The Harwood Unified Union School District board will be taking a look at new 2020 federal census data on October 13 to determine if the data warrants changing the population-based data that is used to determine the weight of each board representatives’ votes. The board is meeting as The Valley Reporter goes to press.
Currently, the total population of the six towns in the district is distributed in such a way that a vote by each of the four Waterbury representatives has a weight of 9.85, Warren and Waitsfield votes have a weight of a 6.70 each, Moretown’s votes weigh 6.45, Fayston votes weigh 5.25 and Duxbury votes weigh 5.2. Each member’s vote is weighted differently based on their town’s population. The total weight of all the votes is 100.
The 2020 preliminary census data shows that 272 people have moved to Warren since 2010, compared to 267 new residents in Waterbury, 125 in Waitsfield, 95 in Moretown, 76 in Duxbury and 11 in Fayston. These preliminary changes in population will slightly shift the weighted votes for the district school board to reflect the changes in the weight of each town representative’s votes.
These new numbers mean that the weight of Fayston’s two board representatives’ votes will go from 5.25 to 5.00 of the population in. Moretown’s vote weights will go from 6.45 to 6.40, and Waterbury’s vote weights will go from 9.85 to 9.75. Warren’s vote weights will go from 6.70 to 7.20 and both Duxbury and Waitsfield’s vote weights will remain the same (5.20 and 6.70, respectively).
The HUUSD Board is configured with four representatives from Waterbury (based on population) with all other towns having two representatives on the board.
