Submitted by Lifelong resident, GPS alum, Proud aunt to six GPS students, Vice-Chair District 8 RTM
To All Concerned,
Like so many of you, I have numerous thoughts on the abrupt closing of Central Middle School (CMS) and how we got to that avoidable place. Since last Friday, I’ve done a lot of thinking and I’ve read the emails and the newspaper articles and the letters to the editor and the comments on social media. And I wish to respond.
First, my plea on behalf of the students and parents of CMS. I’m calling on First Selectman Camillo (he’s responsible for prioritizing the overall town capital budget) and the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) to work with Superintendent Jones and the Board of Education (BOE) on immediately expediting the process of rebuilding a new CMS. This involves the BET, as the only authority able to increase funds, adding $2.5M more in the FY ’23 budget on top of the $250K already requested. It means that a feasibility study and design specs can move forward in the upcoming fiscal year and this project is accelerated. While it doesn’t benefit current students, at least future ones will be in a new building that much sooner. I’m then calling on my fellow Representative Town Meeting (RTM) members to vote in favor of this line item and without debate when we pass the budget in May. If holding meetings outside of regular schedules and granting interim appropriations and hiring more personnel are also necessary, so be it. I’d love to serve on the building committee.
If you pay any attention to town government proceedings then you’re already aware that I’m a staunch supporter and frequent vocal advocate for our students and our schools. As a product of GPS myself, along with 14 other family members with the final to graduate in 2023, I care deeply and I want today’s students and the ones to come to have all that they need. And they need a lot.
These last several years I’ve consistently spoken out and written about my concerns over the failing and outdated infrastructure, the neglect, the deferments, the gross underfunding of maintenance, and the total unwillingness on the part of some to even consider responsible longer-term financing to pay for some of the significant capital needs. I’ve also shared photos I’ve taken of the many subpar conditions.
The austerity must end. This is Greenwich and we have financial resources and some highly intelligent Wall Streeters on the BET skilled in financing and debt structuring. As I stated at last year’s BET public budget hearing, my take is it’s not that we can’t spend more on our schools, and other things too by the way, it just seems that we won’t. The stinginess we suffer defies logic for a wealthy town that owns 15 school properties valued at $1B and can afford to take care and improve its assets. You see I believe that a proper environment and a good quality facility are as important as having great teachers. Same as I believe all children have a right to grow up in a safe, clean home with loving parents. And, while I used to think that the town’s lack of higher standards was only utterly disgraceful, it’s now downright dangerous.
As of late, some elected officials who’ve been previously mostly silent about CMS or haven’t shown robust support for the schools’ Facilities Master Plan (FMP) are speaking up to pledge backing a new Central now. Many of these same people are the very ones who’ve heard my longtime complaints and have given me perhaps a dismissive nod or a comment about other competing municipal items. Or they want to talk about what’s already been done (Ham Ave, New Leb, GHS Performing Arts) and not what we still need to do. Or they suggest the BOE wishes to delay conversations on enrollment. And question its ability to manage projects concurrently. And criticize the priorities. Isn’t everything priority when neglect has been at play for decades? It’s called catchup and it’s a challenging juggling act. Until the pandemic, monthly RTM meetings which include attendees from the BET, BOE, the Selectboard and other town officials, were held inside Central. Everyone knows what the place looks like. I’m delighted to see this support now. Let’s get going!
On the sudden and unsettling shuttering of CMS there’s been much debate and finger-pointing on how and why we arrived at that stage. And some think we should just move on from it. But I think it’s instructive to review because we’ve just got to stop repeating the established pattern of kicking the can down the road on funding. Particularly when the request is for something we know is already a problem and safety is a concern. There can be, and has been, significant impact on children. That’s NOT OKAY.
As an engaged RTM member and on its Budget Overview Committee (BOC) for four years, I’ve paid very close attention to the budget process and had much discussion with the BET. Last March, after I’d listened in to a month of their meetings on the FY ’22 budget with town department heads and then their own deliberations, I sought more information from Superintendent Jones and others on the request for the $102K for a CMS engineering study. It was being offered up for the chopping block by one majority caucus member who cited it as premature since the BOE hadn’t prioritized Central for imminent replacement. Another from that same caucus questioned the value of conducting it at all, stating that we had the FMP which they felt gave us adequate information.
Here is Superintendent Jones’ email response to me on March 31, 2021 which I forwarded to several on the BET. Dr. Jones wrote the BET too and her explanation to them was also read aloud by a minority caucus member at their Budget Decision Day meeting on April 6, 2021.
