Dionna Carlson

District: Proposed New School Start Times Schedule Wouldn’t Require Kids To Wait in the Dark for the Bus

By |

Though New Canaan’s youngest students would start school first—instead of last, as they do now—under a new schedule that district officials are considering, those kids wouldn’t need to be picked up by buses until after it’s light outside, officials said last week. Because buses could head out in the morning from each of the three geographically distributed elementary schools—that is, closer to students’ homes than they do now, in picking up New Canaan High School kids—a 7:45 a.m. start time at East, South and West would mean the very first student wouldn’t need to be picked up until 7:06 a.m., according to new estimates from the district. Though such a system would require additional buses and brings with it several practical challenges (see below), it also would allow NCHS to start at a sufficiently late morning time with respect to adolescent health, officials said Friday during a special Board of Education meeting. Under the proposed system, seventh- and eighth-graders at Saxe Middle School would start with NCHS at 8:30 a.m., while the fifth and sixth grades at Saxe would start together at 9:15 a.m. 

The schedule would see elementary schools run through 2:15 p.m., while the high school and seventh and eighth grades finished at 3 p.m. and fifth and sixth grades at 3:45 p.m., meaning all levels would have a 6.5-hour school day, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said at the meaning, held in a conference room at the district’s administrative offices. The potential new start time schedule—what Luizzi called a “prototype,” developed much work from Roy Walder, transportation coordinator for New Canaan Public Schools—follows multiple surveys and workshops involving the schools and wider community, and is built around an anchor assumption that grades seven-and-up start at 8:30 a.m., as recommended by pediatricians.

Board of Education

Board of Ed Unanimously Elects Katrina Parkhill as Chair 

By |

The Board of Education on Monday night voted unanimously to elect Katrina Parkhill as its new chair. A Republican elected to the Board two years ago, Parkhill worked for a decade in management consulting and the healthcare industry after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, has three kids in New Canaan Public Schools and has served on the boards of numerous community organizations since moving here nearly 14 years ago, including First Presbyterian Nursery School, Newcomers Club of New Canaan, New Canaan Winter Club and West School PTC (as president). 

Since winning election to the Board of Ed, Parkhill has been an “an outstanding member,” serving on its Governance and Communications Committees, according to Brendan Hayes, who just finished his own one-year term as chair. “She has been an active member of the Board, an active member of the community” Hayes said during the Board’s meeting in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School “She has great connectivity with many parents in town and, I think, will be a great leader for our Board.”

In addition to Hayes and Parkhill, Board members Sheri West, Penny Rashin, Dionna Carlson, Jennifer Richardson, Julie Mackle Reeves and Bob Naughton were in attendance. Carl Gardiner was absent. Also unanimously elected as officers were Hayes, vice chair, and Richardson, secretary.

News

District: Quality of Food Offered at Saxe Middle School Has Improved Dramatically

By |

Widely seen as inferior to the high school’s, the quality of cafeteria food at Saxe Middle School has improved dramatically under the district’s new food services director, officials said last week. The menu at Saxe has changed “significantly” under Michelle Santelli, and the cafeteria now has a salad bar with “nice fresh options,” according to Dr. Jo-Ann Keating, director of finance and operations at New Canaan Public Schools. “We moved our cook from the high school over to Saxe last year,” Keating told members of the Board of Education during their Sept. 3 meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “And she is phenomenal, she does a great job and she has brought a lot of that authentic cooking.

Bill Egan

New Rule: No Cellphone Use in NCHS Classrooms

By |

Starting this year, New Canaan High School students are not permitted to use cellphones in class during the day, Principal Bill Egan said Monday night. In the past, the decision on cellphone use had been left up to individual teachers’ discretion, but the feedback from those educators has been that it’s simply “not a great thing for anyone,” Egan told members of the Board of Education during their regular meeting. “The cellphones are a distraction, so we want them out of the classroom,” Egan said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS. “So they will not be there during the class. They will have cellphone cradles that we will put them in.

Around Town

‘At Home with Other Girls’: Local Nonprofit Organization LiveGirl Marks Five Years

By |

Lola Duhov, 11, has participated in workshops and camps hosted by a New Canaan nonprofit organization for more than one year. The Stamford resident, a Scofield Magnet Middle School student, said that prior to getting involved with LiveGirl, she had been “a very not self-appreciative person and I’d always put myself down and thought I was never good enough.”

“So my mom signed me up for [LiveGirl] and I became so connected with it and in sync with everyone and it just made me feel like a better person, and I’ve learned to accept myself more and become a much more positive person,” Duhov said Wednesday from outside the New Canaan High School cafeteria, filled with laughing girls, all cheering and working together at a leadership workshop. Duhov is one of dozens of area girls who have benefitted from LiveGirl since New Canaan’s Sheri West founded the organization five years ago. Pronounced ‘Liv Girl’ with a short ‘i’—it’s named after West’s daughter Olivia—the organization’s goal “is to build confident leaders,” according to West. “Everything we do is to build self-esteem and social and emotional intelligence, which are the building blocks of a confident leader,” West said.