BOE Recap: Representation on Havemeyer Committee, Cell Phone Policy, Super’s Salary Increase

The Board of Education held a brief remote meeting Thursday night via Zoom.

Pictured via Zoom Dr. Toni Jones and Kathleen Stowe (top) and Wendy Vizzo Walsh (below). Aug 1, 2024

The agenda included a vote to authorize Phase 2 of 3 for the new Central Middle School.

The meeting was led by acting chair Karen Hirsh.

Last month, the chair, Republican Karen Kowalski, resigned citing an out of town move. With Dr. Mercanti-Anthony unable to attend, and Ms Kowalski’s set empty, there were just two Republicans in attendance and four Democrats.

The CMS vote was quick and unanimous.

Superintendent Salary Increase

The agenda also included a vote on a 2% salary increase for the superintendent. Ms Hirsh motioned to approve the increase for Dr. Toni Jones from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025 from $251,124.26 to $256,146.76.

Ms Hirsh said the 2% pay raise was part of the superintendent’s contract but had “inadvertently been omitted this year.”

After the motion was seconded, Wendy Vizzo Walsh shared her opinion.

“The budget was put together a year ago, and that doesn’t mean that it must happen. As far as I understand, it doesn’t mean that we have to give her a 2% increase. She clearly did not do a good enough job to get a full renewal,” Vizzo Walsh said.

“We’re not discussing her review here,” Ms Hirsh said. “It is part of her contract that she gets a 2% raise. We can request something higher than that. We, as a board simply have to approve that.”

Ms Walsh said there was no documentation in the meeting agenda to support that.

Ms Hirsh said it was part of the contract that BOE members had all received a copy of.

The vote on the salary increase was 5-1 with Ms Hirsh, Cody Kittle, Laura Kostin, Sophie Koven, and Kathleen Stowe voting yes, and Ms Walsh voting no.

BOE Vacancy

Next was a review of the next steps to fill the BOE vacancy created by the July 19 resignation of Ms Kowalski.

Ms Hirsh said the Board of Education bylaws, Policy #9221, had clear guidance on filling vacancies. In addition, CGS statute 10-219 also had information on filling the vacancy until the next municipal election, as well as electing a successor for the unexpired term at the next municipal election.

“So, for the period between now and the next municipal election, the remaining 7 members of the Board of Education shall fill that vacancy with a qualified candidate of the same political party of the vacated member. The board is permitted to interview candidates and will take a public vote to fill the seat until the next municipal election,” she said.

“And according to state statute 10-219, which then notes that a successor shall be elected for the remainder of the unexpired portion of the term at the next regular municipal town election, with the official ballot specifying the vacancies to be filled.”

Acting chair Hirsh said any registered Republican who is interested in filling the vacant seat should send her an email detailing why they are interested in serving on the board, and include any information on personal and professional expertise.

From there, she said the information will be shared with all board members who would interview candidates, discuss and take a vote on candidates as soon as possible.

“I hope to be able to do this at the September meeting,” Hirsh said. “We hope there will be many people interested in serving in this important role and we look forward to meeting potential candidates.”

School Fields Construction

Superintendent Jones also gave some brief updates, including field construction updates.

She said the GHS baseball field was on schedule to be completed next spring’s season.

“However, I just always like to remind people – a ton of things could happen between now and baseball season, and should that happen, we would be ready to have another wonderful season on an alternate field, just like we did last year.”

As for Western Middle School field, remediated after many years of being out of service due to contamination, Jones said the next step will be installation of the artificial turf.

“We will absolutely have children back on Western Middle School fields next year, which is very exciting,” she said.

North Street Bridge Replacement

Jones said the district was receiving numerous questions about the North Street bridge.

At an input session for residents held by DPW in April, they said the $3 million project to replace the heavily traveled bridge – between Macpherson and Cotswood (over West Brothers Brook) – would start in spring 2025 and be completed at the end of 2026.

“There is a group that is starting to formulate from the community – they are very concerned about the project, which is set to start next spring,” Jones said. “It’s set to go for 18 months, which people feel is a really long bridge project. They would like to see a much more condensed timeline or perhaps a different design.”

The bridge project will impact school buses and parents, and of course, North Street School is nearby.

“Because of the impacts – going down to one lane on North Street – during heavy traffic times, we already have to hire police just to manage traffic, so it will be hugely impactful,” Jones said.

GHS Dismissal without Flex Time

Jones said the district was also taking a look at ways to mitigate traffic in the afternoon given the change to the schedule at GHS.

At their May meeting the board voted 5-1 to eliminate “Flex Time” at GHS.

Without the 1/2-hour flex block at the end of the day, beginning this fall, students will be dismissed at 2:55 pm and all classes will be 55 minutes long.

There have been concerns about increased traffic congestion with all students departing the same time.

“We’re working with safety and security on that,” Jones said.

New Havemeyer Committee

Last week the Town of Greenwich issued a Request for Proposals to redevelop the historic Havemeyer building on Greenwich Ave.

The building has been home to the Board of Education administrative staff for 76 years.

Dr. Jones said there were two BOE members on the original ” First Selectman’s Advisory Committee on the Havemeyer Building.” That committee wound down its work after it issued a report and First Selectman Camillo put together a new committee to for the redevelopment of the historic building.

“Originally, members Christina Downey and Joe Kelly served on behalf of the board,” she said. “Joe Kelly is still on that committee. However, we did not have a board representative on that committee for quite some time. We did reach out to ask if we could please get board representation so that we’re more informed about what’s happening.”

“We did reach out on that last week, and Karen Hirsh and Sophie Koven are going to be representatives on that committee,” she added. “That bad thing was we got invited to add the new members on Monday. I let them know who they were on Tuesday, and the RFP went out on Wednesday.”

