Over 500 people responded to a Harwood Unified Union School District (HUUSD) community survey recently. The survey results were presented to the board at its March 28 meeting.
The 539 respondents represent 3 percent of the total population of the six towns in the district. Self-identified taxpayers accounted for 72.8 percent of the responses followed by 57.6 percent who self-identified as parents of a student. Under the category for other, there were multiple responses from “parents of a future student.”
Waterbury residents accounted for 20.8 percent of the responses, Warren residents accounted for 18.9 percent, followed by Waitsfield at 13.0 percent, Moretown at 23.7 percent, Duxbury at 6.7 percent and Fayston at 13.7 percent.
The analysis by members of the HUUSD community engagement committee placed answers to a question on school district redesign into four general categories and noted in the introduction to the survey results that the survey was not intended to be the only outreach on redesign. They further noted that some responses fit into more than one category so totals will add up to more than 100 percent.
Responses that were generally positive/hopeful on redesign came from 18.6 percent of respondents. Responses that had “no discernable emotion” came from 16.3 percent of those who answered. Caution/worry were expressed by 17.3 percent and negative/don’t like responses came from 26.5 percent.
In response to a question about the HUUSD budget, several top themes are identified by committee members when they analyzed the survey. People who responded were interested in having more detailed budget information, interested in potential savings from the merger of the school boards in 2016, improved transparency, class sizes, programming for gifted students, pay equity for teachers across the district and reducing the central office budget.
Well over 7 percent of respondents who answered a question about programming, 7.6 percent, advocated for bringing back tech ed, life skills and consumer science programming.
In response to a question about transportation in the district, 19.5 of those who answered that question expressed concerns about how the proposed redesign will impact transportation. The proposal calls for busing all fifth- and sixth-graders in the district to Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury.
The primary response (19.1 percent) to a question about the five goals of the HUUSD was that the respondent didn’t know about the goals. A broad question asking people to offer comments on things not previously addressed in the survey received two main comments; 3.9 percent expressed appreciation for the superintendent and/or board and 3.5 percent expressed concern about the superintendent and/or board.
Ninety-three percent of those who responded did not attend a December community engagement forum and 72 percent of respondents indicated interest in attending a forum in April.
The entire survey and all the individual responses can be found at https://drive.google.com/a/wwsu.org/file/d/0B2uQwDkbPKEVeTh3S3JjS1FFQ3dBQ1ROQW9DU29XSzNFOXA4/view?usp=drivesdk. Or go to www.wwsu.org and under For Community select Community Engagement Committee and find the survey under Supporting Documents.
