Elementary Facilities Plan
For the last several years, the Southington Board of Education (BOE) has been working on a Elementary Facilities Plan. If approved, these projects will impact the children who are currently not yet in elementary school and so the ECCS is helping to share information.
Hatton, Oshana, South End, Strong, and Thalberg schools have all seen major construction projects since 2002 (either major renovations or new construction). The goal of the Elementary Facilities Plan was to identify strategies to modernize the remaining elementary facilities while aligning recommendations with building capacity, projected enrollment, and financial feasibility. Several options were identified. The BoE is now working on Phase 3.
Status of project as of 4/14/2026
The BOE voted in May 2025 to rebuild Kelley and expand South End and voted in February 2026 to rebuild Derynoski and close Flanders. They recommended a June 2 election date for the referendum as there is a June 30th deadline for a State school construction grant that they would like to apply for.
The Town Council voted on 3/9/2026 to allow a public hearing on the project to be held on March 23, with a optional second session (which was subsequently not needed) scheduled for April 6 or April 27 and referred the proposal to the Planning and Zoning Commission for comment. P&Z gave a favorable recommendation to go to referendum.
The Board of Finance voted at their March 25th meeting to advance the referendum language authorizing $86,675,560 in borrowing for the rebuilding of Kelley Elementary, new construction at South End Elementary, and the closure of Flanders Elementary as a school. After much debate, they decided to advance the recommendation of putting it on the ballot in November’s general election rather than a special election in June.
On April 13, 2026, the Town Council voted to approve the Bond Ordinance and set the date for a referendum in November.
- Southington Public Schools has presentations, meeting videos, and a way for you to ask questions here.
- Read the Southington Outsider article about the proposal for the schools here.
- Read the Southington Outsider article about the February BOE meeting here.
- Read the Southington Outsider article about the March 11th Town Council meeting here.
- Read the Southington Outsider article about the March 25th Board of Finance meeting here.
In March, the Town Manager released this proposed authorization schedule to have a June 2, 2026 referendum. The dates from May forward will be adjusted to reflect the new November referendum timeframe.
