By James Lomuscio

Upon the recommendation of Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon, the Westport Board of Education tonight unanimously approved hiring Lockton Companies, Inc.‘s Northeast U.S. operations as the school system’s new health insurance and risk management consultant for a three-year period at an annual fixed cost of $45,000.

According to Landon, who with Elio Longo, school business administrator, and Marge Cion, human resources director, interviewed respondents to an RFP (request for proposals), Lockton fit the bill as the best consultant to refine the schools’ best practices and guide the administration through the complexities of the Affordable Health Care Act.

The selection of Lockton came on the heels of the school board unanimously accepting the final report of its Health Insurance Fund Review Committee. The board subcommittee was formed early this year to grapple with what was thought to be a $2 million shortfall in it health insurance budget due to exorbitant claims, a shortfall that upon careful scrutiny actually turned out to be a surplus.

Longo noted that Lockton initially asked for $75,000 per year, but the amount was reduced to $45,000 after it was agreed that the town would also engage Lockton as a consultant.

Two students from Coleytown Middle School are award winners in the 2014 Connecticut Student Writers contest sponsored by the University of Connecticut English Department. Seventh Grader Victoria Cao (r) was awarded an honorable mention for her personal memoir “First Day Jitters,” while eighth grader Eden Schumer is the winner of the poetry division for her piece entitled “A Drop in the Ocean.” Their teacher, Paul Ferrante, said both entries were the product of writing units in the Westport Language Arts curriculum. “The girls wrote very personal pieces and were not afraid to share their feelings and talent,” he said. The students will be honored in a ceremony at the Jorgensen Auditorium on the UCONN campus on Tuesday, May 13. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

By James Lomuscio

Fifteen months after the Newtown school shootings, Westport’s Board of Finance tonight unanimously approved School Superintendent Elliott Landon’s request for $200,000 to replace each school’s interior door locks with high security ones, as recommended by Kroll Security Advisors.

But the approval did not come without criticism over why it took so long to get to this point, since the Newtown shootings took place in December 2012.

“It just seems to me it took a long time,” said Michael Rea, finance board member, noting that the Stamford Public Schools has similar locks installed last summer.

“I would urge you to move as expeditiously as possible,” he added about other security measures.

Deirdre M. Daly, nominated earlier this month by President Obama as U. S. Attorney for Connecticut, talked to juniors and seniors today at Westport’s Greens Farms Academy—where she graduated in 1977—about her path to this position. She urged students to consider public service and tied her early love of solving mysteries to her work as a prosecutor. Daly received her J.D. in 1984 from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. in 1981 from Dartmouth College. She has been acting U.S. Attorney since May 2013 and has served as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Connecticut since 2010. Her nomination is subject to Senate confirmation. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Staples High School student Zach Effman has been selected for an internship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Research Science Institute, the Westport schools office has announced.

Staples High School teacher Nicholas Morgan with Staples junior Zach Effman. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

He is one of just 80 students selected from a worldwide pool for the prestigious internship at MIT, an announcement said. He will spend six weeks working one-on-one with a professor, developing and carrying out an intense research project. Many students enter their work in the Intel Science Talent Search.

As a Staples freshman, Zach heard Nicholas Morgan talk about the Authentic Science Research course he co-teaches.

Over the next three years, he learned he could hone in on an important topic, discover how to truly research it, then follow it through the many inevitable highs and lows of hands-on science.