Westport State of the Town address focuses on mental health

WESTPORT — Both the schools and town plan to build on their focus on mental health after the pandemic, officials announced at this weekend’s State of the Town Address.

“The programming and services we offer have never been better and have never been in more high demand,” First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker said in the annual address, presented alongside Westport Board of Education Chair Lee Goldstein.

Many of the services are offered through the Westport Together Alliance, which is a partnership between the town, schools, PTAs and nonprofit organizations.

Tooker said the town is ensuring that the alliance “has the resources it needs to continue supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our entire community.”

Goldstein said depression and anxiety rates are increasing not only in Westport among students, but nationally and worldwide.

Student well-being is also a focal point of the year. Students are learning to better manage emotions, build interpersonal relationships and make responsible decisions. To dig more into student stressors, the district is developing plans for next year, such as student advisory councils and focus groups so student perspectives can “inform policy and practice,” Goldstein said.

The focus on students’ mental health is part of the district’s efforts to make schools more joyful and meaningful for students, which also includes implementing work related to real-world tasks, she said.

“At the heart of it all, the guiding principle of my administration... is to ensure everyone that Westport continues to be the best place to live, work, play — and I love the addition of learn — in the region,” Tooker said.

The town

Tooker also highlighted some of the efforts to make the town safer, including the Westport Police Department’s community policing efforts, “which are setting the standard across Connecticut and well beyond,” she said.

The town and police are working to make the roads and traffic safer, with a number of projects outlined in the Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Report that was recently released on the town’s website. Tooker said the town was awarded $450,000 through the Federal Safe Streets and Roads for All Action Plan Grant, which will help them make improvements for traffic issues.

She also mentioned the Traffic Safety Unit that was established in October, which includes two patrol officers focused on traffic safety enforcement, following community feedback.

Westport has a number of other improvements lined up or in the planning stage.

The town received feedback from residents through surveys and information sessions about the Longshore Capital Improvement plan. Tooker said the Parks and Recreation Commission is looking at a 10-year plan to upgrade the park, including pickleball courts, an upgraded pool, better pedestrian and vehicular circulation and a golf clubhouse.

The Downtown Plan Implementation Committee approved a conceptual plan for upgrades to Parker Harding Plaza, Tooker said, including more green space, connections to the riverfront and flood mitigation strategies. The conceptual plan will move through the various town committees and boards for approval in the coming months.

“Now is a time to ensure that our downtown continues to be a destination for families, and also for shoppers and diners, for visitors and residents, alike,” she said.

The town has also been working on flood mitigation with multiple public meetings regarding seven streams in Westport.

“As you can imagine, this work is really complicated, and it’s very long term, in nature,” she said.

The schools

“Westport loves education,” Goldstein said.

There have been 262 more elementary school students, which is 13 more classroom sections, in town since fiscal year 2020, Goldstein said.

Goldstein said surrounding towns like Darien, New Canaan and Ridgefield are not seeing this growth in kindergarten through fifth grade enrollment.

“The story we understood, people are flocking to the suburbs during COVID, has turned out to be more like people are flocking to Westport,” she said.

Goldstein listed some of the reasons why people are moving here, with one being the schools. She presented some of the accolades the district has received, such as sports teams winning state championships, 12 seniors qualifying as semifinal National Merit scholars and Niche naming Staples and Westport the top public high school and district respectively in the state.

“We are very proud of this work, these awards and accomplishments,” she said.

However, she said while awards and records are validation, it “is not the heart of what we do.”

This was the first year since 2020 that students were able to have full, inperson classes without masks, she said.