled in a more balanced way.”

Young criticized the administration and the board for approving budgets over the past two years that have cut foreign language teachers in the elementary and middle-school grades and reduced nursing positions. He suggested that deeper cuts to sports may have been able to minimize some of those staffing reductions. 

“We've reduced arts, but yet not one sport has been cancelled. We could take one sport from every season and say that sport's no longer being offered. People that want to play sports would have to switch to one of the remaining sports,” Young suggested. “And there's a higher likelihood that boosters and student athletes would be able to make up a variety of matters on their own, whereas kids that need art to get through the day or kids that are wanting to learn languages – they can't just run out and raise money to do that.”

Young pointed out that schools are not required to offer athletics. “There's no mandate for sports,” he said. “Sports seem to be protected by all of the kings horses and all the kings men. I don't understand that… We're here to teach more than we are to play games.”

Superintendent Mike Leichliter, Finance Manager Lisa Estler and board chair Woods all pointed to cuts of approximately $110,000 to athletics made for the budget for the current school year.

The debate ended with a somewhat testy exchange as board members Ben Clark and Pam Eaton interjected to return the conversation to the budget presentation Estler was making. 

“I'm suggesting, Jonathan, that the floor isn't yours. That you're interrupting a presentation and that you don't have the floor right now, sir,” Clark said. 

“I'm still talking. You interrupted me, sir,” Young replied. 

“I think it’s called a point of order,” said Eaton, citing Robert’s Rules of Order to end Young’s questioning. 

Young registered a final protest: “I don't believe my question’s been answered properly. So I'm going to continue asking until I feel like it's been answered. So that's my Robert's rule for the night.”

The school board meets this Wednesday, Jan. 21, when it will do its final review and approval of a draft $51.8 million budget to be put to voters on Town Meeting Day. 

Looking ahead to the March 3 election

Young was most recently elected to a second term on the board in 2024. He had one more year to serve, with his term ending in March 2027. The remaining year for his seat will be up for election on March 3. 

Young is the second board member to resign in less than a month. Fayston representative Rebecca Baruzzi stepped down from the board in mid-December, sharing that she’s taken a new job in Brattleboro that will have her moving from Fayston. The board announced that opening with the aim of finding a successor to Baruzzi, who could have been appointed last week, but there have not been any serious applicants, Woods said. 

Baruzzi was just elected to the school board in March 2025. Her term still has two years remaining, and that seat will be up for election March 3. 

With just six weeks remaining before Town Meeting Day, the board has two vacant seats to fill. When a board member leaves their office in between elections, the board may appoint a replacement to serve until the next regular election. If the appointee would like to continue in the role, they then need to run for the position at the next election. 

In this case, the departures have occurred very close to the annual election. The board only has three meetings scheduled before March 3: this Wednesday, Jan. 21, and Feb. 11 and 18. The soonest the board could fill the positions would be Feb. 11, given the practice of consulting with select boards in the towns where the school board vacancies are. 

Regardless of appointments in the next month, the remainders of both Young and Baruzzi’s terms will be up for election for voters in Warren and Fayston to fill on March 3. 

In addition to those two seats, seven other seats on the 14-member board will be on local ballots. Those are: both Duxbury seats, two Waterbury seats, one seat each in Waitsfield and Moretown, and Fayston’s other seat. Some of those positions are incumbents whose terms are ending; others are members who were appointed since last March to serve until the upcoming election. In at least one case – Waterbury representative Dan Roscioli – an incumbent is not running for re-election. Moretown member Ben Clark has not shared his plans yet; all other incumbents say they plan to run. (See this Jan. 12 report.)   

The deadline for candidates to file to be on the ballot in the local March elections is 5 p.m. next Monday, Jan. 26. Anyone wishing to run for town elected office or school board seats must file a petition signed by registered voters in their town and a consent form. The number of signatures varies by town – either 1% of the registered voters in the community or 30, whichever is fewer. 

Candidates still may come forward after Jan. 26 to run as a write-ins. There are no requirements to do so, other than to let voters know of one’s candidacy.  

The Harwood School Board meets Jan. 21 to review and approve the final version of the proposed 2026-27 budget that will be on the March 3 ballot. The most recent budget presentation was at the Jan. 14 meeting and is linked in that meeting agenda. Meetings are at 6 p.m. in the Harwood library and streamed online via Zoom (to participate) and on the district’s YouTube channel.