Repeated flooding at schools in the Harwood Unified Union School District, (HUUSD) including two floods at Moretown Elementary School, two at Crossett Brook Middle School and one impacting the cross-country trails at Harwood Union, is increasing the cost of insurance for the district.
This comes as work is still underway at Crossett Brook to clean up after flooding three weeks ago that closed the school for three days and has sections of the school still closed. School district officials are hoping to complete most of the repairs during April vacation week.
Additionally, district officials are contemplating what is the appropriate solution for the inundation Crossett Brook has seen twice, where the school’s namesake brook has carved a new channel encroaching on the school’s utility boxes which has resulted in floodwater entering the school via the conduits.
FORMER CHANNEL
Current thinking has the district planning to try to reestablish the brook in its former channel to protect the infrastructure.
Repeated flooding is not without financial impacts. HUUSD property insurance went up 17.4% in the current year (FY25) due to the December 2023 flood in Moretown and in FY24 it went up by 30.8% due to the Harwood gym flood that was not caused by a weather incident.
The district is also facing $50,000 in costs to repair the cross-country trails from flooding this summer. Those repairs are not covered by insurance.
For FY26 finance director Lisa Estler projected it to go up again for the two July floods (Crossett Brook Middle School (CBMS), Moretown and the recent flood in CBMS). She budgeted for a 10% increase in insurance costs next year.
DISTRICT DEDUCTIBLE
The December 2023 Moretown flood total costs were $244,338.34 through the Vermont School Boards Insurance Trust (VSBIT). The school districtdeductible is $2,500, there are a few outstanding reimbursements for supply replacements of $5,279 that the district is working with VSBIT on to seek reimbursement, Estler said.
“Once that is complete, VSBIT will have covered the entire flood less our deductible,” she added.
The cost of insurance for property insurance for the district has increased from $94,704 in FY2023 to $123,837 FY2024 and now to $145,342 in FY2025, Estler reported.
