Members of Westport’s Board of Education met at the Westport Public Library today for their annual budget workshop. They discussed Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon’s proposed 2013-14 which calls for a 5.15 percent increase over the current year.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

There was a large turnout today for the annual Board of Education budget workshop at the Westport Public Library. Board members were reviewing in detail the proposed 2013-14 budget which proposes a 5.15 percent increase. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By James Lomuscio

During a preliminary talk tonight about the 2013-14 school budget, Westport Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon braced the Board of Education for 5.15 percent increase over the current year.

Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon explains his draft budget request tonight as members (l-r) Michael Gordon, Michael McGovern, and Elaine Whitney listen.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

This year’s school budget is $100.38 million, making the requested increase almost $5.2 million.

“I wish I could have brought it in at a lower level,” Landon told the board, “but there comes a point where you can’t get blood from a stone.”

Landon pointed to the inflationary component of heath insurance, workers compensation, the need for installing wireless access at Kings Highway and Coleytown Elementary Schools, plus the need for a 10-year accreditation.

By James Lomuscio

The Newtown elementary school shooting that left 20 students and six teachers and staff dead has reopened fears for Westport’s Coleytown Middle School (CMS) parents whose children were threatened in October by a school bus driver who has since been fired and arrested.

The parents voiced their concerns at tonight’s Board of Education meeting where schools Superintendent Elliott Landon reaffirmed the school system’s transportation policies and procedures.

“I also have an eighth grader who was on Bus 16, and in light of Friday’s event my concerns turned to the to the mental state of the driver,” said Trish Boyle. “He clearly was kind of delusional, paranoid and acting oddly.”

Boyle said she wanted to know what steps were being taken to monitor the driver, since she and other parents worry about retaliation.

Jeannie Smith was sworn in tonight as a new member of the Westport Board of Education by Town Clerk Patricia Strauss. She fills a vacancy opening created when Jim Marpe, a Republican, resigned effective Nov. 13. A Westport resident since 2008 and a former public school teacher in Westchester County for 11 years, Smith is a 1994 graduate of Fordham University having earned her masters degree in teaching. The mother of four was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for a board seat in the 2011 election. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com