News

‘We Are Seeing a Pattern Now’: Move-Ins To New Canaan Expected To Drive Record-High Kindergarten Enrollment

By |

Due mainly to young families moving to town, New Canaan Public Schools are projected to see a net gain of 72 students next academic year, creating one of the highest total enrollments that the district has seen in decades, officials said Monday. In the first public release of current enrollment figures and projections since the district’s Oct. 1 report date, officials during the Board of Education’s regular meeting reported that total students will rise from 4,174 in this academic year to 4,246 for 2016-17, according to the New England School Development Council (see “Nov. 9 Staffing and Enrollment” presentation):

 

“In looking at our school district’s historical enrollment, using our pre-K to 12 enrollment this year of 4,217, 10 years ago in 2005 we had 4,163,” Gary Kass, the district’s director of human resources, said during the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS. “We are 54 students higher, and this slow but steady growth is also predicted for our future.

News

Letter: Board of Ed Urges New Canaan To Support Saxe Building Project

By |

The Board of Education has been closely following the Saxe Building Committee’s (SBC) work throughout their process of analyzing the educational space needs at Saxe, recommending changes to meet those needs and designing the improvements deemed critical. The Board of Education fully supports the SBC’s recommended project to renovate the Saxe Auditorium and visual performing arts/music area and to expand the current building to add a net of 12 new classrooms.

Why Saxe Needs More Space

Built in 1957, Saxe Middle School was last renovated from 1997 to 1999 to accommodate 1200 students. Since this time (15-plus years), Saxe’s enrollment has increased. Current enrollment is at 1,327 students, up from the 1,292 students enrolled at this time last year. The latest projections anticipate that enrollment at Saxe will steadily increase over the next few years, peaking in 2024 at 1,376 students, and remaining stable at around 1,350 afterwards.

News

‘It’s a Great Move’: Water Refilling Stations Coming to NCHS

By |

Thanks to generous parents, New Canaan High School soon will have see its water fountains retro-fitted to include eco-friendly refilling stations. The Board of Education on Monday night formally accepted a $5,000 gift from the NCHS Parent Faculty Association that will see district staffers install the stations within about two months, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said. “Kids do not really use water fountains any more,” Luizzi said at the school board’s regular meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS. “They are not drinking out of them. They are buying plastic water bottles, drinking those and then putting them in the garbage—sometimes the recycling bin—so what the hope would be here is that by retrofitting the existing stations to these water refilling stations and water fountains, we could encourage students to bring water bottles into school and refill them up this way with the station.”

He added: “It’s a great move.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

By |

Town officials on Tuesday night approved plans for a new business’s sign and awning at 31 Vitti St.—known for two years as the home of Eclectic, which recently closed (locals may recall chef Robert Milano’s delicious cheesesteak, which recently made our Top-10 New Canaan Sandwiches list). With a planned launch about two weeks away, the new business at 31 Vitti, Good2Gourmet, according to its website, will offer convenient home delivery and curbside pickup from foods on its “tantalizing menu providing maxim flavors with minimum sodium and no additives.” Led by a renowned chef and founded by a mother of four, Good2Gourmet has joined the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce and defines its mission as providing “a variety of healthy and delicious dishes for the entire family.” Read more about the company here. ***

The male Maltese mix found on the night of June 15 on Lakeview Avenue is up for adoption as of Wednesday, June 24 through New Canaan Animal Control. He’s about two years old and Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt said she’s calling him ‘Finnegan.’ “Finn for short,” Kleinschmitt told NewCanaanite.com. “He is so cute.”

***

The New Canaan Board of Education on Monday night bid farewell to two administrators who earned high praise at their final school board meetings.

Government

‘Frustrated’ and ‘Disappointed’: School Board on Final $100,000 Reduction from Proposed Spending Increase

By |

Saying the Town Council’s final, unexplained reduction of $100,000 from the district’s proposed spending increase for next fiscal year left them frustrated and disappointed, several Board of Education members on Monday night called for equal transparency and greater accountability from town government and municipal bodies. New Canaan also should look at its own budget process, school board members said, because by giving more power to appointed—rather than elected—officials, that process leaves Town Council members just one way to put their mark on the budget: reduce what’s been handed to them. Calling the Town Council’s move “unprecedented” in her 12 years on the Board of Ed, Alison Bedula described the move as a “basically random cut to either meet percentage or fulfill an obligation.”

Administrators and school board members worked diligently “to present a transparent line-by-line budget and to have discussions about it through the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance, and to have this thing really kind of ripped apart and looked at in detail which is a really necessary part of the process—to reach the Town Council and answer all their questions and then to get to the very end just to have $100,000 lopped off of the top of the budget, I just found that very disconcerting as a board member, very frustrating, quite frankly,” Bedula said at the Board of Ed meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “I think it’s very difficult as a board member for us to go through the process that we do, to the level of detail that we do, with the level of thoughtfulness that we do, and try to be as transparent as possible, which is asked for and delivered, which is what we all want, obviously to get to that point and have a random no pulled out of the sky, to say ‘We’re just going to take $100,000 off … you guys just have to find it some place.’ ”

Bedula and others at the meeting praised Interim Director of Finance and Operations Nancy Harris, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi and others for putting so much time and effort into a budget presentation that included new depths of detail, as well as the four councilmen who voted against the final $100,000 reduction in the district’s spending increase for next fiscal year: John Emert, John Engel, Kevin Moynihan and Tucker Murphy. (The 12-member Town Council voted 7-4 in favor of the reduction, with Penny Young absent.) Engel in particular during the Town Council’s April 1 meeting had said he was dissatisfied with a $100,000 reduction that lacked any supporting documentation or explanation.