January 15, 2026 Board of Education Business Meeting

001All right, good good uh good evening everybody. Um welcome to this evening's board of education meeting for the Brish Board of Education. Uh please rise for the uh pledge of allegiance to the flag and stand to the stand indivisible with justice for all. Well, I'd like to welcome everybody here in person and and watching online. Um, our agenda tonight is a little bit of a hodgepodge considering um now that we've been gone through the the budget process. Um, this this meeting you see from the agenda, we've got various updates of different aspects of of the community to talk about. Um, including really the highlight is update from our good friends at the Greenwich Alliance. Um but first I just wanted to note at the beginning here we have shifted our typical agenda just slight uh

002our our format slightly. Um uh from now on we're instead of beginning um immediately with public comment um we're going to do superintendent report and board reports at the top of the meeting um so all the community can can hear everything and then go right to public comment. So we're going to shift that order a little bit. It's a little odd this evening because we don't actually have any public comment. So, all the more reason to to to point that out. Um, so that said, uh, I'm going to turn things over to Superintendent Jones with her superintendent report. I always forget the consent agenda. Do I have a motion for the consent agenda? >> Mr. Moves. >> I can second. >> Seconded by Veronica. All in favor of the consent agenda. >> I >> Okay,

003Sophie's online. Well, that is unanimous. Thank you. Consent agenda passes. >> And now, Superintendent Jones. >> Thank you. Um, just a couple of reminders tonight. Um, congratulations to all the musical performances and uh, theater um, action that has been happening. They've all, it's just been phenomenal. I know I said that last month as well. Um, just as a reminder at the bottom of our Friday note, we are listing a lot of these community events and concerts and things down at the bottom. So, just click on those links. Um, there are also where we put some of the author talks, um, some of the special education workshops. We're getting more and more of our community members that will send us things uh for our community partners and they want us to share that out in that

004newsletter because it does have a high readership. So, keep them coming. We love it. Um, summer fair will be coming on January 28th. Uh, for parents that are newer to the district or have little ones, you may not understand what that is, but that is the event to attend on the 28th at GHS. If you want to know any summer camp, anything that's happening um, this summer that you can enroll your students and get them engaged in. Um, and then the last thing you always ask me about buses, and at least I have something positive to say this time. Um, we did get all of the buses moved um off of JC over the weekend, which was great. We will have 25 that were approximately 25 were moving from Western. I I know the board

005is aware, but um when it went to the planning office, we did get capped at 35 buses. They don't want us to have more than 35 there. Um but the hunt is not over. This is a temporary solution, making things better today. um we hope to still have a permanent solution and we would rather have it sooner than later. So that we're still looking every single day. Um that's all for me. Um up next is reports from um board committees. Anybody have a report? Uh Miss Walsh? >> Sure. Just an update for the Julian Curtis building. Can Um it continues to make progress. Uh phase one and two are very close to completion. The elevator is complete and awaiting inspection. Um one step remains placing a box around the shut off switch and then inspection

006will follow. The front entrance is nearing completion also with the last door to be installed this week. After this um after this only a punch list of items will remain. Uh we've interviewed the lowest bidder for phase three and plan to make our final selection in the next two weeks. Uh this is the the third phase, the the cafeteria, and it's on track to be completed this summer. >> Any questions for any >> Paul? I think I saw your hand up. >> Thank you. I have a um report for the Riverside School Building Committee. Uh the Riverside School Building Committee met for the first time on Tuesday, January 13th. Committee members were introduced and those who had not previously met had the opportunity to become acquainted. Officers were nominated and elected as follows. Mr. Patrick

007Pezdek will serve as chair, Mr. Luigi Galardi, vice chair, and Mr. Brian Finkel as secretary. Uh the committee discussed an initial meeting meeting cadence with the understanding that meetings meeting frequency may increase as the project progresses. The next meeting has been scheduled for January 28th and subject to availability will be held at Riverside School. The committee is currently short to members. However, we were advised that the board of selectment is actively conducting interviews for those positions. The committee also discussed areas of expertise that would be beneficial for the for the remaining appointments including legal engineering and MEP which is mechanical, electrical and and plumbing. I look forward to uh working closely with this capable and enga engaged group >> questions. Okay, Veronica, >> thank you. Um I have three updates. Uh the Greenwich Alliance for

008Education had their first meeting just of this year uh which was on Tuesday. Um I've passed out the organization's impact report which highlights last year's work. The alliance had a tremendous tremendously successful turkey trot this past November. The next fundraiser will be the turkey the trivia challenge on February 27th at Tamarak Country Club. I'll leave the remainder of the update to Julie for any artists who's here um and'll be presenting later. Can I continue? I have two more. Thanks. I have two more. Sorry. The distinguished teacher awards um which is a long-standing GPS tradition was established in 1984. Their nomination packets are available on this on the GPS website and we encourage all members of the GPS community to consider nominating an outstanding teacher, social worker, guidance counselor, instructional coach, or specialist. Completed nomination packets

009should be submitted in person or electronically by March 5th at 5:00 p.m. The award recipients will be recognized at the April 16th board of education meeting. And the committee uh the distinguished teacher award committee that is uh invites the board to attend the distinguished teacher celebration on Thursday, May 7th at 4:30 at CMS. And I will uh send out a reminder. And lastly, the special education advisory committee also met this week. Dr. Dr. Hiliganthaler presented an update on the special education action plan emphasizing the district's continued focus on all areas identified in the PCG audit even where the goals have already been met or recommendations completed. The March 17th meeting uh will be a closed session with attendance limited to only a few members of the board of education. Uh if anyone's interested in attending,

010please let me know. SAK is hoping to have three or four members uh of the board join. Thank you. Um, did they say for for uh why what do they why do why do they is it as a forum or I think that u my understanding is that they want to provide information more information to the board and help to to what I think that the ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between their committee and the board and make sure that we're communicating in a productive way and you know that we have continued updates and they want feedback from us on um you know what their schedule might look like in terms of presenting to us and then we can give them feedback on what works with our schedule similar to the um cadence

011I sent you in the in the email. >> Does that help? >> Any questions? >> Okay. So, uh Veronica gets the gold star for three reports. Does does anyone on this table have four reports that they can Mr. Cheney two? You get a silver star. Go ahead. >> I'll I'll be fast. Um just uh Central Middle School is still going strong. Everything's uh on time and budget. And uh if anybody has any specific questions, they can just email me about that. I can get to. And uh for the RTM, all the committees are locked in with chairs, vice chairs, and secretaries. There's a few alternates uh for a few uh of the committees that aren't filled in, but uh everybody has a seat at the table, all all 12 districts. realize we're going to have

012to find a new place to to meet this time next year because of the work of the CMS committee, >> right? >> That's true, >> Karen. >> I'm sure they can set up a a nice space for us outside to to meet um in the nice weather. Um so, my updates are uh PTAC met this week and there were some um very in-depth discussions about busing, which I know Dr. Jones has updated us already on um there was a wonderful report by uh Miss Fanny who will be giving us a similar update later. Um and they just got a little bit of a preview of some of the discussion items that we were going to have this evening. Um and all went well there. I unfortunately do not have an update from EMAC as I

013missed the meeting. Um so I will have that for you guys uh next time. Okay. So, now we move on to the public hearing portion. Um, and up first, as always, we want to welcome our representatives from GHS student government. >> Thanks. >> Good evening, distinguished members of the board of education and Dr. Jones. I hope you've had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year and that all has been since the last board of ed meeting. At that December meeting, the proposed 2026 to 27 school year budget was formally approved. I would like to address not the budget itself, but the process of approving it. On November 6th, 2025, the original proposed budget for the 26 to 27th school year was introduced. While the meeting was cancelled due to a lack of quorum, it

014still achieved its goal of in proposing and introducing the budget to the community. November 20th was the first meeting in which public comments were fully heard. With only two weeks notice, teachers, students, and parents were required to allocate and they're were required to adjust their already busy schedules to fully comprehend the changes outlined in the proposed budget. On December 8th, the budget was discussed and approved. However, there was not sufficient time for community members to share their feedback and no time for the board to reflect on the input received. Also, GHS's candle light concert was the same day, causing many interested in speaking to be unable to attend. November 20th, just 2 weeks after the proposed budget was introduced, marked the last meeting in which public comments were heard with enough time to resonate with

015the board. In years prior, the board held a separate budget meeting to address this concern. This meeting was eliminated and replaced by a retreat during which public comments would not be heard. The justification for this decision was that the meeting was not well attended in years prior. However, given the decision to eliminate numerous teaching positions, it should have been evident that this issue would prompt significant consern and the large number of individuals seeking to speak. Additionally, the considerable attendance on November 20th with I believe over 40 speakers should have also sparked the idea that more discussion was necessary before a vote. Lastly, I want to reflect on how well informed the community was throughout this process. It has only recently come to my attention and that of many others through Dr. Jones that the reduction

016in teaching staff did not involve direct individual terminations, but rather the decision not to refill vacant positions when the teachers retire or leave the district at the end of the school year. There was also a concern that many reductions appeared in the world language department, but that was clarified as just a temporary placeholder. A public budget workshop, as mentioned by Dr. Jones during our student government lunch meeting this month would be beneficial for students and other community members to learn about the budget and ask questions. Additionally, these workshops would provide specific clarifications for board decisions, including the reasoning for cuts and impact of these decisions like the predicted effects from specific reductions of teaching positions on GHS students and course offerings. Thank you all for your support and interest in student initiatives. I understand and

017recognize the difficulty of putting together a budget for thousands of students with many passionate parents, teachers, and students, especially as a newly formed board. I again asked the board to consider allocating more time to listening to public comments before the final decision so that public comments do not feel so futile. Oops, I lost my spot. I also I also ask for more openness and proactive communication. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you tonight and I'm now off to study for midterms and I hope for the best. Thank you. >> Good luck. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thanks Colin. Um uh good evening members of the BOE and Dr. Jones students and community members. I'm Gabriel Lesa the student body president at Granch High School and I'm happy to both see and

018speak before you this evening. Uh today was the first day of midterms over at the high school and it's safe to say that students have been well prepared and and are excited to dive into second semester activities. The senior class is preparing a grand prom while also coordinating plans for graduation. Our juniors are preparing fundraisers and a possible cookbook in the coming months. Uh sophomores are in a similar boat planning profit shares and schoolwide events. Uh while the freshmen are settling in and are planning movies and possible merch for their class. Uh student government is currently probing uh the possibility of both a spring prep rally and a research fair at the high school. Uh ensuring that students will participate will be critical to these goals. Which brings me to the discussion of the night.

