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Code Violation Prompts First-Grade Classroom Shift in Delayed South School Windows Project

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The delayed $2.6 million windows replacement project at South School has seen a first-grade class displaced from its planned room because of an architectural design flaw, officials said Tuesday. The project— removing part of the original 1955 glass block, long porous and out-of-code, with caulk that has PCBs—originally was to have been completed prior to the first day of school. But physically obtaining the glass and frames needed, an industry-wide problem, pushed back the work this past summer, and New Canaan’s fire marshal in September flagged a code violation where a first-grade classroom “had an egress window as required by code that was missed by the design documents,” according to Gene Torone, president of SLAM Construction Services and owner’s representative on the project. The plan now is to remove a windowpane and replace it with a frame and new egress window, though those in charge of the work are “dealing with a window company that is very uncooperative,” Torone told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday during an update on the project. “We are negotiating the change order now and there could be some remedy on the side of the architect to help support some of that cost,” Torone said during the selectmen’s regular meeting, held in a board room at Town Hall.

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Schools Hire Dr. Jo-Ann Keating as Director of Finance and Operations; Nancy Harris To Retire

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New Canaan Public Schools is hiring as its new director of finance and operations a woman with decades of experience in the field across multiple districts, officials said Monday. Dr. Jo-Ann Keating, who worked most recently in Weston, will take over the role in July from Nancy Harris, who is retiring, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said in a bulletin that also is published on the district’s website. The search committee for Harris’s successor “found Dr. Keating’s integrity, financial and budget skills, collaborative management style, and extensive experience in school performance and operations to be particularly well suited to the Director of Finance and Operations position for the New Canaan Public Schools,” Luizzi said. “Committee members were especially impressed by Dr. Keating’s proven ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously, and her depth of knowledge and experience related to all aspects of the Director of Finance and Operations role.”

Finance director in Weston since 2006, Keating had worked as business manager for Ridgefield Public Schools and Wolcott Public Schools, and from 1989 through 1993 had been CFO for the Town of Naugatuck, Luizzi said. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Hartford, a master’s organizational management from Central Connecticut University, and a bachelor’s in accounting from Post College.