News

‘You Had Me At Hello’: First Selectman Supports Addition of Special Ed Admin in Public Schools

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The town’s highest elected official last week voiced support for the Superintendent of Schools’ request to add a third full-time special education administrator to New Canaan Public Schools’ staff. Designed to more effectively manage special ed staff and cases, the addition is “something important to my values,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said Wednesday during the first presentation of Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi’s draft proposed budget to the Board of Selectmen. “If we have enrollment that is driving this, then that’s [why] we all voted for [the expansion at] Saxe,” Mallozzi said during the presentation, held in a board room at Town Hall. “This position here is some that on an emotional and any kind of level seems very important, so I am delighted to see it in the budget.”

“You had me at ‘Hello’ with this,” Mallozzi said with respect to the request, offering high praise for the two administrators in place now and their ability to carry a large workload. Currently, two administrators divide the work of overseeing special education in the public schools—evaluating and supervising all staff, communicating with parents, sitting in on meetings, keeping abreast of developments in special ed requirements and regulations—one responsible for pre-K through fifth grade, the other sixth grade through “Launch” (any special ed student through age 21).

Government

School Cafeterias Score High in Health Inspections; ‘Risk Factor’ Violations at NCHS, Saxe and West

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Each of New Canaan’s six public school cafeterias scored at least 95 points out of a possible 100 in recent unannounced inspections by the New Canaan Health Department. Three of the cafs were cited for more serious “risk factor” violations during inspections conducted by Sanitarian and Restaurant/Food Inspector Carla DeLucia—one each at the high school, middle school and West School. East School earned a perfect 100. The overall scores were:

East: 100
South: 99
West: 97
Saxe: 98
NCHS: 95

Here are the details, noted by the sanitarian, at the most recent inspection for each school—risk factor violations are noted with an asterisk:

East (Jan. 11)—zero violations

South (Jan.

car accident Silvermine Road

Police Arrest New Canaan Woman for Driving Under the Influence At Saxe Middle School Pick-Up

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Police on Thursday afternoon charged a 52-year-old New Canaan woman with driving under the influence at Saxe Middle School, where she had gone to pick up her child. The woman, of Harrison Avenue, is the same woman named in a civil lawsuit in connection with the horrific October 2014 car accident on Silvermine Road that caused a young man from Stamford life-threatening injuries. That lawsuit accuses her of driving under the influence—a charge that the state’s attorney did not bring in the case, though local police had determined that she was intoxicated at the time of the crash. Police last March charged her with misdemeanor reckless driving for that accident. At about 1:48 p.m. on Jan.

News

Letter: Full Saxe Building Project—Do It Once, Right and Now

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To the Board of Selectmen, Town Council and Board of Finance:

What has made our school district so successful is that our community has supported the education of the whole child. It was an understanding that our children find their own paths to personal growth by excelling in academics, sports, theater, art, music, foreign language, STEM programming, etc. This concept of the whole child is especially important in the middle school years, which tend to be challenging. All these efforts have allowed New Canaan Public Schools to be recognized as shining examples of best practices. Families continue to move to New Canaan because of the excellent schools and our wonderful community.

News

‘On the Backs of Our Neediest Programs’: Seeing Saxe Middle School with Principal Greg Macedo

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Greg Macedo walked a hallway toward the northwest corner of Saxe Middle School on a recent weekday morning, in what’s known as the “8th Grade Wing,” part of a 1997 expansion of the brick building at Farm and South. There, a freestanding office partition that stands five feet high—a bit shorter than the average height of a 13-year-old boy—“separates” the hallway from a 150-square-foot area never meant to serve as a classroom. Yet—in a far-reaching knock-on effect that has seen rising enrollment, new programming and state-mandated classes push “regular” classrooms into what had been designed as Special Education spaces—the now-1,328 students at a school built to accommodate 1,200 at most, have forced Macedo, Saxe’s principal, to push Special Ed programming into what had been office spaces for teachers, storage rooms and hallways. “We have balanced the space problems on the backs of our neediest programs,” said Macedo, looking over this makeshift classroom, cordoned off five years ago and including the assorted bouncy balls, mats, bean bags and trampolines that provide physical stimulation for kids on the autism spectrum. “Kids would not feel like they are in a classroom here,” he said, speaking from a similarly carved-out hallway space one floor up.