By Jarret Liotta
The Westport Board of Education held an unusual Sunday afternoon meeting at Town Hall today to discuss long-term priorities and — simultaneously — recognize it has a lot going on.
The Board of Education meeting in Sunday session. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
The untelevised 5 p.m. special meeting had an informal flavor that featured minimal public attendance and pizza.
But the seven members and Superintendent of Schools Colleen Palmer focused on how much was already on their plates and how a litany of issues, ideas and implementations might affect the year ahead.
“The workload on this team is at maximum level,” Palmer said of her staff, in part due to the current relocation of Coleytown Middle School students following a mold and air quality crisis in the building.
“The pressure points are so extreme for every member of the cabinet,” she said, with administrators working from the time they wake up until the time they go to bed, “seven days a week.”
Thus, Palmer said, her hope was that she could leave this meeting understanding the school board’s “real priorities.”
Function and efficiency were directly and indirectly broached, starting with suggestions to have drafts of school board agendas available to all board members in advance to enable them to be better prepared.
Vice Chair Jeannie Smith addresses the board while Chair Mark Mathias listens. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
“People can say, ‘Why is this here? Why is this not on here?’” Chairman Mark Mathias said, revisiting the idea of imposing time limits on topics at board meetings to move them faster.
“You’re the only Board of Ed in Connecticut that I know of that has public comment after every item,” Palmer said.
“I don’t get the feeling that that’s where we run over,” Mathias said, attributing it to too much “yakking” by the members themselves during discussions.
Palmer pointed out that having committees “really increases your board’s ability to go in depth in issues … so that by the time it gets to you, it’s already had a review.”
Member Karen Kleine noted there were some things being done differently by other local school boards, and some ideas may be worth consideration, including how the budget is presented to the public.
“I like the idea of tying our budget to our strategic plan,” Mathias said, adding that in some cases how a municipality presents its budget to the public is tantamount to a publicity tool.
He said it would be beneficial if their constituency could gain a clearer understanding on how line item costs translate to broader areas of focus in their collective vision.
Palmer presented a list of what Anthony Buono, the new assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, feels are short-term priorities for the district.
These include new assessment and professional development calendars, development of data teams, school improvement goals, professional development committees, and much more.
Board member Vic Muktavaram raised the question of just how the board was supposed to view the priority list, in what context of reference.
“We continue to strive for coherence,” Palmer said, noting that the list talked to the underpinning systems of the district.
She said the district was “jump-starting a lot,” including extensive policy revisions, “but you can only do so much and do it well in a short amount of time.”
School enrollment was also touched on.
“There are 300 new units of housing in this town that are already approved,” Palmer said.
She explained that a demographic expert was going to be examining new figures that could point to a significant enrollment increase at Kings Highway Elementary School in particular.
While she acknowledged that enrollment was down 70 kids this year, Palmer said that spread over 12 grades it was not a big change.
The project on the Post Road near Turkey Hill Road, she said, was likely going to have a big impact in the future.
“I don’t think we can assume anymore that (enrollment) is going to go down,” member Candice Savin said.
