The Regional School District 17 Board of Education recently received a letter from a community member with several questions related to the district budget. The writer noted that she did not need a response directly, but that she wanted the Board to answer these questions and add them to our FAQs before the next vote. Below is the response that we have put together to share with her, with the community through this publication, and these questions will be added to the FAQs.
Thank you so much for reaching out to the board of education regarding your questions. We welcome the opportunity to answer your questions and get accurate information out to the community.
Your first question was about the process of continued referendums. You asked:
“Do we continue voting until something passes, or does it switch to a mandatory non-voted austerity budget at some point?” According to Connecticut General Statutes 10-51, “the board is required to call a district meeting no sooner than one week and no later than four weeks of the rejection to consider the same or an amended budget. The board must follow this process until the budget is approved.”
Your remaining questions are addressed below:
Declining Enrollment:
- How does the district plan to manage the continued decrease in the number of students, from a multi-year perspective?
Our new superintendent of schools just joined us in December. Superintendent Sullivan-Kowalski’s experience in working through cost saving measures was one of the many strengths and experiences she brought to the table and set her apart from other candidates. Long term outlook of student enrollment projections and other efficiencies are currently an understanding for Dr. Sullivan-Kowalski in her work as the new Superintendent. She has made a commitment to this work, but she wants to do the work in the least disruptive way for students. Last night, June 16th, at the Board of Education meeting she presented a review of her first 6 months in district and her commitments moving forward. That document can be viewed here: Sullivan-Kowalski 6 Month Overview
Student enrollment and class size for the FY 2027 was taken into consideration for the operational budget of which a total of 15.9 positions were eliminated. In addition, a transportation study is being planned to identify the effect students enrollment and student ridership have on the transportation routing. Already there has been a reduction of 2 buses and 1 van of which the district has been able to identify immediate efficiencies. This work will take time, and minimizing disruption to students requires a strategic approach.
- Are there any opportunities for cost savings by merging or cooperating with other local districts? For example, can specialist teachers who no longer carry a full teaching load due to declining enrollment be shared across multiple school districts? Can other facilities be shared with other districts, as is already done with multi-district sports teams?
In public education this is usually accomplished by employing teachers at a percentage of an FTE (full time equivalent). For example, if a high school needed a full time world language teacher, and someone to teach two additional periods in the 8 period schedule they might list it as a .25 FTE teacher position. To share staff between districts takes some time to plan which would include a common school calendar and bell times. Area Superintendents have begun to discuss how to share students who have a focus area of interest. There are a couple of Districts currently piloting programming. However, transportation costs are a barrier to this type of creativity in high school programming.
- How do you justify the per-student cost increase, and how can that be mitigated in the future? From my calculation, it is more than an 8% increase per student, which is much larger than inflation. And blaming the increase on multi-year contractual obligations that you already committed to with little or no public feedback is not a good justification. For staffing, I know the number of teachers can’t automatically be reduced due to class size considerations, but the district needs to develop a realistic and palatable plan for the voters.
Two major impacts on this year’s budget were insurance and the bus contract. This does have the most significant impact on those cost per student increases.
Transportation
- The district’s contract with Student Transportation of America (STA) expires June 30, In May 2025, STA drivers unionized and reached a new collective bargaining agreement that includes significant wage and minimum hour increases. After an extensive bidding process and evaluation of alternatives, the district awarded the new contract to the lowest bidder, STA.
- The daily rate per in-town bus increased approximately 45%. This rate also applies to the Middletown technical and agricultural science routes. The increase for current routes totals approximately $1,235,575.
- The district continues to explore routing efficiencies to reduce the number of vehicles where feasible. Out-of-district special education transportation remains contracted separately, with increases consistent with other service contracts.
- A recent RFP was issued to look for a vendor to help us with finding these efficiencies.
Insurance
- In July 2023, the district joined a regional, self-insured insurance cooperative (ECHMC). In recent years, total claims have exceeded member premiums, reducing reserves. The anticipated rate increase for the upcoming fiscal year is approximately 15%, and the projected increase over the current year’s estimated expense is approximately $1,060,000. Proposed staffing reductions reduce this impact by approximately $125,000.
- While the ECHMC is actively working on mitigating factors for moving forward (possibly changing structure) the District is also considering future options.
Capital Improvement Costs:
- As far as I know, we still do not know the final financial impact of capital improvements to the high school, and yet you are asking for a substantial increase even before those costs hit.
- What is the district required to do, and what does it desire to do, to renovate or rebuild the high school building to meet current mandated standards? Will that be paid for by additional bonds and at what cost? I know the details are not yet decided on this, but if you are asking for a significant increase today knowing that a much bigger increase is coming, we need to address that to establish the context of the increase.
- How can the requirements and desires of capital improvements be balanced with declining enrollment, which is forecast to continue?
HKHS is at a critical point. The work and improvements must be done, and the board has spent a great deal of time collecting information from the community about priorities and needs.
At the February 10, 2026 BOE Regular meeting the HKHS Feasibility Study Team provided an update and a recommendation to the board. They reviewed the key elements of the plan and confirmed that it remains a design concept. It was noted that contingent upon referendum approval, the Building Committee would begin further work to finalize the details. The total cost of the project is estimated at $151.9 million. Assuming full legislative support, the estimated projected reimbursement amount is approximately $74.8 million. The local tax share would be roughly $77.2 million. They reported that the Feasibility Study Team unanimously recommended that the Board of Education approve option F Prime for the project to move forward.
This is the Presentation from the community forum held on 1/24/26. Where information and details about this renovation project were shared with the community.
At that same board meeting on February 10, 2026, the board voted to accept the recommendation of the feasibility study team and move forward with the application and legislative requests that would make the project more manageable for our district. The requests (outlined below) we made were approved (signed by the Governor May 2026) and so as long as we have a referendum this fall and the community approves, we can move forward with this project and will have the benefit of:
- A space waiver, which would allow us to exceed the state’s standard space guidelines for renovation projects. This allows us to hang onto important spaces like the pool, and our full tech ed spaces so that these spaces the community has told us are valued will stay.
- Placement on this year’s priority list for state school-construction funding
- Use of the 2026 reimbursement rate (51.43%) in calculating the state’s share of project costs in order to get the hughes reimbursement rate.
- Confirmation that athletic components are fully eligible for reimbursement
When the feasibility team was working, projected enrollments were taken into consideration for their planning.
Health insurance:
- From the original superintendent’s presentation and the FAQ on the district website, I saw that the 2025-2026 budget had an extra increase in health insurance costs (through the 8-district cooperative) for teachers and staff of approximately $1 MILLION. Are we actually saving any money compared to a traditional insurance approach?
The anticipated rate increase for the upcoming fiscal year is approximately 15%, and the projected increase over the current year’s estimated expense is approximately $1,060,000. Proposed staffing reductions reduce this impact by approximately $125,000. Currently, ECHMC is actively working on mitigating factors for moving forward (possibly changing structure) the District is also considering future options.
- Does the district or the insurance cooperative have any catastrophic umbrella policy to cap the amount the district would need to pay? We have a small enough employee population that just one or two employees facing serious illness in their families could cause a large spike in district costs. Companies normally protect against this by joining a much larger pool that can average costs out, or by purchasing an umbrella policy to cap the costs.
Yes, the cooperative has “Specific Stop Loss” coverage at $150,000, the cooperative pays up to this level. For the 2027 renewal, the broker evaluated six different levels of the “stop loss” in relation to the specific high cost cases the members have. No change was recommended. We are reviewing potential options outside of this cooperative group. At the current time, our claim costs have exceeded the premiums we have paid. An improvement to the District’s loss ratio or claims experience would be advantageous to secure lower cost options. The structuring of our benefit offerings are subject to collective bargaining terms.
Multi-year contracts:
- Is there any means by which the voters have a say before the district makes multi-year obligations that include significant increases?
There are two different types of multi-year contracts regarding your questions:
- Service contracts (like transportation) go through a competitive RFP process and are awarded by the Board of Education in open session. Not all service contracts are multi year however transportation is.
- Union contracts are also negotiated and approved by the Board of Education, as state law grants the Board the authority to enter into and approve these agreements.
We encourage community members to attend board of education meetings which are open to public comment. We are also looking to streamline communication so the community can access the information more readily.
Thank you again for reaching out to the Board of Education for clarity on several key issues that pertain to the upcoming referendum on the district operating budget. We are grateful to have the opportunity to answer your questions and add them to our FAQs.
Heather E. Pach, RSD 17 Board of Education Chairperson
