The Westport Public Schools employ nearly 1,000 people.
And every one — teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, nurses, psychologists, social workers, cafeteria workers, custodians, secretaries, security guards — impacts every one of its 5,300-plus students.
Every adult impacts every other one, too.
That was superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice’s message yesterday, at the opening convocation of the 2023-24 year.
The high-energy event in the Staples High auditorium marked the only time all year the entire staff gathers together.
They heard the 4th-year superintendent speak in intensely personal terms about his family, his life, and his vision for the district.
It’s ranked 17th nationally, out of all 13,452 school districts, by Niche.
Superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice, at yesterday’s district-wide convocation.
“I dismiss the value of rankings, and their methodology,” Scarice said. “But they mean something to a community.”
More important than rankings, he noted, is that the school experience be valuable and meaningful to every single student.
For that to happen, Scarice said, every staff member, at every level and position in the district, must understand that every interaction with every student matters.
He illustrated his point by mentioning 2 recent graduates. Both had uneven paths during school; both are now successful and happy.
Scarice asked anyone in the auditorium who ever had any interaction with those students — no matter how small — to stand.
Dozens did.
Scarice expanded on that idea by describing his family’s summer trip to the Grand Canyon. As majestic as it is, it was formed very slowly — changing only the depth of a single piece of paper, a year at a time.
“Everyone should see the Grand Canyon,” superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice said, to appreciate both its grandeur and the importance of change.
“Change is inevitable,” he said. “But it’s important that as we change, we also progress.”
Scarice quoted Jacob Riis: “Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps 100 times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it will split in 2, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
He related that quote to his own family — particularly the experiences of his father, who grew up in a New Haven divided strictly by race and ethnicity.
It was big news when Scarice was 9, and a Black family moved next door in their suburban neighborhood.
His father’s relationship with Calvin — the man next door — grew slowly over the years. When Calvin died of cancer in 2003, Tom’s family attended the evangelical church service.
Scarice will never forget his father’s words about Calvin: “He was a good man. He was one of the best friends I ever had.”
That was only the third time in his life that Scarice saw his father cry.
“That is how we change over time,” he said, tying the story back to his earlier comments.
Scarice challenged every district employee to change and grow. The way to do that, he added, is to listen to every student and colleague’s stories.
Every day, he said, “is an opportunity to strike at that stonecutter’s stone.” Every interaction — no matter how seemingly small or unseen — matters.
Soon, the convocation was over. The nearly 1,000 attendees headed back to meetings, planning and preparation.
A new school year — filled, as always, with excitement, anticipation, and countless chances for growth — begins Tuesday.
(The opening convocation also included the announcement of Westport’s Teacher of the Year: Bedford Middle School social studies instructor and team leader Lou DeFichy. A full story will appear later on “06880.”)
(Education is important to “06880” — this blog, and this community. Please click here to help us continue covering all our schools. Thank you!)
How lucky we all are to have such an amazing superintendent! Out teachers are so dedicated to our children and deserve the highest of appreciation and accolades for a mostly thankless and sometimes ( in other parts of the country) vilified career.
I hope this year we keep the negativity of those who want to destroy our public schools, teachers, and students at bay. Stay vigilent about who is running for school board in Nov! There is one Moms for Liberty type who is on a clear DeSantis path to stir up some negativity. Please attend as many school board meetings as possible as they are all open to you. You will learn more about the candidate for school board I am speaking of.
Best wishes to a great school year to all the teachers and students!
I forgot to thank all the staff and administrators as well! Thank you!
Hello from Oregon City!
Kudos to Scarice, the teaching staff and to the support staff — and to the students! — for that ranking, which only approximates the quality of educational opportunties of the Westport public school system. The quality I experienced has clearly been supercharged over the decades and decades. Next to Compo Beach, it is the schools that real-estaters sell.
But it can go askew. To recover to “normalcy” takes time and effort that ought not to have been expanded. It took two years with a focused, cooperative and coordinated campaign among a slate of 4 candidates to recover the Oregon City School Board to “normalcy.” And that effort has to continue as the margin is 5-4. Several districts due south (Canby, for instance) will go more askew.
All elections are small “p” politics at root, direct expression of what a “polis” is. As our Founding Fathers well knew, an informed citizenry uses Critical Reality Thinking to make a “polis” work. Jefferson founded the U of VA as an instrument to effectuate what John Adams stated: “Laws for liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.”
May Westport voters in all, and RTM members in particular, be humane and generous of mind when the vote.
What do you mean by the school board going “askew” and back to “normalcy”? Can you please extrapolate at that? I do not understand what that is referring to exactly.