The Little Things

‘We Hold People Accountable’: District Officials Weigh In On Handling of Former Assistant to NCHS Athletic Director

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Saying New Canaan Public Schools acted immediately and responsibly after learning of financial problems involving an assistant to the high school’s athletic director, district officials are taking exception to some of the ways the matter has been described by investigators in police case reports. The Board of Education put Anne Tomaselli on administrative leave straightaway after discovering that she had failed to say anything about more than $30,000 in overpayments made in her paycheck over a period of about three months in late 2015, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi and the Director of Finance and Operations Dr. Jo-Ann Keating. District officials also notified the New Canaan Police Department immediately of that discovery, as well as after they found two bundles of $20 bills in Tomaselli’s office that were marked ‘football gate’ with dates from home Rams games from November 2015, they said. And although it’s true that no criminal charges ultimately were brought against Tomaselli in connection with either matter, the state’s attorney—not the schools—made that determination, Luizzi and Keating said. 

In fact, the separation agreement under which Tomaselli agreed to reimburse the school district $30,000 and never to be employed by New Canaan Public Schools was finalized only after police said there was inadequate evidence to bring charges against her for a potential theft, they said. “We hold people accountable that we address issues as they arise and are always vigilant and careful stewards of the district’s resources,” Luizzi told NewCanaanite.com during an interview Tuesday.

Around Town

‘The Best Way To Spend The Summer’: Wednesday Summer Concerts At Waveny

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Whether you’re a fan of folk, country, rhythm and blues, or just fancy a night out under the stars, New Canaan’s Waveny Summer Concert Series is a great local summertime option. A free, weekly event open to the public on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. on the lawn behind the Waveny House, the series opened June 27 and will continue weekly through Aug. 26. The July 29 installment, featuring ’50s and ’60s group T&T Dreamin’, is sponsored by NewCanaanite.com. “We try to come out every week that we can,” New Canaan resident Bill Lawler said on the sun-splotched lawn out back of Waveny House as the July 22 concert got underway.

Business

Moms, Teachers, Friends, Scientists: New Canaan Women Launch ‘Rad Lab’ Preschool Program

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After one of New Canaan’s many snowstorms last winter, next-door neighbors and fast friends Courtney Flynn and Jennifer Moore—teachers by training and profession—plowed a path between their homes, then scooped pots of snow and hauled them inside and up to Moore’s bathtub for their combined children (five altogether, each four years old or younger) to play with in a unique way. The pair armed the kids with spray bottles of food coloring and “they just went nuts,” Moore recalled on a recent morning from a corner room downstairs at the United Methodist Church, a box of baby wipes surrounded by rubber bands, marbles and dowels on the table in front of her, graduated cylinders and beakers on a shelf against the wall. “Coloring the snow and mixing the colors and seeing what happens when they mixed the colors or how they could get the color to go away or to melt the snow,” Moore continued. “They were playing, and that’s all about states of matter—solid, liquid, gas—the snow was melting and then the color was changing. So they [the kids] liked that, and then we just started doing little things outside.”

Those little things—hands-on and offering new ways to experience and understand the everyday—ranged from the basics (dropping rocks to test gravity) to more sophisticated (planting seeds, digging for worms).

News

New Trees Grace Entrance to Irwin, Thanks to Garden Club and Town DPW

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[Editor’s Note: The following information was submitted by Katie Stewart of the New Canaan Garden Club, a nonprofit organization that’s been doing this type of great work in town for more than a century. Find out more about membership here.]

The three photos below were taken on Tuesday, September 30, 2014 by Judy Neville when the New Canaan Garden Club Irwin Park Committee installed five new trees at the Park entrance with the help of the town backhoe and Parks Superintendent John Howe, Highway Superintendent Mose Saccary and Tiger Mann. In 2005 the garden club members accepted the stewardship of New Canaan’s newest park on Weed Street from the Irwin Family when the club members were given an endowment fund to continue the beautification of the property/park and improve the quality of life in our already special town. The garden club gladly collaborates with the Park and Recreation Commission, the Office of Selectman and the Public Works crew on the maintenance and beautification. Annually improvements and new projects have been undertaken using the funds.

News

Town to ‘Renew Old Tradition’ with ‘Welcome to New Canaan’ Signs

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First Selectman Rob Mallozzi says that for years, he has admired and appreciated the “Welcome” signs that often greet motorists pulling off of roads such as the Merritt Parkway and crossing from one municipality to another in Connecticut and elsewhere. “I thought to myself that New Canaan is the most welcoming community I know—why don’t we have one?” Mallozzi said. We may, soon enough. Town planning officials on Tuesday approved a proposal to install a DOT-approved, 4.5-foot-high “Welcome to New Canaan” sign at two entrances to the town (not far from the southbound off-ramps of Exits 37 and 38 on the Merritt). Tiger Mann, assistant director of the Department of Public Works, unveiled the signs at the Planning & Zoning Commission’s regular meeting, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center.