The Westport Woman’s Club (WWC) Scholarship Committee today awarded scholarships to 11 Staples High School seniors and one adult woman. The WWC scholarship awards, which totaled $27,500 this year, are based on academic achievement (no lower than 3.0 academic GPA), community service, extracurricular activities and financial need. Staples Principal John Dodig and First Selectman Gordon Joseloff posed with the grant award recipients: Lucy DeFlavio (Emily B. Fuller Scholarship), University of Vermont; Kyle Bacon (Lea Ruegg Scholarship), University of Connecticut; Hanna Ahlgrim (Ina Bradley Scholarship), Loyola University Maryland; Jessica Guo (Most Active Member Scholarship, awarded in honor of Rose Jordan), University of Connecticut, Carson Einarsen, Savannah College of Art & Design; Maeve Flaherty, Brown University; Kyle Mikesh, Marist College; Michelle Muller, Savannah College of Art & Design; Jay Tsai, Georgetown University, and John Watson, Champlain College. The adult scholarship was awarded to Mami Ngombabu, St. Vincent’s College of Nursing. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for Westportnow.com

Among Staples tuition grants awarded at a ceremony Thursday night was one given by the Staples Class of 1981. Posing with Michele Muller, the recipient, were (l-r) Aleda Santos Warren, Jill Muller, Jeb Backus, Muller, Andre Lambros, and Suzanne Sherman Propp. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Greens Farms Academy graduates react to the commencement speaker today. Sixty-six seniors graduated under sunny skies with Long Island Sound in the background. Valedictorian Kate Tomlinson from Darien and Salutatorian Kishan Patel from Westport welcomed the crowd. Guest speaker Peter Goldmark gave the class five lessons to remember. Janet Hartwell, head of school, congratulated 14 seniors who are the first to graduate from Greens Farms Academy with a Diploma with a Concentration in Global Studies. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Westport’s Staples High School today announced that Matt Silver and Carolyn Chen are the school’s Class of 2012 valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively.

Matt Silver and Carolyn Chen are the Staples Class of 2012 valedictorian and salutatorian. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

But both students find time for other activities besides studying. Matt is a national Scrabble champion. Carolyn serves with Westport’s Emergency Medical Service. Both are avid musicians, and participate in many other activities as well.

Matt will deliver the valedictory address during graduation ceremonies on June 19. Carolyn speaks the night before at baccalaureate.

A lifelong Westporter, Matt’s interests in math and Scrabble were nourished first at Long Lots Elementary and Bedford Middle Schools.

By James Lomuscio

About two acres of the town-owned, 32-acre Baron’s South property topped the list of 10 town, state and private properties that the school board has examined to park its school buses to cut its annual $250,000 parking rental bill.
Buses lined up at the DATTCO school bus depot on Westport’s Post Road East. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Despite some zoning hurdles for fueling and servicing buses plus the need for state Department of Transportation (DOT) traffic approval, Baron’s South was cited as “potentially viable” in a school board bus parking subcommittee report presented to the full board Monday.

The reasons included the fact that it is already town owned, has easy access to the Post Road and “traffic management appears feasible,” the report states.

“There are a lot of things that make it attractive,” said Mark Mathias, Board of Education member serving on the subcommittee with Elaine Whitney. “But all of the locations have issues, and everything will require work to make it happen.”

In another magazine ranking of the nation’s best high schools, Westport’s Staples High School was named by Newsweek as No. 3 in Connecticut and No. 234 nationally.

Staples was behind Connecticut International Baccalaureate Academy, East Hartford, (130 nationally)—also named No. 1 in Conecticut in a recent U.S. News survey (See WestportNow May 8, 2012)—and Weston High School (163 nationally).

Newsweek said its survey highlights the best 1,000 public high schools in the nation—the ones that have proven to be the most effective in turning out college-ready grads.

It said the list is based on six components provided by school administrators: graduation rate (25 percent), college matriculation rate (25 percent), AP/IB/AICE tests taken per student (25 percent), average SAT/ACT scores (10 percent), average AP/IB/AICE scores (10 percent), and AP courses offered per student (5 percent).

By James Lomuscio

While not yet official, Westport school board members say they will make class size across the system a strategic objective for the coming school year.

The comments today followed Monday night’s Board of Education 6 to 1 vote defeating a motion by Michael Gordon and seconded by Jim Marpe, board vice chairman, to return to a pre-2009 “break point” policy requiring the opening up of new elementary school classes when enrollment hits certain numbers.

For more than a decade, class sizes have been limited to 22 for kindergarten through first grade and 25 for second through fifth grade.

“The break point is when we decide to add a section, and before the recession hit, if any second grade class had more than 25, we would add another section,” Marpe explained.

Members of the Westport Sunrise Rotary today delivered books to the Bridge Academy charter school in Bridgeport as part of a $5,000 district matching grant project used to purchase about 2,400 books for the school library from Westport’s Barnes & Noble.The Rotary delivery team, whose members met with students and staff during their visit, included Charles Adams, Nick Clarke, Steve Cowherd, Bob Galan, Mark Mathias, Joe Renzulli, Pete Wolgast, Dennis Wong and Eric Zielinski. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo