By James Lomuscio
According to Westport School Superintendent Elliott Landon, over the years, nonresidents have have come up with some creative tricks to claim they live in town so their children can get into its nationally acclaimed school system. 
Elliott Landon: “We’re not heartless.” Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
“They do all kinds of things,” Landon said today. “They’ll give a business address, buy a very tiny house and say they live there, rent office space and say they live there.
“You could say it’s flattering, but actually it’s a violation of the law and a theft of services,” he added. “In virtually every case, the people pay up. They get caught, and they pay up. But if they don’t pay up, we exercise our right to sue them.”
Such is the case with the Seymour couple against whom the Board of Education brought suit last week in Stamford Superior Court for falsely registering their daughter for two years.
The school board seeks $27,911 in tuition from Christopher Kieras, arguing that he and his former wife Maria falsified registration cards for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years.
Neither Catherine S. Nietzel, a Stamford attorney representing the school board, nor Alexander Schwartz, a Fairfield attorney representing the Kierases, responded to calls for comment.
While Landon said he could not comment on specifics of the case, he said, “This is the first time we haven’t been able to recoup.”
“I think sometimes people think we’ll go away, and that the threat is not a real one,” he said, noting that over the years students have snuck in from as far west as Stamford and as far east as Seymour.
When asked if parents, perhaps, cannot afford to make restitution, Landon responded, “We would give them a payment plan to pay it back over time.”
“We’re not heartless,” he said.
The current annual tuition costs are $14,350 for kindergarten through fifth grade, $20,100 through eighth grade, and $21,500 for Staples High School, according to Landon.
But that does not mean the school system actively opens its doors to anyone who wants to pay.
“We’re too crowded, and there’s no space to take outsiders,” he said. “They only ones we admit are employees’ children who pay a reduced rate of tuition. They pay 25 percent.”
Currently, there are 29 such children in the school system. Other out-of-towners include 60 Bridgeport students who attend as part of the state’s Open Choice program predicated on the 1996 Connecticut Supreme Court ruling in Sheff v. O’Neill aimed at creating equal educational opportunity.
“And the only other kids we accept are Rotary exchange students,” said Landon. “We just had one here from Poland.”
Landon pointed out that even the tuition breaks out-of-town employees receive involves sacrifice.
“It is a lot,” he said, “especially if you’re paying taxes somewhere else.”
