Barbara Rucci

School Start Times: Referendum on Board of Ed Budget Fails [UPDATED]

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A referendum vote Wednesday that, had its petitioners succeeded, would have decreased Board of Education spending by about $460,000, failed to draw enough electors to carry, officials say. Just 1,914 total ballots were cast in a referendum vote designed to strip the school board of funds earmarked for costs associated with changes to school start times in New Canaan, according to Town Clerk Claudia Weber. 

For the effort to succeed, a total of 2,046 cast ballots—that’s 15% of the electorate in the latest registry list—needed to be marked “Yes” on following question (and needed to be a majority of those voting), according to Weber: “Shall the action taken by the Town Council at its March 31, 2021 meeting, which did not reduce the Board of Education budget by $463,337, be overruled and returned to the Board of Finance for reconsideration?”

Of those who did cast ballots, 808 voted “Yes” (including 58 absentees) while 1,106 voted “No” (including 38 absentees), according to Weber. The $460,000 figure largely reflects the amount of money needed for additional buses in order to introduce a new start times schedule that would take effect in the middle of the 2021-22 academic year. In it, all three elementary schools would start at 7:45 a.m., fifth and sixth grades at 9:30 a.m. and seventh through twelfth grades at 8:30 a.m.

Proponents have pointed to scientific data regarding the negative effects of a lack of sleep for adolescents. Opponents have said the planned changes will negatively affect elementary school kids.

Claudia Weber

Town Clerk: Signatures Obtained for Referendum Vote on Board of Ed Budget

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Those seeking to remove about $460,000 from the Board of Education’s budget for next fiscal year—the amount of money needed to bring about long-discussed changes to school start times—have obtained the necessary signatures on a petition to allow for a referendum vote on the funds, according to Town Clerk Claudia Weber. The Town Clerk’s office has verified the petitioners’ 682 signatures and now New Canaan’s legislative body must set a date for the referendum vote, Weber said in an email Tuesday to several officials, including the first selectman and representatives of the Town Council and Registrars of Voters. The date and time for voting must be set before June 6, and the Town Council must decide “if explanatory text is necessary,” Weber said in the email. “If the date is after May 20th, Covid will not be allowed as an excuse for an absentee ballot,” she said, referring to the date that Gov. Ned Lamont has set for the lifting of COVID-19-related executive orders in Connecticut. 

The petitioners are challenging the Town Council’s decision to reject a motion at its March 31 meeting. There, Councilmen Mike Mauro and Maria Naughton voted in favor of a motion to reduce the Board of Ed’s operating budget by $463,337 and Councilmen John Engel, Rich Townsend, Sven Englund, Steve Karl, Penny Young, Liz Donovan, Cristina A. Ross, Mark Grzymski, Tom Butterworth and Robin Bates-Mason voted against.

Board of Selectmen

Town Clerk: Moynihan’s Comments on Record-Keeping ‘Misleading’

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The town clerk is pushing back on characterizations that First Selectman Kevin Moynihan made last week in which he described her office as failing to digitize documents and records as other municipalities and town departments have. Moynihan during Thursday’s regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen said Town Clerk Claudia Weber “has not modernized” in a way that provides sufficient online access to records and that it’s been “a real hindrance” during the COVID-19 pandemic because it’s brought more people physically into Town Hall. Weber told NewCanaanite.com that officials had her muted during the meeting and so she was unable to respond to what she characterized as “misinformation.”

“The First Selectman’s comments were misleading,” Weber said in a statement issued after the meeting. “The New Canaan Town Clerk’s office has actually often been among the ‘first’ in terms of technology over the years.”

Weber’s statement continued, “Further, while the Land Record Index has been online for a long time, due to a previously made promise to our constituents, the actual images have not. Our residents wanted their privacy protected as much as possible.

Claudia Weber

Podcast: Claudia Weber and Miki Porta on Voting in Election 2020

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This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to New Canaan Town Clerk Claudia Weber and League of Women Voters of New Canaan President Miki Porta about the upcoming election. Anyone with a question about voting in 2020 can click here to submit it to the League. Here’s information from Weber on the absentee ballot process and a link to download an application for an absentee ballot, here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of voting via absentee ballot, and additional absentee ballot information can be found here on the Secretary of the State website. Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:

News

Robert Rizzitelli Sworn In as New Canaan Police Officer

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Robert Rizzitelli, a 25-year-old Monroe man now on track to become the newest member of the New Canaan Police Department, was born into a family of law enforcement. The Bridgeport native’s father is a detective sergeant with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department, his grandfather and uncle both served with Bridgeport Police Department and one of his cousins is with Trumbull Police Department, according to New Canaan Police Sgt. Brian Mitchell, the department’s training sergeant. “His heritage has instilled in him the morals and values that are integral to this profession,” Mitchell said on Wednesday morning from the front of a room in Lapham Community Center for Rizzitelli’s swearing-in ceremony. About 30 town officials, police, media members, friends and family attended the ceremony, including First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, Selectman Kit Devereaux and Town Clerk Claudia Weber, who administered the Oath of Office.