019The new classes proposed at GHS will keep us at the forefront of AP offerings not only in our state but nationally. I have no doubt that these classes will fail and continue to educate the students of Greenwich to be top tier. However, I would like to set forth a cautionary tale. I myself have been particularly fond of AP classes and I will graduate in June having completed 14 of them. While the choice to take this many was my own, it was heavily influenced by the expectations and culture of the school. I believe that if we are to introduce new AP classes to the high school and have more honor students make the transition to the AP, there should be additional precautions. In Connecticut, we lead the nation in many things, but pertinent to this discussion

020is that we lead in high school students reporting insufficient sleep, 80.1% per the CDC. With earlier start times amid the budget cuts of last year, this sleep issue will continue to grow. Looking back to the classes before us, we find traditions that have long been lost. I'm sure many people watching online and in this room can attest to some of their best moments at GHS being SRO, the parade down Putinham, and the once grand senior pranks, all done away with today. One main reason for this is less time and less sleep. This can be accredited to the increase in AP participation where students see more homework and a more demanding course load. And while yes, AP classes prepare students for college, per the College Board, this tends to level off after having taken five AP

021classes. students take these rigorous courses to increase GPA and chances of getting into top colleges. And with the new GPA guidelines at GHS, I only expect the cons to get worse. Some students see that AP's focus too much on memorization and not actually skill building. And to attest to this, it's true that a whole month at the end of the school year, referred to as AP month by the students, is designed simply for recalling the information students quote learned during the school year in order to perform well on high stakes exams. It is for this reason that schools like GCDS and Scarsdale have done away with them completely. With this, some see that AP classes cut critical experiences and freedoms that were once part of GHS through our diverse and independent honors classes and on

022level electives. Since most colleges only evaluate students within the context of their high school, there should be more bounds and perhaps hard caps for students taking AP courses here in Greenwich. And so while we celebrate Greenwich's commitment to academic exc excellence, I'm asking that we protect the other half of what makes a school excellent, the health, balance, and community life of its students. I feel that has become all too common today where we sacrifice culture for efficiency and numbers. And so with that, I thank you for your time and for your service to Greenwich, and I look forward to speaking with you again this time next month. >> Thank you, Gabe and Colin. I I think it's very clear why both of you are in the positions you're in. Uh thank you for your for

023your for your for your your words tonight. Um now I want to welcome the GA uh Margaret up with GA comments. Good evening Chairman Mckanty Anthony, board members Dr. Jones, community members and happy new year to all. My name is Margaret Jkins and I am the president of the Greenwich Education Association. I bet you didn't know that I come from a family of teachers and I'm married into a family of teachers. There are more than a dozen of us across three generations. And I'd like to share some thoughts about the profession to which we've dedicated our lives. Back in the dark ages when I was in school, teachers were often revered in their communities. They were widely respected as experts in their subject areas and trusted to make decisions about curriculum, discipline, and student learning.

024And rightly or wrongly, their professional judgment was rarely challenged. Over time, accountability and standardizations became dominant themes in education. The rise of standardized testing and performance metrics changed how the public measured a teacher's effectiveness, reducing the complex role of teachers to numerical outcomes rather than professional expertise. Teachers are held accountable for test scores, graduation rates, and student performance, even when many factors are beyond their control. Large class sizes, learning gaps, and home challenges all affect students. Yet teachers often feel the weight of that responsibility alone. This constant pressure can create anxiety and self-doubt, making educators question their effectiveness and worth. We saw an upswing in public opinion toward teachers during the CO 19 pandemic. Parents who now had their children at home all day trying to get through school work began equating teachers with angels

025and saints. For some, this renewed appreciation reinforced the idea that teachers are essential workers who support not only academic learning but also social and emotional development. Now, as lovely as that positive ride was, it soon ended and the downward slide began. Teachers do want strong partnerships with families, but parental demands have skyrocketed. Some parents expect immediate responses at all hours, special consideration, or outcomes that may not be developmentally appropriate, and teachers often worry that a single complaint, whether justified or not, could escalate into a myriad of consequences. >> 30 seconds. >> Access to technology has further transformed how teachers are viewed. With information readily available online, some members of the public have come to underestimate the skill involved in teaching, assuming that access to content is equivalent to education. At the same time, increased visibility

026through social media and online platforms has subjected teachers to greater scrutiny, criticism, and public judgment than ever before. Right now, our country is facing a shortage of teachers. Veteran teachers are leaving, and young people are not entering our profession. I can't say I blame them. Teaching just doesn't carry the same cache as it used to. >> Thank you, Margaret. Welcome to PT uh PEC. Hi everybody. Good evening everyone and happy new year. My name is Lisa Sylvester and I'm the PTA council president. Transparency, it's been a theme since September. We know sometimes with transparency there's understanding and with or without it sometimes there's frustration and sometimes incredible emotions including anger. Those emotions drive people to come out to these meetings and to speak up for what they need and what they want for their schools.

027This community of teachers, parents, and students have come to these meetings each and every month to talk to you all to provide the board muchneeded perspectives on the needs of our schools as families experience them every day. It is disheartening that at the last BOE meeting where you all took a vote on the new budget, there was no discussion. It was deja vu back to a BET meeting earlier. Sorry, it was deja vu back to a BET meeting earlier this calendar year last school year where we all came out month after month urging, pleading, sometimes crying and none of it mattered. as members of the community that voted for all of you to because you ran on transparency, openness to listen, and doing what the community wanted. The last BOE meeting and vote on the

028and the vote on the budget was a big blow. When decisions appear to be finalized before the meeting even begins, it diminishes the democratic process that is damaging to our students and teachers. The majority of us felt that we were not listened to again and that our input did not matter. While we understand there are budget and other committee meetings outside of this business meeting and your minds are already made up when tonight rolls around, it doesn't change the fact that we as a group deserve to have our voices actually listened to and not just heard. That all being said, we will not stop advocating for what we feel the students and teachers deserve. We thank you for working on getting the 10 buses moved from JC and another 25 from Western Middle School. We

029look forward to hearing about the remaining buses at Western being moved hopefully sooner than later and we love we would love to hear about a long-term solution. We want to reiterate that we do not support the elimination of any teachers or teacher positions. In the last 3 years, we've seen a trend of position eliminations that directly threatens our curriculum and student support and that is worrisome. We continue to advocate for open enrollment at Central Middle School. We anticipate that with today's deadline, there was a group of families interested in moving to Central. And if the objective is raising enrollment, let's keep that door open. We of course expect that the district will handle this without causing an enrollment issue at another school, which none of us want. The stress of all the unknowns is not

030good for anyone. But if we can take on some of that stress by continuously and yes, repetitively bringing up these very important items while trying to advocate for our students and teachers to thrive and succeed in all ways, then we're happy to do it. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Lisa. Okay, so this is when we would typically have public comment, but like I said at the beginning of the meeting, um, no one this month signed up for public comment. Um we have one more new item on the agenda which is uh because we shifted things around uh which is as as part of the public hearing which says on the agenda if needed uh for board of education uh discussion or clarification uh basically to the points that we just heard from

031PTAC. Um basically based on um the public comment uh any anything we heard from public comment or questions from um GHS or GA or PTAC um if there's anything that um anyone on the board wants to clarify or point out or or or or remark to um we put we're putting this uh moment on the agenda every month um to to to um in order to um make some time for that. So that's kind of what we're we're doing here. Um so that said, is there any are there any questions or anything anybody wants to um um remark about from from from the comments this evening? Oh, Karen, go ahead. Karen, you can. Okay. Um yeah, I just wanted to remark I I I hear folks on the frustration that they didn't see a lot

032of discussion about the budget. Um and it occurred to me afterward that we and I will resolve to be clearer on this next year. Um to clarify how much time I and and others on the board spent going line by line through the budget, we sent three rounds of questions to uh Dr. Jones, Ben Brandon, and the team, which were posted publicly. Uh we carefully reviewed those. We did a lot of our own analysis, some of which led to more questions, some of which we answered our own by going through past budgets and answers to past year budget questions. uh you know we certainly among our caucus went through a number of the items and uh read every single one of your emails. I do want people to understand that um we did get several

033hundred. It is difficult to reply to them all. I assure you we read all of them. We listened to all of the commentary the two hours uh at the was it November 20th and then the the hour. Um, and I did want to point out that we did leave uh open if we had had additional signups at the December meeting that we we reserve time for those as well. We would have continued had we had more signups. We did get through everyone. Um, next year as we approach this, uh, I will I will do a better job to ask more of my questions in a in a public forum. Um, I think a lot of folks may not have seen all the responses. I mean, there were dozens and dozens of questions that we sent.

