The search for the next superintendent for the Harwood Unified Union School District continues this month with a goal of making a hiring choice by early February. 

The next three weeks on the calendar is full for the Harwood Unified Union School District board as it moves through the typical January budget exercise ahead of Town Meeting Day, this year on March 1. 

Just back back in session this week after the holiday break as thousands of new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Vermont in recent days, local school officials have announced several changes to virus-related protocols effective immediately. For starters, as of today, spectators will not be allowed at sports events.

Ahead of school returning to session after the holiday break, local school officials have alerted families to updated steps to take regarding COVID-19 testing, quarantine, etc. after state guidelines were revised this past week. 

Governor Phil Scott today announced that parents and caregivers of Vermont’s K-12 children will be able to pick up one free rapid antigen test kit per student Thursday or Friday this week at sites around Vermont. The state is encouraging parents to use these kits to test kids before they return to school next week, but a test is not a requirement for returning to school. 

Late Tuesday afternoon, families in the Harwood Unified Union School District got word that Brookside Primary School in Waterbury would close a day early for the holiday break due to not having enough staff to open on Wednesday after six new COVID-19 cases were identified. 

After a two-year hiatus, Harwood Union High School’s Music program recently presented its first in-person concert since the COVID-19 pandemic began. 

State and local Vermont school officials are alerting school communities and parents about concern over social media messages warning of threats of violence at schools around the nation on Friday, Dec. 17.

In both written and in-person reports to the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board last week, Superintendent Brigid Nease made it clear that the ongoing pandemic is making it increasingly challenging to keep schools open without more people willing to be substitute teachers. 

Student actors took to the Harwood Union High School stage last weekend for their first live performance since before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

As Vermont continues to see record-setting daily COVID-19 case counts, local schools have been dealing with their own surge in new infections. As of Tuesday, Nov. 9, the Harwood Unified Union School District had reported nine COVID-19 cases for November alone for a total of 20 since the school year began.

Less than a week after the school district’s proposed $59.5 million construction bond suffered a resounding defeat at the ballot box, consultant John Gratto finds himself the central note-taker this week in an exercise designed to shape the search for the next superintendent to take the helm next summer. 

The search for a new superintendent for the Harwood Unified Union School District has begun with a community survey in progress and multiple meetings next week for various groups including community members to weigh in on the qualifications a successful candidate should have. 

Voters in the Harwood Unified Union School District, by a nearly three-to-one margin, rejected a proposed $59.5 million bond to fund extensive high school maintenance, renovations and upgrades, and a middle school expansion.

Regardless of how this week’s vote turns out on the school construction bond, the next several months have significant transitions in store for the Harwood Unified Union School District. The search for a new superintendent gets underway in November. Also on the horizon in early 2022 will be local elections to fill half the seats on the HUUSD School Board.