With new student orientation sessions set for Aug. 20 and new teacher orientation for Aug. 21, the Harvard schools are gearing up for the start of the coming school year. The first official day of school will be Aug. 27.
Enrollment figures show 1,062 students in the district, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. That’s about 40 more students than in the 2024-25 school year, with the biggest increases coming in the pre-K class and in grades 10-12. But enrollment figures aren’t official until later in October, when the numbers are submitted to the state.
Both the Hildreth Elementary School and the Bromfield School have a number of new faculty and staff members. The Press will introduce them in next week’s issue.
Every summer in recent years, the Bromfield School has undergone maintenance and repairs with money allocated by the Capital Planning and Investment Committee. This year was no exception. New flooring was installed in several middle school and high school classrooms. Upgrades have been completed on the girls locker room. And renovations are nearly finished on two high school bathrooms.
A major project for the Bromfield School in the coming year will be replacing the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, continuing an effort begun in 2018. School Committee Chair Abby Besse wrote in an email to the Press, “We have applied to the MSBA [Massachusetts School Building Authority] Rapid Repair program, and if accepted, the town would be reimbursed 49.5% of the cost of the project.”
At the Hildreth Elementary School, plans are underway to add a fence as a safety measure to enclose the play area at the northern end of the building near the preschool classroom. Subject to approval from the Historical Commission, the School Committee wants to extend the current style of fencing almost to the bus lane.
Initially, school officials were very concerned when federal funds for many education programs were frozen. According to Mandy Ostaszewski, the school finance director, the schools received $62,609 in federal funds last year under Title I, Title IIA, and Title IVA, which supported programs for high-needs students. Now that the funds have been released, she said in an email, the district expects to receive about the same amount in the coming year. “It is very good news!” she wrote.
The upcoming year will be an exceptionally busy one for the School Committee. Members hope to have a new superintendent of schools under contract by January 2026, to take office when Dr. Linda Dwight leaves next July. The first step, according to the subcommittee charged with overseeing the process, is publishing a survey in September to learn about community expectations for the new superintendent. The subcommittee will also organize an official search committee, including two members of the School Committee, several school administrators and teachers, parent representatives, and probably also some student members.
In addition, the School Committee is working on a policy for AI use and will begin negotiating a new contract with the Harvard Educators Association, as 2025-26 is the last year of the current three-year contract.
Schools return $1,900 to town, vow no override request next year
Mandy Ostaszewski, the school finance director, presented the budget closeout for fiscal 2025 at the School Committee’s July 28 meeting. The school budget from the town for that year, which ended June 30, was $15,735,250. The school district spent just a hair under that amount, ending the year with $1903.88 left over, which will be returned to the town and go into free cash.
For all town departments, much of the fall and early winter will go to preparing the budget for fiscal 2027, which will come up for a vote at next spring’s Town Meeting. Speaking for the School Committee, Chair Abby Besse wrote, “We are committed to preparing a budget for FY27 that stays within the allotted monetary distribution from the town, thus not needing an override.”