034Uh but probably it would have been helpful. Um and I did like the idea of maybe a workshop where people can ask questions and hear the answers live. It is hard to get through. I know there were uh dozens of pages of responses and sometimes those are hard to get through. So um I I like that idea of uh of doing more here, but I do want you all to know that there were dozens and dozens of hours spent behind the scenes going through in great detail. >> Dr. Dr. Jones, it sounds like you had a conversation with um student government about a budget workshop. What would that what would that look like? >> Well, I was just expressing to them we've tried to we've tried to do some budget workshops even with GA this

035year. They did a workshop. We did a workshop with GOA. This budget especially this year was a little tricky to understand which I think you guys get it but a lot of people in the community don't um because of the one nuance with that non-lapsing. Uh student government always asks great questions. I mean you you hear how articulate they are. They ask great questions every single month and they they've been great budget watchers really since last year. They got really engaged. I love it and I suggested to them we're happy to do a budget workshop for student government because you know the student voice also we want carrying accurate information. So if they have questions about you you know anything to do with this budget we want them to have the correct information too. So

036that's what the outgrowth of that comment was from. None. We'll move on to aim items. We want to welcome um um James Waters um from the old Greenwich Building Committee. Um regular watchers of board meetings will know that we just had um Mr. Waters here at our last special meeting on July 5th where we uh voted for an interim for the old Greenwich School. Um, however, there's some new information. So, in order to get this on the agenda, I have to make a motion. Um, so I would like to make a motion u based on which is the recommendation of the building committee. So, we're going to start here and then we'll see where where where um amendments might go. Uh but I would like to uh make a motion to approve uh interim funding

037for the old Greenwich community uh uh old Greenwich School um in the amount of uh 77 7,6482 uh42. Um >> I'll second. >> Thank you. So James, the um I told you that um I warned you. So what uh what we're going to say here is I was going to ask you um off the bat here. So what's what's new? What's different? Why why why why are we doing this again? >> All right. So first good to see >> and we're not we're not having we're not having the same conver we're not having last month's conversation over again. So this is purely about what's new. So >> absolutely. So good to see all of you in person this time. Um what's new? So the building committee's been working um this process pretty hard for the

038la since we saw you 10 days ago. Um, I did want to give you a couple things that just as examples. Um, we're actively looking at our builder's risk insurance. We think there might be some opportunity for some savings there. Still vetting that. Takes a little bit as as you can imagine. Um, we also have learned that um the project may be eligible for additional state reimbursement. Um, we have approved for the uh the state has approved somewhere in the ballpark of $9.6 6 million of reimbursement to the town uh for the project. However, there is some new legislation that was passed that uh we believe may um actually be a um a significant augment to that, a little bit premature. Uh there's still some work to be done with our state reps. Uh but

039I wanted to flag that for you. Um we also have met with the BET budget committee. They uh endorsed your request. Um, however, they did ask that we come back to you on three specific items, which is what we're here uh today. So, I'm not, as Mike said, I'm not going to uh uh walk through the whole presentation again. Um, we do have some I did share some info if it is I don't know if it's going to be put on a screen or not, but um I I know it's in your agenda. Uh, but those three areas are owner contingency, a roof, the roof alternate, and the cornice alternate. there there was significant discussion on Tuesday about that. Um and this would change the interim that you approved 10 days ago. So if we

040go to the next slide um we've we've created four different scenarios. Scenario one on this page is what you have already approved and I'm on page two if you're following along uh in paper on on the screen. Um scenario one is what you've already approved. audience. >> I I'm I'm not in control of that. >> Michael, is it possible to zoom in a little to so the numbers are bigger on the screen? It's going to be difficult, but you want to come forward. You can see it up here. Um, okay. Scenario one has is what you have already approved last week. So that we're not going to spend any time discussing that. Scenario two is a change to the owner contingency for the project. Um, basically increasing the owner contingency to 10%. We did discuss

041that, but there's there's some information I want to share with you on that. Scenario three is the same thing on the owner contingency except that we um incorporate the roof alternate. And scenario 4 is the all of these scenarios build on each other. So scenario 4 is everything in scenarios one uh scenario two and three except it adds the cornises. Now I want to point you towards the bottom of the page where the numbers are in red and you can see the incremental cost in red the red font of each of these options. Okay. So, let's go to the next page and we'll get into this a little bit. So, on the owner contingency, this is scenario two. Okay. So, the building committee voted met Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m. as we're we are prone

042to do. Uh we voted 601 to recommend increasing the owner contingency to 10%. I know Mr. McKanty Anthony abstained from that vote because he wanted to have the dis his discussion here. Um uh so, uh that's fine. uh the rest of the building committee uh felt pretty strongly that we should do that. Um here's here's the thinking that um owner contingencies for renovation projects the rule of thumb is you generally want your owner contingency for renovation to be twice as large as that for a new construction. We learned the day after your our meeting with you that the central middle school building committee owner contingency is 6%. So what you have approved for for old Greenwich is 7%. That is not 2 * 6. Um we're not asking for 2* 6 but just you know

043just just flagging that. Um reason that's important here is that you know in addition to renovations uh you know there where there are hidden conditions that new [clears throat] construction avoid the phasing for this project is critical. Right. We need to keep this on track because we're going to be doing significant construction activities in the summer and during school breaks and then we need to have the school ready for the kids when we're outside of those breaks. Um I do understand that the BET is likely to insert a condition on this increase of 3% which would basically make the the building committee come back if we needed to access that extra 3%. We are okay with that. That's totally fine. You know, we plan to be as we always are transparent with everything. We do

044all our reports on time. And um let me let me be clear. This will any extra funding for contingency will not be used to go to additional alternates or discretionary items. We have to decide those when we decide the GMP. So owner contingency is just that contingency. Okay. So if we if you approve that the total contingency for the project owner plus construction manager will be 13%. The input I'm getting from our professional team is that is that is you know an acceptable uh number for a project like this a renovation of a 120-y old school. Okay. Go to the next slide. We'll talk about >> just just before you go just I want to make clear the um uh you see the 601. So I as a member of the building committee, I purposely

045abstained really to make it clear that that that was a um this is the recommendation of the members of the building committee and no influence from me or anything like that. So that's why that's why you see me as an abstension there. Thank you. So let's go to this next slide. Scenario three. This basically incorporates everything we just talked about, but it does uh reject. So the the al the way we have framed this roof alternate is it is a deduct alternate. That means if you accept it, it cuts it out of the project. Okay. Um the building committee supports doing this work, but we do deem it a lower priority for the project as a whole and addressing the owner contingency. I will tell you that um on January 13th, the BET me budget

046committee members and um members of the administration expect interest in rejecting the roof alternative given that this roof is 30 years old. Um and if and if it's not included in this project, it will be a capital a a town capital item within the next 5 years. Um it is not this roof is not in terrible shape as we talked about before. It's not leaking. It's not a big problem area, but it's 30 years old, right? It was it was installed in 1995. We've confirmed that. Um the incremental um I should note the roof that this specific roof section is listed in the EDS specs. um it is eligible for state reimbursement, but adding it to the project would add $528,000. Um and if we go to the next slide, this is a a little

047diagram just so you can actually see what we're talking about about the roofs. We go to the next slide. There we go. Okay. So, if you look at this slide on blue, we are not touching. Okay. These roofs, these roof sections have been done in the last 20 years. They do not need to be redone. They need to just follow standard maintenance. The sections in in gray are are getting redone. Uh the section in yellow is what we're talking about in the alternate. It's over the gym, the cafeteria, the music and art. Those those roof sections were installed in 1995 when the addition there was built. Um, I'm going to also note that the roofing uh bid number that we talked remember we saw those little numbers last time the roofing bid alternate the bid

048number total is 1.596 million. Okay. So by rejecting not doing this we save 450,000. I think you can kind of see that, you know, this is so it's about 30% savings from the the roofing contractor's bid. I you know, I don't have an exact number, but this is that's roof sections a little bit is not is more than 30%. Right? So that this is a good rule of thumb on deduct alternates. You don't always get your value, right? Um, and the BET members were the ones who who wanted, you know, to kick this back to you guys because they they, you know, believe it. This is a town capital item. They understand it doesn't threaten the the old Greenwich School project, but they they're like, "Look, you know, we'd rather spend this is people's opinion.

049They didn't vote on this, right? This is their opinion. We'd rather spend on it now and do it." Building committee's perspective is we are we will absolutely do this if this is what you want. um we are not advocating uh for it. We would rather get the whole project done. Um so, uh but and my understanding is um I don't know if if Mr. Brandon or or Mr. Watson would like to need to weigh in at some point. Maybe you'll call on him after. Okay. Um let's go to the next slide. Speed through this scenario four. Okay. This adds the cornis. This is an ad alternate. Okay. There's some strategy as you're putting together as that I've been learning from our professional team. There's some strategy on this. This is an ad alternate. It if

050you accept it, it adds it to the project. Um there was on the January 13th, there was some interest in doing the cornises. Um given that we have infrastructure and labor in place, I will tell you on this one, the building you'll see, you're going to notice my tent my tone in this is going to change a little bit. We are lukewarm at best on this one. Okay, this we believe this is a potential can of worms and the the scope and cost could increase dramatically if we accept this. So, think about it. We're saying we would be telling the contractors, okay, we have money to go and address some of these cornises. Well, they might take they're going to you I'll show you the sections in a second, but they take it off and

051then they say, well, then you got to you got to also do this next one. And we say, oh, shoot. We don't have money for that. So, this is the kind of thing that could snowball. Um, cornises are expensive. $540 per lineal foot. All right. Uh, and plus the the the construction manager's markup. This is a maintenance item. It is not listed in the ED specs. It is ineligible for state reimbursement. Cost of this $192,000. So, the next slide shows you these cornises. You can see it doesn't highlight all of the cornises in the building. It's just a few sections. It's 300 lineal feet of it. Um, this cornises was never a feature of the OS EDS specs. Um, the building has cornises though, however, right? Um, so the building committee's view on this is

