By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — Public schools here start a new academic year Tuesday with 157 more students than district officials anticipated.

As a result, three new elementary class sections were created, one each at Kings Highway, Long Lots and Saugatuck elementary schools.

“They keep coming,” Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice told the Board of Education, which met Monday night at Staples High School.

From 2021-22 to the new school year, actual enrollment is about 25 students lower — from 5,345 to 5,320. It is higher, though, than the 5,163 students projected when the education budget of nearly $130 million was approved last spring.

Scarice said the figures indicate an enrollment decline over the past few years in local schools is bottoming out.

Assistant Supt. John Bayers said the hope is that new staff positions will be absorbed by savings in turnover during the year.

Staff hiring “the busiest”

“The 2022-23 hiring season has been the busiest during my time in human resources,” Bayers told the school board.

As of Monday, school officials had hired more than 100 new staff members and still are conducting interviews for remaining vacancies.

Most of the new hires replace staff who left or retired. Sixty are certified staff members, including two new administrators. That compares to a certified staff turnover of 39 last summer.

Bayers said some departing staff left for family reasons or shorter commutes.

While Westport has had less trouble than other districts in finding replacements, Bayers said the nationwide teacher shortage could be an issue long term.

“It is a sign of the times,” he said.

There are still two teaching positions to fill, one in special education and another in French.

The 45 new non-certified staff members include secretaries, paraprofessionals, custodians, building substitutes and security guards.

 There also will be a dozen interns from local universities.

 More classes for more students than projected

Bayers said the preliminary enrollment count includes families who have moved into the district from other states.

Across the district’s five elementary schools there are 41 more students than projected.

Coleytown Elementary had the most, with 13 additional students. But the school did not have to add classes or staff because the new students did not increase the size of any class to the point a new section would have to be created. The school has 24 classes.

The same was true at Greens Farms, which saw six more students than projected. It has 23 classes.

Kings Highway has 10 more students than projected, forcing an additional second-grade class to be created. In all, it now has 22 classes.

Long Lots has 11 more students, requiring an additional class. That brings its count up to 30 classes.

Saugatuck had just one more student than expected, but also what officials described as a dramatic increase at the kindergarten level, requiring an additional class. Saugatuck has 22 sections in all.

At the two middle schools, there were 47 more students than expected. 

And at Staples, instead of losing 86 students, there are only 16 fewer students than expected. Those figures mean, overall, there are 69 more students than projected, fairly evenly spread across the high school’s grades.

Time to review class-size policy?

In establishing class size, there is a school board policy that requires classes to be split if they pass certain thresholds. In kindergarten through second grade, the class size limit is 22. It’s 25 students for grades three through five.

With the three new sections, there are 121 elementary school classes this academic year.

Board Chairwoman Lee Goldstein said the larger-than-anticipated enrollment is something to be celebrated, but also suggested it might be time to review the district’s class-size policy.

The board sought assurances that beyond additional classroom teachers, the district has the space and enough support staff to meet the needs of the unanticipated students.

Bayers said the resources are adequate.

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.