Landon: Board Questioned His Integrity

By James Lomuscio

UPDATE (adds board statement) Westport Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon, who is retiring in June, today bemoaned that some school board members Monday night questioned his integrity “for the first time in 17 years.”

Elliott Landon: “They were questioning my truthfulness.” Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

At issue: Landon’s word based on legal counsel regarding the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic calendars.

Landon told the board that he had direct confirmation from school counsel Thomas Mooney that his plan to have three, one-week vacations during those academic years did not violate the state’s Uniform School Calendar policy.

The state policy stipulates only two one-week vacations throughout the academic year, not three. Landon, conferring with Mooney, said that three weeks, specifically the February break, passes muster under the law since four flex days could be added to the Presidents Day holiday.

Landon said that while he assured the board that Mooney had signed off on the three-week plan, two Board of Education members —Elaine Whitney and Karen Kleine—abstained, wanting confirmation from Mooney himself.

Despite the 4 to 0 with 2 abstentions vote in favor of the request, Landon found it a Pyrrhic victory.

Even Michael Gordon, school board chairman who voted with the majority to approve Landon’s request, “said he was uncomfortable,” Landon said, saying that the matter would be revisited.

“I said to myself after 17 years with no one questioning my integrity, you guys are doing it when I’m leaving,” Landon said. “It’s the king is dead, long live the king.”

Compounding his bafflement, Landon said, is the fact that Christopher LaBelle, associate director of Cooperative Educational Services (CES), a Trumbull-based regional education service organization, told the board that he had spoken to Mooney several times, hearing that flex time use was acceptable.

The plan is already in force in the Greenwich and New Canaan public schools, Landon said

The Westport school board sets its academic calendar two years into the future. Each school year has 182 days, though the state requires only 180, Landon said.

Last year, the board voted to institute the state policy beginning 2016-17, limiting vacations to the Christmas recess and spring breaks.

Landon said that after checking with CES, “I realized that Greenwich and New Canaan were not following that, and so I checked with Tom Mooney, and I found that it (the state policy) allows you to use five flex days, but you can’t take five flex days in succession,” Landon said.

Four flex days tacked onto the Presidents Day Monday holiday, however, worked under the new rules because “it’s not a full week,” Landon said.

“They were questioning my truthfulness,” he said about the three board members.

To set the record straight, Landon said that at the next Board of Education meeting he is presenting Mooney’s “total written opinion.”

“It will confirm what I said,” said Landon.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Gordon, the board chairman, said “The new legislation has created a great deal of confusion for local districts on how they can use flex days to customize their calendars. The board was doing its due diligence to understand the legal nuances before it voted.”