On Monday night the Board of Education held a special meeting that included the extension the district’s Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones.
Christina Downey motioned to extend the contract by two years to June 30, 2026, noting the board had just given her a an overwhelmingly positive review and salary increase.
“These are the actions of a board believing their superintendent is performing as expected,” Downey said. “We have a high performing superintendent who we all agree we want to retain. So, what is our task as a board? We all swore to honestly, faithfully and impartially discharge our duties as school board members. Any decision regarding the length of contract extension of a contract should be guided by a simple fact: what extension best positions us to execute the long term strategic plan and to continue to improve the Greenwich public schools to the benefit of our current and future students.”
“The strategic plan is long-term and if we want our long term plan to succeed we need stable, excellent, stable long term leadership,” Downey said. “Why in the world would we ask her to drive a long term plan but only give her a short term extension.”
She noted Dr. Jones was in place and driving strategic thinking.
“What kind of long-term thinking would a one year extension promote?” she asked, adding that it was industry practice to offer two year extensions.
Downey said it was industry standard for a superintendent’s contract was three years.
“You may not like the standard, but it’s a simple competitive hiring and retention reality in the education world in Connecticut,” Downey said. “None of my colleagues have provide a sound rationale for deviating from these customary education hiring practices. …We should not be playing with fire by trying to buck the regional standard.”
Democrat Kathleen Stowe said that after the last vote that resulted in ties with Democrats favoring a two year extension and Republicans favoring a one year extension she had heard from members of the community.
“One sticks out in my mind,” she said. “Ralph Mayo (who was formerly the district’s interim superintendent and is currently the GHS principal) said, ‘Please tell me you’re going to give her 3 years.’…What I think is interesting coming from Ralph was that during the superintendent process when we picked Dr. Jones, Ralph Mayo was publicly the second choice.”
“And the fact that this man stood up who is now leading our high school said she was a great leader says a lot because he thinks she is leading our district in the right direction and would hate to see us go backward with superintendent turnover.”
The district has had roughly 14 superintendents in the past 20 years.
Republican Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony said his wish for a one year contract extension was not a comment on Dr. Jones’s performance.
He said the community should not interpret a one-year extension as a commentary on Dr. Jones’s leadership.
“This district under Dr. Jones has made excellent strides,” he said.
“Yes, we do have the trauma of multiple superintendents who came before Dr. Jones…We don’t want to go back to that.”
“At the same time, we’ve gone through this period, because of the pandemic, of a drop in scores. We’ve also gone through this period where we did not have strategic direction – not Dr. Jones’s fault. We have both now,” Mercanti-Anthony said.
Democrat Laura Kostin responded to Mr. Mercanti-Anthony.
“Respectfully, Mike, you haven’t been here quite as long as some of us who are little longer with the district and have seen superintendents come and go over the years,” Kostin said. “My kid is 18. I don’t know how many different superintendents I’ve lived through – I’ve lost count.”
She said not to extend the longer contract would be a “managerial failure,” adding that Dr. Jones had provided vision and stability for the district, which was what families deserved.
Democrat Karen Hirsh said the head of the GEA (teachers union), Lil Perrone, had reached out and shared that teachers wanted stability and long term.
“They’re tired of new superintendents coming in with new teams, new curriculum agendas and changes, and just when our teachers start to master new curriculum we lost the leadership and change happens over and over again.”
“We just approved a strategic plan that’s taken quite some time to get through. I want someone who was intimately involved in the creation of that, who is accountable to that, because this is the first time we’ve actually had a strategic plan with specific dates and data points in there, leading us forward with that plan.”
Republican BOE chair, Joe Kelly said he had received calls over the weekend and a variety of opinions.
“I realized that basically it comes down to the eight of us,” Kelly said. “I’m only interested in getting us to be unanimous and made a decision.”
He said while he was open to compromise it was not possible to offer a compromise of a 1-1/2 year contract extension that would leave end in the middle of a school year.
“Nobody wants to not extend our superintendent,” he said. “We all want to extend her employment.”
he said wrestling some board members into a two-year extension might create animosity and bitterness.
“We need to send the message to the community that we as the Board of Ed, the 8 of us all voted 8-0 because we are the best board in town,” Kelly said. “I want to find agreement on this board where everyone is satisfied with the decision.”
Republican Cody Kittle said the board was wasting their time discussion the issue because no one was changing their mind. “This is all theater and posturing,” he said.
The board took a vote on a 2-year contract for Jr. Jones:
Yes: Christina Downey, Kathleen Stowe, Laura Kostin and Karen Hirsh.
No: Joe Kelly, Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony, Karen Kowalski, Cody Kittle.
The motion failed.
The members of each party then recessed to caucus, which lasted about 20 minutes.
After the recess Joe Kelly made a motion was made to extend the contract for one year from June 2024 to June 2025.
Yes: Republicans Joe Kelly, Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Ahtony, Karen Kowalski and Cody Kittle.
No: Christina Downey and Kathleen Stowe.
Abstain: Laura Kostin and Karen Hirsh.
The motion passed 4-2-2.
“I think this is not a good direction for us,” Stowe said. She noted that back during Covid there were upwards of 1,000 people on Zoom calls and Monday night there were few people listening.
“We’ve given us your all and Dr. ones, this is simply humiliating to do this in this theater. You’ve given a lot to our children.You’ve always preach kindness, and the way this played out is far from kind. I deeply apologize and this has been very unfortunate.”
Ms Downey said she was concerned the revolving door of superintendents would continue dand desperately concerned about what a one-year extension signaled and how it might be interpreted negatively by students, staff and the community.
“I’m troubled by some of my colleagues who seem to believe that we’re such a great place to work that Dr. ones won’t leave or if she did we’d find a good replacement for her. Given how badly some of the other town bodies have treated both us and our superintendent, I think that’s disconnected from reality.”
Also, Downey said she was dismayed there was intrusion of other town bodies into the process, attempting to influence the board’s decision.
“We were elected to do what’s best for Greenwich Schools, not any outside group, person or candidate,” she continued, adding she was very disappointed in fellow board members and that if Dr. Jones left the district they would bear the responsibility for that loss.
Mr. Kittle said it was a lost opportunity to have a unanimous vote, and did not send a good message to the community.
“This is all posturing and a waste of time,” Kittle said.
Karen Hirsh said turnover in superintendents had harmed forward academic movement in the past and created turmoil. She said that under Jones’s leadership school personnel had carried out policies of the board with energy and dedication.
Laura Kostin said she abstained because she had wanted a two-year contract but didn’t want to decline to vote.
Mr. Mercanti-Anthony said every member of the board wanted to extend the superintendent’s contract, and the only disagreement was when to have the conversation again.
Mr. Kelly made a motion to authorize the contract extension on behalf of the board.
The Republicans voted yes.
The Democrats were split. Ms Stowe and Ms Downey voted no. Ms Hirst voted yes. Ms Kostin abstained.
The vote was 5-2-1. The motion passed.
Mr. Kelly said it troubled him that there were some hard feelings harsh words from some board members.
“People are entitled to their own opinions,” Kelly said.