Latest news with #KillinglyHighSchool
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Killingly budget plan would increase taxes 15.5% for average homeowner
Killingly — The average homeowner here could see their taxes increase by more than 15% next year under the latest 2025-26 budget proposal, according to local officials. The $74.4 million spending proposal was presented to the Town Council and the public on Saturday, kicking off the budget season. Over the next week, the council will review the budget, which calls for a $3.1 million increase in spending. The council is tentatively scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the proposal ahead of a joint review of the Board of Education's operating budget on Tuesday. The proposed budget would raise the tax rate from 20.32 mills to 23.47. For the average homeowner, Town Manager Mary Calorio said Friday that the 3.15 mill increase would translate to a 15.5% rise in taxes. According to Calorio, taxes on a home with a market value of $360,000 would go up $790, or 15.5%. A home with a market value of $500,000 would see a tax increase of $1,100, also 15.5%, Calorio said. The proposal includes a $2.35 million, or 4.97%, increase in school spending, which brings the district's budget up from $47.3 million to $49.7 million. The Board of Education's budget proposal was approved in a 5-2 vote with board members Kelly Martin and Kyle Napierata voting opposed. According to a recording of the meeting minutes, Martin and Napierata were concerned about the impact increased education spending would have on taxpayers. Other cost drivers include a $667,000 increase in general government operational costs, a $156,000 increase in the human services subsidy and Civic and Cultural Event Subsidies budgets, a $620,000 increase in debt service, a $124,000 hike in the student transportation capital non-recurring fund, and a $1.25 million for capital projects. The budget proposal also calls for reducing the town's fund balance utilization by $250,000 next year, pushing the cost onto taxpayers. After other revenue sources are factored in, the town would need to raise $5.18 million more in tax revenue in 2025-26 compared to the current year, under the proposal. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Thursday, April 10, in the Killingly High School auditorium. Residents can provide public comment in person or by email, at budgetcomment@ Statements must include the commenter's name and home address. Following the public hearing, the council must act on the budget within 10 days and forward the proposal to the Annual Town Meeting. That meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 5, in the Killingly High School auditorium. The meeting must be adjourned to a townwide, all-day referendum, which is scheduled for May 13. The town meetings and referendums will continue every two weeks, excluding holidays, until voters approve a budget. 'The budget process offers us the opportunity to maximize the use of taxpayer dollars, plan for the future, implement the priorities of the Town Council and the services desired by the public,' Calorio said in a message to the town. 'Our outlook is always forward-leaning and collaborative, as we strive to provide the best service in the most efficient and affordable way.'
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Decades after returning from war, Killingly veterans are welcomed home
Killingly — When Henry Fusco came home from Vietnam, he said people shoved him, spat on him, and even tried to tear his uniform. In an auditorium at Killingly High School Tuesday evening, Fusco and roughly 60 men and women who served during the Korean and Vietnam wars finally heard the words that had been absent from so many lips when they returned — 'Welcome home.' Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Connecticut Veterans Affairs Commissioner Ron Welch and State Sen. Mae Flexer, D-29th District, joined town officials to honor local veterans from the Korean and Vietnam eras with a hero's welcome that was long overdue. It was the latest community that Bysiewicz has visited to honor veterans from past wars. 'Neither group of veterans got the same welcome home compared to the kind of greeting that our World War veterans got,' Bysiewicz said. 'When they came home victorious, there were ticker tape parades, there were celebrations in every town and city across America. And when our Korean veterans came home … they did not get this celebration that their predecessors had gotten in World War II.' 'Our Vietnam veterans faced protests. They were spat upon, they were called unspeakable names,' Bysiewicz continued. 