News

Officials Recommend Training in More Proactive Approach to Handling Violent Incidents in Schools

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Officials who help shape school safety policy in New Canaan are recommending training for all district staff in a new way of preparing students for violent incidents. 

Members of the district’s Crisis Advisory Board, or ‘CAB,’ told the Board of Education last week that the powerful experiential training they’ve undergone in a more proactive approach to handling situations such as shootings should lead to new “lockdown” procedures at all public schools. In traditional lockdown drills, children go into a classroom and teachers all follow the same procedures, South School Principal and CAB member Joanne Rocco told the Board of Ed at its regular meeting Dec. 3. Those steps include “locking the door, pulling down the shades, turning off the lights and students would all go into one corner of the room where they weren’t visible and would just wait,” Rocco said. “So that was the traditional lockdown,” she said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School.

Government

New Canaan Woman Trips and Falls Outside High School, Breaks Nose, Sues Town

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The town on Monday received a lawsuit filed on behalf of a local woman who last spring fell outside New Canaan High School and broke her nose. It happened at about 6:45 p.m. on a Thursday in April 2017, outside the high school’s main entrance, according to a lawsuit filed by Lawrence F. Reilly of the Ridgefield-based Reilly Law Firm. Joan Holloway tripped on a protruding, bent, defective and uneven piece of metal rebar where a paved walkway meets the grass on the southern end of the main entrance, according to the lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court. “As Ms. Holloway fell to the ground, she was unable to brace herself and her face slammed into the paving stones covering the entranceway to the High School, thus causing injuries and losses described herein,” the complaint said. Those include “massive bruising above and around her left eye” so that it was swollen shut for a time, “abrasions, scarring, severe bruising and discoloration throughout her face,” contusions and swelling of her left knee and “ongoing tenderness of her injured body parts,” according to the lawsuit.

Board of Education

Consultant Presents Baseline Bus Service Costs for Starting School Later

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Pushing back the earliest school start times by 45 minutes—and doing so without significantly changing the day for those in kindergarten through sixth grade—would cost nearly $1.4 million annually, a consultant told the Board of Education last week. The added cost, which would bring the district’s total yearly busing expenses to about $4.6 million, represents the estimated 14 additional school buses that New Canaan would need to change its highly efficient, current system of three busing tiers down to two tiers, according to Mark Walsh of Walworth, N.Y.-based Transportation Advisory Services. 

Yet even if the Board of Ed wants to go in that direction, finding additional drivers to operate those buses likely would prove difficult, Walsh told the elected body at its regular meeting, held Nov. 19 at New Canaan High School. “You have been fortunate that you have been able to have a sufficient roster of drivers,” he said. “Part of it is because of the labor agreement that they have, and that labor agreement provides for a six-hour day.

Christine Landis

Attorney Enters ‘Not Guilty’ Plea for Second Lunch Lady Facing Felony Larceny Charge

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Attorneys representing one of the lunch ladies accused of stealing nearly $500,000 in cash from New Canaan school cafeterias entered a not guilty plea Tuesday. Marie Wilson appeared in state Superior Court in Stamford before Judge John Blawie. Her sister, Joanne Pascarelli, who also had been arrested by New Canaan Police in August and already pleaded not guilty to a first-degree larceny charge, was in the courtroom. Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Valdes said during the hearing that Wilson’s attorney, Christine Landis of The Law Offices of Mark Sherman Law, had just been given a “CD with bank records retrieved by police, subject to search warrants, and she needs time to review them.”

Wilson’s case was continued to Jan. 11. 

A Wilton resident, she had been employed as the assistant food director at New Canaan High School.

Board of Education

Board of Ed Elects Brendan Hayes as Chair by 7-2 Vote

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The Board of Education on Monday night by a 7-2 vote elected Brendan Hayes as its new chairman. A Democrat who has served on the elected body for three years, Hayes “has been a thoughtful leader on the Board of Education,” outgoing Chair Dionna Carlson said during a special meeting held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. Hayes has served as chair of the group’s Education Resources Committee and “was instrumental in updating the Board of Education’s facilities rental policies as well as being a consistent advocate throughout the Board’s budget process,” Carlson said. In addition to Hayes and Carlson, Board members Sheri West, Penny Rashin, Jennifer Richardson, Hazel Hobbs, and Katrina Parkhill voted in favor of making him chairman. Board of Ed members Maria Naughton and Tom Cronin voted against.