Waitsfield community weighs in on school-closure debate

About 150 people filled the gym at Waitsfield Elementary School Monday night to hear about plans for school consolidation, with many telling their school board members why the Waitsfield school should not be one of two Valley schools to close next fall. Those reasons included the school’s access to public infrastructure, including water and wastewater, its walkable village location that’s out of the floodplain, its potential for expansion and its 3-year-old $1.1 million commercial kitchen. The meeting was part of a series of community sessions organized by the Harwood Unified School District School Board’s Outreach Committee. It followed the full board’s Nov. 4 straw poll, in which 9 of 14 members voted in favor of closing Waitsfield and Fayston schools, and keeping Moretown and Warren open next school year. Board chair Ashley Woods did not vote.

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