As the Board of Education meeting began, many families took the non-agenda item public commentary period to plead to the Board of Education to have Long Lots Elementary School principal Dr. Debra Dunn reinstated. The principal has reportedly been on leave from the school for about six weeks for unknown reasons. A petition to the Superintendent has been signed by over 300 families as of tonight’s BOE meeting in support of the return of Dr. Dunn. Former and current Long Lots Elementary School PTA presidents described her return as needed in order to “return stability and leadership to the school” while lauding her work as principal in a school that was in need of strong leadership.

Dr. Debra Dunn was a former Superintendent of the York, Maine School Department before her hiring as LLS Principal in 2017. According to letters, the elementary school has seen nearly one dozen changes in leadership in the past decade, with Dr. Dunn being the one who instilled the most confidence in staff and student, according to some letters, while others described her as a calm face who made hard decisions that needed to be made. No explanation of her leave was given from the Board.

The health update remained positive overall as COVID-19 case numbers remained similar to last weeks, with the Supervisor of Health Services Sue Levasseur describing some “flattening of the curve” as time moves on from the holiday breaks.

Superintendent Thomas Scarice said that last week’s public comments of frustration or worry about returning to school were not ignored, as items such as four hundred K95 masks, and desk shields for the middle school, were all ordered ahead of the district’s reopening of schools for its youngest learners. He also described meeting with both the teachers’ union and paraeducators’ union after last week’s BOE meeting to further discuss options and concerns.

The meeting quickly dove into the Superintendent’s proposed budget, which was requested to be cut from the original 4.98% increase to a near 3% increase at last week’s meeting by the Board of Education. Board of Ed members gave concern over the cutting of SmartBoard updates as well as talks about funding for certain programs and extracurricular activities, citing that many new residents chose Westport specifically for those programs. There was also talk about positions of teachers and paras, however the Board wanted to assure that student education would not be impacted.

The meeting ended with discussions about capital expenses, approval of soft costs and acceptance of gifts, including a new cooling tower at Greens Farms Elementary School and the donation of a $9,000 upright Boston piano to the same school by a local family.