On Thursday the Greenwich Board of Education convened with just six members attending. Cody Kittle was not present and there is an empty seat vacated by Republican Karen Kowalski who resigned in July citing a move out of town.
Acting chair Karen Hirsh said remaining members had been meeting with interested Republicans who wish to be considered for Kowalski’s open seat.
She said they would look for a date to hold a discussion and vote in a new member.
“Hopefully much sooner than later,” she said. “It’s lonely when it’s only 7 of us. We need an eighth member to join the band.”
Greenwich Board of Education members Michael Joseph Mercanti Anthony, Wendy Vizzo Walsh and Karen Hirsh. Sept 26, 2024
Greenwich High School student body vice president Mihir Shah addresses the Board of Education. Sept 26, 2024
Greenwich High School student body vice president Mihir Shah said goals for year included maintaining at least 70% attendance for all mass meetings, finalizing at least two policy proposals to submit to the administration and then the BOE, and increasing school spirit through class sponsored events.
“We want to improve the climate of the school to what it was before the pandemic,” he said. “For every freshman to be engaged in a warm school community and for every senior to feel they are celebrated for the past four years.”
Mihir said school spirit would be on display next week as homecoming events kick off. There is a dance planned for Saturday and on Monday, “America Day,” the first of several theme days, is scheduled. Tuesday will be dress-like-a-teacher day. Wednesday will be senior dress-up day. Friday is Cardinal spirit day. The week culminates with a football game the following Saturday.
GEA President Lil Perrone addresses the Board of Education. Sept 26, 2024
GEA president Lil Perrone said school safety was on the minds of staff and students.
“We have things we need to address as we hear in other districts – and we hopefully never happens here – of bomb threats, stress and anxiety, and shooting threats,” she said. “But they’re there in the thoughts of our students and teachers.”
The Greenwich Board of Education met Sept 26, 2024
Ms Perrone did not mention an incident at Central Middle School involving a toy replica gun. Families were sent two emails from Dr. Jones and director of school security Brent Reeves on Thursday.
The first email said a student was discovered to have brought “a non-functional replica of an antique flintlock style firearm that is common among hobbyists to school in his bag.”
“We are confident to share that there was no malicious intent,” the letter said.
Families received a second email on Thursday suggesting they have meaningful conversations with their children about responsible use of social media.
“Please remind them that what was discovered in one of our student’s school bags was a toy-like replica of a gun with no functionality whatsoever.”
GEA president Ms Perrone went on to talk about “human capital” and said wages needs to be increased to attract applicants, especially considering Greenwich Schools compete with other districts that pay more.
“There is a teacher shortage. There is a para shortage. And there is a substitute shortage. Although we say we are fully staffed, teachers are pulled to cover (for other teachers). We need to make sure our teachers have time to give service to all students, and our specialized services – we can’t rob Peter to pay Paul,” she said. “But it really has to come from the people in the community – their priorities… it’s supply and demand.”
“It’s hurting the teachers. We feel pain. We feel joy. We feel stress,” she said. “We need the time in our classroom and not being pulled to cover.”
PTA Council president John Fisher urged families to join the PTAs at their children’s schools. He said last year just under 4,000 families joined PTAs in town and that Greenwich Schools PTAs spent over $1,250,000 to enhance student learning experiences, support teachers and build school community connections.
In addition to the $1,250,000, a fundraising committee, in coordination with the Greenwich Alliance for Education and PTA Council, raised enough money for all the town’s public schools 8th graders to participate in the annual Capstone trip to Washington, DC.
Mr. Fisher said he’d heard from a number of families who had expressed frustration about the reduction in instructional minutes for foreign languages.
He said parents were also voicing concerns about crowded classes.
“What we’re hearing anecdotally is that those elementary classes are very crowded, especially for fourth and fifth graders,” he said. “We’re hearing that some classes in the middle schools and GHS are well over 25 and, anecdotally, some have 30 or more.”
Fisher said the surprise of larger classes coordinated with the reduction of 11 full time employees in the budget, and having elementary classes of up to 26 students, while comparable districts in (district reference group) DRG A and DRG B had a maximum of 24.
Alexandra Stevens, who teaches at GHS, spoke in her capacity as a parent of three Greenwich Schools students. She said she learned about a 40% cut to Spanish instructional time in grades 3-5 from the academic schedule her child brought home.
“Just doing the math, this cut means that grades 3-5 elementary school students receive 24 few hours of Spanish instruction per year or 72 hours prior to starting middle school,” she said, adding, “It concerns me that the district made this curricular change without any parent or teacher input.”
Stevens also said there was an increase in class sizes at GHS.
“Prior to Covid, the average high school class in Connecticut was 21.5. Last year the state legislature considered a bill capping high school classes to 25 students, reflecting research that too many students in the classroom negatively impacts learning.”
“Yet as a result of the board’s decision to eliminate so many positions at GHS over the past two years, many of the core academic classes at GHS have 28 to 31 students in them.”
Ms Stevens added that with more students requiring accommodations and the increasing mental health challenges faced by teens, she urged the board to reinstate the foreign language instruction time and prioritize decreasing class sizes at the high school.
Removal of Flex Time
GHS 11th grader Hadrian Nobay said the decision last May to remove flex block had unfortunate consequences.