“We didn’t actually have any board members review the RFP,” Jones said.

BOE member Kathleen Stowe said, “To not be a part of the process was frustrating. Now that it’s out there, publicly posted – can you send that around so we can see it?”

“I assume the board will need its own counsel now because it will be in a conflict of interest with the town’s counsel. Can we start that process?” Ms Stowe added.

Ms Hirsh said the board had already been given approval to seek its own counsel.

Ms Kostin said she was troubled that the board had no representation or participation in crafting the RFP.

“I certainly would not have worded it in the way it was worded,” Ms Kostin said. “These meetings were not publicly posted. Nor were they available to the public to watch. I feel there is a lack of transparency, and it is somewhat troubling to me. I am glad we are able to retain counsel. As soon as we are able I would like to move that process forward. If it needs board approval, I would like to motion for that at our next meeting.”

Ms Hirsh said the composition of the committee for redeveloping Havemeyer was a different from the original committee.

“We were not aware they were meeting over the summer,” Ms Hirsh said of the new committee. “There weren’t meetings posted anywhere. I’ll be reaching out – I believe once the RFP is issued there is still the possibility to amend.”

The RFP includes details on issuing addenda.

On Saturday Andy Duus, chair of the new Havemeyer committee responded to a request for comment, saying he believed some of the complaints stemmed from misunderstandings.

“This past winter, the First Selectman and the Schools Superintendent conducted an informal survey of available office space in Greenwich and found several spaces potentially suitable for the possible relocation of the Schools staff currently in Havemeyer Building.”

Further, he wrote, “Encouraged by the availability of space, the First Selectman made an update to the BOE on progress. He also asked then-Town Manager Ben Branyan to begin preparation of the RFP for the Havemeyer Building. He also asked others (including me) for recommendations of who should be on the RFP committee. I asked the members of the Advisory Committee if they would wish to continue on the RFP Committee; only Joe Kelly accepted. Ultimately, in addition to Joe, I recommended a bipartisan set of local residents experienced either with real estate design, development, or finance, with redevelopment of historic properties, or with Town government. The First Selectman accepted most of my selections and added one of his.”

Duus said the RFP Evaluation Committee first met in June and elected his as Chair, and the committee was able to improve upon the draft RFP.

“This was the first time in my experience in serving on Town RFP committees that the evaluation committee was able to review a draft of the RFP before its publication,” he noted.

He acknowledged that subsequent to the RFP Committee’s finalizing the RFP draft, the First Selectmen added BOE members Karen Hirsh and Sophie Koven to the RFP Committee.

Regarding Laura Kostin’s comment that the new committee’s meetings were not publicly posted, he shared an excerpt from his June 17 note to the RFP Committee member:

“The Evaluation Committee will follow a process and format established by the State, and administered by the Town’s Purchasing Department, to solicit and review proposals for the redevelopment of the Havemeyer Building. The Committee’s meetings and deliberations will not be open to the public; its rankings and its recommendations, however, will become public.”

Lastly, he responded to Ms Kostin’s comment that there were no meetings posted over the summer, to say that was indeed true.

He noted the RFP is posted on the Town’s website (under Purchasing Department), and sets forth the following timeline for proposals:

RFP issue date July 24
Questions from respondents due September 16
Potential addendum posted October 1
Proposed submission date November 15

“Given this schedule, there is little reason for the RFP Committee to meet again until questions from potential respondents are received,” Mr. Duus added. “We are seeking quality responses, and that requires that we allow respondents time. The ‘heavy lifting’ for the RFP Committee will come after receipt of the proposals in November, and for this I am grateful to have as many volunteers as we do serving on the RFP Committee.”

Cell Phone Use

Dr. Jones said the board would be asked to review the “bring your own device” policy, perhaps with some tweaks.

She said that the middle school principals had specifically requested that going into this school year, middle school students use only school-issued devices, and no outside devices.

“That really has to do with the number of disruptions and distractions because they don’t have the same level of control to turn things off, like FaceTime* and Messenger, and things that don’t happen on school-issued devices.”

“That’s the intent going into the fall, is trying to make sure they are on school-issued devices in middle school,” Jones added. “We already do that in K-5.”

She said there would be special consideration for a student with a unique need such as an IEP or 504 who may need a different device.

She noted a petition had been circulated about banning cell phones.

A movement called, “Ok to Delay” who established a chapter in Greenwich, is a group of parents concerned about the effects of social media and smartphones on children.

“We really had a ‘no cell bell-to-bell’ in K-8. Their phones are supposed to be off and away. They’re not even supposed to have them out at lunch,” Jones explained. “We came together as an administrative team to talk about consistency of implementation, making sure we are following what we say that we do I think that will be a big help going into fall.”

But Dr. Jones said, the policy did not mean students couldn’t have cell phones in their backpacks or in their lockers.

“If you have a student who has a long walk home after school, a lot of our parents want them, from a safety standpoint, to be able to get hold of parents.”

She said GHS Principal Ralph Mayo joined the middle school principals last week for the discussion about cell phone use.

“In grades 9-12 is a totally different animal,” she said. “At high school, again they’re often put away during instruction unless they have permission. Sometimes they use them for lab experiments, or using the video camera, or they may be using a decibel meter on someone’s cell phone. Again, consistency of implementation is really where our effort will be. The Policy Committee is going to take this up. I’ll be able to share with them what we currently do, and I’m sure, come back to the board for discussion.”

“I want the board to know that we acknowledge and are going to do a better job communicating what we already do, and hopefully that will be very well received from the community.”

The brief meeting was adjourned in under an hour.