By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — Two Staples High School students, new to the Board of Education table, added their voices Thursday to the endorsement of local plans to comply with a state-mandated financial literacy graduation requirement.

The student representatives, who do not have a vote, also weighed in on discussions about the board’s 2024-25 budget request.

Both Anya Nair, a senior, and Calum Madigan, a junior, not only said they see a benefit to the new financial literacy requirement, Nair has taken one of the Staples classes discussed.

“As someone who is an 18-year-old now, I have a lot more responsibilities with credit cards and … college debt. I think it was important,” Nair told the board.

The school board voted last spring to add student board representatives in an effort to amplify student voices in the district.

“This is one very public part of it,” Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said of the effort.

Nair and Madigan were among students who created videos outlining why they wanted to be the school board’s first-ever student representatives. The videos were reviewed by Staples Principal Stafford Thomas, who forwarded their names to the board. Board members interviewed them earlier this month.

Nair, an officer of the new Staples Student Council, said her participation in student government made the opportunity to interact regularly with the school board seem appealing. Nair also runs three clubs at school, founded a pop-up shop called Vintage Breakout and has a part-time job outside of school.

“I think the conversation on curriculum, right now, is super interesting,” Nair said of areas where she thinks the board should focus its attention.

Madigan, 17, said the first time he watched a school board meeting was online to help prepare for Thursday’s meeting.

“This is an amazing opportunity,” said Madigan. He too first learned about the school board opportunity through the Staples Student Council, and said his goal is to help connect students to the Board of Education.

High marks for financial literacy

As for the financial literacy mandate, Staples has a number of course offerings that meet the state’s requirement, which takes effect for the Class of 2027, today’s freshmen, according to Assistant Supt. Anthony Buono.

The state law calls for high school students to complete a minimum of 25 credits for graduation, including one-half credit in personal financial management and financial literacy.

There is flexibility written into the law, the board was told, that will allow a number of courses currently offered at Staples to comply with the requirement, which is intended to teach students about banking, investing, saving, the use of credit cards, among other areas. 

The requirement also fits the framework for social studies through the lens of economic decision making. Staples also offers several economics courses.

Staples offers a half-year Personal Financial Management class and a full-year Financial Algebra class, said Stefan Porco, chair of the Staples Math Department. Both are typically taken by students in junior or senior years.

There is also a financial decision-making class that delves into stocks, bonds and investing, among other topics.

Nair told the school board the way the topic was taught was rewarding. “I understood it,” she said, adding that an AP economics class she took last year was one of the best classes she’s had at Staples.

About 80 percent of the Classes of 2022 and 2023 took at least one of the courses that would meet the requirement, staff told the board. That means about 90 students graduated without taking a course that covered financial literacy skills.

It’s estimated that the requirement could ultimately require additional staffing by the 2025-26 academic year.

Weighing in on spending plans

In addition to discussing the new course requirement, both students commented during the board’s ongoing discussion of the proposed 2024-25 budget.

A vote is expected next week on Scarice’s $148.3 million budget recommendation, which is nearly 9 percent higher than this year. All but 2.9 percent of the proposed increase is caused by skyrocketing health-care costs, officials have said.

Much of the earlier budget discussions focused on ways to add two assistant principal positions at the elementary schools that didn’t make it into the superintendent’s recommendation — perhaps by trimming elsewhere.

One idea involved the elementary schools’ gifted program, suggesting it might be more cost effective to offer it in one or two locations instead of all five elementary schools.

“In elementary school I was not in Workshop [the gifted program], but was friends with many who were,” Madigan said. Having gifted students throughout the district exposes more students to new perspectives and ways of thinking, he added.

Board Vice Chair Dorie Hordon told Madigan she agreed.

On the value of hiring additional building substitute teachers — another proposal that did not make it into Scarice’s budget — Madigan told the board that even when teachers are out sick, most post the work.

Substitute or not, work assigned by teachers has to be completed, Madigan added.

Nair, citing an instance when a teacher was out, said classmates collaborated in the room with a teacher checking in on them.

“I think having a teacher there is important … But we were pretty well focused,” she said.

Democrats’ nominee for open seat scrutinized

As soon as the school board meeting next Thursday, the panel could add yet another member.

Abby Gordon-Tolan, nominated by Democrats for a vacancy created by the recent departure of Christina Torres, is expected to be the topic of a closed-door meeting of the board Jan. 31.

Board Chair Lee Goldstein said Gordon-Tolan’s nomination could be voted on by the panel the next evening, Feb. 1. The school board has final say on nominees to fill open seats.

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.