Morning Weather Report: Seasonal Forecast for Trick or Treating
Today
A chance of rain before 8am, then a slight chance of showers after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 64. Southwest wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Tonight
Partly cloudy, with a low around 47. West wind around 6 mph.
Tomorrow
Sunny, with a high near 60. West wind 8 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.
Tomorrow Night
Increasing clouds, with a low around 42. Northwest wind around 6 mph.
Staples Water Polo Seniors Honored as they Celebrate 11-10 Win
(L-R): Staples Senior Water Polo Team members Brendan McGinley, Max Tanksley, Jasper Cahn, Ivan Dubinin, Peter Moody and Head Coach Danilo Sierra-Giraldo. Not pictured is senior Timothy Poly. Contributed photo by Debbie McGinley. The Staples Boys’ Water Polo Team celebrated a record breaking season after winning 11-10 over Suffield Academy on Saturday. The senior boys were honored by the Wreckers team members as they celebrate their last season with the group.
Blue Skies Try to Move In
Spots of blue made their way over Westport today as rain moved in again for the evening hours.
Season’s Change around Round Pond
A grey day was pierced by the colors of the trees surrounding Round Pond this afternoon.
Main Street Halloween Part 2
The tremendous turnout Thursday for the Annual Children's Halloween Parade clearly warrants a second look. From dancers to dinosaurs, from princesses to superheroes, and firefighters to ninjas, the imagination and creativity of the Westport community was on full display by children “of all ages” as they say.
Photos by J.C. Martin for WestportLocal.com click on any photo to enlarge and open gallery.
Beware: Spooky Doings On North Avenue
This lost spirit seems to have found a home on a tree swing at this home on North Avenue. She is quiet, however.
Windsurfer Rescued from Westport Waters Friday Evening Unharmed
Westport Fire DepartmentThe Westport Police Communications Center received reports of residents observing a wind surfer unable to get back to shore and being swept away from Compo Beach due the high winds and surf. The Westport Fire Department responded to the report of a wind surfer in distress in Long Island Sound off Compo Beach with three engines, a rescue truck, a rescue boat, and the Shift Commander.
Several bystanders confirmed the reports of a person in distress being swept away from the Compo Beach area. The fire department launched the rescue boat to begin a search. Additionally, firefighters began to search for the person from the shore with engine companies in the Longshore and Saugatuck Shore areas of town. Rescue boats from the Norwalk Fire Department, Fairfield Fire Department, and US Coast Guard responded to assist in the search. Prior to the additional rescue boats arriving a civilian on a private vessel located and retrieved the swimmer. The swimmer was brought to the ER Strait Marina. Once on shore the swimmer was evaluated by fire department personnel and determined to be uninjured.
The Norwalk and Fairfield Fire Departments also assisted by responding to motor vehicle accidents on the Post Road and Merritt Parkway in Westport that occurred during the water rescue operation.
Staples High School Principal Announces October Students of the Month
Catherine Cunningham, Gianna Amatuzzi, Lucas Baer, Sydney Griffiths, Olivia McCaffery, Kaylin Manning, William Holleman. Contributed photo. Staples Principal Stafford ThomasPrincipal Thomas has announced Staples High School's recipients for October Student of the Month:
Catherine Cunningham – Gr 12
Sydney Griffiths – Gr. 12
Olivia McCaffery – Gr. 11
William Holleman – Gr. 11
Gianna Amatuzzi – Gr. 10
Lucas Baer – Gr. 9
Kaylin Manning- Gr. 9
The Students of the Month award program recognizes students who help make Staples High School a welcoming place for their peers and teachers alike. They are the “glue” of the Staples community: the type of kind, cheerful, hard-working, trustworthy students that keep the high school together, making it the special place that it is.
Students of the month are nominated by their teachers, who are asked to think of those students who come to school regularly, are friendly to the staff and to fellow students, and make positive contributions in class as well as the Staples community. In short, these students are all-around good citizens of our school. Students of the Month are not necessarily star athletes, high honor students, or lead performers, and even if they are, this award recognizes the positive attitude they bring to school every day in making Staples High School a genial place in which to learn and teach.
Westport Property Transfers: October 11th - 15th; Biggest Sale at $15 Million on Post Road East
Westport property transfers as reported by the Westport Town Clerk’s Office:
450 Post Road East sold for $15 million. Contributed photo by Loopnet. Total Conveyance Tax: $73,454.86
Total Sales: $29,381,944.00
Highest Transfer Price: 450 Post Road East: $15,000,000
Lowest Transfer Price: 519 Harvest Commons: $357,500
Transfers:
450 Post Road East: $15,000,000
2 Stonewall Lane: $3,250,000
8 Cranbury Road: $1,900,000
15 Pine Drive: $1,800,000
119 Old Road: $1,625,000
117 Morningside Drive South: $1,550,000
15 Burr Farms Road: $1,130,000
149 Hills Point Road: $1,015,000
3 Wendy Lane: $1,000,000
191 Wilton Road: $754,444
519 Harvest Commons: $357,500
Superintendent Talks Buses, COVID-19 Reporting, and the Education Summit in Recent Email
Superintendent Thomas ScariceTransportation
Transportation continues to be a significant issue in the district. What began with initial concerns regarding drop off times, particularly for our elementary students, gradually worsened into a lack of reliability and consistency for families at all levels. As a result, the daily challenges in transportation have evolved and now impact the actual school day in a variety of ways.
