By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — The school district bid farewell to 34 years’ worth of institutional knowledge Monday with the departure of four of the seven Board of Education members.

At their last meeting, Chair Candice Savin, Vice Chair Karen Kleine, Secretary Elaine Whitney and member Jeannie Smith took turns praising each other and assuring the audience the school district will remain in good hands when four new members elected Nov. 2 take their seats.

“I am not going anywhere,” quipped Smith, who is leaving the board after nine years. “I am still here as a parent.”

Smith noted that she has children at each level in the school system.

Savin, a Democrat, called Smith, a Republican, a neighbor, colleague and friend who she could trust.

“You will leave a void on this board that will be difficult to fill,” said Savin, who left the board to be Jonathan Steinberg’s running mate in his unsuccessful bid to become first selectman.

Smith, meanwhile, recalled in her first year on the board how Kleine was a PTA president who came to every meeting to fight for the needs at her school. The following year they became running mates.

“She jumps at things I would never want to do,” Smith said of Kleine, such as chairing the policy committee.

During her eight-year tenure on the board, Kleine said she saw approval of 111 policies.

Kleine said the Westport school district is widely considered to be the best in the state “because of the administration, the staff and  Elaine [Whitney].”

“No one has more integrity than Elaine,” said Kleine.

Whitney, a board member for 13 years, called her service — including a stint as chairwoman — the honor of her life. But she said that she was stepping down because she believes organizations perform best when there is a variety of perspectives and experiences.

“It’s time to bring new voices to the table,” Whitney said.

All four departing members did not seek new terms in last week’s municipal election.

Savin, a future selectwoman?

Savin, however, may be moving on to a seat on the Board of Selectmen — depending on developments later this week.

Since Steinberg, her first selectman running mate, has declined to take the minority party’s seat on the Board of Selectman — the usual case under the town charter — Savin has expressed interest in filling the seat in his place.

But the final decision rests with the newly elected Republican majority on the board, First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker and Selectwoman Andrea Moore. 

They are required to appoint a Democrat to the seat, according to the town attorney’s office, but not necessarily the person the Democratic Town Committee plans to recommend at a special meeting Wednesday night.

Further complicating Savin’s future is the unresolved claim by T.J. Elgin, the defeated Libertarian first selectman candidate, that the third seat on the Board of Selectmen is rightfully his.

Loss of “institutional knowledge” comes with “end of an era”

Board member Liz Heyer said the four board members’ departure was the end of an era.

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said the departing board members have shown a district-first and a kid-first mentality.

“It’s a little bit unnerving to think of the institutional knowledge that will be walking out the door,” Scarice said. “I don’t know if folks on the outside looking in really understand what a big loss that is.”

In Monday’s audience at Staples High School were three of the four newly sworn-in board members, whose tenure would commence at midnight.

One of them, Robert Harrington, a Republican, said that while he did not always agree with board members, he never doubted their commitment to the town’s public schools and respected the way they carried the district through school closures, a change in superintendents and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You made a change that was clearly needed,” Harrington said.

Other new board members include Republican Dorie Hordon and Democrats Kevin Christie and Christina Torres.

The school board remains a 4-3 split. with Democrats in the majority.

The first meeting of the newly constituted board is scheduled Dec. 6, when new officers will be elected.