The Killingly school budget was approved by 6 votes. Recount will be completed in the next week. See the Norwich Bull.
by Ron
…I want to make sure that everyone understands – I believe that Killingly is doing the correct thing for the students and that the new building was needed.
I was stating what others have been saying and will present that side of the discussion.
We both agree that the economic timing is very unfortunate for everyone involved.
The OLD KHS building is a 1960s design and build. There are many issues and if I understand from some friends the building was sited in the accreditation reviews as needing some updating. Thus the push to get a new school built. The new school along with the laptops is helping to get some of the Brooklyn kids to attend KHS for their education. As we have seen in the WA budget process the ability to use students outside of the normal towns is a HUGE plus for the balancing of the books. So anything that Killingly can do to entice more students from Brooklyn to attend is in their favor. Comment from Ron
Killingly tax payers are revolting about the increases to their taxes because of the new school. There is a $1million start up cost that is part of this years school budget. There are complaints about the old building still needing services (read janitors and others) to keep it up and running thus adding to the costs to the town in additional employees. Many of these “facts” where hidden/not fully explained as part of the due diligence process.
The new fields look great, but because of limited budget in the building process the main field inside of the track is scheduled to be used for Football, Field Hockey, boys and girls soccer. The important note is that there is no watering system for the field and that it’s a grass field that has only had one year of growing/rooting. So come back around the last week of Oct to see if the field is not a large area of mud.
Once they allow general public access to the grounds you should go and take a look at what is really there. My understanding is that there are very limited practice areas for all of the sports unlike what the current KHS facility has. Also with the proposed cuts, I know that bus issues will surface yet again. And the current proposed Killingly cuts have all of the JV and lower sports programs removed… Can’t wait to see what happens if the proposed budget has to be rolled back to a 0% increase… Read today’s NB article to see the numbers.
There is a lot to be said about keeping the costs of the school on the students and not into new buildings if the facility can handle the student population. WA was upgraded 20 years ago to handle 900 but today it has 1200. That is one of the reasons that the sewer project is required now.
I am watching as Killingly schools are projecting on the next budget to cut 37 positions with 14 of them being teachers mostly from the elementary schools. IMO I believe that the focus of the cuts at the younger ages is because of HS accreditation concerns.
So where is the money best spent? On facilities or on the facility and services for the students… If the building can house the students and keep the class sizes in the low 20’s…
Yes some of the people behind the scenes did push through a new building but was it the best answer?
