HUMS Newsletter
October 30, 2026
Principals' Message
Harwood Middle School Families -
The 7th grade student-led Candidate Forum was a HUGE success! Local journalists remarked at the packed auditorium in contrast to other forums they had attended.
The students' clear preparation was reflected in their thoughtful questions, informative display in the lobby and the professional presentation overall that was noted by all of the candidates. It was both inspiring and powerful to see our students stepping up as leaders and engaged citizens.
Thank you to all of the candidates and citizens who attended and engaged, and especially to our families for supporting the students and helping make the evening such a success!
Harwood Union Middle School Academic Conferences
November 11th and November 19th.
Harwood uses PTCFast to schedule conferences and will be hosting conferences for middle school parents from 3:30-7pm on November 11th and November 19th. (PLEASE note: HS conferences are only on November 19th.)
You can begin booking conference slots today!
Here is link to PTC Fast: https://ptcfast.com/schools/Harwood_Union_Middle_High_School
MS parents please note:
· MS conferences will be by team
· When you click on the link to PTCFast you will see ALL the Harwood teachers who work in the building – please scroll down the alphabetized list until you see “T” for Team Terra or Team Aqua and select the correct team your child is on. If you have more than 1 child and they are on different teams, please select both teams at this time.
The FIRST step - you will be asked to enter identifying information specific to your child(ren) AND THEN you will be prompted to check your email account to schedule a SPECIFIC time. This email will come from PTCFast.
The SECOND step – when you receive an email from PTCFast, please click on the available time slot(s) for your child(ren). If you are booking for more than one student, please select that option when presented. You will then be able to select multiple conference times, one slot specific to each child and teacher.
You will book ONLY 1 conference slot (a 20 minute slot) for each child.
Athletics
Greetings Harwood Families, winter sports registration is now open, please click here to register.
Congratulations to Sierra Dix for finishing 2nd in the Middle School State Cross Country Championships and Leland Maez for finishing 3rd among all 7th graders.
With the end of the Fall season we are looking ahead to our Winter sports and need an Alpine Head Coach. If you are interested please click here to apply.
Friendly reminders
If you would like to nominate someone for the Harwood Hall of Fame please click here. Unlike many other halls of fame, our Hall of Fame is not limited to former athletes or coaches. Once nominated for the Hall of Fame, a nominee remains active for consideration for ten years.
Caregivers can find all information related to Harwood Athletic programming here. Additionally, you can visit our website for up to date information and all team’s schedules.
Music Department Citrus Sale!
We are continuing to actively seek your strong community support to maintain our vital music lesson program and the dedicated coordination required to sustain this invaluable gift. One way to do this is by supporting the Music Department’s annual fruit sale!
The Harwood Music Department is selling fresh citrus in support of our programs this year! We have done this fundraiser for decades and it’s a great way to bring delicious fruit and nuts to our communities during the cold months while supporting the Harwood Music program. Please consider purchasing Fresh Navel Oranges, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Butter Toffee Peanuts, and Honey Krunch Peanuts from your favorite Harwood musician this season.
We’re excited to share that you can now order online! Follow this link to place an order or scan the QR code below.
Delivery is set for Monday, December 7, 2026.
Contact Molly Desrochers at HU Music with any questions at (802) 583-8178 or via email at mdesrochers@huusd.org.
Counseling
Students have been reminded over the course of the week to reach out to support if they are feeling sad after the loss of Gracie or are having feelings that they are not sure how to navigate. We are all encouraging to look out for one another. If you have any concerns, please do reach out jdreimiller@huusd.org
Next Thursday, November 5, Jen will take a group of 8th graders to CVCC if you are thinking about applying for 9th grade. Please reach out if you would like to make sure your child has signed up.
Farm to School
October’s Harvests of the Month are Apples and Kale!
During the last week of October, during lunch, Harwood’s Developing Sustainable Habits (DSH) courses, taught by Heidi Turgeon Baird, will be preparing a taste test for all HU students featuring Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies. Our featured ingredient was supplied by Hall’s Orchard, in Ilse La Motte, Vermont
Here are other recipes featured in DSH class this month:
We put on monthly taste tests to help students better understand and appreciate their regional food system. Make sure to buy local and help support our VT farms!
Apple Fun Facts:
Apples are a good source of potassium, vitamin C, and fiber.
In 1905, the U.S. The Department of Agriculture published a 400 page book listing more than 14,000 distinct types of apples grown in the United States.
The only apples native to North America are crab apples.
Apple trees must cross-pollinate in order to produce fruit; therefore, they need to be planted within approximately 100 feet of another cultivated apple tree variety, crab apple tree, or wild apple tree.
Johnny Appleseed’s real name was John Chapman. He started several different tree nurseries and sold apple trees to other white settlers who were heading west.
One bushel of apples produces about 3 gallons of cider.
