By James Lomuscio
The Westport Public Schools will see 60 more students, 27 new teachers and three new principals as they open their doors on Wednesday.
A school bus on the media of Post Road East at Long Lots Road reminds residents that Westport schools open on Wednesday. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
The schools will also be doing more with less, school board members say, as the $94.6 million town approved school budget is a 1.6 percent increase over last year, less than contractual obligations for salary increases.
On a positive financial note, Donald O’Day, chairman of the Board of Education, noted that the school system will garner a $500,000 savings by switching its health plan for teachers from Anthem Blue Cross to Cigna, a switch permitted via the contract hammered out between the school board and the Westport Education Association, the teachers’ union.
“The good news is that the school system continues to be very well run from a financial standpoint,” O’Day said. “The board and the administrators are doing everything they have to do to keep the schools running as best they can with the budget they have been allocated.”
This fall, O’Day said, the school system’s eight schools will serve about 5,800 students, with the final student population numbers available by October. He added that the 27 new teachers “will be new faces but not new positions.”
“It’s totally due to attrition,” he said.
The same is true for the three new administrators as Suzie DaSilva takes the helm as principal of Kings Highway Elementary School, Janna Bell as principal of Coleytown Elementary School and Melissa Kay, principal at Bedford Middle School.
Jim Marpe, school board vice chairman, said another positive note is the quality of the town’s teachers that he witnessed by attending teacher orientation and professional development days held this week.
“That was inspiring, and as a board member it’s rewarding to see that our children have the opportunity to be taught by such qualified people that Westporters can be proud of,” he said.
Class size goals for this year are 22 students per kindergarten through first grade, and 25 for second through fifth grade, O’Day said.
Marpe noted that there is a silver lining to no new programs due to budgetary constraints.
“It will all feel familiar as they return to school, and there will be a sense of continuity,” he said.
Marpe added that continuity was enhanced last year as the board voted to combine the curriculum heads of Staples High School and the middle schools.
“The benefit is an even continuity as students progress from middle school to high school,” he said.
School Superintendent Elliott Landon, in a letter to parents that he posted on the school system’s Web site, stated his hopes for “a productive and successful experience in the Westport Public Schools, one in which they are provided opportunities to increase their knowledge, learn new skills, develop their talents and abilities, explore original and unique concepts and ideas, and expand their intellectual and personal horizons.”
He also provided parents with copy of the Parent Handbook 2010-2011 that outlines school system policies and procedures.
The site also includes a letter from Landon on academic integrity.
“Every school wrestles with issues of academic integrity,” Landon writes. “In Westport, as elsewhere, scholastic dishonesty has been made easier—and so much more tempting—with the advent of the Internet and of technology which brings a broad range of information within effortless reach of everyone.”
Landon said that working with parents and the community, the school district has identified goals for Westport students, “prominent among which are that students should treasure learning for its own sake, strive to do their personal best, develop academic competence, learn to think analytically, value ethical behavior and take responsibility for their own actions.”
“There is no doubt in my mind that the values goals and the academic goals are inseparable,” he said.
The site also includes bus schedules for each of the town’s schools, with high school buses starting at 6:45 a.m., middle school ones at 7:20 a.m. and elementary buses at 8 a.m.
“It won’t be long before the buses start rolling down my street,” Marpe said.
“The school kickoff on Sept. 1,” O’Day said, “and certainly, everyone is looking forward to that.”
For further information, visit the school Web site.
