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03/14/2019 12:01 AMLast March, the Regional School District (RSD) 17 Board of Education (BOE) voted to restructure the school system. Faced with a 20 percent decline in enrollment over the last decade and the prospect of further declines, the school board spent a year studying options for better use of school facilities and cost containment.
The board eventually approved a plan that closes Haddam Elementary School, leaving one elementary school in each town. Burr School and Killingworth Elementary School will each include kindergarten through 3rd grade.
The newest facility in the district, the current middle school building on Route 81 in Killingworth, will house two separate schools under the plan: a new, intermediate school composed of 4th and 5th grades, and a middle school composed of 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Each school will have its own principal. The design of the building and careful scheduling will allow the two schools to function independently while taking advantage of the fine common amenities.
When we were planning the new middle school about 15 years ago, professional demographers predicted dramatic increases in district enrollment. Clearly, such forecasts are never definitive. Current predictions could prove wrong, and the school population could begin to grow again. However, the BOE has found that we have will have enough excess capacity even after the restructuring to accommodate such a reversal of the current trend for at least 10 years.
Every year, the boards of selectmen and finance from both Haddam and Killingworth asked the BOE to recognize the financial constraints on the taxpayers of our towns. Neither town has a surging grand list; state funding has been declining and will continue to decline; and changes in federal tax laws have made property taxes more burdensome than in the past. We have urged the school board to limit the growth of the school budget while protecting the quality of our school system.
The BOE and Superintendent of Schools Howard Thiery decided not to let this crisis go to waste. They have taken the opportunity to enhance the education of our children by creating a more developmentally appropriate grouping of grades and educational programming.
The BOE projects that the reorganization plan will save about $1 million in operating costs each year. (This figure does not include future capital costs of maintaining a fifth school.) The school budget may not go down, but it will be $1 million lower than it would be without the restructuring. Killingworth’s portion of that represents about 0.6 mill, given our current Grand List and proportion of the RSD17 enrollment. For a property with the median house value of $373,000, this would mean a property tax increase—very roughly—of $160 per year.
Members of the BOE from both towns have done a tremendous amount of work to create a plan that is responsible to both taxpayers and our children. I want to thank them for the enormous amount of volunteer time and energy they put into their role as board members.