Westport’s Staples High School was among 16 Connecticut high schools cited for excellence in a survey released today by U.S. News and World Report.
Staples won a silver medal in the rankings, as did high schools in Weston, Wilton, Darien, New Canaan, Redding and Ridgefield. However, Greenwich did not appear on the list.
The assessment analyzed 21,786 public high schools in 48 states plus the District of Columbia.
In October, Connecticut Magazine ranked Staples No. 1 high school in the state. (See WestportNow Oct. 23, 2009).
Awards and recognition like this are exactly the reason we need to maintain the funding for our schools, at least at current levels. Further cuts to the education budget this year, after the deep cuts last year will be detrimental to all of our schools and students. There is no way to keep up the quality of our system while continually cutting spending. We are already extremely efficient in dollars spent as compared to schools in our ERG… we spend less and have better results. We need support for our schools especially in slow economic times!
$100 million school budget is more than enough.Lets not get carried away april………………..
Let’s be factual.
In this evaluation, Westport did not rank in the top 100 schools in the nation (Gold designation). Westport (50.8) ranked third in the state behind Weston (62.6) and Ridgefield (54.9).
Westport has the highest per pupil spending in the state! When compared with Ridgefield on a per pupil basis who has a similar enrollment with one more elementary school, Westport has 78 more certified administrators and support, 79 more non-certified staff and 29 more teachers. This equates to about $14 million more per annum in spending.
The fact is, we spend more and achieve less.
The Board of Finance (Avi Kaner) requested at a recent meeting with the School Board do this type of analysis or benchmarking. We’ll see if the School Board complies.
Good management is about achieving more with less (efficiency)!
Conversely, bad management achieves less with more.