He noted that while GHS eliminated flex block, Central Middle School introduced a “call back period”— an extra 30 minutes of time at the end of the day to meet with teachers on rotation.
“I see people who need extra help from their teachers unable to get it, since they don’t have a ride to drive them to school early, and because they have other commitments after the school day ends,” Hadrian said. “I see teachers needing to schedule appointments instead of allowing walk-ins, and even then having no guarantee that their opens will overlap with that of their students. I see returning students forced to choose between two clubs that they love, because instead of 8 distinct time blocks to choose from, now clubs must pick between three weekdays when the late bus runs and when advisors are paid for supporting extracurriculars.”
Hadrian said in his opinion any student who wanted to have more than three hobbies was out of luck.
“I see new students, unable to find their place in the school, since staying after the end of the day, instead of just checking out an activity and then taking their normal bus home, is an impossibility for some and a big commitment for all.”
He said athletes were being forced to miss near the entire last class of the day, when they would have previously only missed a half-hour flex block.
“I see students with accommodations unable to use them, because there’s no time allotted to use their extra time.”
“I see students who want a job unable to get one, since leaving at the same time as the buses means an extra 15 minutes of waiting in traffic,” he continued.
Traffic on East Putnam Ave at the intersection of Hillside Road at GHS dismissal time. Monday, Sept 23, 2024. Photo Leslie Yager
“I see my bus arriving as late as 3:40pm on some days, in no small part due to the increased traffic from flex time, when it’s meant to come at 3:10pm.”
“I see dissatisfaction with the Board of Education rising in the student body, not even to mention the upcoming phone policy. I see hundreds of clubs left floundering without a time slot or advisor willing to run them.”
“Is all that lost school community, all those extra cars on the road, all those students who can’t meet with teachers, really worth an extra two minutes of class time?” he asked.
Finally, Hadrian suggested introducing some type of alternate ‘community time’ for students to meet their needs.
BOE member Kathleen Stowe said she was one of the members who had voted in favor of eliminating flex time, but suggested a quantitative analysis be conducted.
“I have seen some of the items Hadrian mentioned and I don’t disagree with,” Stowe said. “I am hearing mixed things, and I know, personally, the traffic is hard.”
Dr. Jones while traffic is hard at the high school, that at dismissal time the situation had improved because a police officer controls the traffic signal manually at dismissal.
“That is making a big difference,” she said. “It’s working.”
As for the ‘no left turn’ restriction from the egress just to the north of the science wing that is used by students and parents, Dr. Jones said police were being encouraged to ticket people.
“We do have a few from the wild west who will not follow the rules,” she said.
Also, during her superintendent’s report, Dr. Jones addressed other concerns that came up during public comment.
She said a safety and security seminar was being planned for Oct 16 at 6:30pm at Cos Cob School, including Greenwich Police Chief Jim Heavey, head of school security Brent Reeves and School Resource Officers.
“It’s really a forum to answer questions parents have about school safety,” she said.
As for class sizes, she said guidelines had not changed, though there were classes close to their threshold.
“If you’re used to seeing 16s, 18s and 19s, it does feel different,” she said. “And certainly the secondary numbers don’t look any different from the past couple years.'”
“Whenever we reduce FTE, we give that to GHS principal Ralph Mayo and vice principal Dana Tulotta. They look at where the enrollment is low – where someone retires, they know they can absorb. It’s not like they go in and take a core class and cut those.”
She said class size numbers are always shared during the budget process.
As for the reduction in instruction time for foreign languages BOE member Laura Kostin said it stemmed from a decision taken by administration over the summer, and that not only were parents expressing concern, but students had started a petition.
“I do think there are families that really do value that,” she said. “I don’t feel like we provided a venue to vet that through the board. It’s much like our cell phone policy, which did not come to the board – which I feel we should have a thorough discussion about.”
As for the cell phones at GHS, Ms Kostin said that at lunch time, students might leave campus just to access to their phones.
“I want to make sure we give these weighty issues all the time and consideration they deserve,” Kostin said.
Karen Hirsh said when decisions are taken at the end of the previous school year or over the summer, parents may be taken by surprise. She said it was important to share the rationale for changes with parents, in public, in advance.
Dr. Jones said if flex time was restored, there were would be other challenges.
“What happens at the end of the day? So many kids left. We didn’t know where they were. It was not safe. I didn’t feel safe as a school superintendent,” Jones said.
“We had teachers who would stay because they had to, but the vast majority of our students were not taking advantage of flex at the end of the day,” Jones added.
“You can move it to the middle of the day,” she said. “A lot of high schools do that – but if we make that choice, then you have your athletes going later. We should not have students missing the last block of the day.”
As for student cell phone use, she said it reflected a regulation, not a policy.
“We knew the state was coming out with guidelines for us and we were trying to be in front of that. The high school is the only area where we’re discussing change.”
Jones said the board will have an opportunity to weigh in.
“If you want to put them in little pouches and lock them all away, we will do whatever you tell us to do,” she said.
See also:
State Issues Guidance to CT School Districts on Restricting Cell Phone Use in School
Aug 21, 2024
Greenwich Schools Announces Cell Phone Policy
Aug 15, 2024