UPDATE The ritual of cheerleaders at Westport’s Staples High School baking sweets for varsity football players has ended following a story highlighting the practice in the school newspaper Inklings.
Staples cheerleaders baked for football players off the field. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

Victor Hollenberg, co-editor-in-chief of Inklings, told WestportNow that Staples Principal John Dodig ended the tradition after editors on Wednesday submitted the news section of Inklings containing the story to him for pre-publication review, a normal practice.

In an e-mail message to WestportNow today, Dodig confirmed he had put a halt to the sweets-for-the-players ritual.

“Long before I became the principal of Staples High School, the superintendent of schools prohibited organized baking among cheerleaders for football players,” he said.

A team of two entrepreneurial educators, Michele Isenberg (l) and Dawn Matera, who mentor children and adults with learning disabilities, told the Westport Rotary Club Tuesday that “if a child can love to learn, they will be happy the rest of their lives.” The couple stressed that “everyone learns differently and that our society tends to assess children against a more limited traditional measure”—often outside the skill area of those who frequently possess above-average intelligence. Matera and Isenberg, both certified teachers, are the founders of the Westport-based A Way to Learn, LLC, an organization created to meet the growing need for educational support services. The organization’s Web site, www.awaytolearn.net, details its philosophy and programs. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Members of the Staples High School girls swim team were among those taking part in today’s Homecoming Weekend pap rally at the school.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Zach Slater for WestportNow.com

Meeting in a special session, Westport’s Board of Finance tonight approved almost $3.8 million to address indoor air quality issues at various schools.

The unanimous vote included almost $2.9 million for King’s Highway Elementary School which will be used to upgrade the building’s ventilation system as well as to repoint exterior masonry walls to eliminate water incursion through the walls.

Two years ago, responding to parent complaints, Westport First Selectman Gordon F. Joseloff appointed a special committee to investigate air quality issues at King’s Highway. (See WestportNow Aug. 2, 2007)

“I take some pride in the fact that it was my responsiveness to parents who first raised air quality issues at King’s Highway with me in the summer of 2007 that got us to where we are today,” he said in endorsing the appropriation request.

Eight students at Westport’s Staples High School seniors have been named semi-finalists in the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program. As Merit Scholar semi-finalists, they have a chance at one of 8,200 National Merit Scholarship awards worth more than $36 million. Pictured are (back row, l-r): Nicholas Cion, Naveen Murali, Devin Graber, Jason Gandelman, Matthew Greenberg, and Mara Forbes; (front row, l-r) Anna Harnick and Lena Ziskin. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Westport’s Bedford Middle School is among eight Connecticut schools announced today as 2009 Blue Ribbon Schools.
Bedford Middle School, seen in this 2008 photo, was among eight Blue Ribbon Schools honored in Connecticut. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Lynn U. Miller for WestportNow.com

In, all 314 U.S. schools received the honor—264 public and 50 private schools. Bedford was one of three Connecticut public schools to win the honor. The other five were in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport.

The U.S. Department of Education administers the program which honors public and private elementary, middle and high schools that are either academically superior or that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement to high levels.

Bedford’s 21-page application for the honor noted that 22 of its 838 students, or 3 percent, qualified for free or reduced price meals, that 103, or 12 percent, received special education services, and that the school was 92 percent white, 5 percent Asian, 2 percent Hispanic or Latino, and 1 percent black or African-American.

Elliott Landon: “Fully supportive” of students hearing address. Dave Matlow/WN file photoStudents in Westport public schools will be able to see and hear President Obama’s address to the nation’s schoolchildren on Tuesday, according to Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon.

In an e-mail message to parents today, Landon said he was “pleased that the President of the United States will be taking time from his busy schedule to deliver this important message to our students.”

He said that administrators and teachers would integrate the speech in classroom instruction as they deem best.

The White House has said that the president’s address is intended to be an inspirational, pro-education message to all students at the beginning of the school year.

At Westport’s Bedford Middle School today, Karen McCormick, drama teacher, welcomed students on the first day of school. McCormick is the director of “Bye Bye Birdie,” this year’s school production (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Michael Aitkenhead: teaching tomorrow’s leaders. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
By Dave Matlow

Westport’s newly named Teacher of the Year said today he’s often asked if he really wants to make a difference, why doesn’t he teach in Bridgeport, for example.

The answer for Staples High School science teacher Michael Aitkenhead, as he explained it to fellow teachers at a district-wide pre-school meeting at Bedford Middle School, is fairly simple.

“I chose Westport because this is where I can make the greatest impact on tomorrow’s leaders,” he said. “They (the students) don’t realize it yet that they are tomorrow’s leaders.”

Aitkenhead, whose passion is the environment and who teaches AP environmental science, has been a teacher at Staples five years.

UPDATE Staples High School science teacher Michael Aitkenhead (3rd l) today was named Westport’s Teacher of the Year for 2010. Announcement was made at a district-wide back to school meeting of Westport educators at Bedford Middle School which included a video about the district’s five Teacher of the Year candidates. (See WestportNow Aug. 12, 2009) Pictured with Aitkenhead are fellow finalists (l-r): Daniel Geraghty, a Staples English teacher; Carol Kochefko, who teaches German at Staples; Janet Adams, a first grade teacher at Long Lots Elementary School, and Jennifer Dunn, a first grade teacher at Coleytown Elementary School. Aitkenhead will be honored at a Board of Education meeting in September. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com