The BET’s Thursday featured a prolonged showdown between Democratic and Republican members over a proposed $4+ cut to the Greenwich Public Schools operating budget.
After the meeting broke for Democrats to caucus, the meeting resumed around 3:30pm, but a hard stop was just minutes away.
Democratic BOE member Leslie Moriarty said the decision was too important to vote on with so little time remaining.
Left to right Republican BET members Harry Fisher and Karen Fassuliotis, and Democratic member Steven Selbst. April 4, 2025
Republican Karen Fassuliotis said she didn’t appreciate the “delay tactic.”
Democratic member David Weisbrod disagreed.
“If you bring it up two days before, and you expect us to ram some nonsense through…” Weisbrod said, adding that the $4+ million cut had been a surprise just a few days earlier.
“This number has been floating around, not by us, but by members of other places, for at least two weeks now,” Fassuliotis said.
“Floating around is not the same as deliberation,” Weisbrod said. “Don’t label us as responsible for any delay tactic. Our patience is wearing thin.”
“Well, my patience is wearing thin too, sir,” Fassuliotis said.
BET chair Republican Harry Fisher said he hoped the Democrats were willing to discuss a compromise.
Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, the first day of budget meetings, Democrats got up and left the room saying they needed more time to consider the budget cuts proposed by Republicans.
Friday April 4, 2025 Youtube live stream screenshot
On Friday the board reconvened at 8:00am in front of a room packed with public school families, and discussion continued on the motion to cut $4+million.
$4,048,621 to be precise.
The morning started with Mr. Fisher saying the board was at an impasse.
Every seat was taken and there were over 350 people watching GCTV Youtube live, and others watching on cable TV.
For over 2 hours, BET chair Harry Fisher repeatedly asked the audience, mostly public school families, to “refrain” from applauding, laughing or boo’ing.
He said police and the fire marshal were present and prepared to clear the room.
Emotions were running high in person, as well as on the YouTube live comment stream including abundant clown emojis.
Republican BET members Leslie Tarkington and chair Harry Fisher. Youtube screenshot April 4, 2025
When Friday’s vote was finally taken, with Mr. Fisher using his tie-breaking vote to make the party-line vote to approve the $4+ million cut pass, 7-6.
The audience boo’d and many stood up and broke out in a chant, “Shame on you.”
“Remember in November,” someone shouted.
But it wasn’t quite over, because attendees continued to shout at the BET Republicans, including one woman who shouted, “You’re a bunch of pansies,” at which point Ms. Fassuliotis started laughing.
But there wasn’t much funny about the meeting.
Here are some of the highlights.
“Miracle Cost Savings”
Democrat Mr. Weisbrod, who said adding that his three children had attended Greenwich Public schools, said generations of teachers and staff had worked hard for excellence.
“Excellence attracts excellence,” Weisbrod said.
“Our mission for our schools must always be to encourage, support and, yes, fund excellence. The benefits to the community are enormous. There is no better investment that we can make.”
“First we were told that GPS could reduce staffing to the 2109 level by terminating 20 academic positions. According to my Republican colleagues, this can be accomplished by miraculously keeping class sizes and programs in tact,” Weisbrod continued. “Have they discussed this miracle plan with the the school superintendent? No. Have they reviewed this plan with the bi-partisan BOE? No. Have they presented their idea to the town’s First Selectman? No. Have they presented this idea to their Democratic BET colleagues? No.”
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“Somehow, without any engagement with the community, they are convinced that their miracle will work to save us money with no negative consequences,” Weisbrod said. “Their analysis completely ignores the growth of special education, both Pre-k and K-12. That’s gone up by 233 since 2019. Who believes that a wide scale teacher termination plan would be pain free and not result in more students per classroom?”
Weisbrod noted special education was a growing component of the schools budget and appropriate learning services for these children was mandated by law.
He noted that if the district failed to provide those services, Greenwich would be subject to litigation.
He said the town had already paid out millions of dollars in settlements over the years.
