The Westport school district and Staples have adopted new initiatives in order to improve the school’s environment, following the release of the 2024 Panorama Education Westport Public Schools Climate Survey, which indicated a need for improved student engagement and school climate.
These initiatives include the development of Connections lessons, and additional professional development (PD) such as the Sept. 20 day that focused on growth mindset and other initiatives to build student engagement and school climate. For some of these plans, the school will work with the student council, such as when it comes to educating students on recent Code of Conduct changes.
“We’re going to be having our student council look at the Code of Conduct and coming up with a summary of important aspects that they feel they can share with their peers throughout the year,” Principal Stafford Thomas Jr. said at a Sept. 19 Board of Education meeting. “Because obviously students listen to one another more than they do adults.”
The school is also seeking to improve future climate survey results by consulting the student council for more relevant questions that can be asked, particularly surrounding student engagement.
“The questions that are asked around engagement, they’re a little awkward and may not be in tune with what students are thinking about […],” Principal Thomas said at the same meeting. “So we’re looking at questions that Panorama has in their bank and also looking at the student council to come up with ideas or [a] definition around what engagement means to them so we can try to get a better handle on the experiences that students have.”
According to Principal Thomas via email, “by the end of the month” the school will have “more information” regarding many of these initiatives.
At the meeting, district and school leaders presented the survey results to the Board and the public as well as shared initiatives that would be put in place over the course of the school year in response to the results. Assistant Superintendent of Pupil Personnel Services Michael Rizzo, one of the presenters at the meeting, reported that of the 22 categories all groups were asked about, 18 had improved from 2022.
“These results are a point in time for our students, staff and families,” Rizzo said at the Sept. 19 meeting, “and we view them as formative assessments and an ongoing process of growth and improvement for our school district.”
The survey was conducted in the spring of 2024 from a total of 3,241 students in grades 3-12, 906 families and 631 staff members within the Westport Public School system. Students from grades 3-12 were asked questions related to a total of five areas: school safety, sense of belonging, school climate, teacher-student relationships and engagement. Of the students in grades 6-12 surveyed, Panorama Education reported that school safety had a 73% favorability rating, sense of belonging was 57% favorable, school climate was 51% favorable, as was teacher-student relationships and finally, engagement was 24% favorable.
“I’m not surprised by the school safety having the most favorability,” Sarah Arango ’26 said. “Seeing how much gun violence has increased across the country, and how threats have reached our school, myself included, I think that students would be more concerned about their safety when coming to school.”
