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By Philip R. Devlin
(April 30, 2025) — In the past fifty years, I have been inside Haddam-Killingworth High School more than six thousand times as a teacher, coach, parent, and spectator. I was inside recently, visiting former colleagues, entering their classrooms, and walking in the halls. On the surface, I saw nothing wrong in the building. The classrooms still looked appealing. There is no reason to think that the building is structurally unsound. However, there certainly are issues there that need fixing.
I was co-chair of the accreditation visits by NEASC twice and am well aware of lingering soundproofing issues and issues with the HVAC system— by far the most expensive issue— as well as deficiencies with science lab equipment. It is in the interest of all residents to support a good school system and to maintain accreditation, but these issues and others can be fixed without demolishing the school and in a way that is both far less disruptive to future high school students and far less expensive for taxpayers.
Currently, air quality in schools is a big issue in the state legislature. An estimated one third of Connecticut’s schools have HVAC systems needing repair. Previously, state reimbursements for HVAC systems were awarded on a competitive basis. Now HB6922 would allow a “permanent non-competitive funding source allowing applications on a rolling, monthly basis.” This needed update to reimburse school districts for HVAC work passed unanimously out of the legislature’s Education Committee on March 12, 2025. It has widespread bipartisan support and is certain to become law and benefit our schools.
As for soundproofing, the guidance offices were finally soundproofed without tearing down the school. The nurse’s office should be, too, and some classrooms can be done on an incremental basis. Science labs can also be updated and fixed without knocking down the school.
Significantly, both HKHS and Lyme-Old Lyme High School (Regional School District 18) were both designed by Jeter, Cook, and Jepson in the early 1970’s. The schools are remarkably similar. Region 18 opened one year before HKHS and in 2014 underwent renovation. An architectural firm in Middletown named Northeast Collaborative Architects (NCA) oversaw the project. This group is a strong proponent of adaptive re-use of buildings. No demolition occurred. In fact, more than 18,000 square feet were added. The project cost about forty-seven million dollars before state reimbursement and is associated with that rarest of all prepositional phrases: “under budget.”
The result? A multiple award-winning, creative, imaginative school that is environmentally friendly. Geothermal wells added 2% to the cost, but the payback was six years, and the wells are good for fifty years! Here is a link to copy and paste to read more about this most impressive renovation: Lyme-Old Lyme High School – NCArchitects | Innovative. Inspiring. Collaborative.
School construction and renovation costs have exploded recently. All the so-called “professional estimators” for school construction in towns such as Cromwell and Stamford have grossly underestimated the true cost. The 166 million dollar estimate for this project is bound to be too low, especially now with tariffs adversely affecting imported aluminum, steel and lumber. Why demolish newly replaced items such as the roof and more than a hundred solar panels when they are only six or seven years old and then have to reimburse the state two million dollars as a penalty?
A better option is to ask the towns for a renovation bond comparable to the one voted on in September of 2018 to make needed, legitimate repairs like those listed above. Such a bond would be a small fraction of the cost of the building proposal and would be far less disruptive to students, would preserve adequate space for Tech Ed, and would preserve valuable community resources such as the former middle school gym.
