As we plan for the 2026–27 school year, district administration has been carefully reviewing the number of PreK classrooms needed based on our anticipated enrollment. We want to share this information with you directly to ensure clarity, as we know questions and rumors have been circulating in the community.
Finance director Lisa Estler and I recently discussed these enrollment trends during the November 5 school board meeting. We explained then that projected PreK enrollment for 2026–27 would require a review of the number of classes offered across the district. For additional context, you can use this link https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/196MS-2vANg6_awxanmAbUyV_wlqzgaKVY90-AHEQkiE/edit?slide=id.g39bcb5e0e1a_0_67#slide=id.g39bcb5e0e1a_0_67 to view the November 5 board meeting enrollment presentation that also shares actual birthrate data from the Vermont Department of Health.
Changing Demographics
Across Harwood’s six towns, we are seeing fewer incoming PreK students. Our schools once ran lotteries and had waitlists for our programs, that is no longer the case this year due to fewer young children in all our towns. This trend mirrors a shift across Vermont as birth rates decline.
This review of the number of preschool classes that we will run does not reflect a change in HUUSD’s priorities, or a reduced commitment to early childhood education. Rather, it reflects our educational and financial responsibility to ensure that our staffing matches the number of children we serve.
In the past, we have added classrooms when enrollment increased. Conversely, when enrollment declines, we must make thoughtful adjustments to ensure programs remain robust. Classes of only four or five students do not provide the rich social learning experiences we want for our youngest learners. Several of our PreK programs are currently serving fewer students than they were designed to accommodate. Across the district, we operate 11 PreK sessions, each intended to serve up to 15 children. With 127 students currently enrolled overall, this means our program is operating at about 77% capacity. Looking ahead, our enrollment projections indicate that this gap would likely increase next year if the current number of sessions and configuration remained unchanged.
If you have a child who may be eligible for PreK next year and have not yet shared that information, we encourage you to contact the school in your town or the central office so your child can be included in our planning.
Looking Ahead
Based on current data, the administration knows that fewer PreK classrooms will be needed next year. We are now working to determine the most appropriate placement of classrooms across the district. Enrollment projections continue to be refined based on existing data, and census data gathered directly from families this fall. We know that coordinated child care providing all week and full days of care is critical to families. In creating preschool hubs across our district, we will coordinate with non-profit childcare providers to offer full day and "off-day" care opportunities at each of these hubs. Establishing a few preschool hubs will make such coordination more feasible and, we hope, increase child care access for families.
We are committed to sharing clear and timely information with families as soon as those decisions are finalized to support planning for the coming school year. District administration and the school board are wrestling with very difficult budgetary decisions to work to manage the tax burden without making programmatic reductions which is becoming increasingly challenging to accomplish.
Thank you for your engagement with our school community and our work to ensure vibrant early learning experiences continue to be available to young children throughout HUUSD.
Leichliter is the superintendent of schools for the Harwood Unified Union School District.
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