At Harwood Union Middle School, one of our two long-standing goals is: Strengthen and sustain a rigorous academic program that prepares students for High School. For the first two months of the year, Harwood teachers and students have been working on this goal by establishing clear, consistent classroom routines and emphasizing feedback on academic work, rather than just scores. We want to strike a balance between the helpful information that academic scores can provide us with, and the reality that they never tell us the whole picture. We don’t want an emphasis on scores to detract from the most important part - the learning! Last Friday 10/23 was the official end of Quarter 1 in our 2025-2026 school year, and today, JumpRope reports are emailed home for all students in grades 7 and 8. These reports provide one data point about how the year is going so far for our students. Additionally, today you also should receive an email with JumpRope portal login information. This provides you access to see course scores in JumpRope anytime. This document gives a bit more information about what you are seeing in the JumpRope and on JumpRope progress reports. Three helpful tips when looking at the portal: There is often a lag between when an assignment is completed and when it is scored and entered in JumpRope. Within the portal, if you click “current grades” on the left, you can click the down arrow for any class, and can then click further on each skill to see the assignments that are contributing to the overall score. If you run into any questions, reaching out to the teacher to understand more is always a good first step! As we look at JumpRope as one way of helping us gauge and support students’ readiness for high school, scores are used in a number of ways to both provide us with important information for supporting all students, as well as adding accountability for students to do their best learning every day. This includes using JumpRope scores as one piece of information to identify groups of students for support and extension in ELO as an incentive to work toward earning a ski pass at Mad River Glen in 9th grade (based on 8th grade scores) to determine readiness for certain World Language and Math options in 9th grade as criteria for acceptance into CVCC in 9th grade (based on 8th grade scores) Our ideal is that students are engaged and clear about their learning along the way, understand how it is reflected in their JumpRope scores, and know what their next steps are for learning based on feedback. At home, this can be supported by sitting with your child to look at JumpRope together, asking curious questions about what they are learning in classes, and reinforcing that the scores, and the learning behind them, are one important way that we are making sure all our HUMS students will be prepared to engage in all the different learning opportunities high school has to offer.
7th grade: Terra Updates
English: After wrapping up a successful Candidate Forum, we’ve jumped into our new unit: reading The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Throughout this unit, please expect your child to come home with some reading homework (not every night), as well as a character log they should fill out as they read.
Science: We have taken our 1st summative to complete our Nature of Science unit. This week students begin our cell biology unit by learning the basics of compound microscopes. Students will explore various biology topics with these compound microscopes over the coming weeks.
Social Studies: We are continuing to learn about the US government and focused our learning this week on the Constitution. Students participated in a Constitutional Convention simulation with the 8th graders where they represented the twelve states in attendance in 1787 and debated how our government should be structured. Next week, we will learn about some landmark Supreme Court cases that impact young people and schools.
8th grade: Aqua Updates
Science: Although students often get frustrated with what we science teachers call “inquiry” labs, they usually pay off with amazing learning. Inquiry labs, like the one we did last week, require students to take a lot of guesses and be comfortable not knowing the “right” answer. On 10/22, students put aquatic plants and a CO2 indicator solution in beakers, added CO2 to change the indicator, Bromothymol Blue, from blue to green or left the indicator its original blue. Overnight, we left a grow light on above the beakers. The next day, all of the indicators were blue. From this, students learned that plants consume CO2 during photosynthesis. A perfect follow-up question was: but where does the CO2 go? Students identified that CO2 becomes glucose during photosynthesis, which is a major building block for all biomass- living stuff- that makes up our planet.
Wondering where the CO2 went was a segue into learning about decomposers. We went back to Lozelle Brook, behind the school, and found decomposing material. We hunted for evidence of fungi and found that these organisms are necessary for breaking down hard, stubborn substances like wood. Decomposers help make the carbon cycle stay cycling.
English: Classes have moved on from our novel The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, and turned our attention again to short fiction reading and writing. We recently read The Monsters are Due on Maple Street and are preparing to write SCREENPLAYS this year!
Math: We have completed our unit on angle relationships and began our unit on equations and expressions. This unit is divided up into two sub units: equations and tape diagrams and solving equations. We just completed our unit on tape diagrams and are now talking about different strategies to solve equations with positive and negative numbers. Next week we are going to discuss expanding and factoring as a strategy to solve equations.
Social Studies: Over the past two weeks in Social Studies, we’ve been working our way from the Articles of Confederation into the creation of the U.S. Constitution. Students looked at the weaknesses of the Articles and explored why the country needed a stronger system of government.
This week, we teamed up with the 7th grade Social Studies classes for a Constitutional Convention simulation. Students represented different states, debated the Virginia and New Jersey Plans, and worked through some of the major compromises that shaped the Constitution, including the Three-Fifths Compromise and other compromises involving slavery.
