Long Lots Elementary School Interim Principal Michael Cicchetti and Assistant Principal Molly Farrell greet students today on the school’s morning show. Cicchetti replaced Jeffrey M. Golubchick, who last week was placed on “paid administrative leave without prejudice” for letters his attorney sent to some teachers and administrators. (See WestportNow Feb. 11, 2017) Schools Superintendent Colleen Palmer tweeted this photo. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) @WestportSuper/Twitter photo

The new interim principal of Westport’s Long Lots Elementary School, Michael Cicchetti, greets students today at a Valentine’s Day town meeting and all sing “Lion’s Spirit.” Schools Superintendent Colleen Palmer tweeted this photo and added: “Great Valentine’s Day celebration.”  Cicchetti replaced Jeffrey M. Golubchick who last week was placed on “paid administrative leave without prejudice” for letters his attorney sent to some teachers and administrators. (See WestportNow Feb. 11, 2017) @WestportSuper/Twitter.com photo

By Gordon Joseloff

Jeffrey Golubchick welcomed students back to school in September. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

UPDATE Long Lots Elementary School Principal Jeffrey M. Golubchick has been placed on “paid administrative leave without prejudice” because of letters his attorney sent to teachers and subordinate administrators “asserting legal claims against them,” Superintendent of Schools Colleen Palmer said today.

Palmer’s late Saturday afternoon email explanation to parents followed one on Friday informing them of action against Golubchick, 36, who has been principal since July 1, 2015. He earlier served as assistant principal at Saugatuck Elementary.

After the Friday email, a Long Lots parent who asked to remain anonymous said Palmer’s “zero explanation to the community … has made many of the parents up in arms.”

“Today I am able to share some additional information which I believe will answer many of the questions that you may have regarding my initial communication to you yesterday,” Palmer said in her latest email.

Westport public schools will be on a two-hour opening delay Friday due to post-storm cleanup.

Westport Superintendent of Schools Colleen Palmer said Westport public schools will be closed Thursday due to the pending snowstorm.

By Dave Matlow

Going from relative obscurity to an internationally known diversity group, TEAM Westport members met today for the first time since its white privilege essay notoriety to evaluate all the attention.

TEAM Westport Chair Harold Bailey, Jr. addresses today’s meeting. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

“We’ve received much good publicity lately,” said an understated Harold Bailey, Jr., the black, soft-spoken, ex-IBM executive who has been group’s chair since its founding in 2003. TEAM stands for Together Effectively Achieving Multiculturalism.

Bailey, who oversaw the committee-authored high school essay contest prompt on white privilege, noted in the Town Hall meeting that coverage of the essay, touched off by a Jan. 31 Associated Press story, had spread to the United Kingdom, China, and beyond. (See WestportNow Jan. 31, 2017)

“There’s been a media barrage of letters to Westport town officials, including comments that “the subject was racist,” he said.

By James Lomuscio

Westport Schools Superintendent Colleen Palmer said tonight that she would seek every avenue to continue Staples High School’s child development program, while honoring the service of long time, beloved teacher Linda McClary.

Colleen Palmer: “concerned about loyal soldier.”  Dave Matlow / WN file photo

Palmer told a Board of Education meeting she had discovered in November after concerns from preschool parents that McClary, who for years has been synonymous with the program, is not certified to teach the course.

Palmer said she chose not to go public until she was assured that McClary’s retirement would be protected. She said she was concerned that a teacher who had taught in an area for which she was not certified would not gain points toward retirement benefits.

“I probably did not come out to the forefront and really talk about a lot of this publicly because I was very, very concerned about a loyal soldier in our school district who might have her retirement at risk,” she said.

By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Keith M. Phaneuf

www.ctmirror.org

New Britain – Standing in the library of an elementary school that was at the center of a recent school-funding trial, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today released his plans for redistributing existing levels of state education aid in ways he said would help the most impoverished school districts.

“There will be a shift. There will absolutely be a shift,” Malloy, a Democrat, told reporters when releasing his plans at Smalley Academy. “We are failing children because their parents are poor.”

His plan overhauls the highly criticized Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula by changing how student poverty is determined and creating a grant pool of roughly $575 million to help towns pay for special education.

The new pool of money – for educating physically or developmentally disabled students – would be funded almost entirely by redirecting nearly one-quarter of the $2 billion in state dollars that currently go toward the ECS grant and all of the so-called Excess Cost grant, which helps school districts pay for services for severely disabled students.

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