HADDAM — Planning for the closure of Haddam Elementary School is complete, and the process of implementation will begin next week, officials said at a joint meeting this week.
Haddam-Killingworth school officials and leaders from both towns spent nearly three hours Thursday at the joint meeting to discuss the district’s restructuring plan, which includes closing a beloved elementary school in Haddam and sending fourth-graders to the middle school.
The education panel convened the boards of selectmen and finance at the middle school to give an update on the controversial project, approved a year ago as a cost-saving measure.
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The plan is to move kindergarten through third-graders at Haddam Elementary School to Burr District Elementary School, about four miles away, and turn the middle school, which now houses fifth through eighth grades, into an intermediate facility with the addition of fourth graders.
That decision has evoked prolonged public outcry from parents and other community members who’ve formed the Save HES Committee to oppose turning the school in historic Higganum village into apartments.
After Regional School District 17 put out a request for bids Nov. 1 for the reuse/redevelopment of the property on Saybrook Road/Route 154, which includes the 155-acre Swan Hill Trail nature preserve, a single developer submitted a proposal.
The bid was made by family-run Rak Realty of Middletown.
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Two options were included: one for the purchase of the facility and surrounding 10 acres for $450,000; and a second offer to buy the entire site for $650,000. If accepted, the Raks propose the creation of 49 apartment units in the 29,000-square-foot building.
In 2016, the entire 155-acre property, including the facility, 10 acres of grounds and trails behind the school, was assessed at $3.12 million, according to the property card.
Soon, parents will be notified of upcoming meetings, programs and a initiative for Burr and HES students to pair up in a pen-pal exchange to ease the transition, according to a videotape of the two-hour-and-45-minute meeting Thursday.
Those at the meeting were also told redistricting will mean some teachers and other staff will lose their jobs, and still others could be reassigned. No further details were provided.
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Across town at the community center, planning and zoning commissioners voted 5-2 to include the Swan Hill trails behind the school in the town’s conservation zone. It was formerly zoned as residential.
Toward the beginning of the joint boards session, Selectwoman Melissa Schlag asked school board Chairwoman Joanne Nesti and Superintendent of Schools Howard Thiery if they had sent lawyers to the planning and zoning meeting, taking place across town at the same time.
Both acknowledged they had done so.
“Why do you have members if it’s going to be decided by you and the superintendent?” one person in the audience yelled out, according to the video, vocalizing a feeling among some residents who say the school board was trying to block the zoning commission’s effort to protect the nature trails.
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Nesti said the attorneys were speaking at the hearing “because this board has not even had a chance yet … to talk about the process that we want to use for considering this proposal and the property at HES, the acreage and what to do with it,” she said.
She was referring to a special joint meeting of the school board, Haddam and Killingworth boards of selectmen, Haddam town planner, and both towns’ zoning and finance chairpersons Monday night to discuss the next steps in creating a review process for the HES proposal.
“I really have a hard time understanding how you guys could send attorneys to fight a conservation zone in Haddam that you don’t have any purview over,” Schlag said.
In an email statement Friday afternoon, Nesti said the school board’s lawyers represented the panel at the zoning meeting after a request to have that meeting date changed was rejected. Because of the time conflict, the superintendent and education board members could not attend the zoning meeting.
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“This is a highly technical issue best addressed by an attorney with a specialty in zoning regulations, and that’s why Attorney Nicholas Bamonte accompanied Attorney (Floyd) Dugas to the hearing. They did express concern about certain aspects of the PZC action, but we have an opportunity to clarify that on Monday,” Nesti said.
Thursday, she told those in the audience they were expected to not disturb the proceedings. Her remarks recalled the Feb. 12 school board meeting, during which many audience members spoke loudly from where they were seated.
“Those of you who are here to shout or boo or laugh derisively will make it difficult for this meeting to go on. And since it would be impossible to know who might be creating the disturbance, and who isn’t, I would have no choice but to ask everyone in the audience to leave,” the chairwoman said.
“I beg you, please do not make me face that choice to choose between this district’s right to conduct its business and your right to be here, to observe,” Nesti said.
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Even though Swan Hill is now in a conservation zone, at any time in the future, commissioners could vote to change that arrangement if, for instance, an offer for future development is proposed on the land, Schlag said Friday morning.
“It gives the planning and zoning commission control over what happens to the property. It drives development to where you want it in town, but you can change it at any time” she added.
Meanwhile, a Change.org petition created Thursday, calling for a vote of no confidence in Thiery had solicited 388 signatures as of Friday afternoon. It charges Thiery has failed to meet Common Core standards by failing to “promote the growth of all students by actively engaging and collaborating with families, community partners and other stakeholders to support the vision, mission and goals of the school and district.”
It also criticizes communication between the superintendent and the community.
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Thiery didn’t return messages for comment by Friday afternoon. Neither did Town Planner Bill Warner or First Selectman Lizz Milardo.
The special joint boards meeting will take place Monday at 5:30 p.m. at the Haddam-Killingworth Middle School cafeteria. Items on the agenda include a discussion of the right of first refusal regarding the Swan Hill land, as well as the proposal to convert the elementary school into apartments.