Voters in the Harwood Unified Union School District voted Tuesday to send school leaders back to the drawing board on a school budget for 2024-25, but they also told them to stick with investing in school building maintenance. 

Harwood’s calendar for the 2024-25 school year has just been set and it includes a schedule juggle in November that gives students Election Day off. 

Harwood’s proposed $50.8 million budget for the 2024-25 school year in the past three weeks has had three different estimated price tags for taxpayers – without the budget changing a penny. 

Taxpayers in the Harwood Unified Union School District could expect to see the school portion of their property tax bills go up by 30% to 40% later this year if they approve the $50.8 million school budget on the Town Meeting Day ballot. 

The Harwood Unified Union School District School Board meets tonight to review fresh calculations from the administration to inform their discussion of how to present a proposed budget for the 2024-25 school year to the voters. 

As they follow the shifting landscape of public school funding guidelines coming from Montpelier, Harwood school leaders say the financial turbulence involved in settling next school year’s budget could derail hopes for putting a construction bond to voters in November.

On Wednesday morning, Harwood school district officials announced imminent changes to several bus routes mainly in Duxbury that go into effect tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 1. 

It’s a busy week on the Harwood Unified Union School District calendar next week. 

With a late January deadline to finalize budgets for Town Meeting Day, the Harwood Unified Union School Board has selected the budget draft it would like to put to voters and the bottom-line tax impacts are substantial.

Four more community meetings are scheduled this month for local residents to learn about proposed renovations for Harwood Union Middle/High School. 

Families with students at Moretown Elementary School were notified on Wednesday that their school will be ready to reopen on Tuesday, Jan. 2, following the holiday break.

Harwood Unified Union School District leaders have put discussions around the budget for the 2024-25 school year on hold until after the holidays due to incomplete information needed from the state Agency of Education to proceed. The board also heard about an overdue labor contract and a new program at Brookside.

The discussion around planning for major renovations to Harwood Union Middle/High School continues tonight with the fourth in a series of community meetings. Tonight’s gathering will be in the library at Crossett Brook Middle School, 6-8 p.m.