Submitted by See list of 333 signatures representing 189 families (79% of the NMS families) below
We, the community of North Mianus School, respectfully ask the Town of Greenwich to act with urgency to get our school building repaired and reopened as quickly as possible.
We have become concerned in recent weeks that some in town government aren’t acting as if this is an emergency. This void in a crisis should be of concern to our entire town.
We applaud the heroic efforts of the Board of Education, Superintendent Toni Jones, GPS Facilities Director Dan Watson, Principal Angela Schmidt, and our teachers. In the last two months they have managed the immediate fallout of the ceiling collapse: finding space within GPS buildings to house half the NMS student body, commissioning engineers to understand what happened, providing regular updates to our community, proceeding with demolition work, working the town government process to secure funding, commencing design work on the repairs, and looking at alternate facilities for the fall 2021 semester.
We understand they have been working day and night to get this done and we are grateful. That said, there is significant work remaining until we can use the entire North Mianus building: finishing the demolition and design work, completing construction documents, getting qualified bids from contractors, and the construction to repair the building. We would remind the town that North Mianus is the town’s largest elementary school, serving 491 students, and one of its most accomplished, named a 2019 Blue Ribbon School by the US Department of Education and currently home of seven Greenwich Distinguished Teachers of the Year recipients, one of whom was a semifinalist for the 2020 Connecticut Teacher of the Year Award.
Despite the above, we have noticed that other elements of town government are not proceeding as if this is an emergency or a priority. We wonder if they are considering what might have happened if the ceiling had collapsed 72 hours later, while school was in session.
We respectfully ask the following from our town government:
● First Selectman Fred Camillo should ask all town departments to expedite all approvals and permits to facilitate the repairs of the school. They should be working in coordination with Mr. Watson through all phases of this process. We must not have one day of delay.
● The Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) should approve the interim appropriation and bonding resolution required to sign construction contracts and proceed with the repairs as quickly as possible. We were disappointed last week that some BET members were only willing to approve one quarter of the estimated funding and ignored constructive suggestions for a funding condition requiring more detail on construction costs. This will slow the process down, delay getting our children back into North Mianus, and add costs to the project. We hope the full BET will ignore this recommendation and approve the full appropriation at its Special Meeting on Friday April 16th.
● The Representative Town Meeting (RTM) should approve the interim appropriation and bonding resolution at its meeting on Monday April 19th. We understand that all RTM committees have approved the funding and that RTM District 12, which represents the majority of the North Mianus community, will advocate for the full appropriation. We thank them and hope the RTM will act decisively and constructively at its April meeting.
● The Board of Education and Dr. Jones should secure an alternate facility for fall 2021 that either places our entire school community together in one place – or at worst case in two facilities. We certainly appreciate the speed in getting our children back in school, but four locations for one school community is not sustainable beyond the current school year.
We thank everyone in advance for their hard work and for listening to our concerns. We stand ready to support Dr. Jones and Mr. Watson and everyone else to get this done. This will take alignment and leadership at all levels in Greenwich. We hope all of town government shares our goal that North Mianus School must be fully repaired and reopened no later than December 2021, if not sooner.
List of Signatures
333 signatures representing 189 families (79% of the NMS families)
Joyce Abbe
Sheldon Abbett
Martha Agarwal
Kris Agarwal
Roli Agrawal
Jenny Allen
Chelsey Altomaro
Frank Altomaro
Lindsay Baker
Matt Baker
Binu Balachandran
Kate Bally
Erica Beilenson
Lisa Bergner
Justin Bergner
Jennifer Bierman
Adam Bradsell
