CT Dept. of Education, Killingly BOE hold first hearing on mental health resources

“I was crying. I was very upset, disheartened,” said former Killingly High School student Julia Revellese.

That was Revellese’s reaction almost two years ago when in March of 2022, the Killingly Board of Education rejected a proposal to bring a school-based mental health center to the district.

“One was because it didn’t have the parental opt-in, and that was a concern to some people, and then the other reason would have been is that we needed more than one option,” Killingly Board of Education Vice-Chair Kelly Martin said on the decision.

“We had an amazing opportunity for our Killingly students to receive mental health services in the school at no cost to the district, no cost to the taxpayer, and it was voted down,” Killingly mom Christine Rosati Randall said.

The school board’s rejection led community members to file a formal complaint to the state’s Department of Education, bringing into question the district’s compliance with mental health resources.

At Wednesday’s hearing, parties from all sides met for their first formal hearing to discuss the current status of mental health resources in Killingly, and the original decision to vote down the proposal in 2022.

“We have remedies where we can issue orders with which they have to comply and that might be to step up some provision of services,” Connecticut Department of Education attorney Michael McKeon said.

During the hearing, Martin responded to several allegations. According to her attorney, one of the allegations claimed that the board stopped searching for additional staff to help meet the mental health needs of the students.

“When they voted it down in March, they didn’t even discuss alternatives,” said Rosati Randall, who said she tried voicing her concern at board meetings throughout the process.

But Martin said the school board was always seeking alternative mental health services behind closed doors. Looking back, she said the board would have done things differently.

“We were told by our attorneys – don’t discuss it, don’t bring it out in public meetings, so we were keeping quiet. We were doing all this work behind the scenes and we were keeping quiet and I think that was a misstep. It should have come out,” Martin said.

Currently, Killingly schools are offering resources through the organization, CHR, with the requirement of parental consent. Members of the school board say mental health professionals are available at the schools three days a week.

“CHR in there, it’s a nice step, but who’s to say that that’s sufficient, and if you have kids that say, 'eh, I really don’t want to get parental consent,' or they can’t get parental consent, what are they supposed to do?” McKeon said.

The next two hearings are set for Nov. 30 and Dec. 13, where the state will decide whether or not Killingly is in compliance with state requirements.