052look, if you want us to do this, we'll do it. We're not we are definitely not advocating for that this one. Uh, we in fact, we would rather you reject this alternate um as we have. And look, will there be some money that's spent on cornises? Yes. Um, we would we would use owner contingency to do that if we need it, but only where we need it. Um, we'd rather spend the money on the things that we really need to do to get old Greenwich School, you know, back to, you know, to the uh current times. All right. Finally, conclusion and then I'm done subject to your questions. So, the building committee would recommend scenario two or scenario three. Scenario two is the owner contingency. Scenario three uh adds the roof. Um I think the

053the BET is planning to vote on this on Tuesday. The RTM is planning to convene a special meeting to discuss this on February 4th. The committee meetings will be uh February 2nd and we need that timeline so that we can get this GMP signed and we can get everything rocking. Thank you. >> Thank you, James. So to so to clarify uh the question before us in the um building um at our meeting last time we approved the vote of 80 um scenario one which is if you if you're able to go back to um slide two u Michael um scenario one which is the 7% contingency and no um of these alternates the building committee uh the motion on the table is the one that the building committee subsequently voted on at their meeting last

054week which is scenario two which is uh which is uh moving to a 10% contingu contingency. Um there's the open question if we uh want to as a board support that if we want to support that plus the roof and or if we want to plus support that the roof and the cornises in addition to James uh vice chair Jackie Welsh is online as is Lawrence Rosati our owners rep for the project as well as Ben and and uh and Dan Watson and Sophie has our hand up so we'll we'll start with you. Go ahead, Sophie. >> Okay, thank you. Um, I just wanted to voice my support for scenario three. And I think the graphic that is presented on I guess it's page seven. I'm looking at it here. To me, it just intuitively

055makes sense when you look at those three green roofs that are being touched on multiple edges um by new roofs. Um that I just feel like we're asking for a problem. you know, when you have people doing a substantial amount of construction work immediately adjacent to roofs that are nearing the end of their life, um I just really worry we're putting many millions of dollars into this building. And I would hate to see that either the roofs are just old and they're damaged and there's leak or, you know, there's incidental damage to those roofs because of the tremendous amount of construction. Um, so I would love to see them replaced for that reason. And then also I feel like it just has to be more cost-effective um to do it in the near term where

056we're already mobilized to do this work. And I think um my [clears throat] last point on this is I for you know in the interest of the families and the teachers and the students who are using this building. If we can be efficient in doing construction and getting things done all at once as opposed to doing an entire construction project, waiting two years and then coming back and doing more construction. I just feel like for me I I have a hard time with rationalizing the impact that that would have on our families of like dragging this out further. Um so I'm really in favor of scenario three for that reason. >> At our meeting was it 10 days ago um we had asked about the roof. We were I was actually, you know, had the

057same thought as uh Miss Coven, you know, we're into this thing. Let's do it. And one of the experts urged us not to do it. He explained to us that um there are consultants on this project that are required by the state that are and so there is extra cost baked into the whole project. And by including the roof into this, we would absolutely be paying more for the roof. He suggested that we uh basically you know uh do the roof as a separate project. Now it can be done on the last day. It can be but it you know he urged us to have two separate projects um because of the built the bakedin cost. Has that changed? So I I Paul I had a slightly different recollection of that conversation. Um I I

058think your points are are directionally correct. I think that um so I think you're referring to David Stein who is our architect. Um and look if you don't do this the the roof al the let me say it this way. If you reject, if you accept the roof alternate, you save $450,000 of hard cost. You also save $78,000 of markup contingency, etc. Um, the the point I the the point I would say I think in that meeting if I had if I could hit redo on it, I don't think we gave you a an appropriate characterization of the age of that roof. I don't think I I don't think we gave um that roof is 30 years. It's 30 that that's it's confirmed. It's in the roofing legend. I looked at it this morning. Um

059I don't think we accurately conveyed that. I also don't think that um in looking at the numbers um if the with the roofing bid at 1.5 and this alternate at 450 you can see from the the roof section that that you know we have a 30% savings for taking out 40% of the project right so this is the sort of thing you don't get the value now to Paul's point you could avoid doing this pro this right now it is not in dire straits it is at the end of its useful life. It comes down to like do you want to be adding this to um to a future capital budget. If it were me guessing at a future capital let's let's thinking out 3 years right when this bu this project is done let's

060say it was time to go then I would be surprised if it is less than what we have right now. Um, so because you're then you're going to be having someone do the full project. So I I don't know if that's helpful, Paul. I don't know if it is either. What the gentleman said, I'm reading it. he said, uh, less expensive because it's a it's just a roofing contractor coming down and doing their own work and they're not essentially coexisting working around a lot of other constructions, a lot of other construction activities. Um, and again, you know, and I think you just repeated it, there is a a markup because of the consultants on site. So, if this is simply us organizing the projects to have two different cover pages and we actually get the

061jobs done, I agree with everyone that it would be nice to get this done at once. But are we simply ready to u cave here and pay the extra money so that it can all be in one folder or you know it's can can I can I offer that Lawrence is Lawrence been elevated? I think it would be better for Lawrence. Would you could you maybe speak um to to this >> remind us remind who Lawrence is? Lawrence Rosati is the owner's rep for the project. Um, he has, you know, an extensive construction background. Lawrence, could you speak to to Paul's question about the roof, the doability, like the the, you know, desiraability of doing it at the same time as a project versus not. >> Yes. Uh, good evening everyone. Um, as James mentioned,

062you know, the trades are on site to do the work. Now, it would be scheduled accordingly. [clears throat] Um, to talk about David's prior point, um, I think James hit upon it well that there's an additional um, layer of management with the construction manager. If the town put it out to bid, it would probably be be solely bid by a roofing contractor that potentially could do the work over a summer um, to get in and get out. Um so but the benefit now is the cost. Obviously in the future the roof and the materials are going to be more costly. Uh so there is savings for the material cost. Um which is a definite hard cost associated with you know the the materials involved in this roof replacement. Veronica >> my question is very different.

063Um, I have a I have a question about cornises. I don't know anything about them. Um, are they what is the per here? My questions. I'll just list them out. Um, what is their purpose? Why are some of them already being done in the project and others aren't? I think that's enough my question. That's it for now. Do you have any Can you give me anything on cornises? [laughter] >> Lawrence, do you want to explain cornises to to that level of detail? Oh, you might be muted. >> I'm sorry. If you look at the first slide of James's presentation around the lower portion of the perimeter of the roof, you'll see um the eve and the cornice is the sophet there. And you can see that the school has dental moldings, which is the in-n-out

064shape of the wood at the very top of the outside of the building as it wraps towards Yes, exactly. Right there. So that is the corners and uh sophet and fascia. Um what the design team did is walked around the building uh reviewed that condition throughout parts of the building to generate slide seven. slide, excuse me, seven, which depicts the areas that were in need of significant repair. Um, if you've walked the school, you can see there's a lot of some of the areas are rotted, uh, missing, and they're in dire need of replacement. So that is why the design team highlighted those select areas and called for removal and replacement of the uh cornises/facia around the building >> and would that so can I ask followup and would that when you do the removal

065of the areas that are rotted would could that potentially open a can of worms? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Let me just let me just take 20 seconds to explain um Lawrence's role because not everybody might be familiar with owner's rep, particularly folks at home. So the owner's rep is our consultant on the project. He's not a general contractor. He's not the one building the project. He's the one um hired by um the district basically to have our back. Um he he he is evaluates all aspects of the project to make sure that things are efficient and and appropriate. So he's he's he's he's his job is solely to represent us as as the owner. Um so that's that's that's Lawrence's role. Um Karen, >> sorry, I had a a few questions

066quickly. Um I know at our last meeting I also supported having a 10% contingency for multiple reasons. I'd rather have money now and be able to give it back to the town than have to go ask again. Uh so I am uh personally asking questions about uh the roof. So the question is if we do not do the roof right the additional pieces of roof right if that roof fails because you said it's towards the end of its life expectancy has maybe five more years if that roof fails and causes any damages to the new construction or other areas uh of the building like who would then be responsible for the for fixing it and financially. So, if if we have them do these fixes now and and do the roof that's got maybe maybe

067five more years, we all know how things work in this town and we've had some issues in the past with things that we thought would last longer than they did. Uh would the current construction company be responsible should any, you know, should there be issues with when we put a new roof on and if that roof if the old roof fails and damages any issues, you know, anything we've just done, how does that work? Fun question. Sorry. >> I have a feeling it would be a bit a significant hit to our owner contingency if that were to happen. Um uh I don't know that I'm the right person to to answer those questions on liability. Lawrence, do you have something to to ask to add in terms of you know others being responsible? I I

068mean my my main thing is if it if something were to happen during construction and we had to actually had to fix it to re- roof it, we would then have to go and do it and it would be a change order and it would probably be a change order for a larger amount than uh the 450. Um because these all of these the pricing on these alternates expire 90 days from the bids. So we have to accept it by then or it goes away. Um just weren't anything you would add in terms of like liability on that? >> Uh no I mean I you know if the roof starts to fail obviously there would be um leaks that would have to be addressed. Obviously it's would be in a new building of course then

069uh facilities would have to address that. Um, if you had a new roof, then you would be less suspect to having uh water damage in the future >> because it it looks to me scenario C, sorry, scenario three, you said is a deduct alternative. So, we remove it from the project. So, it's >> No, no, no. It it accepts it. It rejects the the roof alternate and includes it in the project. >> Okay. Double checking because it was a double negative. I just wanted to clear. >> That's It is built. >> If scenario three is accepted, we are adding roof, not >> we will be doing the entire roof or the the the yellow section of the roof. >> So that would save money from doing it 5 years from now where costs would probably

