Next week the Harwood Unified Union School District Board will meet and vote on whether to exclude the possibility of merging the district’s two middle schools from plans for bringing a bond vote next November.
This vote comes without any community engagement or discussion. The last time the board dicsussed the merger issue they put forth a failed 2021 bond vote (and a failed 2020 budget vote) the topic was the subject of extended community engagement. Enrollment, learning environments, educational opportunities, costs and logisitics were thoroughly and publicly considered.
In December 2019 the board rejected this idea and in January 2020 resurrected it and included it in the budget warning before cancelling the last meeting before Town Meeting. This led to a resounding failure of the budget by a vote of 3,048 to 2,254. When the merger was removed from the budget it passed without issue in June 2020.
A November 2021 bond vote that included the merger failed 2599 to 975. Clearly the issue of merging matters and it needs to be discussed openly. Pre-pandemic, enrollment and class size were falling. Post-pandemic at least some class sizes in our schools are up. Are we sure it is appropriate to reject considering and discussing merging as part of a bond vote discussion? Do we have any data to let us know how things might have changed since 2019, 2020 and 2021?
Current school board officials have said they feel the merger issue is an albatross that might negatively impact next year’s bond vote. Does that mean it is something we shouldn’t discuss?
It is encouraging that HUUSD superintendent Mike Leichliter has laid out a thoughtful and comprehensive plan for engaging with the board, educators and community about a bond for the high school. Let’s not let that process fail by excluding an uncomfortable discussion topic.
How does that saying go? “Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it?” If this board seeks legitimacy, it needs to have an appropriate expansive and broad community discussion with all of us about this issue. We may not all agree with the outcome of the discussion or the decision making process, but we will have been heard and included.
