Scenes from tonight’s Westport Police-Youth Collaborative “cop shop” at Toquet Hall, which aims to foster closer ties between police and teens. Jen Cirino, Westport school system’s coordinator of Information and technology, provided guidance on prevention of Identity theft.  She told the students to be selective about what they include in their online profile, know what is public and which is private, know how to use the site’s protection features, and choose a screen name and picture carefully, She summed up: “Think before you post or text, a bad reputation can be just a click away.  Spread heart, not hurt.” Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

A former college admissions official, Stephanie Klein Wassink, told the Westport Rotary Club today that teens who post offensive comments on Facebook, even under an alias, are jeopardizing their college applications. “They think because they use an alias for potentially offensive posts they don’t realize that their broad circle of acquaintances know who the alias really belongs to and can easily identify them in a way that can get to the attention of the college admissions staff,” she said. A graduate of Brown University and the Wharton School of Business, Wassink is a former Wall Street trader who evaluated thousands of applications while working on Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management admissions committee. In 2004, she founded Wilton-based Winning Applications, designed to assist students in the college application process. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By James Lomuscio

As in previous years, Westport Schools Superintendent Elliot Landon, who earned $290,418 for 2013, leads the list of the school systems’ top 10 salaried employees, according to information released today by the Westport Public Schools.
Elliott Landon: highest paid CT superintendent. Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Landon taking the top spot comes as no surprise since he is the highest paid of Connecticut’s 155 superintendents, according to the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS).

“He’s been holding that status for a long time,” said Donna Finello, executive administrator for CAPSS.

The average school superintendents’ salary in Connecticut is around $165,000, but CAPPS Executive Director Joseph Cirasuolo cautions against making comparisons. Cirasuolo has served as superintendent in Clinton and Wallingford.

The Board of Finance Audit Subcommittee met today with Scott Bassett, representing McGladrey LLC, the town’s outside audit firm, to clarify guidelines for the formal audit report on the Westport school insurance audit which will be presented soon.  Bassett said the report will recommend a new line item budget to actual reporting structure and provide actuals vs. budget information that can be monitored from month to month.  Committee Chair Brian Stern said he expects the report will clarify how a $400,000 double counting happened and how such errors can be avoided in the future. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Nine Staples High School seniors have been named finalists in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program.  As Merit Scholar finalists, they will have a chance to earn one of 8,000 National Merit Scholarship awards, together worth more than $35 million. Pictured are (back row l-r) Katherine Zhou, Steven Sobel,Charles Jersey, Mrinal Kumar, Sarah Fox and Ben Goldschlage; (front row) Warren Schorr, Amanda Mezoff and Eliza Llewellyn. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Six Staples High School students were recognized for outstanding research at the recent Southern Connecticut Invitational Science and Engineering Fair at Newtown High School.

Participants in the competition gathered for a group photo. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

There were 250 student projects from 10 school districts across Fairfield County. In total, 36 Staples research students competed in the fair. Those cited were:

Sam Chinitz (sophomore) won third place Environmental Proposal for his project “Optimal Braking Strategies for Energy Recovery in Autonomous Cars.”

Kristen Onorato (junior) won first place Environmental Proposal for her project “Developmental Effects of Grafting Leguminous and Non-Leguminous Plants.”

The Westport Board of Education tonight approved $699,000 in cuts from the superintendent’s original 2014-15 proposed budget, resulting in a revised request to the town of $110,319,484—a 5.89 percent increase over the current year.

The cuts include $50,000 for instructional supplies, to be made up by asking parents of 2,500 younger students to purchase $20 in supplies themselves.

The board also authorized a one-time special appropriation request of $1,088,709 to the Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting (RTM) this year to cover a shortfall in its health insurance fund and provide for a 5 percent “risk corridor” fund going forward.

This would be made up of $355,009 to be allocated to the current year budget and $733,700 for the risk corridor, said Chair Elaine Whitney. The Board of Education’s Health Insurance Subcommittee approved the recommendations earlier today.

UPDATE The Westport Board of Education Health Insurance Fund Review Committee today adopted recommendations to address the school health fund shortfall of $1.9 million. They will be presented to the Board of Education and the Board of Finance. The recommendations include a one-time appropriation request for $1,088,709 to cover the shortfall in the current year ($355,009) and establishment of a 5 percent “risk corridor” ($733,700) as well as expenses incurred but not reported (IBNR). CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By James Lomuscio

Westport’s Board of Education in a special meeting tonight voted unanimously to set aside $240,000 taken from its $104 million operating budget to help offset a more than $1.9 million health insurance shortfall this year due to unexpected large claims.

The vote followed more than three hours of discussions on another matter—ways to trim Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon’s proposed $110.8 million 2014-15 operating budget, a 6.56 percent increase. The jump is due to the insurance shortfall plus new educational strategies, including the STEM (science, technology engineering and math) program.

“It’s a significant increase (6.5 percent), and we’re trying to be as responsible as we can, looking for areas where we can tighten our belts a bit,” said Elaine Whitney, school board chairwoman.

Whitney noted that if the health insurance shortfall had been figured into the current year’s budget, the adjusted increase for next year would be only be 4.8 percent.

Westport Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon tonight told the Board of Education he was “disappointed” with his late school closure call during Monday’s snowstorm and promised, “we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

While all other Fairfield County school districts had announced closures by 5:30 a.m. Monday in the face of what was an accurate prediction of 6 to 8 inches of snow, Landon did not announce Westport’s closure until 6:45 a.m.

By that time, some teachers had arrived at Staples High School or were on their way and some students were already on school buses or waiting at bus stops. The head of the teachers’ union said the late decision put teachers and students in danger.

“Nobody could be more disappointed than I in the fact that we—I made the announcement late,” said Landon, who later refused to discuss his decision with local media, at the outset of tonight’s meeting. “But there were extenuating circumstances, one of which for those of my loyal followers who think I overslept. I did not.”