070go up and we'd also be impacting the educational uh you know ability for students if it's if it runs over then you know if we do it over the summer, no, but if it runs over summer, >> it's >> into the fall for instance. >> Yeah. I mean, I think if it were not done by us, I it would be done when the district does other roofing projects, I would guess, is in the summer. Um, so, right, but but you're right. It's it would add cost now and uh versus likely higher cost down the road. >> So, that leads me to second question, which was you notice you noted that it would be eligible if we added it now for state reimbursement, correct? >> Correct. Do we know how much of a reimbursement that would

071be? Because obviously if we know the cost, you said it was what was it 450k to add the extra roof, >> we can deduct. I mean, yes, we pay that up front. We also know we're going to get money back from the state. How much would that be? >> Our reimburse our reimbursement rate is 20%. For this project, and I'm excluding the extra 15% that we are investigating right now. And right so let's just say so we it's 450 that we put up front we get 20% of that back if we do it in five years the cost for labor and materials will probably be more as we all know costs go up and we would not be eligible for any state reimbursement at that point. >> No that's not correct. >> Okay I'm just

072that's why I'm asking >> you would be el roofing projects as as I think our architect did say last time roofing projects do have state reimbursement even when done separate >> even if it's just a partial >> roof. Correct. Yeah, it's as long as it fits the specs and the timeline, but this roof is eligible today for reimbursement and it'll be eligible in 5 years. It'll be eligible in 10 years if it lasts that long. [snorts] >> Thank you, >> Karen. And then Bob, >> um just a couple clarifications um and a question. Uh but but to be clear, I you know, like others up here, certainly support ensuring that our schools are are safe and sound and that we build these correctly. Um, for those who didn't see the hour-long meeting, I I do

073want to clarify that we ask about all of these items that have come back. The strong and unanimous recommendation of the building committee and all of the experts was option one. Um, so I don't want the public to think that, you know, we cheaped out. We rejected what the ask was. the the 80 unanimous vote was the recommend was the recommended scenario of the building committee at the time 10 days ago. Um and I know there's been a little discussion of oh well this is a renovation. I think just for clarification some of this is new build. There's a new a new section being built and some is renovation. So we're probably somewhere between those two. Um you know where where my where my qu Oh and and sorry Veronica your question on the cornises

074though they are decorative not structural. Um my question for you though is that you know the the building committee 10 days ago had had absolute certainty in their recommendations um I'll I'll spare you the direct quotes but um but there was kind of we as we pushed you and asked you to add more do you need more there was absolute certainty that no so my question is do do we need to delay this vote to give you more time to diligence anything else is there anything else where you were certain that now you're not feeling so certain. >> Um, that's an interesting question. So, these these projects are uh inherently lots of balls in the air. I don't know if you've ever worked on one. Um, lots of balls in the air at the same

075time over the holidays, people working them. Um, receiving a GMP the day two days before Christmas, working through Christmas. um trying to do our best to hold hold the line on numbers. I did learn January 6th, the day after we met about Central's owner contingency. Um I do know that you many of you know I am the chair of the RTM budget committee. We are very uh disciplined about asking building projects about their owner contingency. We are always very diligent about asking uh renovation projects to make sure they have roughly twice the contingency of new construction. Um we have always been trying to work with seven. I think the general feedback we've been getting from members of both caucuses on the BET and from members of the RTM and from building committee members is after

076we've had 10 days to think about this is that 10% is more prudent. >> Um sorry just to clarify first of all I don't want anyone to walk away with the impression that I'm not extremely grateful for all the work the building and committee has done. I think most people know this is largely volunteers who are doing this on nights and weekends. Uh and and I appreciate that that folks have worked really hard. Uh what I was asking is do you need more time? >> No. Um I had a question and I also wanted to um ask if Dan Watson could could weigh in after my question just about what what his with his knowledge and expertise what he he thinks uh the best scenario is. Uh to kind of follow up on Karen Hirs's

077uh questions about the roof, another thing that I think about that might be concerning is if we have someone work on the roof now and then have someone work on the roof in four or five years and then there's an issue with the roof. Will we have two companies arguing that it's the other company's onus or responsibility to to fix whatever problems there are? And again, that's I know that's a hypothetical, but I it's just a concern of mine. I I look I think that the reality you're everyone is is going to have to embrace with this school and and I would guess other schools as well is that roughly every 10 years you're going to need some sort of a roof replacement at this building right that's how it's been staggered right that you

078had the 1995 edition then 10 12 years later you had a roof section replaced then 10 11 years later you had another roof section replaced so this is kind of very common um [snorts] I'm I'm personally less worried about that. Um I'm not going to, you know, try and say that there wouldn't be contractor squables. I mean, you know, that that's not really my place, but you should just know that really every 10 years there is a roof section in this building that will get replaced and that will continue far out into the future. >> That makes sense. Thank you. And um I was also curious if uh to put of course put Dan Watson on the spot as I love to do um if he wanted to weigh in on on this. And while

079we're waiting I'll just say the RTM members know a lot about double negatives. >> Reject the rejection. >> Yeah, that's right. Usually when it comes to Is he on? >> Dan, are you there? >> I'm trying. >> Um, two things. I I um James is spot on. It's unfortunate that, you know, we we have to uh leapfrog roofs like that. Uh but it it is common whenever you add an addition onto a building, you know, you're you're adding a roof and it it may not coincide with the existing building. It may be a different product, maybe uh what whatever the the area that we're talking about that's part of the contract is a flat roof. The area that is is not being considered or that we're talking about today is a is a pitched roof.

080So it's two different type of scenarios. Um we haven't had any um visual leakage in that part of the building. Uh datewise, James is spot on. It's it's at its uh close to its end of its life term. Uh we've got some good things. there's some um there's some tree shade around it to uh to keep the UV off of it in some of the areas. So, um I I'm not I'm not saying that absolutely should be done at this moment. Um obviously I you know I I I'd like things done um to save time and effort. Uh, but I'm I'm going to leave this up to the professionals who have put their hands and eyes on this a little bit closer than I have. >> Um, while we're we're summoning people uh virtually, thanks

081Dan. I appreciate it. Uh, Ben Ben, I I don't know if you could I know you're you're you're out there too. And if you could talk about the um where the roof is um in current capital lines because talk about how we have um a roof line as part of the annual capital budget and where where this project would typically fall. >> So looking at the five-year capital plan that the board approved uh in five years we have a total of $8 million for roofs throughout the district. This school does is not included in the five-year capital plan for for roofs simply because uh the existing building committee the thought when this was developed it would be dealt with uh through the building committee and I know you don't have the capital plan in front

082of you but I I do and and the comment here we said when we built the 27 uh capital budget is we removed a million dollars from the plan because Riverside building committee. So it's it's the practice we do is when there's a building committee particularly with this the scope is still being worked out. We would remove it from the capital plan avoiding that the double dipping where we're including the project in two different places which then overinflates your overall capital plan. So that's been our our practice but your short the long answer to your question is old Greenwich is not included uh of roof replacement in the capital plan but capital plan is a living breathing document. we would modify it going forward. Uh if the board and the RTM and BET chooses not

083to include the roof uh that's in the scenario three in front of you, we would take we would work uh offline on where does it make sense to plug that into future capital plans. >> Is it fair to say we do uh roof projects pretty much every summer? >> Yeah, that's fair to say. >> Go ahead. >> So, I just wanted to double check. I know you said the o that OG's roof, which we know is about 5 years left of its lifespan, was not included in our 5-year plan. Was that not included specifically because there was a poss an assumption that the building committee might ask to have it done? Um, and you know, in general, comparing to other the other $8 million that we have in that capital plan for Rubes for 5

084years from now, like what what are you suggesting the cost might be? I whatever per square foot in five years or what are you planning for for the for other schools that are having roof replacements? I'm just curious. >> Just for a point of point of reference, uh we have uh Hamilton Avenue scheduled for fiscal year 28, so two years out at 1.5. Julian Curtis, same period, 28 for 1.1. You know, we refresh these numbers every year. In year 3 29, we have Eastern Middle School at 1.2. the year we're talking about that we're building for 26 27 we'd have half a million for North Street for A&E work and then a couple years later we have another a million to start uh actually doing the replacement. So it's it it always depends on the

085size of the roof and I I think I go I think James framed it nicely that the the odds that when we put if we're going to put this roof in future capital project it likely will be more expensive than what it is in front of you today. >> Right. Well, that's why I was saying I was just trying to guesstimate and have an understanding for the board. If we choose to do this now, we know it's sort of x per square foot and if in 5 years, I was wondering what your estimation might be per square foot. So, we have a general understanding of what the you know, paying for it now versus in 5 years might be of a differential that we're we're making. I understand for me cornises decor, you know, I

086was going to agree with Karen very decorative it's fine if it doesn't look perfection. it's fine, but a roof is a little different. We don't want any, you know, issues if it's I'm just trying to see what the cost escalation might be for waiting 5 years that we have to add into our budget. Ben, >> I I don't have that granular uh detail. Can I just sharing something that our construction manager shared with the um BET uh yes uh Tuesday two days ago um right right now they're assuming another year like a year's delay would be 4% right now right uh I think in the last 12 months we've seen significantly more than that um but that's uh that's at least a year >> so I'm not a math major but let's say 5 years,

0874% each year, we'd be basically giving back the 20%. We'd be getting back from the state. So, we're saving 20% now. We'd be saving 20% then, but we possibly could be saving spending 20% more in 5 years is, you know. >> All right. I am I see your hand, Paul. I'm also cognizant that we have we're spending a um a lot of time on the roof question. So, so go ahead. >> I mean, I think if we could go back five years, we could pay a lot less for the roof as well. uh you know, so I I'm probably going to need a car in 5 years. I'm not going to buy it now and put it in the garage. I'm going to be, you know, the money that I have in my in my

088401k is going to grow. Uh inflation is going to grow. And this argument of of it's going to be more expensive is something we've we deal with all of our lives. I remember putting a you know, a dime in the in the Coca-Cola machine when I was in high school. So the uh I think we can bank on that being relative. Um and uh again I'm back you know one of the things that um I wanted to reiterate is you said that the BET felt that this this increase was appropriate the 7 to 10%. that the um RTM thought it was appropriate and that the build [clears throat] building committee thought it was appropriate, but what I didn't hear is that the experts who were here last week who told us that it wasn't appropriate,

089did they change their minds as well? So, Paul, I think what we're talking about here is the owner contingency, right? I you know I I think that this is a decision more for the town than what we actually should be looking at our professionals for. Um personally we I asked them for their comps for examples. I can tell you that the town ran into a massive problem with the Hamilton Avenue school. And one of the um one of the the issues that was highlighted to me by Mike Mason who was a former member of the BET as you know is that it had too small an owner contingency for a renovation project. It had 5%. Um his recommendation to me was you need twice that and that was 3 years ago. That was his recommendation.

