Submitted by Kara Peters; signed by 26 members of the GHS English Department
For Greenwich High School’s 2,681 students, there are 30 dedicated English teachers guiding them through 4 years of English. Greenwich High is at risk of losing 6.5 educators, and the English department is not immune from these cuts.
Writing is a collaborative process. Even for this short op-ed, I consulted four colleagues to brainstorm, two to fact-check, and three to line edit. I avoided consulting any acronymed entity. Efforts in teaching and learning—the humanities—are not automated. Sure, there are shortcuts, but learning how to think and write is not about efficiency: it’s about effectiveness.
Collaboration between GHS students and teachers is the secret ingredient to the year-after-year effectiveness of the English department. In 2025, 314 students took the AP Language and Composition exam, earning an average score of 4 (CT average: 3.5). 122 students took the AP Literature and Composition exam; students averaged 4.26 (CT average: 3.53). Juniors beat our testing goals on last year’s March SAT. Much of the preparation that guided those stellar students came during their ninth and tenth grade years before they even enrolled in AP courses or prepared for exams.
These achievements come from the hard work of our teachers and tireless collaborative efforts with students every day. From paper conferences before school to on-the-fly wordsmithing during the drafting process to voluminous feedback on a final product to encouraging English Language Learners through the notoriously challenging usage rules of English grammar, the GHS English department takes pride in holding high standards for themselves and their students. Sadly, budget cuts threaten, once again, to turn collaboration into a casualty.
With every lost position or unfilled retirement opening, class sizes grow. As class sizes grow, one-on-one time shrinks. Five-minute paper conferences for 22 students can happen in one English block, plus one of the essential Seminar Skills blocks. With 29 students, those conferences can take nearly another class. Circulating a room to consult on the clarity of claim sentences becomes exponentially more difficult as the room fills up. With the need to return papers quickly, extra students can mean fewer constructive comments. The number of seconds that each student has to participate in class discussions on challenging texts and ideas shrinks. English teachers already spend their nights and weekends grading papers, but with up to 29 students in each of their five classes, there are no more minutes in the week.
These downstream effects harm students, not on a grandly noticeable scale, but gradually: two minutes of personalized attention at a time. I know the English Department will do what we do best to mitigate the challenges of more budget cuts: collaborate.
The tortured literary genius serendipitously struck by inspiration in front of her typewriter is a myth. For every Ernest Hemingway, there’s a Maxwell Perkins. For every Toni Morrison, there’s a Robert Gottleib. No one writes alone.
On Thursday, we hope that the new BOE commits to collaborating with us to fight for every minute of academic support, care, and instruction that GHS students deserve.
Kenneth Bardelli
Frances Bittman
Erik Bloch
Laura Brill
Melissa Brown
Laura Burdick
Mark Cadigan
Kelly Carlin
Camille Fusco
Gabriel Godwin
Christopher Grantz
Richard Kohn
Patricia Kohn
Kim Malara
Jennifer Maxon
Sarah McConville
Edward McGeary
John Miller
Daniel Palheiredo
Kimberly Pennings
Kara Peters
Hildegard Ricciardi
Eleanor Ritch
Mike Topazio
Jessica von Brachel
Rebecca Wilson