Staples High School has announced its latest Students of the Month. The award program recognizes students who help make the school a welcoming place for their peers and teachers alike. They are nominated by their teachers, who are asked to select all-around good school citizens. Pictured: (back row, l-r) Kion Bruno, Donald Macaluso, Jack Beck, and Aidan Reilly; (middle row) Jack Nealon, Colin Willigan, Andie Pines, Celia Block, Anne Machata and Carrick Keenan; (front row) Conrad Mann and Valentina Rozo. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

By James Lomuscio

Westport will need an extra $5 to $6 million in its total budget for next year if Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to have towns pay one-third of teacher pensions becomes a reality, First Selectman Jim Marpe said today.

Jim Marpe: “a real surprise.” Larry Untermeyer/WN photo

“The governor’s announcement comes as a real surprise, and it will require us to take a hard look at our budgets,” Marpe said. The state is scheduled to pay $17.6 million in 2018 for Westport teacher retirees.

The Board of Education is scheduled to vote on its proposed $115.35 million 2017-18 operating budget, a 2.44 percent increase, on Monday, and Marpe’s proposed $79 million municipal budget, a 1.29 percent decrease, is scheduled to be finalized in five to six weeks, he said.

While seemingly painless fiscal belt tightening has been de rigueur for the school board and the town due to the Board of Finance’s zero-based budgeting directive, Malloy’s proposal has thrown serious concern into the budget process, as an extra $5 to $6 million might have to be factored into the total town budget for 2017-18.

By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

When educators were unable to help Susan Davis’s 8-year-old autistic son calm down at school, he was put into a 4- by 6-foot, custom-built box.

Parents and special education advocates pack a state Board of Education meeting on Wednesday. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jacqueline Rabe Thomas for CTMirror.org

Davis and her husband were unaware their son was being regularly restrained and secluded until she visited his classroom so she could get a more complete picture of the education he was receiving.

“We had no idea that this was happening to my child. My son was never able to articulate any these events to us,” Davis, from north central Connecticut, told the state Board of Education today. “If we did not have access to observations, who knows how long this would have continued for.”

Seventy-one parents of special education students who have had limited or no access to their children’s classroom are begging the state Department of Education to remove barriers they say their local schools have put in place that effectively keep them — and outside experts they consult — from observing.

Due to the weather, the Westport Public Schools will be closing two hours early today.

All evening activities are canceled.

Staples High School will dismiss at 12:15 p.m. Bedford Middle, Coleytown Middle, and Saugatuck Elementary Schools will dismiss at 12:45 p.m. Coleytown Elementary, Greens Farms, Kings Highway, and Long Lots Schools will dismiss at 1:15 p.m.

For Stepping Stones information, please refer to the standard early dismissal information posted online.

UPDATE After several weeks of discussions and debate, Westport’s Board of Education tonight cleared the way to approve a request by the school’s transportation director to put three-point seat belts in 13 of the district’s school buses starting next year.

Some school buses will have seat belts beginning next January. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

The request made by director Sandra Evangelista would total $120,900, with more than half of that amount being budgeted for the 2017-18 academic year to retrofit seven buses, and the remaining six buses for 2018-19.

While most board members seemed in favor of the proposal, the actual vote will come next week as part of the 2017-18 budget.

According to Elio Longo, school business administrator, each of the retrofits would cost about $9,300.

By James Lomuscio

Even though it was not on tonight’s school board agenda, parents and students one after the other came forward to protest. A couple of them cried. Others were in disbelief.

Staples senior Kate Backman burst into tears as she pleaded with the Board of Education to retain teacher Linda McClary.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Photo from Staples Television

They had just learned that the Staples High School child development program as it exists now would be discontinued next year.

Schools Superintendent Colleen Palmer’s decision to reshuffle the program to the social studies department was stealthily done without seeking parent and student input, they argued.

They also expressed concern about the future of Linda McClary, the long time, well-loved program teacher.

Westport Superintendent of Schools Colleen Palmer today welcomes guests to the Westport Historical Society (WHS) exhibit “Westport School Days 1703-Present” as Bob Mitchell (l), WHS president, and Bob Weingarten, curator, look on. The exhibit runs through March 25. Simultaneously, in the Mollie Donovan Gallery, debuting was “Katherine Ross: Artist and Art Educator.”  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

Among the items on view at the new Westport HIstorical Society exhbit, “School Days 1703-Present,” which opened today, were a collection of class photos, a couple dating from the 19th century. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo