On Monday the Greenwich school board met to discuss details for filling the vacancies created by the resignations of two Republican members – a unique situation.
At the end of July Dr. Michael-Joseph Mercanti Anthony, who was BOE chair, and Wendy Vizzo Walsh both gave notice their last day would be Aug 26.
Then, on Friday, Aug 7 they both accelerated their resignations to be effective immediately.
During Monday’s special meeting the remaining six board members – four Democrats and two Republicans – came up with a timeline that would result in two new members being selected and sworn in before for the first BOE meeting of the school year on Sept 3.
Vice Chair Sophie Koven, who is the acting chair given Mercanti-Anthony’s resignation, led the meeting.
She noted a call for candidates to submit applications had instructed people to contact board clerk Michael Antonaccio, who is holding those applications confidentially. The names of candidates have not been given to board members.
Per board policy 9210 on qualifications, interested candidates need to be at least 18 years old, US citizens, not employed by Greenwich schools and be Greenwich residents.
Per board policy 9221 on filling vacancies, the board is allowed to interview candidates for a vacancy, but the policy does not explicitly mandate interviews as a strict requirement. Interviews can be done during executive session and be confidential, unless a candidate wishes discussion of their application to be public.
“The board is directed to fill the vacancy as soon as feasible,” Ms Koven said. “We have been advised by counsel we should fill the vacancies by day 21…that would be Aug 27. Our first board meeting of the year is on September 3, which is the following Thursday. I think it would be nice to have two new candidates appointed, and have them sworn in by the town clerk, and be able to join us for the first board meeting of the year.”
The six current board members talked about the challenges of interviewing an unknown number of candidates in a short time frame, in late August when many people are on vacation or taking children to college.
There was discussion about confidentiality given during a previous vacancy, the names of candidates became public.
“I would prefer that we don’t have the names go public,” Koven said. “And I would request that the board not release the names. I think we can do our own due diligence without doing that, and I don’t want to discourage anyone from applying.”
Republican board member Karen Krause proposed a timeline that would end with a final vote on new members taking place at the Sept 3 board meeting.
Ms Koven said it would be awkward for applicants to sit in the audience at the BOE meeting. Other board members agreed when she suggested it would be preferable to have new members sworn in prior to that Sept 3 meeting.
“And, counsel did say – and I’m sure everyone is aware – that the board has been in litigation surrounding various issues with filling a vacancy – and his recommendation was to give ourselves leeway in case there are any issues with people being unavailable to vote on appointments,” Koven said.
That issue of people being unavailable to vote might relate to quorum requirements. There has been a question in this unique situation whether quorum is the majority of sitting members – today there are 6 members so the the majority, and quorum, would be 4. But attorney Ben Bianco wrote an email on Aug 11 on behalf of the Town of Greenwich to the school board’s counsel saying quorum was five, even if there are only six members on the board.
Bianco’s letter talked about actions the Town would take should individuals be appointed to the Board on less than a five-member quorum.
He cited the 100+ year practice of the BOE, BET and other town boards following an unvarying custom when a member resigned.
“The party that lost the seat named the replacement, and the other party stood back and let it happen,” he wrote. “That custom is not sentiment. It is the practical expression of the bipartisan design, and it is why a Town of Greenwich board has not historically been the site of a contest over who gets to choose the other side’s members.”
Further he said the Town would bring a Quo Warranto action against any person appointed on a four member quorum.
It was not long ago that the replacement of Karen Kowalski (Attorney Bianco’s wife) as a resigning board member created an appointment issue due to timing and members not attending meetings, but that was not always the case.
The Board of Education had a vacancy in June 2021 when member Meghan Olsson, a Democrat, submitted her resignation. At that time, the remaining Board members held an executive session on June 22, 2021 to interview candidates and held a vote at a public meeting on June 23, 2021 to select the replacement.
According to Peter Bernstein, a Republican, who was the board chair at the time, “There was no custom to take direction from a political party regarding the replacement of a resigning Board member. It seems to be a recent construct to go along with the usual party gamesmanship.”
According to state law and board policy, the board is responsible for selecting a replacement member.
“Our Board collaboratively discussed candidates and chose based on the best qualified candidate. At no time was there a discussion of what the Democratic Town Committee wanted,” Bernstein recalled. “It was not – and nor should it be – a factor in Board decision making.”
Bernstein added, “I am glad to see that the current Board unanimously adopted a process to fill the two recent vacancies. I would hate to see elected members of the Board be derelict in their duty to attend meetings in order to find some political gain and prevent the Board from exercising its obligation to appoint replacement members.”
