The 2023-24 school year is fast approaching and parents in the Harwood Unified Union School District have a little bit of homework to do ahead of the first day. 

In a move that no one could have seen coming, circumstances recently fell into place to land Waitsfield Elementary School a new but familiar face to be one of its two 5th and 6th grade teachers for the upcoming school year.

Harwood’s Assembly Band isn’t just popular in school. The rock-jazz ensemble garnered enough support among Vermont music fans to land a spot as the first opening act at the July 15 Do Good music festival in Montpelier. 

A search committee working quickly as the official 2023-24 school year begins has chosen Justina Boyden, a veteran teacher at Fayston Elementary School, to be the school’s next principal.

Here is a collection of tidbits from the final days of the 2022-23 school year, largely in photos. And one item with a June 23 deadline to vote for high school musicians with a shot at a big gig.

Of all the awards being handed out in schools this time of year, if there was one for “best use of a tent,” Crossett Brook Middle School’s class of 2023 would be a strong contender. In between thunder showers on June 14, parents, teachers and friends saluted the 74 eighth graders moving on to high school this year.

Brookside Primary School’s 61 fourth graders dressed up for their special day last Tuesday that began with the traditional Celebration of Learning marking the end of their time at the school where many have attended since preschool. 

Sticking with plans for an outdoor commencement despite intermittent heavy showers paid off for Harwood Union High School’s class of 2023 on Saturday when sunshine broke through the clouds just in time for their cap toss and photos with family and friends with their school as a backdrop. 

A new mural inside the main entrance at Harwood Union Middle/High School was painted recently by students in the Youth Enriching Wellness Club as a Mental Health Awareness Month project.

Organizers declared the spring Walk and Bike to School event last week “great success” as nearly 200 students, parents and teachers from Brookside Primary School gathered at Rusty Parker Park before heading to school on foot and wheels. 

Harwood Union High School’s 2023 commencement will be held Saturday morning starting at 10 a.m. under the tent on the school’s front lawn. Find the program, the livestream link, senior portraits, awards and scholarships presented on Thursday and more here.

It is still too early to tell for sure, but the annual surpluses that the Harwood Unified Union School District has enjoyed and put towards facility maintenance may be coming to an end this year. 

It wasn’t a wayward fire alarm or even a real emergency Friday when a Waterbury firetruck pulled up to Brookside Primary School just after 8 a.m. 

A little over a year after learning that its school district was using restraint and seclusion with students at an alarming rate, the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board has adopted a new policy that officially bans most uses of the practices starting with the new school year in the fall.  

Tonight’s Harwood Unified Union School District School Board meeting has several significant board action items on its agenda including approving the choice for Moretown Elementary School’s principal, adopting a new Restraint and Seclusion Policy, and a request to fly the pride flag during the month of June.