If we can make taller windows and bigger doorways and we can have a certain color tile because it looks better, we’re not going to shortchange our technology.”

Nancy Stanton-Cross

WESTPORT — Several laboratories and classrooms in Westport’s new school may not get all of the computers and equipment that were expected, and some on the School Committee are not happy about that possibility.

At its February 25 meeting, the committee was briefed on continued efforts to pare down the new school’s technology budget to keep it more in line with state reimbursements.

That brought questions and comments from School Committee member Nancy Stanton-Cross who noted that the new computers for students (Chromebooks) and teachers did not come from the new school budget but were purchased in part by federal Covid funding.

She said, it was discovered that there are some classrooms “that were missed.”

For instance, two business labs were to be “fully populated with computers  — unfortunately no computers were built into the budget for these two classrooms.” Furthermore, “they did not wire the room for desktop” computers.”

Similar things happened in other labs, she said, including a graphic arts classroom that is supposed to be set up to use Photoshop, Ms. Stanton -Cross said, adding that the committtee “will not stand for loss of programming or equipment for teachers or students going into that new building.

“If we can make taller windows and bigger doorways and we can have a certain color tile because it looks better, we’re not going to shortchange our technology.”

Ms. Stanton-Cross said she also is concerned that, “It’s kind of getting pushed off on the School Department as though we didn’t see the ball bouncing.”

Board Chairman Antonio Viveiros agreed, saying he remembers meetings at which the committee talked about computers for those rooms “and we discussed that there will be power at each desk but they completely missed those rooms.”

Ms. Stanton-Cross said a specific list needs to be made of every area where expected technology is not being provided, and townspeople should know that these aren’t late add-ons being pushed by the department.

It is important to make this known, she said, “because rumors go around town that, ‘Oh, the school system wants more money for their technoplogy and they want this and they want that’ ... (Then) people see the bump in their tax bill and they are looking at the schools and saying, ‘You’ve got enough.”

The actual amount of money for these items, she added, is “a small blip ... very small in comparison” to the technology needs that were supported by Covid aid delivered to Westport. “The town did not give us that money.”

‘Learning loss’

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Aubin provided the committee with a number of updates, most related to Covid-19.

• The state has notified districts that it wants them to establish plans “to address ‘learning loss’ suffered by students due largely to lost in-person classroom time.

They are awaiting more details, he said, but this may include some form of post-summer school before school starts in the fall, and the effort will likely be multi-year.

There will be a particular focus on math intervention, the superintendent said, as that is viewed as”the subject that had the biggest loss.

• The state is also emphasizing the need to bring chorus back indoors, although an initial state plan for this was rejected so “it’s back to the drawing board.”

• The state wants districts to “work out the kinks” with in-school learning this spring “with the objective of having all students in (school) in the fall. They are looking for a traditional start to the school year.”

That he said, will have a particular impact on Westport which would likely need to keep two grades in the old junior-senior high school if hybrid learning continues since the new school won’t have room for distance learning for all students in grades 5-12.

“The state is looking at not continuing remote learning into next year,” he said.

The superintendent added. “I am optimistic that we are not going to have tremendous learning loss for Pre-K through grade 6 because, quite frankly, we’ve been in all year.”

And grades 7 through 12 have done “targeted intervention so I’m not as fearful about student learning loss as I am about social/emotional issues.”