Despite a last-minute resignation in the World Language Department, New Canaan Public Schools managed to fill all certified positions in the district prior to the start of the academic year, officials say.
Filling that final position was “a huge accomplishment,” Darlene Pianka, director of human resources for NCPS, told members of the Board of Education during a special meeting held Aug. 24 in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School.
“And it was accomplished by the people who work with us that know people and refer them and say, ‘You should come and work in New Canaan,’ and that is exactly what happened,” Pianka said.
The comments came during a staffing update to the nine-member school board.
The certified professionals include one board-certified behavior analyst, school psychologists, Special Education teachers and a high school orchestra teacher, Pianka said: “Some really difficult positions to find, and again, I’m really excited about the candidates we found and I think will be good matches for New Canaan Public Schools.
The district hired 40 new teachers this summer—within the normal range, Pianka said—and the non-certified positions still in process of getting filled include paraeducators in Special Education and general ed, a van driver, campus monitor administrative assistant in HR.
The teacher hirings include accommodating an additional kindergarten section at West School and an additional first grade section at South School.
Asked by Board of Ed Chair Phil Hogan how far off of the district’s classroom guidelines those two grades would have been, NCPS Deputy Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jill Correnty said that class sizes were “at average” size after breaking out for the new sections.
Board member Brendan Hayes whether the district saw “any major changes in numbers in terms of staffing or students relative to expectations.”
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said the “numbers of kindergarten didn’t materialize” as projected, “so we are in good shape there.”
He continued: “We are moving the pre-K over and we’ll talk more at our next meeting, we have an update around that for West School. But numbers are in line, for the most part, with our budget, and we’ve been looking to invest and reinvest in some spots in order to meet some needs that have emerged.” (The Board of Ed’s next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 8.)
During last week’s special meeting, the Board also heard from new members of the NCPS team, including Director of Clinical & Related Services Danielle Maslar, Administrator of Special Education (grades 5-8) Dr. Elizabeth Hannaway and Director of Finance & Operations Kasey Diotte.
Of them, Pianka said, “I can’t tell you how excited I am at the prospect of working with our new colleagues,” adding that they’re coming into difficult areas to hire where there aren’t many candidates “and I think we found three wonderful candidates and I think we are all really excited to work with everyone.”