The Board of Education was told tonight that next year’s school budget may be up 4.1 percent and that hidden mold at Coleytown Middle School (CMS), which is not a health hazard, may cost as much as $250,000 to remediate.

Colleen Palmer: budget number “daunting.”  Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Schools Superintendent Colleen Palmer, who took over July 1 from retiring Elliott Landon, informed the board about the budget and health issues and said the budget number was “a very preliminary one.”

“If we kept the same workforce and just moved those folks forward a year and followed our bargaining union contracts… and projected increase in health costs, we would have to ask for an increase of 4.1 percent,” she said. “That number is daunting.”

She reminded board members that the current operating budget, which increased 1.29 percent over the previous year, benefitted from “positive trends” in the health reserve account as well as other factors.

About 250 Kings Highway Elementary School (KHS) students today joined schools around the world to celebrate International Walk to School Day. The event began at 8:10 a.m. with students, parents teachers, and staff walking from Westport Board of Education Technology Center on Riverside Avenue, arriving at KHS five minutes later. Organizers said the events raise awareness of the need to create safer routes for walking and bicycling and emphasize the importance of issues such as increasing physical activity among children, pedestrian safety, traffic congestion and concern for the environment. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Brett Aronow and the Westport Board of Education bid a warm farewell to each other tonight. She said she and her husband, Keith Stein, have sold their Westport home and plan to travel around the world. Each board member expressed parting words to Aronow.  Mark Mathias (r) said, “I always admired your disarming way to bring people together.” Aronow’s final comments: “In the end, it’s always been about the kids.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

www.ctmirror.org

The state Supreme Court will hear an expedited appeal of a lower court’s conclusion that the way the state distributes education aid and oversees local schools is unconstitutional.

Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers accepted petitions by Attorney General George Jepsen and the lawyers for the plaintiffs for a direct review by the Supreme Court of different aspects of the decision by Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher.

Moukawsher demanded plans from the state within 180 days to establish new standards for teacher evaluations, high school graduation and elementary and secondary education and an overhaul to how schools are funded. Defending the state, the attorney general’s appeal called the decision a judicial overreach.

The plaintiffs, a coalition of parents, school officials, and teacher unions, had asked that the high court hold off on hearing the state’s appeal until remedies crafted by lawmakers had been ruled on by the lower court.

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Two Coleytown Middle School students, Charlotte Zhang (l) and Michelle Kaminski, received honorable mention awards in the Middle School Poetry division of the recent 2016 Trumbull Arts Festival Literary Competition. Excerpts of Michelle’s poem, “A Paper Journey,” and Charlotte’s poem, “United As One,” were read to the audience in a ceremony at the Trumbull Public Library. Their teacher is Paul Ferrante. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

By Mark Pazniokas

www.ctmirror.org

Attorney General George Jepsen’s office today filed an appeal asking the Connecticut Supreme Court to conclude that a trial judge embarked on “an uncharted and legally unsupported path” last week in asserting authority over how the state distributes education aid and sets standards for graduating from high school, serving special-needs students and evaluating teachers.

“This decision would wrest educational policy from the representative branches of state government, limit public education for some students with special needs, create additional municipal mandates concerning graduation and other standards, and alter the basic terms of educators’ employment – and entrust all of those matters to the discretion of a single, unelected judge,” Jepsen said.

Jepsen lightly approached the question of where Judge Thomas Moukawsher’s broad indictment of public K-12 education was right or wrong as a matter of policy, but the appeal sharply attacks his legal basis for ruling that shortcomings he identified violate students’ rights under the state Constitution to a free and adequate education.

In a ruling that drew national attention, with The New York Times likening it to “a cry from the heart on the failings of American public education,” Moukawsher concluded the state has a duty to ensure that education aid and other education polices be “rationally, substantially, and verifiably” connected to educational need.

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Ten Staples High School students and one from Greens Farms Academy today were among approximately 16,000 semifinalists named in the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

The 10 Saples semifinalists include: (back row, l-r)  Grace McGinley, Nicole Kiker, Alexander Ialeggio, and Brendon Massoud; (front row) Pheobe Spear, Lindsey Marks, Ulyana Piterbarg, JiSu Ahn, Isabelle Amlicke, and Tia Pogue. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

The seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring.

The Staples students are JiSu Ahn, Isabelle Amlicke, Alexander D. Ialeggio, Nicole T. Kiker, Lindsey N. Marks,  Brendan J. Massoud, Grace McGinley, Ulyana Piterbarg, Tia Pogue, and Phoebe Spear. The Greens Farms Academy student is Christopher J. Glynn.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.

2017 Westport Teacher of the Year Mary Elizabeth Fulco of Staples High School was honored tonight at the Board of Education meeting where the eight runners-up were also announced. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com