The views stated here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors of this newspaper. We welcome supporting or opposing views on any published item. Received September 20, 2026.
I would like to take this last minute opportunity to reach out to fellow voters in Haddam and Killingworth. It has taken me some time and a couple of changes of mind to come to the conclusion that I must speak out about the upcoming referendum on reconstruction/renovation of our very important Haddam-Killingworth High School. I have been tuned in since the beginning of the proposal. At that time and for some time after I just wasn’t convinced that what was proposed was a good idea.
I now feel, after the most recent and final presentation by the Board of Education, that the Board has done due diligence and listened to the concerns of citizens and has come up with a good plan. I do not want my taxes to go up any more than you do. I also don’t want to risk losing the money the State will contribute if we don’t do the project NOW. With the economy the way it is, things are likely to get worse before they get better.
For more than 20 years I worked full time in the present building. After I retired, I subbed there and helped with other activities for another ten years. I was the School Nurse Supervisor for more than 20 years; saw and reported many concerning issues during that time. I served on the Safety Committee with fine individuals, who also saw issues that needed to be addressed. Unfortunately, things were not kept up or addressed in a timely manner because there was a Superintendent or Board members who deemed it necessary to spend the funds on something else. I am hopeful that our new Superintendent and a relatively new Board will listen and act upon concerns of those knowledgeable reporters.
There are a number of issues that are just not safe in the building. They need to be addressed now! How wonderful it will be for folks, such as a grandparent, coming for a sick or injured student, to be able to FIND the main entrance, and then not to have to climb that awful stairwell to the Nurse’s office! It will make things so much more efficient to get a person in a wheelchair out to a waiting car and for our EMS responders to easily get to the Nurse’s office, or wherever they need to get to the patient. These are just a few of the issues from my point of view. While we were lucky not to have any twisted ankles, or worse, in the classrooms or lower level of the Media Center, with sunken levels they were an accident waiting to happen, every day. Bus drop- off and pick-up was a scary process to watch from my office. Our drivers are amazing!
The issues I brought up are only part of the bigger picture. Just because we may not have children in school now doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have an interest in making sure all of our children have the opportunity to attend a good, functional and efficient high school. They are the future and you likely have family members who received a good education at HKHS. There are so many reasons to think hard, bite the bullet and vote YES to this project!
Carol Flanagan-Dupuis, Higganum
The CGA (Connecticut General Assembly) website is a place to go where legislators can request background information from researchers in the Office for Legislative Research (OLR) to fill them in on various issues. OLR researchers are charged with being objective and non-partisan. The results are available to the public. Imagine, for example, that there is a legislator who wants to know about school accreditation. That legislator may submit a question to the OLR and get answers. Below is an example centered around the NEASC and accreditation with direct quotes and attribution.
“While several schools have faced warnings or been placed on probation over the decades (such as Hartford Public High School in 1997, which ultimately avoided losing its accredited status), the NEASC and the Connecticut General Assembly confirm that no operational public high school in the state has actually been stripped of its accreditation. Accreditation membership is voluntary for public schools in Connecticut, and none have had their status terminated.”
NEASC ACCREDITATION By: Hendrik DeBoer, Research Fellow for Connecticut General Assembly) Published April 9, 2012. You asked a series of questions regarding New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accreditation. They are restated and answered below.
IS NEASC ACCREDITATION STATE OR FEDERALLY MANDATED? Neither state nor federal law mandates that schools be accredited by NEASC or any other accrediting agency. State law does require that the board of education for any public school that is NEASC-accredited disclose the accreditation reports to the public (C.G.S. § 10-239j).
HOW MANY HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT HAVE LOST THEIR NEASC ACCREDITATION? Although some schools have been placed on probation, no high schools, other than those which have closed, have lost their NEASC accreditation in Connecticut within the last 20 years, according to the NEASC.
I happen to know more than a little bit about this issue as I participated in the first 3 NEASC accreditation reviews in 1980, 1990, and 2000; in fact, in both 1990 and 2000 the superintendent and building principal appointed me to be the chairman of the entire accreditation process for HKHS.
Additionally, while it’s true that the district has a waiver for state funding for this proposal, the way it is being pitched makes it sound as though this is the only time we could possibly get a waiver. Is there a law limiting the number of times that a school district can get a waiver? There is not. Once again the OLR answer: “Connecticut Office of Legislative Research (OLR) reports and underlying state statutes do not place a flat numerical limit on the total number of administrative or funding waivers a school district can request or obtain from the state.”
It’s true that there is a big need for updates in the building, especially for the HVAC system, and those should be addressed soon. Are there less costly alternatives for people in the district who may be squeezed by the big cost that a nearly $152 million proposal like this brings with it? There certainly are. Haddam people need to know the truth about some of these issues to make intelligent choices for them and their families in a time where affordability is a big concern. So let’s get the facts straight about the NEASC accreditation issue and the number of times a district can apply for a waiver and not be fear driven by those issues.