Staples Principal Stafford W. Thomas, Jr. has announced Staples High School’s recipients for April’s Student of the Month:

Honored students: (top, l-r) Anna Dorio, Jared Leonard, George Nelson (bottom) Sydney Newman, Sidney Seide, Lilly Sutter. Contributed photos

Lilly Sutter, Grade 10; George Nelson, Grade 12; Sidney Seide, Grade 11; Anna Diorio, Grade 9; Jared Leonard, Grade 10, and Sydney Newman, Grade 11.

The Students of the Month award program recognizes students who help make Staples a welcoming place for their peers and teachers alike. 

Students of the month are nominated by their teachers, who are asked to think of those students who come to school regularly, are friendly to the staff and to fellow students, and make positive contributions in class as well as the Staples community.

Two Bedford Middle School Students have won awards in this year’s Connecticut Student Writer Contest, sponsored by the Connecticut Writing Project at UCONN.

Bedford winners: Alexia Ninios (l) and Samantha Henske (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photos

Seventh Grader Samantha Henske won the top prize of Platinum in the Fiction category for her piece, “Life in a Different Key,” the story of a teenage girl trying to find herself when she is suddenly transplanted to a foreign country after the death of her mother.

As the Platinum winner, Samantha’s story will be published in this year’s Connecticut Student Writer’s magazine.

Another seventh grader, Alexia Ninios, was the Gold Award winner, or first runner-up, in Fiction for her piece “The Traffickers,” a chilling cyber-suspense story.

The Staples Tuition Grants has partnered with a small group of anonymous donors and launched the STG COVID-19 Community Challenge.

So far, it has raised more than $75,000 towards its $100,000 goal, an announcement said.

“These funds will be used to supplement this year’s grant allocation to students who applied for needs-based assistance from STG,” it said.

“Westport has a number of families who struggle to close the gap between the high cost of post-high school education and what they can afford. For more information or to donate, click HERE.”

By Jarret Liotta

Despite a petition to get the issue back on its agenda, the Board of Education (BOE) Monday night roundly rejected a request by a parent to consider reopening the discussion on school start time.

On Feb. 10 the BOE voted to push school start times back 30 minutes, primarily to allow teenage students more early morning sleep in respect to their unique physiological needs — something districts around the world have been exploring.

But even after a School Start Time Committee (SSTC), composed of parents and educators, spent more than two years drawing up a unanimous recommendation to the BOE, a number of parents and educators of elementary-age children raised objections to the decision, saying their needs weren’t adequately considered and that the board didn’t properly vet the matter.

“Over 500 voters signed a petition that is not in favor of delayed elementary and middle school start time,” parent Joe Nader wrote in a request to have the matter placed back on an upcoming BOE agenda so it could consider reversing its 5-to-2 decision.

By Jarret Liotta

There will very likely be a delay in reopening Coleytown Middle School (CMS), Don O’Day, chair of the CMS Building Committee, told the Board of Education (BOE) tonight.

Virus impacts construction schedule. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The management group, Newfield Construction, will be providing his committee with a revised timetable the first week of May, but O’Day said he was anticipating it might be at least Oct. 1 before students can return to CMS.

“My guess, and it’s only a guess, is that the delay could be a month, could be a little bit more, but not multiple months,” he said.

The BOE is now faced with deciding whether to schedule a move-in deadline for CMS staff and students, assuming the building does become inhabitable this fall, or whether it should plan on having all of Westport’s middle school students remain at Bedford Middle School (BMS) for another full year.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced today that the state’s public schools, restaurants and bars will remain closed through at least May 20.

“May 20 will be the earliest to reconsider opening,” Lamont said. “Even though we are seeing a little bit of good news ... I don’t want us to get complacent and I wouldn’t be surprised if that May 20 date extends as well.”

Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona said officials were planning for a closure that could last the remainder of the school year.

“We know we may need to cancel classes for the remainder of the year and, while we’re not announcing that today, we are planning for the worst case scenario,” Cardona said.