By Edward Munster
(July 18, 2024) — For at least the past two years Regional School District 17 has been holding Strategic Planning meetings to make decisions on the needs of our schools. Very few town residents chose to participate in this process. There are a myriad of issues in three of the facilities (Haddam-Killingworth High School, Burr Elementary and Killingworth Elementary). What is on the table is whether to renovate the existing schools or in some cases tear them down and rebuild new schools
The RSD 17 Board of Education meeting on July 16, 2024 reasoned that the first decision to be made was whether the high school should include grades 7 through 12 or 9 through 12. That decision was made in favor of keeping HKHS as a 9-12 facility. That decision has implications for the other schools.
All decisions are affected by state re-imbursement of 50% for new construction or 40% for major renovation of a school. A complicating factor is that the state considers our schools oversized on the basis of our student enrollment, This requires the District to apply for a waiver in order to get the reimbursement percentage for renovations. Getting the needed waivers could be an issue for RSD 17.
The cost to build new at HKHS is estimated to be $138 million but the cost to the District, shared by the two towns, is estimated to be $72 million. But there is an open question of how much reimbursement the district might be able to get for renovations to the swimming pool and the field house, which could cost as much as $30.1 million depending on which option is chosen and may qualify for only a 25% reimbursement.
The full Master Plan involves the other schools (BES, KES and HKIMS). The situation with BES depends on whether the district demolishes BES (present size is 68,665 sq. ft.) and builds a new BES  (48,077 sq. ft.) or renovates the existing BES. The cost for a new BES is $66 million, while the cost to renovate is $78 million. In either case the estimated district cost would be reduced by 50% assuming state reimbursement.
KES would qualify for reimbursement and has its share of renovations which are needed, but the options proposed at this meeting did not include cost estimates for the needs of KES. Because of the decision to keep HKHS as a 9 to 12 grade school, grades 7 and 8 will stay at HKIMS and there are no renovations to HKIMS to be included in the Master Plan.
What we do know is that we can expect the cost of the Master Plan proposals to be at least $200 million and we can expect a referendum for a bonding package of as much as $100 million, assuming we get the state reimbursements, to carry out this plan for HKHS.
This referendum will happen sometime before the end of February 2025 and it will be independent of the usual vote we have on the annual RSD 17 budget. There is still much unknown because of other decisions that still need to be made and these numbers are subject to change. It should be noted that this referendum deals only with the HKHS part of the Master Plan. There will likely be a second referendum which will deal with BES and/or KES in about five years hence.
Around twenty people were at this meeting, which was more than this reporter had seen at any strategic planning meeting or open house that I have attended. During the public comment period a teacher asked how these plans would affect staff numbers to which the superintendent responded that there would be no impact because we are not consolidating schools.
Another parent was concerned about the impact on the students if the 7th and 8th grade students are in the same facility as the high schoolers. It was explained that these groups of students would be separated into different pods and would have little interaction with one another. Two students who were present reacted to this. One said that he was at RHAM, which is a 7-12 school, for grades 7 and 8 and felt it was not a problem. Another student said he was in the first class of 5th graders attending HKIMS when this same sort of concern had been raised and said it was not an issue for him.
A former teacher with 34 years in the District 17 system pointed out that when he was teaching, it was not uncommon for teachers to have classes with 7th and 8th graders as well as teaching classes to high schoolers. He went on to say that as a former swim and diving coach he was adamant that the pool and field house not be closed or downsized because the people of this district have fought hard to have this pool/field house as part of the HKHS complex.