“Molly, Thank you for reaching out. The engineering study could shed light on many things, most notably, the actual health behind the walls and up in the ceiling. We do not want another NM situation. The FMP did not do this type of engineering study. In addition, we have heavy investment required to try and keep this building going. I was hoping this study may help us refine a newer approach. Could we build one grade wing between 2023-2027 instead of investing almost $8M in the envelope of the entire building, and $5.1M needed to invest on the building interior. We are going to spend approximately $38M just to keep the building going so that we can turn around and most likely knock it down. An engineering study may be able to tell us which areas of the building are most critical to replace, and instead of large annual infrastructure improvements we could possibly invest in the actual long-term solution. I have been around school construction my whole career, and right now our approach is very costly to the TOG.”
Here is the response I received on April 1st from the BET member who questioned the value of the study:
“Molly, Thank you for your input. And, for sharing your exchange with Toni.
Things are getting more complicated with North Mianus School now an upcoming project of size, too.”
Here is part of an email response I received on March 30th from the BET member who would be motioning to defer the study. I’d written asking for the reasoning:
“Since we’re not ready to rebuild CMS, the process shouldn’t be started. I know it’s an engineering study not a feasibility study. If it could be confined to engineering not feasibility, that would be comforting.”
On March 31st, after I received the detailed information from Dr. Jones which confirmed it was engineering, I forwarded it to this BET member. No response. I wrote again on April 5th. No reply.
Dr. Jones was clear. The architects responsible for the FMP also thought it wise to commission the study. (If you listened to the April 6, 2021 meeting, you heard it incorrectly referred to as feasibility at the outset of discussion, though previously clarified by Dr. Jones in writing and underscored when her email message was read at this very meeting. I’d also noticed prior to the meeting that their amendment paperwork stated feasibility and should be corrected to reflect engineering. Again seven months later, during the October 27 BET election debate, it was still referred to by a majority caucus member as feasibility.)
Dr. Jones was wanting to ensure safety. She referenced North Mianus.
Dr. Jones was attempting to refine priorities. If you understand that the FMP is
a planning document, as its name plainly states, then you can accept that engineering studies and other such measures will be in order in some cases. The FMP is fluid and will be revisited ongoing. After these funds were denied, I’d even heard that some parents were trying to see about raising the money themselves.
I’m so very glad town building inspectors exercised extreme caution last week. Anything else was just too risky. We may have been very lucky once again.
I’m sure the loved ones of the Surfside condo collapse wish problems had been addressed. I still occasionally tear up when I pass by my beloved alma mater, North Mianus, or when I see the precious children in my neighborhood who go there. I still think about what might have been had school been in session that day.
Thank you Superintendent Jones for persevering and accessing Covid relief funds from our federal government after some on our finance board failed you and our CMS students. Children, I’m sorry you were farmed out to three alternate sites this week when that didn’t need to happen and instead the issues could have been remedied last summer had the budgeted funds not been cut by the majority party in a tie-break vote.
I hope for your sake that more will listen a whole lot better next time.
To the two new BET members from the majority party expressing support for an advanced CMS timeline we’re counting on you to rally your group. The minority party has consistently communicated support and championed projects and demonstrated through their votes time and again that the schools are a priority. A request for funds for Julian Curtiss, reduced to a pittance last year also by majority tie-break, faces us again. That school mustn’t be at the expense of Central.
Just this January 25th, I was the last speaker at the first of two public hearings of the BET’s Budget Committee on the FY ’23 budget. I asked the new BET (1/3 turnover from November) to work together and find common ground and I stated that students should always come first. I also conveyed my disappointment that the expressed wishes of the majority of taxpayers who spoke at last year’s public hearing had been ignored.
I’m aware many more people have just recently listened to the April 6th recording of the CMS engineering study discussion. For the last four years, the newly appointed BET Chair, Dan Ozizmir, and I served on the RTM’s BOC. I guarantee you he’ll set a much better tone during the many conversations to come than did his predecessor. I know it, and you can count on it.
Lastly folks, I really hope you keep yourselves informed and also show up to vote in 2023 if you didn’t this last municipal cycle. I’ve run for higher office twice in as many years and knocked on the doors of thousands of residents. Talking with our townspeople about their desires and expectations and seeing the smiling faces of the many children, our amazing GPS students who greeted me at those doors, was a privilege and hands down the best part of running. I’ll carry that rewarding experience with me always. Aside from my own campaign I did my level best to turn out the school vote, as did many others. Perhaps you have what you wanted and are satisfied. This most recent turn of events just might suggest otherwise. Perhaps Central Middle School really is indeed the final wake up call.
Molly Saleeby