090So I I'm I'm looking at um this from a sort of town planning um protect you know preservation of what we actually need to happen. I think the building committee discussed it with our professionals the on Tuesday um and we discussed this with our professionals in front of the BET and um you know I I I think they they express their support for whatever they think is the right number for the town. Um, so that you know we we always ask for their input and on this one I think uh the building committee is is unanimous on this. >> Thank you. Um fair answer. Um I I I I want to point out I mean we may seem defensive here right but we were here 10 days ago and and we had a totally different

091experience. So, you know, allow us some latitude on this, the public, uh, if you weren't here 10 days ago and watching our our meetings. Um, but, uh, I want to also point out that I don't think any of us are saying we shouldn't do the roof. Um, I'm I'm absolutely advocating for the roof, but I'm just advocating it for the way in which it was recommended where it's going to cost us less money. we'll still save the 20% and we'll save the 5 10 15 or 20% that we are going to be overpaying because of all of the consultants on this particular job. So I think that we have 2 or 3 years to uh organize for this. Make sure we get the roof project set to dovetail with the end of this and save

092money everywhere and have a roof. the 20% bonding, the non um um you know additional contracting fee, the problem that the uh one of the experts said, which is basically the contractors tripping over each other and that causing it to be more. So again, we all want a new roof. It's just how we do it. And what I'm advocating for is as a second line item in a second project that we can get off the ground right away. >> Yeah. Look, the and the markup is is is is material, right? It's about 17%. So, and that that includes the contingency for that roof section. That does include the what the construction manager, you know, it includes, you know, the insurance and all that kind of stuff, right? So, that's the >> So, you're saying that

093we're spending 70 17% more because of the fact that it's going to get baked into another project. the the the cost of this roof section, the deduct alternate, the value of it is $450,000, the additional markup is 78,000. So 40, that gets you to the 528 that I put in there. And so if you do that markup, that's 17.3%. >> Okay? >> Um, by separating the project, we're, you know, we're still saving the 20% and now we're saving 37%. >> I I [laughter] don't know. Let's let's so let's well let's let's let's let's back up for for a second because um so there's a there's a motion on the table, right? So and I think we have to we have to move on here. Um um at a mo for because we've got other things

094here, but there's a motion on the table around the 10% contingency. Um there I'm not hearing a lot of um support for scenario 4 uh for all the reasons James James stated. That's clear. Um so so I think we can rule out scenario four um with the cornises. Um when you run for reelection now Veronica you can say cornises expert in four years. Um and then the question is um the the roof where a lot of this conversation has been. Um my thought for all honesty it seems like no one is saying you know our job here I wonder if this is almost a reverse of the stay in your lane um conversation that we often have with the BET um in that um our job at the board of ed is to protect our

095facilities and make sure that they are uh maintained properly and uh funded funded adequately. um the BET's role, and we often have conversations about this, the BET's role is funding decisions, um and and how to fund. Um I almost wonder if in this case we're all saying that at some point the roof needs to be remodeled um and needs to be fixed, probably at some point in the next 5 years. Quite frankly, the um I'm agnostic. um if it's um if it's more appropriate to do it uh from a fiduciary standpoint, it's more appropriate to do it now or if it's most appropriate to do it uh 3 years from now. I almost think that is uh for the BET to decide how they want to pay for the roof that we say that all

096our experts are saying probably is going to be need to be replaced in the next 5 years. I know they asked us to weigh in on it and sounds like our experts are saying, "Well, it's got 5 years. It doesn't have more than that." Um um we can do it now or we can do it later. Um um you're the finance guys. Um so so so this might be something for for for your court. Um but in the meantime um um we're ready to go over this project. We're going to move forward. Um it's almost a reverse of kind of the the uh usual conversation we we have we we have with them about about about lanes, but this is really a financial decision. Um um let let them let them figure out when when

097they want to fund it. We heard we have this in the we have a roof line in our capital budget every year. It's not going to be difficult for us to do this in the summertime. This is not disrupting um classroom instruction or whatnot. Um if we feel it is more financially wise to do it as part of the capital project, fine. If we feel it's more part do it do it as part part of this project, I think that's fine, too. Um, we're saying we need to we need to do it at some point. >> Go ahead, Bob. >> And I'll be very brief because I want to move on and James probably wants to go to sleep at some point tonight. Um, I think that they did do that. I think that's why

098they sent this to us to to look at scenario three, scenario four, scenario two. They they broke it down for us to to to look at. >> They just look, >> right? They Well, that that right. I'm sorry. Yes, that's true. But I think that we have these scenarios in front of us. And I think that like you said, maybe scenario four is not something we would think, but do we want to just make a motion to vote on scenario three? And if that doesn't pass, then scenario two. >> Um, I would make a motion to vote on scenario three. >> I'd happily >> Well, actually, technically, no, sorry. You would technically you're amending Sorry. So, what you want to do is you want to amend the motion on the table um to uh reflect

099the money value of scenario three, >> right? I will make a motion to amend uh the uh what's on the table of scenario two to scenario three. >> Okay. >> I'll happily second that. >> Okay. Okay. So, as a motion and a second to amend the um um to um um the original motion to reflect a scenario three. So, any further discussion on that? >> Oh, go ahead. I was just going to say the only reason why is because we're going to finish this project and then a year later ask for the money for the roof. Um I'd rather give it to the BET. It's up to us to manage our buildings. It's not up to the BET. We know that they've underfunded I mean it's been put in our capital plan every year and

100our master plan that it's been underfunded for our renovations for our school buildings. I'd rather put it in and if they're not willing and if they don't want to pay for it now that's fine. That's their decision. But it's our responsibility for the upkeep of our schools. um and the safety of our students and our staff that's within them. >> All right, Wendy, you want to say something? Go ahead. >> Say I I just to Paul's point, I if I needed a new roof on my house, I wouldn't and I wouldn't do it until I actually needed it or or close to it. We It has five more years left in it. Um, so and we were here last week and everything was fine with the 7% contingency and [gasps] I agree we should probably

101let the BET figure out when they're going to fund it. I I want our school to be safe. I want I'm sorry. Um I I want them to be safe and I I think we should fund a roof, but let's let's not let's not >> Okay, let's uh All right. Quickly, Paul. Thank you. Uh, I just want to make sure that I was understood. I'm not suggesting we wait until a year after the project. I'm suggesting that we start looking at putting the roof in, asking, doing the due diligence. You can start tomorrow. It just needs to be a separate project so we can save the 17%. Just like a no-brainer. So, I'm not suggesting we wait. I'm not suggesting we we wait for something to fail. I'm simply suggesting that we we do this

102in the most financially responsible way there is. >> All right, let's call the question then. Okay. Okay. All in favor of the motion on the table. >> Three. Looks like three in favor. Oh, four. Um >> Sophie, are you raising your hand? >> Yes, I'm raising my hand. >> All right. Five in in favor um opposed abstensions one. Okay. >> Wendy abstain. >> Motion passes. So withinings >> did you vote? >> I opposed. I posted. Okay. So motion passes. So we are um um we can move on. So that is scenario three. Thank you James. >> Thank you very much. So now after that thrilling roofing conversation, we want to break up bring up Julie Fraars from the Granite Alliance and I have some slides too. Thank you. The the slides, just so you know,

103when I start talking, there is if you don't have them in front of you, you may want to look because I'm not read I'm not going to be reading the slides. I'm going to be giving you additional information. Um, so good evening, Chairman Meranti Anthony, Dr. Jones, members of the board of education, Greenwich Public School educators, PTAC, and the community. My name is Julie Finars, and I am the executive director of the Greenwich Alliance for Education. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to present to you tonight. For the benefit of new board members and old member old board members, I will give a brief overview about the alliance and our role with the Greenwich Public Schools and share some data. The highlight for you, I'm sure we'll be hearing from current and former GPS students

104who have benefited from the Greenwich Public Schools and from the Greenwich Alliance. Alexis Cervantes, Jiha Luau, Yousef Sed, Michael Morales, and Grace Shellcatch. Next slide, please. Greenwich Alliance for Education is the only education foundation for Greenwich Public Schools and is a registered 501c3 nonprofit. It was started in 2006 by a group of community members in consultation with Dr. Larry Leverett, the superintendent, with the focus on leveraging community resources, building partnerships, and being responsible, responsive, and agile for the Greenwich Public Schools so the educational success of all students could be realized. We have recently completed a three-year strategic plan and updated our mission and added core values which reflect our work every day. And those are on your screen. As of June 2025, we reached 5.6 million in program support and we can bucket this investment

105into the following categories: arts, STEM, college and career, mental health and wellness. All schools have benefited from various programs over the years. Next slide, please. Our program, Tuning into Music. Tuning into music is our longestr running program. Greenwich public school music teachers nominate students who demonstrate a commitment to improving their skills as musicians. The Connecticut School of Music teaches and administers the lessons after school. On average, 64 students are enrolled in tuning into music each year and we spend $110,000. When I met with the Greenwich Public School arts teachers in August and asked them why the arts matter, they said that for students who play instruments, it creates a sense of belonging, a place to shine, and elevates self-esteem. For teachers who have students who are party tuning into music, they say, "I find that