Next, we’ll continue looking at how the Constitution works, including the three branches, checks and balances, and limits on government power.
Shared Staff Updates
7th Grade Art:
Is finishing up their career models this week. This project was a dive into 3-dimensional art and exploring the use of multiple mediums in order to create a model inspired by a future career that interests them. This has resulted in some really amazing products ranging from mechanical engineer models to cafe owners to contractors. Each student has gone above and beyond in this unit.
8th Grade Art:
Is in the middle of their clay food sculpture unit. Each student chose a meal to create a realistic replica out of clay. They are hand-building everything from the plate the food sits on to the food itself. We are using a mixture of materials from paper mache, popsicle sticks, oven-baked clay, acrylic paint, to palette chalk pastels in order to replicate the textures and colors of real food. Some students chose a comfort meal, while others opted for a special dish made by their family. These are always a show-stopper at the art show in January!
MS Literacy WIN TIME
WIN (What I Need) is a focused time for middle school skill instruction that all students are placed in, and all students study the same math and literacy topics -- ideally at their level of need. Topics change every 6-8 weeks, and students typically move between skill level groups as we attempt to fine tune literacy skills in preparation for the increased reading and writing demands of middle and high school.
We are currently at the end of our Spelling Literacy WIN session, which ends on November 2. Our new math and literacy sessions will begin on November 4, and our literacy skill focus will be on Greek and Latin word parts, aimed at helping students master decoding complex vocabulary words. Student performance on the Word Part Pretest administered in Ms. Vaughn´s and Mr. Potts´English classes will determine vocabulary group placement for the next Literacy WIN session.
Community Announcements
Middle School dance @ Crossett Brook Middle School!
A message from our local food shelfs:
This is the time of the year when supplies are low at our local food banks and the need is increasing as cold weather approaches.
When you go to vote this coming Tuesday please consider bringing an item for the food shelf if you cast your vote at Brookside Primary School.
There are also donation bins at Village Market, Shaw’s and Merheron’s. Monetary gifts can be mailed to Waterbury Common Market, 57 S. Main Street, Waterbury 05676.
It’s hard to believe, but it’s time to plan for spring soccer! MRVSA is holding tryouts for its spring 2027 travel teams on Saturday November 7th at 11am. Our travel teams will compete in the Vermont Soccer Association (VSL) Spring League. This is MRVSA’s only spring program for U10 through U16 players. Information on our U6 and U8 program will come out in the early Spring.
Any player interested in spring soccer must register for and attend the tryout. Team spots are limited, and not every player who tries out will be placed on a team. Register here.
About the season
The spring league is a local, affordable way for qualified players to have a more competitive experience and compete in the VSL. Each team will be placed in the division that best fits its skill level. Teams practice twice a week and play one or more matches weekly, with home games here and away games around the state. The season typically runs from the first weekend in May through the second weekend in June. Teams may also enter Vermont tournaments after the season for an additional fee. Additional information is available here.
The VSL sets all schedules and will release them in April. Games are typically on Sundays.
Age groups
Following US Soccer, the VSL now groups players by school year (August 1 – July 31) instead of birth year. Players may try out for an older age group but not a younger one (e.g. a 2nd grader ready for a more competitive experience can try out for U10).
U10: born Aug 1, 2016 – July 31, 2018
U12: born Aug 1, 2014 – July 31, 2016
U14: born Aug 1, 2012 – July 31, 2014
U16: born Aug 1, 2010 – July 31, 2012
Timeline
Tryout registration is open now: link
Tryouts: Saturday, November 7, 11 a.m.–1 p.m., at Mad River Park in Waitsfield. Please register in advance!
Team invitations sent by Sunday, November 22
Accept your invitation and complete registration by Sunday, December 6
Uniform store opens in December
Scholarships are available. Contact registrar@madrivervalleysoccer.org for details.
Calendar
10/30 - Q1 Reports emailed home
11/03 - No School, Election Day
11/05 - 11/07 - Fall Play, 7:30 - 9:30pm
11/09 - MS PTO Meeting @ Lawsons, 5:30pm
11/11 - Early Release *Reminder: school will be dismissed at 12:20, right after lunch.
11/11 - MS Fall Conferences, 3:30 - 7pm (see above for instructions)
11/11 + 11/12 - MS Fall Concert, 7 - 8:30pm
11/13 - MS Dance w/CBMS @ CBMS, 7 - 9pm Click HERE for permission form. *Required
11/19 - MS (+HS) Family Conferences, 3:30 - 7pm
11/23 - 11/27 - No School, Thanksgiving break
About Us
Website: harwood.org
Facebook: facebook.com/HarwoodUnionHighSchool
Instagram: instagram.com/harwood_union_high_school/
Phone: 802-244-5186
Location: 458 Vermont Rte 100, Moretown, VT 05660
Office Hours: 7:45 - 3:45
Jess Deane, Assistant Principal