Andrew Goldberg is a journalist, an Emmy Award-winning documentary producer and director, and a Westport resident. Writing today as “a concerned parent and community member, not a journalist,” and stressing that “any opinions here are my own,” he says:
In 2023, I wrote an article for Newsweek about how the Westport schools tried to pay my family for silence about antisemitic bullying directed at my son. We felt the administration’s “offer” went far beyond reasonable, even requiring our 12-year-old to stay silent about the antisemitism he’d experienced.
The story was covered by MSNBC, ABC Eyewitness News, News 12 and many other outlets. The head of the Anti-Defamation League called Westport school’s actions “disgusting.” The experience was traumatic.
To make matters the worse, the administration and Board of Education responded to the visibility with political spin, defensive articles and posts, and personal attacks. Their effort was petulant and transparent. It was yet another painful chapter in a school system that harmed a child.
Andrew Goldberg
I am writing now because I want to draw attention to something happening that I believe represents yet another failure by our school leadership. I am talking about the treatment of too many of our most vulnerable students.
A rapidly growing community of parents of children with special education needs is being pushed to their breaking point by how Westport schools treat their kids. You may have seen articles about this. Listening to these parents describe their experiences with our administrators is heartbreaking.
The parents have eyebrow-raising concerns: questionable use of funds, inadequate training, and children’s needs being ignored, dismissed or minimized.
What’s worse are the claims of children being treated in ways that strike me — and others — as willfully cruel, if not outright abusive.
That this is happening in Westport of all places is bewildering. But these parents have hit a breaking point and are organizing. A petition has surpassed 700 signatures.
A few weeks ago, an estimated 100 parents packed a BOE meeting. At that and many other Board meetings they share the most painful and maddening stories. This has reached a critical mass.
Then there’s the seemingly endless litigation. Board of Ed budgets show that in 2019, the year before Tom Scarice started, Westport spent roughly $903,000 on special education legal fees, litigation and settlements.
Since then, that number has ballooned to $1,828,007 for 2024–2025. That’s more than a 100% increase in 6 years. This should concern everyone.
Many know from experience that confidentiality requirements and this school system go hand in hand, meaning many parents are unable to even discuss what they went through if they settled a claim with the Westport schools.
Still, you can see it in their eyes as they reflect on their children’s struggles, and how the administration provided them no relief.
Others tell us they’re terrified of retaliation by the school system – and I’d argue they should be.
I know from experience how vindictive certain people in this system can be. I was bad-mouthed by leadership when I spoke up about my son’s bullying, and at one point even spoke to an attorney about it.
If there’s one consistent message I hear from parents, it’s that they feel Westport school leadership – in particular Lee Goldstein, Tom Scarice and Mike Rizzo– act in a way they consider to be cold, non-responsive, combative and even cruel.
To be clear, this is not about the hardworking teachers who commit so much to our kids. They are to be applauded. And this is not to say some students have not benefitted from our SpEd programs – they have.
But the mere success of some doesn’t excuse the failure others. Rather, this is about our leadership, and what many consider a moral breach with our children.
A group of parents have proposed a path forward. But so far, much of what they’ve asked for has been rebuked.
Specifically, they’d like Westport’s special education department to be reviewed and audited by a legitimate third party firm, with parents actively involved in selecting that firm and helping determine the scope and details of the review.
This is not an uncommon practice for SpEd departments. Many schools, including Greenwich, have involved parents in such audits.
I asked superintendent Scarice if parents could be involved. He replied: “Parents are not participating in the selection of the consultant/vendor who will conduct the review.”
Superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice. (Photo/Dave Matlow)
I find this decision to be reckless and dismissive, and believe it will set a dangerous precedent.
Let me state clearly: There are far too many deeply concerning allegations for this audit to go on without active parental involvement. The need for not just transparency but shared decision making is paramount.
And to remove parents from the equation is a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse. While I cannot read minds, my sense is this decision is because leadership fears what skeletons a thorough audit might reveal.
I recently saw a video of Lee Goldstein from 2018, when she addressed the school board about sexual assault (roughly the 46-48 minute mark).
She argued that some residents she spoke to felt the school board was only responding to problems with “lip service rather than addressing them,” and that the “district cares more about its image than about what was really happening.”
The next year, during her successful run for the Board of Education, she said, “Transparency and accountability are the most important values I share.” Unfortunately, many feel the same issues she raised have simply not improved on her watch.
We simply cannot stay on our current path. I am hopeful the BOE and school leadership allow for the transparency and involvement that parents are requesting –not the self-policing option it has put forward — and realize it is here to serve the students, not the other way around.
(“06880″‘s Opinion pages are open to all. Send submissions to 06880blog@gmail.com.)
So you moved to Westport with the COVID migration and have been trying to keep it in the news ever since?
Seems very self serving TBH.
David, calling this “self-serving” is a convenient way to dismiss the messenger without addressing the message.
I also wonder whether you would make those comments face to face.
The issue here is not Andrew Goldberg’s résumé, nor whether someone moved to Westport during COVID. The issue is whether families raising serious concerns about special education are entitled to a truly independent and transparent review of the system.
If you disagree with the substance of the opinion piece, say so. But attacking the motive of a parent who is speaking about children, families, and public accountability does not make the district look stronger. It makes the need for a more serious conversation even clearer.
And if you do not have any direct experience with special needs children, you cannot possibly fathom what life is like for them and their families.
Déjà vu all over again!
Andrew’s story closely parallels my own experiences at Coleytown Junior High and Staples High School beginning in the late 60s. I’m Jewish, and my family moved to Westport when I was in third grade. I don’t recall any school related antisemitism in elementary school, but junior high and high school were a different story.
I read Andrew’s Newsweek article, and what surprised me most was the absence of any mention of parents. One reason I don’t spend much time blaming the students who taunted and physically attacked me because I was Jewish is that I believe much of the responsibility lies with their parents. It seems obvious to me that many of these kids learned antisemitism at home.
How do I know this? I have plenty of examples.
One involved the family that lived directly across the street from us in Westport. They had four children, including one my age who attended school with me throughout our years there. Her brother played soccer, as I did, but he wasn’t allowed to play with me or my brother. In fact, none of the children were allowed to interact with our family.
One warm summer evening, my brother and I were playing in our front yard when I heard the mother talking on the phone from her upstairs bedroom. Back then, nobody had air conditioning, so all the windows were open, and you could hear everything. I told my brother to be quiet, and we listened as she began talking about “that kike family across the street.” It was the first time I had ever heard the word.
Without going into all the details, she spent what seemed like an hour ranting about me, my brother, and especially my mother, using every antisemitic insult imaginable. Years later, I learned that after my father left and my parents divorced, this same woman had reached out to help my mother during a difficult time. Yet behind her back, she harbored such hatred toward us because of our religion. I also learned she likely had a serious drinking problem and may have been intoxicated that night.
That was when I truly learned the meaning of hypocrisy.
Back in the 60s, the adults in our neighborhood held weekly Friday night gatherings. At least, that’s what my mother told me. My parents were invited the week we moved in during 1965. I believe they were invited one more time after that, but never again. Years later, I learned the reason was because they were Jewish.
At Coleytown Junior High, I played soccer. After my infant brother died and my father left us, my mother turned to alcohol. As a result, I always had to walk home from school to Newtown Turnpike. I recently looked it up on Google Maps. It was about three miles.
Occasionally, the father of a friend would see me walking along Coleytown, Lyons Plains, or Weston Roads and offer me a ride home. One evening, after picking me up, he pulled over to the side of the road. I could tell he had been drinking. He sat there for nearly ten minutes attempting to educate me about what he called “the Jewish Problem.”
There I was, an eighth grader, being lectured by the father of a friend about something I had never even heard of, as if I were somehow responsible for it, while my friend sat silently beside me in the back seat. Needless to say, his father never stopped to pick me up again. I believe his wife later apologized to my mother.
What’s interesting is that this same woman had been my Boy Scout Den Mother a year or two earlier. I was kicked out of her den for something I didn’t do. With no father around and a mother who spent most nights at a bar and often didn’t come home until 2 a.m., I had no one to defend me. Looking back, it all makes sense now.
This kind of treatment continued until we moved from Westport to Arizona after my sophomore year.
My memories of Staples are especially marked by a group of students of Italian descent who targeted me during the first half of the school year. One of them was in my English class. They would hunt me down between classes, drag me into the gymnasium, and beat me while hurling antisemitic insults.
I knew one of them had a father who was very prominent in Westport, so I chose not to say anything. Even after a teacher found me bloodied in the hallway one day and brought me to the principal’s office, I refused to identify my attackers.
It saddens me to hear that the same kind of behavior I endured as a child is still happening in Westport. Does it surprise me? Not at all. Until people address the attitudes being taught at home, I don’t think much will change. And even then, who knows?
As a side note, my brother was in Special Education within the Westport school system. For many years, he attended classes in a building at the old Nike site. But there’s no way I’m inserting myself into that particular wasp’s nest of discussions.
Hey Adam,
I recall our days playing soccer at Coleytown Junior.
Coach Bob Holiday ran the program.
Was unaware then of much of what you write.
Seeing your comments on 06880 from time to time have wondered where you went.
Reach out if you have any interest catching up.
Dave Wilson.
Hi Dave,
I hope you and your family are doing well. Your name brings up some of the only good memories I have of Coleytown and soccer.
You probably never heard about any of this because I kept it all to myself. At the time, I assumed everyone felt the same way, so I just internalized it. It was simply the environment I was surrounded by and there were many more incidents.
As for soccer and getting home afterward, I was embarrassed that my mother would be sitting at a bar on the Post Road and never pick me up. Because of that, I would intentionally make sure I was the last one out of the locker room and gym so that no one would see me walking home by myself.
I’ll be traveling over the next few weeks, but I’ll reach out when I get back.
Great to hear from you!
Adam
Great!
I’m a mother who doesn’t have children in the Westport school system, but I understand how important it is for parents to advocate for their kids. I appreciate Mr. Goldberg speaking up, especially since what his son experienced was antisemitism, not a special education issue.
What I took from this article is that our school system is heading in the wrong direction. Too much of our tax money is going toward NDAs instead of supporting students, and from everything I’ve read, the district seems resistant to unbiased oversight.
For these reasons, I’ll be voting for new Board of Education members in the next election. I hope others who share these concerns make their voices heard by voting as well.
I am the parent of a 17 year old girl with an IEP at Staples. She has had a transformational experience in the Westport Public Schools since the first day of kindergarten. However, I wholeheartedly support an audit. Every child deserves such an education. We need answers and, in their support for a program review, it appears the Board and Administration agree. Where I differ from the author is in who chooses the reviewer. Which parents? There are approximately 800 students with IEPs, so up to 1600 parents. I assume he is volunteering to be that parent, but I don’t know anything about him other than his recent posts in 06880. As a community, we have elected a Board to represent us and oversee our schools. They are there to listen to any parent preferences for a reviewer and then make a decision for all of us.
Thank you for your note but I am not volunteering.
Rebecca, I appreciate your comment in support of a review of the special education program. However, I think you may have missed the author’s central point. The concern is not whether a review should happen, but whether the review can truly be considered independent if the same administration being evaluated controls the selection of the reviewer, the scope of the review, and the flow of information to the public.
The article says that many families have already brought concerns to the administration and Board over a period of years and feel those concerns have not been adequately addressed. As a result, simply directing parents back to the same process does not resolve the lack of confidence many families are expressing.
I am genuinely glad your daughter has had such a positive experience in Westport. Every child deserves that. But the fact that some students have thrived does not negate the experiences of families who believe the system has failed their children. Both realities can exist at the same time.
The question is not whether any one parent should choose the reviewer. The question is how to create a process that is transparent, independent, and trusted by the community. Families who have raised concerns for years deserve meaningful participation in selecting the reviewer, helping define the scope of the review, and overseeing the process.
What parents are asking for is not unusual. Other Connecticut districts, including Greenwich, have conducted comprehensive special education reviews using independent firms and included parents through steering committees alongside Board of Education members. If the district truly wants to rebuild confidence, then independence, transparency, and parent involvement must be part of the process from the beginning.
And I’m also not volunteering.
Ms. Martin is right to a point. We elected a board to represent us.
We did not elect a board to facilitate Moldytown Middle School, walk out on the NAACP, ignore equity for girl athletes, dismiss decades of special-education decline, gloss over declining satisfaction scores and test results, skulk into executive session at every opportunity, and treat the difference between right and wrong as a fungible, la-di-da footnote to every proceeding.
Many Westporters don’t trust the board to do the right thing tonight, because: history. A positive note: Some of us have confidence in exactly 1.5 of its members.
That, Ms. Martin, is why we don’t have the profound respect for democratic representation that you do. I hope tonight is a revelation to us all.
When I was in GFS & Burr Farms School, you got teased if you were fat. I’m not even going to mention what happened, but it was so bad, the student’s mother would walk him to school to protect him.
Thank you Dan for publishing this. I wish I could imagine a scenario where Westport Public Schools were delivering safe, kind, supportive, and honest programs for students with disabilities. It’s been a problem for so many families for so long.
$1.8mm in legal fee (how much in 25/26?) that concerns me – and should concern all Westporters. Surely that money is better spent on programs that aid the development and support the growth of Westports children. Who is benefiting from all of these legal fees?