106their progress with me has been positively impacted and their confidence in their own ability has also grown. My student that began this year is quickly catching up to peers who have the ability to practice at home. Tuning into music has brought these students up to grade level. Students enrolled in tuning into music are passionate about playing and become leaders in our western middle school ensembles. It was nice to see tuning into music students performing at the Greenwich High School candlelight concert and recently announced one tuning into music student who plays the flute at Greenwich High School will also be part of Western Regionals. Next slide please. Now I'd like to have you here from Alexis Cervantes. >> Hi everybody. I'm Alexis Cervantes and I was born and raised in Greenwich over in Riverside. A little

107about me, I am the program coordinator at Greenidge United Way and I oversee the volunteer and community service opportunities for all of the middle school and high school students in the area. And on top of that, I'm also a music teacher. I'm the interim music teacher for the lower school at King School. I teach at a program called Speak Music where I teach the flute, recorder, trumpet, saxophone. And last but not least, I work at the nonprofit Project Music where I'm the flute teaching instructor. And none of this would have ever been possible without the Greenwich Allianc's tuning into music program. My family didn't have the financial means for music lessons growing up, and this program made that opportunity possible for me, both me and my sister. I was part of Tuning into Music for

108about eight years until I graduated JHS in 2020. And during those eight years, I had the privilege of studying flute under Sharon Leven. She was a wonderful teacher who made learning how to play flute so much fun. And I fell in love with my instrument. And I found such great joy in playing even when the level got really challenging. I began auditioning for programs and performing with the young artist Philarmonic, a youth orchestra group now based in Greenwich. Um, sorry, I lost my place. I've had the incredible opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall, Yale's Woosey Hall, as well as with the GHS band in Ireland for about a week. And my flute teacher at Tuning into Music guided me through all of that and gave me all of her support. Having a great teacher, one

109that connects with you, can have a lasting impact on students lives. Because of my flute teacher, I was inspired to become a music teacher myself. I also work alongside my Eastern Middle School band teacher, Mr. Holmeister. And the best part about it was on my first day, he remembered me and it was great. Along with teaching, I've returned as a volunteer for the Young Artist Phil Harmonic where every Sunday we rehearse and I rehearse alongside my former flute teacher, Sharon. If it weren't for tuning into music, I honestly don't know what career I'd be pursuing. Music has been a huge part of my life for so long and I'm deeply grateful to have been a part of this program. It allowed me to discover my passion, turn it into a career, and now I get

110to give back to the community that helped make it possible and shaped who I am who I who I am today. Thank you. >> Next slide, please. Reaching out grants. Reaching Out grants is the way the alliance learns about exciting new educational ideas from Greenwich Public School educators. Some say our grants are the R&D arm for the schools. Every school in the district has benefited from a grant and I have had the pleasure and opportunity to work with many outstanding educators who have been awarded grants over the years. This year we are funding seven grants for 170,000. The big innovative grant is happening at Greenwich High School. Students and teachers are triing two different AI innovative studentf facing tools, coningo and school AI. Other grants are theater programs at New Lebanon and JC, AVID professional

111development for Hamilton Avenue ski teachers. And I want to say we are so excited that next year AVID will be offered K to2 in our district kindergarten afterchool program at Hamilton Avenue School and middle school grants book break and science bowl teams. We've launched the 2627 application this week for our grants and look forward to receiving many submissions which are due on February 23rd. I'm available to have conversations to discuss grant ideas. It is always rewarding to hear how grants are making a difference. It happened so that today I received this email from Ariel Wilshaw, ALP teacher at Julian Curtis and Grant theater champion and she got this note from a parent. Ariel, I want to thank you for your leadership and coaching throughout the play practices. I am not surprised that my son has

112taken a strong liking for the play, rehearsals, singing, and acting. I had imagined him wandering throughout the house singing and rehearsing with me and this has actually come true. He sequesters himself to his room to sing, memorize and just enjoy the experience overall. He talks a lot to himself, encouraging and coaching himself throughout the process. It is just amazing to see. Next slide, please. And now I'd like to introduce um Yousef and J who will speak about the Eastern Middle School science team. >> Hi, my name is Yousef and I'm from Eastern Middle School. Before I begin, I'd like to thank Mrs. Finers for giving us this opportunity to be here today. Over the past three years, I've been a member of Eastern Middle School science team. It has been incredibly exciting to have a

113team like this at our school. And one of the one of the main reasons we are able to have a club like this is because of Greenwich Alliance. I would like you to imagine a group of students staying after school, not because they have to, but because they want to, working together to solve problems and challenging themselves. A recent example of this is when we learned about how a homopolar motor works. While doing this, we are guided by our teacher, Mr. Lado on how electricity creates motion using just a battery, magnet, and wire to generate continuous rotations. This is what the science team is like for us. I love being a part of the science team because we get to challenge ourselves, collaborate, and grow our passion for science. Our trips, competitions, and study sessions

114make learning engaging and meaningful. Something that I learned from these sessions is taxonomy, the classifications of life. Now I have a much better understanding of it. Because of hands-on activities and teamwork, the science team helps students build critical thinking and problem solving skills. It encourages curiosity, builds confidence, and allows us to apply what we learn in class to real world situations like driving a car. In this case, you'd be using Newton's first law as the amount you push on this the acceleration is an unbalanced force. A place you where we especially use this information is during competitions. We have an important competition coming up on February 21st and we are hoping to finally claim that first place spot. Over the past few years, we have come very close and each experience motivates us to push

115even harder. Overall, the science team is an amazing environment for learning, growth, and collaboration. Thank you for listening. Now, I will hand it over to Jia. Thank you, Yousef. So, hi everybody. My name is Jahal Luo and I'm an eighth grader at Eastern Middle School and I've been in Science Bowl for 3 years and I just wanted to say that it's a real pleasure to be in this room and I'm just here to talk about the science bowl experience. So science bowl is a really great opportunity to not only challenge yourself academically but also socially. For instance, I've made quite a few close friends in Central and Western just through Science Bowl. Science Bowl is also a team activity and it encourages the values of cooperation. But not only cooperation, it provides leadership, self-worth, and

116a deep sense of purpose. As a team, we value every team member and make sure that they feel included and motivated. This year, we are excited to represent our school and to compete in regionals, knowing we have strong prospects. I'd like to end it by saying thank you to all the people out there who have made Scienceville possible. My gratitude knows no bounds. Thank you. >> I'd like you just to turn around just a minute. On the back of their shirts, >> it very nicely says sponsored by the Garnage Alliance for Education. >> Thank you. Well done. Well done. >> Uh next slide, please. Um, AVID success. In 2008, the alliance funded the implementation of AVID at Greenwich High School. For those unfamiliar with AVID, AVID stands for advancement via individual determination and is an

117internationally recognized college readiness system designed to close the achievement gap and promote equity and access in education. AVID success is the umbrella for all the ways we support AVID teachers, students, and alumni. Trish Roar, assistant director, meets regularly with Erin Rizzio, AVID district director, Mara Sububach, Greenwich High School AVID coordinator, and the AVID educators to discuss programming ideas and identify unmet needs. Two years ago, we brought the Greenwich Public School program coordinators to the AVID National Conference for Professional Development. For average seniors, we coordinate volunteers for professional college consultants to work one-on-one with students to edit and polish their essays to ensure they, like their peers, are submitting a highquality college application. AVID su success goes well beyond middle school and high school. We have an AVID alumni advisory council and offer many professional skills,

118workshops, and events to build the networks for these young adults. Last Thursday, we had our first career affinity group about finance, and we recently completed our scholarship awards of $160,000. Please watch for an invitation to join our board meeting on February 18th to learn about AVID K12 with Judy Judy Barbara, Eastern um AVID Eastern um regional director. Next slide. Now I'd like to hear have you hear from Michael Morales followed by Grace Shell Cash. >> Good evening members of the board of education and Dr. Jones. I am Michael Morales, a sport management major at Ether College. I'm also an Eagle Scout and president of IC Rugby. About uh after hearing about AVID from some friends in 8th grade and seeing my older sister go to uni uh in Boston Suffk. Uh I wanted to prepare

119for my future so I sought out AVID. Uh Mrs. Ashusa was my AVID teacher and she was great always giving guidance to my fellow peers and I about her college experience and sharing it to us all the time. Additionally, we attended campus tours instate college campus tours of instate colleges and universities which gave us valuable insight on how to choose which college I wanted to attend to attend financially. Um offered majors, minors and just overall appeal of campus. Um this is where the Gen Alliance stepped in and and became a lot more involved with our college process. Trish uh came into our class multiple times throughout the years to introduce introduce us to events within the lines but also to introduce us to T2C tradition to college. Through that program I learned that I learned

120the survival skills for college like budgeting scheduling classes and finding a balance between academics and a social life. For the last two years, I've come back to T2C as a mentor this time, assisting in sorry I lost my place, assisting newly graduated AVI students in preparing for college as well as supporting the Alliance. But beyond that, I learned that I can really truly depend on the Lions. To me, the Grange Alliance is a second family. The two biggest takeaways from my aid journey are self- advocacy and time management. I apply these skills in my daily life whether I'm seeking assistance from professors, the financial aid office, academic centers or connecting with other professionals in the sports industry. And to be honest, the first time I had to reach out to professor, I was nervous, embarrassed,

