Board of Education rescinds layoff notices in Westport

The Board of Education has rescinded more than 100 layoff notices sent out last week to non-tenured teachers in Westport.
The Westport Board of Education announced it will not move forward with the non-tenured layoffs now that an agreement with the Westport Education Association has been reached on health care.
To save money, the schools have been seeking to switch the Westport Education Association from the current high-deductible health savings account plan to the state partnership health insurance plan. At issue was the employee premium health care costs that will now be reduced form 21 percent to 19.5 percent with no increases for the first year of the 2019-2020 contract.
The board did take action to not renew contracts with long-term substitutes and permanent building substitutes, which is expected each year. There still could possibly be teacher layoffs in the future, as the Board of Education still has to mitigate a reduction of $750,000.