After six years as chair of the Devens Jurisdiction Framework Committee, Victor Normand is stepping down, following a unanimous vote at the committee’s Sept. 10 meeting to rotate the chair among the three towns and elect Jannice Livingston, chair of the Ayer Select Board, to succeed him.

The School Committee voted unanimously at its Sept. 8 meeting to use $4,800 from the Shaw Trust to pay for a curb cut at the bus drop-off door of Hildreth Elementary School, making that entry accessible for all students.

Residents who had urged the Select and Planning boards to delay consideration of updated zoning for the town center will get their way—but only if they show up at the Sept. 27 Town Meeting to vote “yes” on a motion to skip the proposal.

Tuesday night the Select Board’s four members opened the warrants for the back-to-back Sept. 27 meetings for a second time in two weeks to remove an article, and also to consider changing the start time of Special Town Meeting.

The Harvard Conservation Commission voted unanimously last week, to approve another winter drawdown of Bare Hill Pond, following testimony that last year’s drawdown and winter freeze produced the clearest water residents have seen in years.

When Old Littleton Road resident Paul Green noticed that he sometimes had to click twice to vote on articles for his vote to be confirmed at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting, he began to look for a possible reason. 

Meg Delorier, who has served as vice president for Devens operations since 2022, announced last week that she will retire effective Sept. 19, 2025.

As the school year begins, students and parents will see a number of new faces in classrooms and offices in Harvard’s elementary, middle, and high schools

The Addiction Abatement Working Group’s plan to contribute half of the town’s $620,000 opioid settlement funds to a pool of seven towns served by the Nashoba Associated Boards of Health received unanimous support from the Select Board at its Aug. 26 meeting. 

While many people spent Labor Day celebrating the end of summer at a barbecue, others met on Harvard’s Common to protest a multitude of issues impacting communities across the nation. .

Amid uncertainty surrounding the impending sale of the building that houses the General Store, the Select Board on Tuesday heard from residents urging the board to take a proposal for a town center overlay district off the table for consideration at the Sept. 27 Town Meeting. 

As the school year begins, students and parents will see a number of new faces in classrooms and offices in Harvard’s elementary, middle, and high schools. With 15 new teachers, co-teachers, counselors, and specialists joining the schools, the Press will introduce them to the Harvard community over the course of two issues. 

The Oct. 8 special town election for the Select Board seat vacated by Rich Maiore last April will give voters a chance to choose between two candidates: Eric Ward and Adam Wool.

The Select Board Tuesday night briefly reopened the Sept. 27 Special Town Meeting warrant to add a sixth article whose passage is needed to facilitate the purchase of a conservation restriction on four parcels in northeast Harvard..

The Select Board is asking town departments, boards, and committees to submit both a level-service and a level-funded budget request for fiscal 2027.

Last week U.S. News & World Report published its 2025 rankings of the country’s best high schools, with Bromfield ranking 16th among the 366 schools in Massachusetts and 381st among 18,000 schools nationwide.

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.

An Uber driver and his passenger were threatened by armed carjackers on Seven Bridge Road (Route 117) in Lancaster around 1 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 14. 

In a hearing Wednesday morning this week, the Select Board declared a dog owned by Robert Rapant of 232 Massachusetts Avenue to be a dangerous dog. Two people, in separate incidents, charged the dog had bitten them.

Liz Ruark, a Harvard resident and founder of Skylight Youth Theater,  has been hired to lead the Bromfield theater program.