Submitted by Brian Raabe
Locally Fred Camillo is in lock step with Greenwich resident and Education Secretary McMahon’s national Anti-Education Republican agenda.
The First Selectman has taken a wrecking ball to Greenwich Schools (as McMahon is doing to education nationally) with a level of plausible deniability that would make an Iran Contra participant proud.
LOOK AT THE RECORD
JUNE 2023
FINN: Camillo’s Too Little, Too Late Admission | Greenwich Free Press
“Asked for his stance on the June vote (again, this is two years ago, 2023, when Republicans voted on a party line to withhold full funding of Greenwich’s public schools), Camillo said he disagreed with the Republican Board of Estimate and Taxation members’ decision.”
The author observed what many did, a little late for that Fred – votes done.
But First Selectman Camilo is coachable.
2025 – FAST FORWARD TO THE PRESENT.
https://www.greenwichct.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2837
“The proposed $4 million cut to our schools is an action that I am respectfully asking the BET to reconsider.”
Not exactly a stinging rebuke from Fred despite coming in advance of the vote.
And its impact?
Fred Camillo’s Republican peers, meaning Second Selectman and First in Havoc, Harry Fisher and the BET, cut the education budget anyway.
Either Fred Camillo’s leadership isn’t respected by his own party, or the fix was in, and his weak (really weak) opposition was performative dance.
Either way, students got a Republican budget cut to education AGAIN this year.
FOOL ME ONCE, TWICE, THREE TIMES?
Fool the town once, shame on us. Fool us twice – shame on you, Fred Camillo.
And how far is Fred Camillo willing to go with fooling us?
On a recent radio program, he said to a caller asking about the cuts, “Number one, you made a mistake, there was no cut…” and called the question political.
Didn’t your public letter call it a cut Fred. Your word, and you applied correctly.
I mean how far down the revisionist history rabbit hole are you willing to go here?
Fred waves hands and wand, “magic, magic” it’s not a cut.
Insulting.
But Fred and the Republicans are pleased as punch over the school projects underway. Just ask them.
Non-ADA compliant fixes and other work to OG School took years to break ground.
And Fred’s in a lather over a statue to George Bush.
Bush was the signor of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Fred, you should have put as much energy into his legacy with timely fixes to OG school to make it ADA compliant as you’re putting into arguing with residents over where his statue should go.
DELAY, DENY, PAY MORE
Back to capital spending, how much less would be spent if these major projects were done years ago, without an endless cavalcade of investigative committees as this administration is fond of.
Study. Study. Do nothing. Say you’re doing something. Band-Aid. Oops, wrong people involved in first study. Study some more. (See Greenwich, Dorothy Hamill rink).
How much less would we be spending if schools themselves were maintained in a way that required less capital-intensive work.
In a tariff driven world you can bet all the inputs to these projects now underway have risen substantially in cost versus years ago.
Beyond analyzing how much more expensive these projects are now, what is stunning is that in 2022 Central Middle School was condemned.
https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/After-finding-structural-concerns-16832133.php
That’s on your watch Fred Camillo and Republican leadership.
No “magic, magic” revisionist history can change that fact.
And Fred Camilllo and Co. say, “Look, we’re doing all this work!”
You let a school reach the point of being declared uninhabitable – that’s the work you did.
Investment only once there is no choice because the roof is about to cave in on students.
Don’t let this First Selectman or his complicit BET dupe you into thinking they are pro-education.
They are pro-shiny bauble, pro-converting public space to private hotels, pro-74,000 square foot private school stadiums that vacuum 43 acres off the tax rolls.
Neglect, privatize, attempt to plausibly deny.
“I respectfully ask the BET to reconsider” (education cuts).
Wow that’s weak.
If you want your children to enjoy the top-tier education they deserve in Greenwich, toss Fred Camillo, Second Selectman Harry Fisher, and the BET out.
They are the anti-public schools Republican Party and Fred Camillo is the local tip of the spear.
THE NUMBERS THAT DEFINE CHANGE
The math is that over the years voter turnout for the First Selectman’s race is low relative to residency, and the margin of victory is between 3,000 and 4,000 votes.
Both have to change.
There are about 9,000 students in Greenwich schools.
2 parents = 18,000 people.
30% (5,400) will vote Republican, if the registration rolls are correct.
Think hard about that vote Republican, think about what you want for your kid.
For the remaining 12,600 parents that are registered as a Democrat or Independent –
A fed up 4,000 can force change.
And that includes fathers. This seems to be a mom dominated issue.
A smart educated citizenry is not defined by chromosome or party affiliation.
We ALL need smart people in Greenwich and in the United States, and we ALL need to ensure that happens.
If you’re a father, vote for education.
Vote for your kid’s future – not the effluent Fred and Co are pumping about being pro-education.
Let’s put our shoulder into it.
Let’s push them out.
Brian Raabe