By James Lomuscio
Paul Block, a Westport resident for 20 years and CEO of Merisant, a global sweetener company, was chosen by the seven-member Board of Education tonight to fill the vacancy when Jennifer Tooker, a Republican, stepped down to run for and win a seat in November on the Board of Finance.
Town Clerk Patricia Strauss swears in new Board of Education member Paul Block. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Block was selected from a pool of eight applicants, four of whom had been recommended by the Republican Town Committee (RTC) since the seat had to be filled by a Republican.
Elaine Whitney, board chairwoman, lauded the choice of Block’s selection, praise that was echoed by board member Jeannie Smith, a Republican who had attended Block’s interview with the RTC.
“I believe he will be a strong asset to the Board of Education,” Smith said.
Town Clerk Patricia Strauss formally swore Block in before he joined the board with a packed agenda
But prior to those items, including an interim report on five-day, all-day kindergarten and K-5 instructional minutes, the board received a holiday treat from the Staples High School Orphenians.
Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon noted that while Saturday’s Candlelight Concert at Staples was canceled due to the snow, Friday night’s performance “was the best I’ve seen in my 15 years here.”
With that, Luke Rosenberg, the Orphenians’ director, led the chorale group in three pieces: “Caroling, Caroling,” a Kirby Shaw version of “Jingle Bells,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to rounds of applause from the board and those in attendance.
Later, Landon extended congratulations to Beth Messler, Coleytown Elementary School’s assistant principal who was recently selected the 2014 Connecticut Elementary Assistant Principal of the Year by the Connecticut Association of Schools.
“We knew she was outstanding,” said Landon, noting that Messler’s name is now in the mix for a similar honor from the National Association of Schools.
Amidst the upbeat backdrop, Whitney made only brief mention of a budget blunder announced at a Board of Finance meeting last week. (See WestportNow Dec. 11, 2013)
Assistant Superintendent of Business Elio Longo has uncovered a $2 million shortfall in the school system’s current operating budget due to insurance cost miscalculations made by his predecessor Nancy Harris.
“This discrepancy is due to under budgeting for legitimate expenditures of the Board of Education,” Whitney said, reading from a prepared statement. “There is no current cash flow problem, but we have begun planning now to address the shortfall of sufficient funds to cover future expenses.
“The Board of Education is working closely with the Board of Finance addressing this issue as we go forward. We are in the process of scheduling a public work session in the very near future to address this matter in detail.”
In other matters, Landon said that Kroll Security Advisors was still working on a security report. The firm was hired in the wake of last year’s Dec. 14 Newtown shootings that left 26 students and teachers dead at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Landon said school officials had recently met with Kroll officials “to ensure that it (the report) was fully comprehensive and address all of the issues about which we would be concerned -– and that is threat assessment, architectural issues, specific building issues and the like.”
He added: “I am quite confident that the report that comes to the board will be one that addresses all of our concerns and will give us a roadmap for the future that will enable us to strategically plan on both budgetarily and operationally to ensure the safety of our students and staff is well taken care of in the immediate and long distance future.”
One member of the public who spoke was Jack Klinge, a member of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM). Klinge expressed frustration in the report’s delay, as well as delays in implementing security measures, such as new electronic door locks at schools.
“This didn’t require a Kroll study,” he said. “As you know, I said this 10 months ago at several meetings. This should have been a slam-dunk. It was obvious we had to change the locks in the school classrooms. They didn’t work effectively.
“And I was kind of disappointed to see in September we had an estimate to do it for $435,000 less some $90,000 state reimbursement. And now it’s December one year after Newtown. The Board of Finance has not yet seen a request for funding, let alone the RTM, and I’m really curious why it’s taken so long. It’s an inexcusable delay.”
Landon explained the cost of a lockset originally had been estimated at $45 to $50 apiece. Instead after further examination, the cost could be 10 times what was originally thought, he said.
Without getting into detail, he added: “Our original plan for locks, which we thought was so wise, would have had teachers go out into the hall to lock the locks to protect kids in a lockdown.”
Kling asked if there was a final date for issuance of the report.
Landon replied: “In the beginning of the year we had so many disruptive days if you will of breaks in schedule that it was impossible to put a string of days together meaningfully.
“And the only way Kroll could do its work was to be able to observe what was going on day and night in all of our schools and to meet with the parents, teachers, administrators, community members, police, fire and the like. And all of that was done.
“They had to follow up because they had issues and questions about what policies and procedures they had heard about, had not heard about and wanted to know if we could help them with that, which of course we would because they didn’t want to have an incomplete report.
“They continued to work on it throughout these four months. We had our first opportunity to meet with them this past week. I suspect that before the month of January is over, we will have a report.”
He added: “It will be a full, comprehensive report because Kroll is not a fly-by-night organization. They’re as thorough as thorough can be.”
Landon said school officials even had to rethink “some of the things we were going to do in anticipation of the report, but now we’ll be changing some of our methodologies.”
