By Jarret Liotta
The Westport Board of Education (BOE) and administration moved ahead today on formation of a townwide advisory committee to deal with the closure of Coleytown Middle School (CMS) due to air quality issues.
Today’s meeting heard from Adam Rosen (l), BMS principal, James D’Amico (2nd l) SHS principal, and Kris Szabo (r) CMS principal. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
A morning Town Hall meeting of the board’s Finance and Facilities Committee (FFC) formed a recommendation to the full board on makeup and charge of the new committee, to be called the Community Advisory Committee (CAC).
At the same time, it heard from teachers and parents that the temporary measures involved in moving almost 500 students from CMS to Bedford Middle School (BMS) and Staples High School (SHS) are “not working.”
The town has received numbers for extensive remediation of CMS starting at $25 million, as well as a price tag of up to $70 million to construct a new building.
At today’s meeting, Westport residents were encouraged to reach out to BOE Chairman Mark Mathias by Thursday if they hope to take part in the new CAC.
He will assemble names for a group that, along with nonvoting representation from four town governing bodies — the Boards of Education, Finance, and Selectmen, and the Representative Town Meeting, as well as the town’s Building Department — will include 15 voting members, including three PTA representatives, a community preschool representative, two teachers, two “at-large parents,” a special education representative, two Westporters who do not have children in the schools, two school administrators, and — at the suggestion of First Selectman Jim Marpe — a Public Site and Building Commission member and someone from the Selectman’s Maintenance Study Committee.
A nonvoting “facilitator” may also be brought in to help guide the meetings, which will be open to the public and already has a first scheduled on Sunday.
The BOE will likely schedule a quick special meeting on Thursday to vote approval for the new committee and its members.
“Obviously the composition of it is very important,” said BOE member Neil Phillips. “We’re already hearing from a lot of members of the public who want to be part of it.”
The 7:30 a.m. Board of Education Finance and Facilities Committee meeting in Town Hall was well attended. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
Mathias said he has already received at least 30 emails of people wanting to join, or recommending names.
Details of exactly how the committee will approach what has become a far-reaching problem for the town are still in process.
“If there’s a need for more than one advisory group … that’s certainly something that we should consider,” Phillips said, with subcommittees a possibility.
Receiving additional public input is also a matter for consideration, with ideas like surveys and outreach meetings being discussed.
At the FFC’s request Jay Keenan, RTM District 2, shared about his experience serving on the committee to address mold issues at Kings Highway Elementary School (KHS) some 10 years ago.
“You don’t want to get bogged down in the long-term goals,” he said.
“We were able to concentrate on the building itself and fixing the building,” he said, noting the importance of having professionals on the committee, including engineers and architects. “We did it pretty quickly.”
Marpe noted, however, that the students were able to continue attending KHS at that time.
“Here we have a situation where we have 400 students displaced and obviously parents are concerned,” he said, noting they don’t have the “luxury of time.”
John Horrigan, CMS teacher, Westport Education Association president, and native Westporter, told the meeting the current situation with the temporary relocation of students needs to be addressed immediately,
“What we’re doing … is not working,” he said, referencing the indefinite relocation of CMS sixth and seventh grade students to BMS, and eighth grade students to SHS — the plan in place through this school year.
“It’s the best we can do right now,” he acknowledged, but emphasized several times that it was not working at either BMS or SHS.
“We’ve got a lot of teachers that are very anxious,” he said. “This is their life.”
“It’s very clear there’s been a breakdown of trust (and) it needs to be rebuilt with the whole (town),” said parent Robert Harrington.
“There is a real frustration,” he said.
“All the parents in Westport are very frustrated,” said BOF member Sheri Gordon.
“Parity is of the utmost importance,” she said, noting that CMS has been “the poor stepchild” to BMS.
“The housing market will be destroyed if we don’t solve our educational problems,” she said.
“We hear the frustration,” Phillips said.
Superintendent of Schools Colleen Palmer and the principals of the three impacted schools shared that they were doing all that they could to keep things together.
“This is an extraordinary situation,” Palmer said, noting it was not sustainable in the “long term.”
“We all understand the eyes of the entire community are on us,” she said.
“I heard two people say that the system’s not working and I disagree with that,” Mathias said.
“It is not ideal, but … I think a lot of work has gone on to make it work as best it can,” he said.
Palmer said work was progressing on arranging for modular classrooms at BMS and SHS as soon as possible but that the process was slowed by bureaucratic requirements and other issues.