121and a little hesitant. Uh doing things for the first time is scary, but I had to do it. That is one of the things AVID has taught me to always advocate for myself. Looking back at that nervous middle schooler that didn't know if he made it into AVID after going through interviews, I'm so proud of how far I've come. I want to thank the Graange Alliance and the AVID program for not only assisting me through the college application process, but ensuring that I had the ability to thrive once I arrived as I progressed from college into the professional world. I'm looking for opportunities in the sports industry. So, if anyone here in attendance uh would like to chat more after, I'm seeking for an internship or job over the summer in operations, partnerships, and or

122marketing. Thank you for investing in my journey. >> Good evening, members of the board of education and superintendent Jones. I'm Grace Shelcash, a sophomore at University of Connecticut studying economics and I've also just come back after completing a semester abroad in London studying business and economics. I'm originally from Albania and I moved to the USA about 7 years ago. Also proud to say that I have just become a citizen. As a first generation student, I had the opportunity of being part of the AVID program and also being involved with the Greenwich Alliance from very early on in my high school journey. I went through the AVID interview process in seventh grade and I became a member of AVID AVID in 8th grade. This experience was truly eyeopening and it really opened me to a new

123world of opportunities especially as an immigrant to this new country. Greenwich Alliance has been a huge support during my professional and academic journey not just during high school but also during college. This is something very important to me. I'm an AVID alumni and this program helped me develop personally and academically very early on setting me up for college success. I had the opportunity to be in an AVID class taught by Mr. Sbasa and I'm forever grateful to have been part of this family not just in middle school but also in high school. AVID shaped my journey for college by making me a dedicated individual not just from academics but also in my professional development which has been super helpful in my journey as a woman in finance and most importantly they have always been there

124as support in my AVID family and also just supportive of me. Additionally, the Greenwich Alliance has been a huge support during my professional and academic journey, especially in college. After completing my senior internship at Greenwich Alliance, I quickly noticed how efficient and beneficial this organization is for students and again, not just in middle high school, but also through the numerous supportive programs postgraduation where they consistently serve as a support system for students whenever they need guidance. I became part of the AVID alumni council which was a very helpful resource and it is always hosting events through the Greenwich Alliance. This council is a way for AVID alumni to stay in touch and also be innovative with new solutions and new events and resources that can be helpful to AVID overall because we all work as

125a unit at the end of the day. Additionally, other services for students like the transition to college program which I went through as a senior graduate and also one back as a mentor. The college application prep work and also the transition to college help was very helpful as an AVID student. During college application prep, I was given a tutor to help me with the writing of my college essays. I want to like preface a free tutor and this tutor was beyond helpful and also ensure that I was given the right support in such a competitive phase where I was hearing from my friends that they had these private tutors and I always wanted that opportunity. As a first generation student, the transition to college program was the most helpful bridge to college program during the

126summer after senior year of high school where participants including myself were given numerous resources and also just adulting lessons what it means to be a college student, how to stay prepared and also just hear back from other avid alumni who had advice to share. I am very proud that I have gone back as a mentor my second time to transition to college. Additionally, the financial compensation coming from this attendance was a gamecher for many students who wanted to make sure that they were financially supported for college. Additionally, the granite the gr the Greenwich Alliance AVID scholarship has been the most notable part of my journey so far because it has given me a chance to stay in school and just also encouraged me to excel in college. This financial support means a lot to me

127as a first generation college students whose parents work three jobs to ensure that I can stay in school and pursue my dreams academically and professionally. Having the opportunity to be part of this program always ensures students who are in the same situation as me are financially supported and that is something that has supported my journey the most. After completing my senior internship at Greenwich Alliance, I quickly noticed how this program this organization has just been so beneficial for all students overall. And I think that the most notable thing is that I want to preface I still get on the phone with Julie and Trish who are such a good supportive system as a sophomore in college. And although I have made sure I've done those programs during high school and even right after college, they're

128still a good support. Even if it if it is networking opportunities, academic support, I think that their impact goes well beyond just their programs, but also just them as supportive people. And big thank you to the Greenwich Alliance for all that they have done for me. Thank you so much. >> Okay, so next slide, please. Um, so how are we funded? Um, so to do all we do for Greenwich Public Schools, we need to raise money. Turkey Trot was the largest race ever with nearly 1,800 registrants. Congrats again to Costco and Parkway for winning the school competition. To raise more money, um, we need new sponsors and to inc and to increase participation from all Greenwich Public Schools. Sign up today or donate an auction item for trivia challenge which is February 27th. The theme

129is 1776. I bet GPS teachers will win top prizes again this year. And I'm putting it out there board of ed. Maybe you all get a table together and see how you compete. Okay. Uh this is your year. I think so too. Other funding sources come from grant re requests to local organizations and foundations and those are named up on the slide. And we also welcome um introductions. We always welcome introductions to new potential funders. Thanks to everyone who has already donated to our annual campaign and if you haven't go to Greenwich alliance.org. We also need more donations from individuals who believe in the mission of the alliance that public education matters. Next slide. Um so the alliance supports the schools the public the public supports the alliance with lots of participation in the annual

130trivia challenge in the annual turkey trot and um in the middle slide it just mentions our it shows a picture of our top sponsors for turkey trot this year which is exclusive homes Cadillac hospital for special surgery and 400 capital. Next slide please. Working together, Greenwich Public Schools Board of Ed and the Greenwich Alliance. We value a strong direct partnership with Greenwich Public Schools and the Board of Education. For the continued success of the schools, the students, and the alliance, we need to be sitting side by side at the table. The alliance has helped in our mission by continued recognition in Greenwich Public School reports and in communications from schools to parents. Thanks to Jonathan Sopranowitz and Dr. Jones for including the alliance in many district digests. In addition, it is helpful when building principles

131and PTAs include information about the grant projects happening in your schools and encouraging participation in the fundraising um in fundraising events in your newsletters. Um the sharing data helps us um tell important stories to the community about the impact we are making for all students. And um let's always make sure to have a two-way dialogue um when developing and developing big thinking ideas. Um and also please participate, donate, and volunteer. Next slide, please. What's next? September 26 march marks the beginning of our 20th anniversary celebration. Stay tuned. We're working on lots of different ideas, so hopefully we'll narrow it down soon. Interested in volunteering for that? Please let me know. Um, Avid College students are looking to learn more about careers and the path to get to a great job. To help them, we plan

132to offer more career affinity groups. For instance, PR and marketing has so many different jobs. How can we help? How can we break it all down? Um, our strategic plan is posted on the website and we are working on action steps now. We'll be hosting a community roll out later this year. And bottom line, we are committed to growing and expanding our commit our impact with the Greenwich Public Schools. Next slide, please. So, thank you for letting uh me speak tonight and hearing from the students. Um, funding innovation, expanding opportunities, inspiring educators, that's what we do. Any questions? >> Thank Thank you, Julie. I I know I speak for all of us when I say how much we we value um our partnership and and everything that you personally and the alliance um and GI

133and everybody does for for for our kids and the voices of the alumni in particular uh tonight really really hammer home um really all the amazing work over the last 19 years um in counting that the alliance has done. So so we really appreciate your time here to give us all more of a glimpse into that. without open up I think. Go ahead, Karen. I knew you were I was always going to call you first. >> No, that's fine. I was going to say I kind of wanted to echo what Mike was saying. I, you know, as someone who's been involved, you know, supporting the alliance as a parent, >> PTAC on the board, I just wanted to, you know, reiterate what you said, what Mike said, like we could not do this without without

134the alliance and without you, Julie. who are certainly uh when we think of alliance, it is always you and your strong voice and and advocacy for the programs that you brought to our schools. Um and I think it's really important that everything that you guys do help support our strategic plan goals. Um the things that people don't realize that you guys have funded or that have part, you know, have been so successful in many ways for our student. The innovation lab at GHS, you guys had a another one going places with books, the bookmobile, which my kids absolutely loved until they were taken out by a tree. Not my kids, the pet mobile that is >> bad ending. Yeah. >> Yes. To be clear, the Odyssey and the other programs much like you said, the

135science bowl was also you guys funded things like Odyssey of the mind. So, it's it's always finding ways for our students, many of whom are the ones that come with these ideas to our teachers and our teachers who want to try innovative things. You know, it's so important hearing from the students that have benefited because I know they continue once they graduate to give back to our schools. um and that the alliance has never turned their back on students once they've graduated either which is also highlighted by our students that came to support. So I just think it's really important I wanted to just say that you know it's fact that AVID which started at Western was so unbelievably successful or the students at you know at Western other schools saw that in town and

136asked for it to be brought there and now that it's being moved you know districtwide is is unbelievable the kind of support that that's going to provide for every single student um in Greenwich. Um, and I truly hope that, you know, people that are listening understand that, you know, even if they can join the trivia bowl, if they can come out, run, or just donate five, $10, um, every single thing makes a difference for you guys. And it's it's really, we couldn't do it without you guys. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> And I just want to ask, I know you said it in the middle of the presentation, but if uh someone wanted to donate online, what is is it grenichalliance.org? >> Yes, it is. There's a big donate button on the top

137of the page. my next question. Thank you. >> Thank you everybody for the opportunity. Good night. >> We will we will we will see you at trivia night. Right. >> Right. Let's see. Watch that. >> Point of order. Um I'm probably wrong because the voice in the sky probably would have came out, but I think it's important that I check. Um Mr. Cheney, we we had a motion on the table. Mr. Cheney made a made made an amendment to the motion. I feel like we voted on the amendment to the motion, but we didn't then vote on the actual new new amended motion. So, we've passed Mr. Cheny's amendment to the motion and it I believe Robert rules indicate that we need to now vote on the motion. Look, pretty sure I'm going to lose,

138but I think >> Mr. Ether you guys just moved on a little too fast for me. I was very excited. >> So yeah, you make there was the motion to amend and then you have to >> vote on the amended motion >> on the new the motion as amended. >> Ju just because I had a smart question. Can I can I ask where that guy is? Is he on Zoom? >> