After receiving preliminary declining enrollment data for the new school year, Harwood school leaders took two steps regarding merger talks with neighboring school districts and a separate effort to investigate combining four elementary schools.
At its meeting on Sept. 9, the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board voted to support a request to be reassigned to a merger study group with two neighboring Chittenden County school districts rather than working with Central Vermont districts in a group where it had been assigned.
Act 170, passed this spring creates groups of school districts tasked with exploring mergers aimed at reducing the number of districts. Harwood was assigned to Group 20 along with Washington Central, Montpelier-Roxbury, Barre and Paine Mountain districts.
At an Aug. 26 board meeting, board member discussed how they might prefer to pursue those discussions with neighboring Group 13 districts, Champlain Valley Union and Mount Mansfield Union, instead.
THIS PROCESS
Superintendent Mike Leichliter said he discussed the possible switch with his counterparts in both groups, which are just getting organized with meetings to begin this month and in early October. Harwood has chosen school board Vice Chair Cindy Senning, Duxbury, to represent the district in this process.
Leichliter noted that the new law allows districts to request changes to the assigned groupings, although the specific process for revising them has not yet been sorted out.
Over the two recent meetings, board members and the superintendent discussed why they prefer studying merger with Champlain Valley and Mount Mansfield. Geography and Harwood’s smaller, more rural communities, rather than the larger cities, were key factors.
In creating the merger study groups, state leaders grouped districts that are contiguous. Harwood leaders noted that their district is adjacent to both of the groups. The Central Vermont districts abut Harwood’s eastern edge from Waterbury south to Warren alongside Middlesex to Roxbury.
Group 13’s two districts stretch across the southern and eastern edge of Chittenden County from Charlotte to Underhill. Waterbury in the Harwood district and Bolton in Mount Mansfield are adjacent and even share a legislative district. Harwood towns of Duxbury and Fayston share a border with Huntington and Buel’s Gore.
One discussion point was whether merger study groups would work better with similar or contrasting districts. Board member Pam Eaton of Waterbury said that while it might be beneficial to mix districts with rural and urban communities, other factors need to be taken into account as well.
PASS A BUDGET
“It concerns me when I'm reading in VTDigger that Barre still doesn't have a school budget for this year,” she said. “So regardless of whether they're like us or not like us, I want to be grouped with people who can pass a budget.”
The Harwood board voted unanimously to direct Leichliter to request the switch to join the Champlain Valley Union and Mount Mansfield Union group.
Enrollment trends downward
Harwood school district enrollment has declined 10% from 1,732 on Oct. 2016 to 1,591 on Oct. 1, 2025. HUUSD graph
Calling it a "September snapshot," Leichliter shared a slide presentation with preliminary enrollment figures for the school district from the start of the new school year, now in its third week. The figures show a notable drop in the student population since the 2025-26 school year ended: students in grades K-12 number 1,554, down by 37 from June when enrollment was 1,591. These figures do not include preschoolers, Leichliter noted.
Declining birth rates are driving the district's steady enrollment decline, Leichliter said. He noted that Harwood graduated 116 students in June, while this school year’s incoming kindergarten cohort has just 97 students. His presentation included government data on birth rates in Vermont and the United States, showing Vermont with the lowest birth rate trend in the nation – 17.4% – of its population under age 18. Utah has the largest share at 26.6%, according to the statistics.
Preliminary enrollment figures by school compare with student numbers in October 2025. HUUSD chart
SAME DATA
Enrollment fluctuates throughout the year as students move in and out of the district, Leichliter explained. For official purposes, all schools announce their figures each year based on enrollment on October 1, to then be compared based on the same date each year, he said. While there likely will be some changes in the data between this week and Oct. 1, Leichliter said he thought the figures so far were valuable to share.
The presentation shared numbers by school, showing the greatest changes at Waitsfield Elementary, which has 104 students now compared with 118 in October 2025. Each of the district's four other elementary schools has seen declines of fewer than 10 students, according to the presentation. Crossett Brook Middle School is down by 10, with 253 students today; Harwood Middle School is down 6 students, with 127. Harwood Union High School is the only school this fall seeing an increase, with 9 more students than October 2025; September enrollment is 480 students in grades 9-12.
A longer-view trendline tracked enrollment over the past decade, showing a significant drop districtwide of 10% since the 2026-17 school year, when there were 178 more K-12 students enrolled compared with today.
Waterbury’s elementary school has seen an even steeper decline since 2016. The presentation noted that Thatcher Brook Primary School in 2026-17 had 439 students enrolled in preschool through fourth grade. Now named Brookside, the school today has 327 students, representing a drop of 25.5%.
NEW SCHOOL SITE
In another unanimous vote, the board directed the administration to move ahead with issuing a request for proposals for a consultant to evaluate a Waitsfield commercial property to determine whether it could be converted to combine elementary schools now operating in Moretown, Fayston, Waitsfield and Warren.
Cabot Creamery is looking for a buyer for its corporate headquarters building on Home Farm Way near Mad River Park in Waitsfield. The 32,000-square-foot office complex is on 7.5 acres with a price tag of $2.95 million. Harwood leaders say the building’s size, design and location have potential to be used as a future school. It would need some construction to convert the space to classrooms and add elements such as a gymnasium and cafeteria.
School officials looking to reduce future building overhead costs and adjust for declining enrollments have decided to explore a scenario where the district operates out of three, rather than the current seven campuses. The concept also means closing Brookside Primary School in Waterbury, leaving Harwood, Crossett Brook and a new combined Valley elementary complex.
PUBLIC COMMENT
The board’s vote on Wednesday does not commit the district to any action. It calls for advertising for developers to submit proposals to evaluate the Cabot property to determine if it is a viable option to pursue. Interested firms have until Oct. 30 to submit proposals.
Prior to its vote, the board heard comments from two members of the public: former school board member Peter Langella, who represented Moretown in 2017-18, and Waterbury resident Michelle Baker, who was the district’s finance director for 14 years, stepping down in 2022.
After speaking against closing schools and offering alternatives at the Aug. 26 meeting, Langella urged board members to consider multiple options for the district’s future configuration.
Baker cautioned against spending money on studies before the district has an overall plan that includes overdue renovations to Harwood Union Middle/High School. “I feel personally that had the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on the past studies been directed towards physical building and site improvements, our schools would be in a far better state today regarding deferred maintenance,” Baker said. “I urge this board to exercise true fiscal stewardship, prioritize transparent, low-cost internal research and community engagement that answers these critical questions before asking taxpayers to fund yet another study.”
WAITSFIELD SEAT FILLED
In other business, the Harwood board filled a seat representing Waitsfield that opened when member Bobbi Rood resigned in August. The board appointed Alexina Cather to serve until the Town Meeting Day election next March. At that time, the remaining year of Rood’s three-year term will be on the ballot.
A resident of Waitsfield for the past six years, Cather was the lone candidate to apply for the position and said she would be interested in running for the seat in March. A parent of three children in preschool through seventh grade, Cather works in public health, education, and food policy with experience in school systems in New York City and multiple other states.