The bus driver shortage (Dattco lost 9 drivers since the start of the year in addition to the loss of a dispatcher and the Operations Supervisor), increased town traffic, and adjusted start times have conspired to significantly impact our ability to provide reliable transportation. There have been delayed bus runs, buses lacking drivers, and last minute condensing of routes leading to confusion, disruption and further delays.
In response, the district has confronted our transportation provider, Dattco, in order to determine what solutions can be implemented to provide reliable transportation. Dattco has reallocated staff from other locations and worked to fast track new office hires to fully staff the team dedicated to Westport.
In a recent meeting, the Board of Education offered to assist in providing support for any solutions. However, even with that support, there are contractual obligations that are expected to be upheld by our provider, Dattco.
There are a number of short-term measures that are being put in place to mitigate the impact of the driver shortage. However, each of these solutions, while providing increased reliability and consistency, will result in unintended, but inevitable, consequences.
Additional Drivers:
Dattco has assured the district that there are currently 13 individuals in training for CDL licensure and scheduled to join Westport this school year. Six of these candidates are only awaiting the comprehensive background check and clearance. These additional drivers will help mitigate the driver shortage, but additional measures will need to be taken in the interim as the process of licensing can take an extended period of time.
In addition, the district reached out to local first responders to determine if perhaps there are some that could assist in driving buses. Unfortunately, the inconsistency of their schedules do not resolve the need for daily reliability and consistency.
Condensing Routes:
Given the critical shortage of drivers, bus routes will be combined. Although this practice has occurred on an “as needed” basis over the past month, last week, our Transportation Coordinator, Buffy Barry, began the process of permanently condensing routes so that the district’s 57 routes would be reduced to 51. This would require six less drivers and significantly improve Dattco’s ability to reliably staff our buses on a daily basis, while also minimizing the inevitable absences when they occur. Once a full roster of drivers is stabilized, there will be consideration for returning to the original routes. However, that is not anticipated until months after the system has stabilized with new drivers.
The unintended, but inevitable, consequence of condensing these routes is that there will be more students on individual buses and the routes will be longer. This is not desirable, particularly given our successful mitigation efforts with Covid on our buses and in our classrooms. Providing reliable and consistent service is our priority at the present time. We will provide updated information to parents about adjusted pick up and drop off times.
Bus Driver Retention Efforts:
While securing new drivers is critically important, retaining our current stable of drivers is equally necessary for the district to provide reliability and consistency. Dattco is working to implement efforts to maintain drivers and the Board of Education has also committed to supporting driver retention efforts. The district will look to partner with other groups, such as our PTAs, to ensure we maintain current levels while welcoming new drivers in the future.
Possible Future Interventions: Cluster/Community Stops and Bell Times:
If condensing routes does not provide the necessary reliability and consistency, it will be necessary to consider other interventions. Cluster/community bus stops create efficiencies by combining a series of proximal stops into one. Less stops with the same total number of students on a bus allows for increased drive time and quicker arrivals. Of course there would be safety considerations to be taken into account before such decisions could be made. Finally, creating more time between bus tiers might be necessary to accommodate the newly condensed bus routes. Currently, the district provides for 30 minutes between each of our three tiers. This is an extreme intervention and would only be considered if all other interventions fail to provide the necessary reliability and consistency in pick up and drop off times for families. These interventions will be considered after four weeks of the newly condensed routes being implemented.
Final Note:
There is obvious frustration when waiting for your child’s bus, particularly when there is pressure to get to work in the morning, or to bring your child to an activity after school. Calling or emailing Dattco, or our Transportation Coordinator, Buffy Barry, is the appropriate action. However, given the crisis, if you do not receive a reply, please understand that this is entirely related to these members of the transportation team performing their essential functions in resolving issues and working to ensure that each student is driven back and forth to school safely. Our standard is to reply to inquiries, yet during this time, it is a challenge to provide the same communication service that parents expect when transportation is fully staffed, on our buses and in our offices.
Covid Reporting Weekly
Covid case rates continue to precipitously decline. No new cases of Covid were reported since last weekend, and no positive cases resulted from our voluntary school based testing program for students 12 and under. As a result, beginning next week, the district will return to reporting cases on a weekly basis, as opposed to daily. If case rates increase we will reconsider our reporting timeline.
Education Summit
On Wednesday, November 10, “Futurist” Christopher Bishop will engage us in an interactive workshop on “How to Succeed at Jobs That Don’t Exist Yet.” Click here for more information on Chris Bishop.
All members of the Westport community are welcome to attend from 7:00pm-9:00pm in the Bedford Middle School auditorium. We value the community’s input and hope you will join us for what is sure to be an informative and exciting event!
For those unable to attend in person, this is event will also be live-streamed via https://www.westportps.org/board-of-education/view-livearchived-meetings.