“If the current special education plan were not in place, the number of out-placed students could increase from 32 today to as many as 92, costing as much as an incremental $10 million a year,” he added.
Weisbrod also said teacher cuts were ill-advised, but cutting 20 teachers only gets half way to the $4+ million target.
He talked about proposed cuts to the substitute teacher budget, saying while absenteeism since Covid had climbed nationwide it appeared to be leveling off.
Besides, he said teacher absenteeism statistics reflected what is allowed per the union contract.
He challenged Republicans assertion that a $1.4 million reduction in substitute teacher expenditures was achievable.
“In the past 15 years, the least Greenwich has spent on subs in a year was $1.1 million; $700,000 is impossible.”
“Path to Mediocrity”
Weisbrod described trying to attract talent with compensation well below peer communities was a path to mediocrity.
“Defunding our schools is dangerous, radical and contrary to the values of this community,” he added.
Left to right Democrats David Weisbrod and Leslie Moriarty and Republican Leslie Tarkington. April 4, 2025
Leslie Moriarty said that $3.1 million reflected an increased number of special education students (17% of the population) who require more support, which is mandated.
Also she mentioned the reduction in Title I grant funding and professional development expenses.
Moriarty said the Democrats were willing to compromise, and had agreed to a $1 million reduction.
She said over 1,000 emails had been received in the previous 72 hours and noted the First Selectman did not support cuts to the magnitude of $4 million.
Democratic BET member Scott Kalb referred to the cuts as a statement akin to a “culture war,” and said cuts war.
“I’m not sure how our town will recover from this kind of massive cut,” he said. “That’s going to be tomorrow’s problem.”
Republican David Alfano said a “responsible compromise” in a cut of $2.75 million had been rejected by Democrats.
“From what we saw on Wednesday it seems the focus has shifted from constructive dialogue to political maneuvering, press conferences, and recesses were prioritized over staying at the table and dong the hard work of negotiation,” Alfano said.
“For those of us who believe taxpayers deserve transparency and results, not theatrics, this is especially disappointing,” he added.
Alfano asked Ms Moriarty if she would revisit the last offer?
Later, as Moriarty said there was “misinformation floating around” that the BOE had figured out a way to achieve a $2 million cut.
“It’s been stated, not on the dais, but outside this room,” she said.
Moriarty said on Tuesday she and Mr. Weisbrod had met with schools administration – the Superintendent and CFO – and that they had not identified a way to get to a $2 million cut.
“They could barely eek together $1 million and protect the classrooms, I look at $2.75 million and I don’t know how they get there.”
Mr. Fisher said he had spoken to schools CFO Ben Branyan and a BOE member and the guidance was that $2 million, “could be handled. Mr. Branyan stated that to me directly.”
Ms Moriarty said, “He texted me this morning that that’s not true.”
Mr. Fisher said the Republicans’ proposed $2 million cut represented a compromise.
Nisha Arora 9left), Democratic BET member Matt DesChamps holding up the superintendent’s 262 page budget and a single page document from Republicans on $4 million suggested cuts, Elliot Alchek. YouTube screenshot.
Democrat Matt DesChamps held up the superintendent’s 262-page budget and a document from Republicans on $4 million suggested cuts.
“I’ll remind the pubic that this was passed by a bi-partisan BOE in a vote of 7-1,” he said. “I went to several presentations myself and went through the numbers. The GPS agreed to reduce their budget by $500,000 in December. So this budget has already been reduced by $500,000. That gets forgotten, but that’s a significant cut.”
Next he held up the single page document, he described as unsigned, which he said was an analysis from Republican colleagues with recommended cuts.
“All those reasons are inaccurate. There is no basis for them in the math. I am a CPA, I wen t through this and don’t get their numbers that come anywhere close to supporting a $4 million cut. If they did, they’d show us the work.”
“In finance and in math, the teacher always says, show the work. You don’t just say the answer is $4 million,” he said.
