Submitted by Mimi Duff, PTA Council President
I am Mimi Duff, and I am writing in my capacity as President of PTA Council, with the support of our board. If you don’t know, PTAC is the umbrella organization for the 15 Greenwich public school PTA’s. Some of PTAC’s main roles are to coordinate PTA efforts and programs, to advocate with a unified voice, to facilitate communication, and to interface with organizations such as the school system administration and town authorities.
We were very dismayed at the BET meeting public comment on Mar 28, which was meant to allow public comment on the budget. While the meeting did eventually allow a Zoom option, it was listen-only, unless residents showed they had a disability.
This is not what we have in mind when we talk about accessibility. Not only did it highlight that the two Zoom speakers were in fact disabled, but it also took away the chance for many others in our taxpayer base to be heard.
Did the BET wish to show a lack of regard and inclusion to the families of Greenwich? Their actions did not indicate a level of serious consideration, which should be required of elected officials. Note that many of our residents have small children and would have had to arrange childcare in order to attend that meeting.
Or perhaps parents were on driving duty for older kids, shuttling them home from sports and other activities. I did attend the meeting and I myself got home around 11:00pm.
The BET saved the school budget comments until the end… after the discussions about bump outs on Greenwich Ave, the need for sidewalks in Old Greenwich, and the desire for town pickle ball courts. The school budget makes up the biggest line items on the town budget, but comments were slotted last. It almost felt like they didn’t want to hear public comments on the school budget. I was the last speaker arguing for the need to fund our schools for instance, and I believe we would have had a lot more speakers come forward if the meeting allowed a zoom option for all those taxpayers in our community.
The BET can and should do better to make the public comment more accessible.
They should also be required to submit material they will be presenting in advance so others can review, fact-check if needed, and be better prepared to attend their meetings. The Board of Ed has this model and it works very well, and we have seen record attendance at their meetings with the Zoom option.
Mimi Duff