Frank Bosco
Andrea Bosco
Augusto Carrizo
Fausta Ballesteros
Susan Chin
June Chin
Bryant Chin
Tiffany Christensen
Evan Christensen
Richard Ciappa
Terri Coffey
Jimmy Coffey
Julie Cofone
Tom Cofone
Catherine Collins
Megan Collins
Stephanie Cowie
Nathan Cray
Kimberly Cray
Karen de Sousa
Rudi de Sousa
David Decker
Liz Decker
Ardelina Dedvukaj
Paul Dedvukaj
Tiana Dedvukaj
Mark Dedvukaj
Kaitlyn DeForest
Matt DeForest
Elizabeth DeHaven
Bill DeHaven
Georgina Dengl
John Kelly
Michael DeVita
Melissa DeVita
Susan Diana
Matthew Diana
Nicole Dianis
Scott Dianis
Kelly Donnelly
Brian Donnelly
Brendan Donoghue
Susan Donoghue
Katerin Donovan
Colin Egan
Mandi Drayer
Jeff Drayer
Debbie Dubin
Evan Dubin
Brendan Dunn
Cricket Dyment
Sarah Engebretsen
Truls Engebretsen
Cristina T Fabbri
Amerigo Fabbri
Alejandra Fajardo
Richard Fajardo
Andrea Falco
Matt Falco
Sherri Fattedad
Graeme Fattedad
Tine Fincioen
Pieter Van Hoecke
Cristina Fioravanti
CJ Fioravanti
Shai Fischer
Kranthi Gade
Apoorva Gade
Sowmya Gadey
Preetam Gadey
Peter Gale
Caroline Gale
Brian Geary
Kristin Geary
Corinne Giangregorio
Roberto Giangregorio
Jeffrey Goldberger
Freer Goodbody
Jordan Ferenc
Jennifer Green
James Green
Monica Harriss
Brett Harriss
Cristin Hayes
Chip Hayes
Jennifer Hayes
Thomas Hayes
Kyle Healy
Tom Healy
Laura Bennett Heavey
Allison Hemsen
Robert Hemsen
Kyle Hildebrand
Megan Hildebrand
Jessica Hoffman
Adam Hoffman
Jamie Howell
Justin Howell
Zeeba Kabir
Shahriar Kabir
Kelli Kahn
Justin Kahn
Eva Kantor
Jonathan Kantor
Arpita Katira
Jigar Gada
Devon Kelly
Aigel Khadeeva
Maksim Yelyashkevich
Taylor Kiefer
Beth Kiefer
Buddy Kitselman
Crystal Kitselman
Michael Kitselman
Elizabeth Kitselman
Sarah Klocinski
Steven Klocinski
Mariana Knijnik
Eduardo Knijnik
Susan Kosinski
Richard Kosinski
Karin Kovacic
Audra Kruk
Jason Kruk
Stan Kupinski
Natalie Landres
Gene Landres
Allison LaRow
Patrick LaRow
Alexandra Lawson
Matthew Lawson
Chalon Lefebvre
Jonathan Lefebvre
Caragh Lengle
Chris Lengle
Rebecca Levine
Ethan Levine
Shuai Li
Ting Xie
Mary Liu
Ian Liu
Huan Liu
Zhenhui Jiang
Cary Loffredo
Cory Logan
Joshua Logan
Laura Lohan
Matthew Lohan
Vesna Jaksic Lowe
Zachary Lowe
Matthew Maciejewski
Kimberly Maciejewski
Lilia Madrid
Alexandre Madrid
Kristina Manganiello
John Manganiello
Kristin Marchetti
RJ Marchetti
Jason Marra
Kelly Marra
Erin Martschenko
Nick Martschenko
Victoria Mas
Eileen McGonegal
Lawrence McGonegal
Sheri McGowan
Taylor McGowan
Kara Mendelsohn
Ed Mendelsohn
Shadi Mendonca
Filipe Mendonca
Jennifer Meth
Harris Meth
Mary Miller
Nick Miller
Samantha Milligan
Judy Miranda
Lou Miranda
Preeti Mittal
Carol Moroney
Scott Moroney
Brendan Moynihan
Leigh Moynihan
Sarah Muccio
Chris Muccio
Gina Mugavero
Jerry Mugavero
Alice Mullins
Johana Muñoz
Sergio Munoz
Matthew Murphy
Kerry Murphy
Jennifer Murphy
Corey Murphy
Alejandra Musi
Luis Revilla
Aimee Muth
El Dada
Sareth Neak
Kimberly O’Donnell
Sean O’Donnell
Christine O’Neill
John O’Neill
Nancy O’Farrell
Michael O’Farrell
Audra ODonovan
Brian ODonovan
Kimberly Paladino
Daniel Paladino
Lissa Palermo
Emma Paluchniak
Mike Paluchniak
Chintan Panchal
Jaime Patten
David Patten
Greg Pavone
Sayo Pavone
Karyn Perchard
Robert Perchard
Duke Perrucci
Missy Perrucci
Daria Pestone
Craig Pestone
Adelia Piazza
Joseph Piazza
Rich Pocock
Sarah Pocock
Danielle Polizzi
Stephen Polizzi
Pat Prisinzano
Divya Puri
Mark Ranta
Suzanne Ranta
Andy Reid
Cristie Reid
Aimee Rincon
Gabriel Rincon
Gogate Rishi
Miki Onda
Renee Roberta
Joe Roberta
Ilne Roemmelt
Kai Roemmelt
Fiona Rothenberg
Jodie Rucci
Olivia Rudkevich
Molly Saleeby
Jatinder Sandhu
Parmjit Sandhu
Sujata Saraf
Melissa Sauri
Al Sauri
Sarah Schneider
Craig Schneider
Chris Schwart
Katie Schwart
Kishori Scott
Keith Scott
Julie Shattuck
Brendan Shattuck
Leslie Shatz
Sarah Shropshire
Jeffrey Csoka
Jelena Skara
Inga Skuratovsky
Ilya Skuratovsky
Sarah Sippel
Torsten Sippel
Jessamine Smith
Karen Soler
Abraham Soler
Sandy Southal
Alisen Steffens
Adam Steffens
Kerstin Steinbeck
Gregory Steinbeck
Ayelet Steinberg
Kevin Straub
Jamie Straub
Stephen Summerton Jr
Tami Summerton
Diane Swire
Gabriel Swire
Meloee Tanenbaum
Lawrence Tanenbaum
Julie Thomas
Brandon Trama
Allison Trama
Dirk van der Pijl
Fleur Koenders
Sue Vigilante
Mike Vigilante
Brooke Vitale
Andrew Vitale
Jaimie Voehl
Eric Voehl
Michelle Vogelhut
Adam Ware
Marisa Ware
James Waters
Tara Waters
Elaina Weaver
Chris Weaver
Amanda Williams
Cory Williams
Cynthia Wolfe
Jonathan Wolfe
Heather Woodbridge
Will Woodbridge
Andrea Wragg
Jessica Wren
Jonathan Wren
Liz Zaccherio
Larry Zaccherio
Helen Zhai
Jinming Zou
Weiying Yang