At Mondays meeting, BOE Democrat Karen Hirsh said the previous time a vacancy was filled, the board created a list of questions for candidates and she would circulate them “as a stepping off point.”
Republican Paul Cappiali noted policy 9121 assigned the board secretary the responsibility for supervising the clerk’s performance. The clerk is Michael Antonaccio. Cappiali said there might be a FOIA concern if all six members submitted their rankings of candidates to Mr. Antonaccio, and he aggregated them and circulated them back for collective results, amounting to a “meeting” under FOI law.
Ms Koven said she had hoped to avoid an extra meeting, given the very tight timeline, but appreciated Mr. Cappiali’s concern and was happy to schedule an executive session on Aug 25 to come up with a preliminary ranking, instead of having the Mr. Antonaccio tally up board members’ rankings.
She also suggested asking Mr. Antonaccio to release applications submitted by end of day on Friday, Aug 21 to the board, and the remaining applications released on Monday, Aug 24.
Interviews could then be conducted during the day on Aug 27, and a vote to appoint new members held at a special meeting on Aug 28.
“I do want to clarify something, which is whatever we agree on today, this has nothing to do with revising our policy on filling vacancies in general,” Koven said.
She clarified that the term for the two available seats will be 14 months, and the spots would both be up for election in November 2027.
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Republican Karen Krause, who is the board secretary, suggested the board look for candidates with relevant expertise, such as construction management, finance, law or education, as well as a track record of pubic service and daytime availability, given there are residency and expulsion hearings during the day, as well as building committee meeting which are often held in the early morning.
She said she frequently receives hundreds of resumes for job openings in her corporate work and time constraints preclude interviewing everyone.
Karen Hirsh said she did not want to eliminate any candidate for not having a specific career skill, and that often a person very familiar with Greenwich Public Schools makes an appealing candidate. Besides, she said, the board didn’t even know if there were many or any candidates.
“The number one thing we should be specifically looking for is someone interested in supporting the public education of students of all needs in public schools of Greenwich,” Hirsh said.
Ms Koven said she took both Ms Krause’s and Ms Hirsh’s points, and had been advised by counsel that the board was allowed to narrow the number of candidates to be interviewed, like a first cut.
“They said you are allowed to winnow it down. I wanted to make sure we were following statutes and bylaws. That’s something we can discuss on the 25th. Do we have two candidates. Do we have four candidates? Do we have 10 candidates? And then we could decide. If people feel strongly that everyone should be interviewed – or no one should be interviewed – and we have too many candidates, then we could just to go written responses to questions.”
“We’re not legally required to interview everybody, or interview nobody. We can do an initial cut and decide these are our top five or four,” Koven said.
Ms Koven noted the Republican Town Committee had communicated vacancies to the broader community.
She asked candidates who submitted resumes the RTC to also submit their candidacies to the school board clerk, Mr. Antonaccio at [email protected], as soon as possible, and asked that the RTC forward resumes to Mr. Antonaccio as well, so no one is overlooked.
Ms Koven said experience with labor negotiations experience would also be helpful, because LIUNA negotiations start in the summer.
LIUNA – the Laborer’s International Union of North America Local 136 – represents approximately 350 town and Board of Education employees, including professional staff, managers, and school paraprofessionals.
Mr. Cappiali responded to Ms Hirsh’s comment about supporting public education as well as Ms Koven’s comment about labor negotiations.
“We’re also here to represent our overall constituents, the entire town of Greenwich and those who may or may not have kids in the private schools. The public schools systems are a huge impact on the value of homes and all different kinds of things. And it’s also a huge impact on people’s taxes and they may or may not have kids there. We know there is an economic benefit to a school system and that the school system is also a great benefit to the kids.”
Cappiali said he had 30 years of union negotiations experience, but would likely have to recuse himself from labor negotiations because he is married to a GPS teacher.
After some motions to amend were approved, a motion made by Ms Krause was approved unanimously as follows:
“I move that it is the sense of the meeting that the BOE adopt a transparent, policy-compliant process to fill the two vacant board seats, establishing a target application deadline of Monday, Aug 24, 2026 at 5:00pm, authorizing the board to schedule a special meeting for candidates shortlisting and finalist interviews during the weeks of Aug 24 and Aug 31, 2026, with the target of taking a final appointment vote no later than Sept 2, 2026, and adopting qualitative candidate screening guidelines.”
The revised motion passed unanimously the board voted to adjourn.