Bunny Potts

Board of Ed Recognizes Two New Canaan High School Seniors, 13 Retiring Educators

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The Board of Education on Monday honored two graduating New Canaan High School seniors and 13 educators who are retiring after this academic year. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mary Kolek (who is herself retiring and earned kind words from Board Chair Hazel Hobbs during the meeting, held in the high school’s Wagner Room), spoke for a few minutes about both seniors who received Student Leadership Awards from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education or “CABE,” as well as the teachers and administrators soon to retire. Here’s a snippet from Kolek on each honoree. Students

(CABE each year recognizes two students for distinguished leadership in school activities and daily lives, “And I have the pleasure of presenting those awards tonight,” Kolek said.)

New Canaan High School senior Kit Mallozzi (also a NCHS Students Advocates Award winner, headed to Syracuse University in the fall): “One has only to talk to Kit for a few minutes and it’s clear, she’s one of the world’s great optimists. Her nomination submission portrays Kit as someone who embraces life, a friend to all and a ray of sunshine.

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New Canaan Public Schools: Cafeteria Health Inspection Results

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For the second straight time, cafeterias in New Canaan Public Schools largely aced the most recent round of unannounced inspections by the New Canaan Health Department. Each school scored 95 or better out of a possible 100 during inspections recently conducted by sanitarian Carla DeLucia. DeLucia told NewCanaanite.com that the school cafs consistently are clean and well-cared for. “We rarely have issues,” she said. “If there is an issue, it gets fixed immediately.

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Remediation Work on South School Windows to Start This Summer

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Workers this summer will remove parts of the original 1955 glass block from portions of South School—now porous and out-of-code, with caulk that has PCBs—as part of a widely anticipated $2.75 million windows project at the elementary school. The environmental remediation work on the glass—which in its first phase will include all areas except for the front of the school, gym and “café-torium”—will start this summer when South is vacant, members of a building committee dedicated to the project decided at their most recent meeting. “That gives us a leg up to have all the upper window area installed at the same time in the summer of 2015 where all the remediation on all of the lower windows is taking place,” Nancy Harris, interim secretary of the South School Building Committee and interim director of finance and operations for New Canaan Public Schools told NewCanaanite.com during an interview after the April 3 meeting, held at district offices downtown. “So it cuts down on the risk of not completing the project before school starts for the 2015-16 school year.”

The South School windows project has been on the radar for parents and district and town officials for several months. The glass block system and original windows at the school need to be replaced, and building expansion joints and caulking and trim in the windows repaired, Shelton-based engineering and environmental consulting firm Tighe & Bond and SLAM Construction Services of Glastonbury have found.

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Cafeterias at East, NCHS Cited for Minor Health Violations

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New Canaan Public Schools cafeterias largely aced their most recent inspections by local health officials. Each of the schools scored 92 or better (out of a possible 100) during an inspection in the fall by a sanitarian from the New Canaan Health Department, and none was cited for a major, 4-point violation. Only two schools—East and NCHS—were cited for what’s called a “risk factor” violation (details below). The overall scores were:

East School: 93
South School: 98
West School: 96
Saxe Middle School: 95
New Canaan High School: 92

Just as with restaurants in New Canaan, a school cafeteria is said to “fail” an inspection if it’s cited for a major, 4-point violation, or if violation points assessed total more than 20. None of the school cafeterias failed during inspections conducted in September and October.