“It is fundamentally unfair to the public, our teachers, our students, to our residents, in or out of GPS, to support a process that just shows a $4 million cut without any analysis behind the number.”
Democrat Elliot Alchek said it was hard to reconcile Republicans’ cuts with their claim to support Greenwich schools, or the skating rink, for example.
“That’s double speak,” he said.
“Are you saying the only way you support the rink or the schools is if someone makes a contribution?”
“Have we even thought about the cost of a new pool at the high school?” Alchek added.
Democrat Stephen Selbst described the cuts as punitive to the BOE and administration.
“But the consequences will be visited upon the students in this community,” he said, adding that out of 1,000+ emails he received, only two had been in favor of the proposed cuts.
“Complete and Utter Lies”
Republican Karen Fassuliotis said she was dismayed about how “nasty and political” the discussion had become.
“Every time it happens it gets worse and our town is worse for it. This discussion of the school budget is the penultimate example of these horrendous tactics.”
“We did use to have fact-based, civilized discussions about the school budgets that focused on kids and families. This year I’ve reached my absolute limit with the complete and utter lies that are spread primarily by a political party organization,” Fassuliotis continued.
“Parents were told class sizes would be increased if the budget wasn’t passed as is. That is a dead flat lie. Parents were told that key programs like ALP would be defunded. Another absolute lie. Parents were told teachers are completely burnt out. They are the highest paid in the state, are absent from the classroom on average of 22 days. They work 180 days a year, versus you and me who work 245 days per year,” Fassuliotis said.
“That’s 9 more days than all teachers in Connecticut. Yet parents are told that teachers are overworked and disrespected.”
Also, Fassuliotis said parents had been told that staff had already been cut.
“RTM committees are furthering the lies, saying 30 teachers have been cut. My Democrat colleagues conveniently leave out the 45 new sped teachers, aides and special subject teachers that have been hired. It is a fact that BOE educational headcount is higher than 2019 when we had 480 more kids.”
“Yet somehow the world will end if superintendent Jones has to manage with a staff of 2019 level,” she added. “My favorite lie is that teachers are paid less than peers and Dr. Jones cannot find candidates…They just ignore the scale and hire at the midpoint, $27,000 higher – or $87,000.”
“We are reducing the increase to the BOE budget. Telling people we are cutting is disinformation,” she added.
“Democrats refuse to even discuss the 9,500 substitute (teacher) days costing $1.4 million that might be saved. The same thing with pay scale. We can’t discuss paying our staff at the teacher’s union own negotiated contract? How is it that people get into these insane arguments and justifications. I guess it’s welcome to the new Greenwich.”
“I have offered you information and a roadmap, and obviously we can’t decide what the BOE does. We can only reduce their budget and it’s up to them to do the right thing,” she said to a burst of laughter from the audience.
The town hall meeting room began to fill with people before the 8:00am BET meeting started. YouTube screenshot
Mr. Alchek said an independent consultant had studied enrollment and projected it to be flat.
He added that he didn’t like absenteeism either, but noted it was allowable per the union contract.
Moriarty refuted Ms Fassuliotis.
“As everyone knows you can twist information to make it say what you want it to do,” Moriarty said.
“I’m going to cut you short,” Mr. Fisher said. “This is not speaking to the issue. This is grandstanding.”
Mr. Fisher explained that with the vote on the motion to reduce the school budget by $4,048,621, the board was prohibited from making line item cuts.
Yes: Lucia Jansen, Leslie Tarkington, Harry Fisher, David Alfano, Karen Fassuliotis, Nisha Arora.
No: Stephen Selbst, Scott Kalb, Leslie Moriarty, David Weisbrod, Matt Deschamps, Elliot Alchek.
The vote was 6-6 along party lines. Mr. Fisher used his tie-breaking vote in favor of the cut.
See also:
Greenwich Schools Chief Rebuts RTC Chair: “This Level of Reduction Would Have Long-Lasting Consequences” April 2, 2025
Hahn: A Reasonable Compromise on the School Budget April 2, 2025