We have an opportunity to move to Westport... and we need your help!
Please email Planning and Zoning supporting our application to move to Westport by 12 pm on Monday, May 9!
Dear friends,
We are thrilled to announce that Cajal Academy will be moving to a new location in Westport, CT before the end of the school year!
Thanks to the warm letters of recommendation that so many members of our community sent to the Commission, we were
On Monday, May 9, we will be appearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission for the Town of Westport seeking all necessary approvals to bring our school to 25 Sylvan Road South. We have heard from so many families over the last couple of years with requests for us to make this move, and now is your chance to help us show the Town that the community needs an expert special education school for our bright and gifted kids.
All it takes is a moment of your time to email a letter of support to the Planning and Zoning Commission, using the contact information below. It doesn’t have to be long, and you can even copy/paste the suggested text below.
About our {hopefully!} new home:
25 Sylvan Road South is in central Westport, easily accessible from 95, close to the town elementary schools and a short ride from the public library and downtown areas. This will open up lots of ways to expand the field work components of our project-based learning and even the potential for “open campus” lunch privileges for our high school students! Meanwhile, the building is right across Riverside Avenue from the Saugatuck River and right next to a peaceful, babbling brook—both of which we look forward to integrating into our environmental science and art curricula.
More like a townhouse than a suite, our new home will have a dedicated entrance into a comfortable space with an architectural feel to it and skylights throughout, giving kids the immediate sense that they’re “home.” At the same time, we’ll have all the benefits of a larger building within which we can expand as our cohort organically grows to include the new programming levels we’ve announced for the 2022-23 school year. In fact, there are ideal art and athletics add-on spaces that we’re hoping to integrate in the months ahead!
Of course, all of that said, if this doesn’t work out then we’ll continue to offer our full programming just as we do now, at our school building in Fairfield, while we continue conversations with the several properties we have identified as attractive potential “Plan B’s” in Wilton and Norwalk.
Here’s how to help:
We would be so grateful if you can take a moment of your time to send off an email to the Town’s Planning and Zoning Commission showing your support, by noon on Monday, May 9. It doesn’t have to be long, and you can copy/paste our suggested text, or add in something about your personal knowledge of our program, the dearth of options for the cohort we serve or other expressions of support. Please note that these letters will be posted on the town’s Planning and Zoning website.
You can address your email to the Planning and Zoning Commission by email at pandz@westportct.gov. Alternatively, if you happen to know the Westport P&Z Chairwoman, you can address your correspondence to Danielle Dobin, P&Z Chairwoman and email it to the same address and all 7 members of the Commission will receive it if submitted by noontime of the meeting day (May 9th).
Here’s a suggested text to get you started:
“Dear Planning and Zoning Commissioners,
I am writing to express my enthusiastic support for Cajal Academy’s application for the Application to permit Cajal Academy to open at 25 Sylvan Road South in Westport. Our community and our region as a whole needs more options to support kids with special needs, including the unique cohort that Cajal serves. We hope to see this valuable resource come to Westport!”
If you have attended one of our information sessions or know a member of our team, it would be terrific if you could add a sentence personalizing the email to give them a sense of what makes us unique, and makes our school a potential asset to the town. But even just the ‘generic’ email will make a difference, so please don’t let that hold you back!
Thank you so much — we can’t tell you how much we appreciate it!
Gratefully,
The Cajal Academy Team