Scenes from today’s Staples Tuition Grants Awards ceremony at the school. Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Elizabeth Messler: moves from Coleytown El.  Contributed photo

The Westport Board of Education tonight approved the appointment of Elizabeth (Beth) Messler, assistant principal of Coleytown Elementary School, as principal of Saugatuck Elementary School.

The appointment followed an extensive search to find a successor to Jullie Droller, who has served since 2011. It is effective July 1. Droller has been named the district’s new director of elementary education.

Messler, who has also served as assistant principal of Long Lots Elementary School in her 10-year career in the Westport school system, was named 2014 Elementary School Assistant Principal of the Year by the Connecticut Association of Schools.

“I am very excited by this opportunity,” she told the board. “I look forward to working with the Saugatuck community and getting to know the parents, students, and staff members over the next few months.”

Scenes from tonight’s Representative Town Meeting (RTM) which saw a two and a half hour debate on a proposed $200,000 cut in the education budget, which was eventually defeated 28 to 7.  Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By James Lomuscio

By a vote of 28 to 0 with 1 abstention, Westport’s Representative Town Meeting (RTM) tonight approved a $200,000 Board of Education request for the installation of 1,425 high security, classroom locks recommended by Kroll Security, Inc. in response to concerns generated by the Newtown school shootings nearly a year-and-a-half ago.

Elio Longo, school business administrator, shows a lock to RTM members tonight. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

According to Jack Klinge, who spoke on behalf of the RTM’s Education and Finance committees that unanimously recommended the appropriation, the $200,000 from the Capital and Nonrecurring Budget would be offset by a $40,000 state grant. Klinge said that the installation of the locks would begin this summer.

“This is our first hardware security measure district wide,” said Elio Longo, school business administrator, adding that other requests would be forthcoming.

RTM member Diane Cady, who represents District 1, abstained. Cady said earlier that she was “troubled with how long this has taken,” and expressed concern about front and side entrances.

By James Lomuscio

In the wake of a brief but painful cyber-bullying episode at Westport’s Staples High School last week caused by the phone app Yik Yak, more than a dozen parents and students begged the Board of Education tonight not to cut its anti-bullying program, Kool to Be Kind (K2BK).

The Yik Yak app was disabled at Staples but not before it swept through the school last week. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Proponents of the four-year-old, empathy-based K2BK program run in third grade classrooms by parent volunteers and Staples students spoke after school administrators presented nearly an hour’s overview of their own School Climate Committee’s effectiveness. It was the second time in little more than a month that the board had heard emotional pleas about the program from students and parents. (See WestportNow April 24, 2014)

“I heard a lot of words thrown around tonight, and I’m concerned,” Jessica Gross, a Staples junior, said about the administrative report that used terms such as “digital citizenship” and “social-emotional competence.”

“Bullying is an issue now,” she added, noting K2BK was more effective.