'People had divided opinions about the war, and our country had not yet learned the very important lesson that our Vietnam veterans taught us, which is no matter what you might think of a particular war or the leaders who sent our soldiers there, we must always, always support the men and women who serve our country and who put their lives on the line for the precious freedoms that we have in our country.' During the ceremony, veterans sat beside their friends and families to share stories of close calls and loved ones lost. Fusco, who served as a Navy fighter pilot from 1965 to 1975 with the 'World Famous Pukin' Dogs,' spoke of how he barely made it to base after his plane lost its radio capabilities and started to smoke after taking a heavy hit from enemy forces during the Battle of Khe Sanh in 1968. When he landed, Fusco said, he was met by a cigar-smoking sergeant major who tallied up the damage. 'He stopped every now and then, made a little note on his pad, came all the way around and he said, 'Son, you have 43 holes in that plane. … This plane can't fly,'' Fusco recalled. 'He said 'How did you get here?' I said, 'God was my copilot.'' Others spoke of those they knew who did not make it back. David Smith served in Saigon in 1964 and in the Army Security Agency in 1965 but he said his 'worst day' in the service happened after he was reassigned to Germany. 'I got a phone call that I had to take … and I was read was a telegram that told me that my brother-in-law, my wife's brother, who was a Marine, had been killed in an ambush,' Smith said. 'He was 19 years old and he's been dead for 60 years and it feels like yesterday.' This year is the 75th anniversary of the start of the U.S. involvement in the Korean War, which killed more than 36,000 Americans between 1950 and 1953, including 326 from Connecticut. Next month also marks 60 years since the first U.S. combat forces were deployed to Vietnam. More than 58,000 Americans died in the war, including 612 from Connecticut and two from Killingly. U.S. Marine Corps Private First Class William Francis Burdick Jr. died on June 9, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. He was 18 years old and less than five months into his tour of duty. That same year, Richard Paul Graveline, also a private first class in the Marines, died on Sept. 9, 1968, in the Quang Tri Province, eight months into his tour. He was 19 years old.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Killingly High School will choose new mascot to replace Redmen
Killingly — Killingly High School will unveil its next mascot by the end of the school year, district leaders said Thursday. Superintendent Susan Nash-Ditzel told school board members at a meeting for an ad hoc mascot committee Thursday that a committee composed of high school students, alumni, coaches and town leaders, has narrowed the list of potential mascots to replace Redmen to four finalists. The committee decided Thursday that five groups — high school students, staff members, coaches, parents and middle schoolers — will have a chance to weigh in on the final decision via an online survey that is tentatively slated to be released May 14 at the close of the town's budget season. After the survey, the mascot committee will forward a recommendation to the full Board of Education, which will have the final say on the mascot. Committee members emphasized that the survey is not a vote and that the results will be used to inform board members' decisions. Thursday's announcement moves the district one step closer to selecting a new mascot after the controversial Redmen name was officially retired at a ceremony in November. Tension over the Redmen mascot, which represented the high school for decades, began to fester in the early 2010s. In 2019, the Board of Education voted to ditch the mascot, citing criticism that its name and image were racist. For a time, the school mascot became the Red Hawks, until 2020 when a new slate of the Board of Education members — who ran on promises to reverse the vote — restored the Redmen logo. Representatives from the Mashantucket Pequot, Mohegan and Nipmuc tribes blasted the mascot as a degrading caricature that perpetuates negative stereotypes of Native Americans. In 2021, the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management determined that the town was ineligible for $94,000 from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fund Grant due to the Redmen name. Last June, the Board of Education voted 5-4 to retire the Redmen mascot, presumably once and for all. The historical committee charged with exploring options for the Redmen's replacement has emphasized options with historical significance. 'I think it will give us, students and the community, a better awareness of our past,' said Town Historian Margaret Weaver, who helped provide historical guidance to the committee. Nash-Ditzel said the community should not be surprised if there is no imagery to accompany the mascot options in the survey. 'The (historical) committee felt pretty strongly ... that we don't include possible imagery,' Nash-Ditzel said. 'Adults and kids both thought that people, particularly students, might just choose the coolest-looking (option) without really looking at the historical significance behind them.'