I wholeheartedly support the ask for an independent review that includes all perspectives – and ensures a non biased selection of a suitable body to perform such a review.
Surely as residents (as are the parents) and tax payers we should see proper accountability and transparency in how our taxes are utilized?
When multiple families raise similar concerns over an extended period of time, those concerns deserve a transparent and independent review. An audit is not about assigning blame—it is about restoring trust, identifying opportunities for improvement, and ensuring every child receives the support they deserve. Meaningful parent involvement in the process would help build confidence in the outcome and demonstrate a commitment to transparency. Overall, follow the trending annual large numbers, listen to the experts with independent resources and opinions, not from within.
Hi Andrew,
I can tell you as a Special Education teacher with 20 years of experience and ready to retire due to my own frustrations that this is not just a problem in Westport. Special Education is underfunded and misunderstood on so many massive levels nationwide. There are issues with funding, diagnoses, paraprofessionals and teachers quitting, severe cases of other heath impaired kids who run/escape and have tantrums being mainstreamed, ect… There is just so much that people do not know nor understand about Special Education in general.
Stephanie, I appreciate your perspective and your 20 years of service in special education. I think most parents would agree that many of the challenges you mention staffing shortages, funding issues, increasing student needs, burnout, and the difficulty of supporting students with a wide range of disabilities are real concerns nationwide.
At the same time, I don’t think it is enough to say these challenges exist everywhere. If that were the whole explanation, we would expect similar outcomes across comparable districts.
When we compare Westport to our District Reference Group peers (including Darien, New Canaan, Weston, Wilton, Ridgefield, Redding, Easton, and Region 9) we see that Westport has larger achievement gaps between high-needs students and non-high-needs students than these other towns.
According to the 2024–2025 data, Westport’s achievement gap is approximately 29% higher in ELA, 50% higher in math, and 30% higher in science than the peer district average (Darien, New Canaan, Weston, Wilton, Ridgefield, Redding, Easton, and Region 9).
That matters because the goal of special education is not simply compliance. The goal is to help students with disabilities make meaningful progress and to narrow achievement gaps whenever possible. When our gaps are wider than comparable districts, it raises legitimate questions about whether our systems, practices, and supports are producing the outcomes families and students deserve.
Many of us deeply appreciate the work of teachers, paraprofessionals, and related service providers. In fact, some of the strongest advocates for change are parents who have had wonderful experiences with individual staff members. The concern is not about blaming educators. The concern is whether district leadership, policies, and decision-making processes are helping or hindering student success.
When families repeatedly report difficulties obtaining evaluations, feel they need advocates or attorneys to access services, or believe their concerns are being dismissed, those concerns deserve examination. And when outcome data suggests that Westport’s achievement gaps exceed those of comparable districts, that examination becomes even more important.
That is why many parents are calling for an independent review with meaningful parent involvement. This is not to criticize teachers, but to understand why these outcomes exist and what changes could better serve students and families.
Scarice, Goldstein and Christie should all be ashamed, appalled and apologetic that a blog such as the above should ever have had to be written, and should take immediate action to assure that an investigation by a parent/teacher/administration chosen review board takes place NOW. Anything less, should result in the firing of Scarice and the recall of Goldstein and Christie. As a 54 yr resident of the town and a retired teacher and principal, I read the above piece and comments with slack jawed disbelief.
The strongest school districts are not afraid of independent reviews—they welcome them. This is not about trust; it is about excellence. The last comprehensive review of Westport’s special education program was conducted in 2009. That alone makes a new independent review overdue. We should want to know what our teachers need, what our students need, and where we can improve. After more than a year of families asking for a review, the Board should embrace this opportunity to strengthen the program and rebuild confidence. Excellence grows through honest and independent evaluation. I fully support seeking excellence for our schools and families.
As a Special Education teacher of 20 years who is retiring this year due to my own frustrations, I can tell you all this: there are systematic problems in Special Education in the entire nation. These problems are not just specific to Westport. I can not tell you how many paraprofessionals in schools I have taught in quit their jobs because even they can not handle the behaviors of some students who should not be mainstreamed such as: running escaping/ and massive meltdowns/tantrums. I can also tell you that there are a LOT of misconceptions about IEP’s and mainstreaming as the best option.
I am eager to learn more about the specific cases of why people are unhappy with Westport Special Education. I understand wanting an independent and non-biased review, but what are people really unhappy about in regards to Special Education in Westport?