Harwood Middle School Update, March 8, 2019

Curious how to spell.......
HUMS SCRIPP’S SPELLING BEE

In February HUMS held its annual Scripps Spelling Bee School-wide competition.  The contest is open to all students in grades 7 & 8 and was held in classrooms this year.  After 7 rounds of competition, the field shrunk down to the final 3: eighth graders Piper Boudreau, Beckett Kahn, and David Rivera-Ollenburger.  Finals were held on Wednesday, March 6, and after many intense rounds with closely matched spellers, Beckett Kahn edged the competition and is the 2019 HUMS Scripp's Spelling Champion.

Beckett will go on to represent Harwood at the Vermont State Scripp’s Spelling Competition at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont on March 19, 2019.

POETRY SLAM WORKSHOP 2019

This week marked our official 8th Grade Poetry Unit kick-off with a Poetry Slam Workshop!   Vermont Poetry Slam Master Geof Hewitt conducted the workshop which culminated in an in-class  Poetry Slam competition with students. Geof is a poetry slam "guru" who conducts poetry slam functions around the state of Vermont, and who has several anthologies of his own poetic works as well.  He shared some of his original works during the slam. Geof has worked with HUMS to develop and refine the workshop over the years, and this year we are proud to announce that we had more participants in the in-class poetry slam than ever before!!!   

7th Grade Climbers Caring about how the group
helps an individual to reach the top...  

               

Dear members of our six town community,

       At our last meeting on February 20, 2019, the Harwood Unified Union School District (HUUSD) Board took action on the four (4) items below (listed in order of the time in the meeting when the vote occurred):

1. Approved the following items as part of the consent agenda:  Approve Minutes of 1/23/19 / Approve Moretown and Fayston school trips to Canada / Accept: Voucher #1192 for $1,650, #1181 for $185,538.56, #1182 for  / $634.68, #1180 for $134,241.39, #1178 for $345.09, #1177 for / $101,225.31, and #1168 for $296,423.33 equaling $$720,058.36 / Accept administration’s recommendation to grant three leaves of absence for the FY 20 school year: Camille Anderson, Gr. 1-2 classroom teacher at TBPS, for a 1/2 year. No cost to the district  / Lynn Pollock, Technology Coordinator at TBPS/CBMS, 1 year. No cost to district / Kendra Renz, Math Teacher at Harwood Middle, extension of 65 unpaid maternity leave days / Accept amended MOU with town of Moretown to indicate maximum short term maintenance expenditure of $12,000
2. Approved amendment to the current solar agreement that our district has with TJ Kingsbury, adding the purchase of energy produced from a new rooftop solar array.
3. Approve consultation with Creative Discourse around visioning work
4. Approved the manual for school board members, which is intended to help orient new board members.

        The board rejected a motion directing the administration to create a plan to send Harwood 7th and 8th graders to Crossett Brook Middle School in FY 2021, but did engage in healthy debate and is currently gathering a full list of questions to be answered related to this decision and other district design-related decisions.

       At this meeting, we also heard a report from our student school board representatives.

       Following election day, our next meeting is Wednesday, March 13, at 6:00 pm and will be held in the Harwood Union High School library. Duration will depend on the agenda, which will be set by the Monday before the meeting. Workgroup meetings will NOT be occurring immediately prior because of the need for board reorganization following elections. For more information on the SMART goals that drive these workgroups, check the HUUSD board web page.

      Please visit www.wwsu.org/huusd-board for board agendas (including work groups that are meeting), detailed minutes, HUUSD Smart Goals for the 2018-2019 school year, and to find the link to watch board meetings. The direct link to watch this and past meetings is: https://mrvtv.com/category/school-board-meetings/

      Thank you for your continued support and engagement.

Respectfully,

The HUUSD Board: Christine Sullivan (Waitsfield)  *Chair, Caitlin Hollister (Waterbury)  *Vice Chair, Alycia Biondo (Warren), Hannah Clark (Student Rep, class of 2019), Carlton Cummisky (Student Rep, class of 2021), Jill Ellis (Fayston), Gabe Gilman (Moretown), Linda Hazard (Moretown), Jake Lynn (Student Rep, Class of 2020), Garett MacCurtain (Duxbury) , Maureen McCracken (Waterbury), Theresa Membrino (Fayston), Melissa Phillips (Waterbury), Torrey Smith (Duxbury) , Alexandra Thomsen  (Waterbury), Rosemarie White (Warren), Rob Williams (Waitsfield) 

One never knows what may be flying in the middle school...
Harwood Middle School Pilots navigate their RC planes through the many obstacles
in the middle school commons.    

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Community Announcements

Please note that the opportunities/events listed below are not specifically endorsed or screened by school staff. As always, families should use their own standards and review processes to determine appropriate activities.

Group Swim Lessons at the Bridges Resort, four weeks beginning March 18th, semi private and private lessons available.  Call to register at 802-583-2922.

Volley Ball Registration  Sign up is open for Middle School Volleyball (March Madness League) for all HUUSD boys and girls grade 5-8 (including those who have never played). Practices, matches, and tournaments take place 3/7/19 through 3/30/19. Use the following link to for more information and to sign up: tinyurl.com/cbmsvb2019

TRIP Dance Company will be presenting its annual fundraiser at the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center on March 22^nd at 7:00 p.m & March 23^rd at 3 pm.  TRIP is a non-profit competitive youth dance company associated with the Stowe/Mad River Dance Academy.  Don’t miss seeing local dancers perform their award-winning dances!   Tickets can be purchased in advance directly through the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center at WWW.SPRUCEPEAKARTS.ORG or 802-760-4634.  If you can’t make it to the performance, please consider donating to TRIP Dance Company by emailing:  trip.dance.company@gmail.com

Registration is now open for the 2019 Mad River Lacrosse Season!

Mad River Valley Youth Lacrosse offers a fun opportunity for boys and girls from kindergarten to eighth grade to play lacrosse. First timers are welcome at any level! The teams are divided up by boys and girls in grades 3-4,5-6, and 7-8. We offer a Sunday morning program called "Chill Lax" for boys and girls in grades K, 1 and 2.

Registration

Before registering your son or daughter to play 2019 spring lacrosse, all players must first register with the U.S. Lacrosse Association (www.uslacrosse.org) and obtain a U.S. Lacrosse Membership number.

Once you get the lacrosse number, please go to the Mad River Lacrosse (www.madriverlax.com) website and register your child.

Equipment

Players are required to provide their own equipment, which includes a stick and protective gear.  Boys protective gear: mouth guard, gloves, arm pads, shoulder pads, cup, and helmet. Girls protective gear: goggles and mouth guard.  Equipment will be provided for the 3-4 grade players as supplies allow.

Practices and Games

Official outdoor practices are held at Mad River Park, beginning in late April, while specific team coaches may schedule pre-season indoor sessions.  Games are conducted from the first week of May through mid-June.

Please send any and all questions to madriverlaxinfo@gmail.com