By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — The Board of Education voted last week to accept $35,554 from parent booster clubs to pay 10 assistant coaches’ stipends for fall sports teams.

Assurances were sought, however, that the gifts won’t lead to disparities, particularly between male and female teams. The vote was 6-0, with one abstention at Thursday’s meeting.

“It’s hard for me to get my arms around … The numbers on the page are just so dramatically different for boys versus girls,” said board member Kevin Christie, who ended up abstaining.

A practice predating Athletic Director VJ Sarullo’s hiring by the school district last spring, booster clubs help financially supplement not only fall sports programs, but teams that compete in winter and spring as well.

The assistants work with coaches funded by the school district budget, and the donated stipends must conform to rates spelled out in the Westport teachers’ contract.

Sarullo said efforts are made to ensure the district stays aligned with Title IX rules and keeps things fair between sports for boys and girls. He is also looking to gather more data on gifts booster clubs have donated over time, he said.

In this instance, the donations will fund stipends for football, boys soccer, girls soccer and boys water polo.

Six of the assistant coach stipends, totaling $24,438, are for the football team. Girls soccer is getting funding for two assistant coaches, totaling $5,632.

Sarullo said each sport and its needs are unique.

Football, for instance, has 120 registered student athletes this year and 14 unique playing positions, according to Sarullo. The team has 16 coaches in all, including the six assistants that will be funded by donations. 

Sarullo called it an appropriate number. But without a complete picture of what is funded from all sources, Christie said it is hard tell.

While the gifts are being donated to four teams, Staples High School offers 11 fall sports.

Board member Robert Harrington agreed with Christie that a full picture is needed. “It’s a valid question,” he said.

It is a long-term question with some feeling that some sports get short-changed, added board Chairwoman Lee Goldstein.

Sarullo said in addition to providing more information to the board, his intent is to make sure that stipend gifts for winter and spring sports are presented before the seasons start. In June, he plans to present gifts for the following fall so that approvals don’t come after teams have started practicing.

Balanced budget, small surplus

The school board, at its first business meeting of the 2023-24 academic year, also learned that it ended the last fiscal year in the black.

Chief Financial Officer Elio Longo said the preliminary numbers show the district had a positive balance of $686,006 — out of a $129.5 million budget for 2022-23 — when the fiscal year ended in June.

The district spent more than anticipated on salaries and some other expenses, such as transportation, but made up for it with other accounts, such as benefits, purchased services, supplies and materials.

The board voted to accept the report and ask the Board of Finance to allow the school district to keep the extra funds in a carry-over account. That would bring the district’s carry-over account to a total of about $1.1 million, which is under the one percent budget cap set by school and town officials, Longo said.

The district is also asking the finance board to approve $133,665 in revenue, earned last year through rental of school facilities, to be applied to this year’s education budget.

Enrollment

The district will start the year with the 123 elementary classrooms it budgeted but it comes with some built-in wiggle room.

Assistant Supt. of Schools John Bayers said new students are still being registered, but on the eve of the new school year starting Aug. 29, 5,282 students are enrolled — 48 fewer than anticipated when the 2023-24 budget was adopted last spring.

The count does not include preschool students or students in out-of-district placements. Those will be factored in when the district reports its enrollment total to the state in October.

Coleytown Elementary School, overall, has two students fewer than projected, but its kindergarten has 15 students more than expected, at 92 students. The shortfalls came in other grades.

Greens Farms has 12 fewer students than projected, while Kings Highway has five more students than projected.

Long Lots — where two portable classrooms were installed this summer to handle a space crunch — has 15 fewer students than projected, but will maintain the planned 29 classroom sections.

Sauguatuck has 23 fewer students, but will keep 21 sections.

Between the two middle schools, there are 23 fewer students than expected, primarily in sixth-grade classes.

At Staples High School, there are 22 more students than projected.

Staffing

The school board was told that barring last-minute resignations, the district is one high school English teacher away from a full complement of certified staff.

“We are working to fill that position,” said Bayers, who said if need be existing staff will use free periods to cover the slot until someone is hired.

This summer, more than 80 new staffers were hired, including 48 certified personnel and 33 non-certified staff. There also are nine college interns assigned across the district.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.