In the days and weeks leading up to the Harwood Unified Union School District (HUUSD) Board voting to extend Superintendent Brigid Nease’s contract for another year, the board received several hundred comments from the public, the vast majority of which voiced opposition to renewing her contract.
The board received at least 207 emails from community members regarding Nease’s contract extension. Of those 207, 187 people who wrote opposed extending her contract, 14 approved extending her contract and six were neutral, according to data compiled by board member Theresa Membrino, Fayston.
According to Membrino’s data there were five negative and two positive comments from Duxbury residents. (Negative comments were people voicing opposition to renewing or extending Nease’s contract; positive were people in favor of extending and renewing.)
There were 47 comments from Fayston, 45 were negative, one was positive and one was neutral. Thirty-two comments were received from Moretown, one was positive and 31 were negative. Waitsfield residents sent 28 comments, of which two were neutral, three were positive and 23 were negative.
There were 41 negative comments and two positive comments from Warren residents. Waterbury residents sent 17 emails, of which 11 were negative, four were positive and two were neutral.
There were 32 emails where hometowns were not mentioned. Of those, 30 were negative, one was positive and one was neutral.
On June 10, the HUUSD Board voted 69.90 to 30.10 (in weighted voting) to extend Nease’s contract for another year. Nine board members voted in favor of the extension and five voted against it. Nease has been the superintendent for 11 years and is in the fourth year of a five-year contract that ends in 2021. With the one-year extension she will be with the district through the summer of 2022.
While public comment was not part of the process the board used in re-evaluating Nease and considering to extend her contract, the volume and tenor of public comment was considerable.
Social media posts made up part of the comments that were emailed to the board, including a Facebook post from a Warren family that detailed racism experienced by their son as well as other incidents. That email prompted the board to announce that it would launch an investigation into whether Nease responded appropriately.
That family’s email was included in a massive cache of emails that Nease shared with The Valley Reporter. Sorted by board members and often very duplicative (with each email sent to the board’s group email included for each of the 14 board members), the emails include many calls for different leadership in the school district.
In addition to the complaint about racism, there is a comment from a Waitsfield parent who wrote that her child was bullied in elementary school and said that nothing was done about that, despite reaching out to Nease. She wrote that when she reached out to Nease she received an email on the guidelines of what the district considers to be bullying.
This parent alleged that her oldest son continued to have bullying issues at Harwood and that he was sexually harassed by another male student a few times in the gym. She said that the response she received at the time was that the boys who were bullying and sexually harassing her son had aides and 504 education plans.
Asked for comment, Superintendent Nease said that the entire email in question focuses on confidential student matters that the district cannot discuss.
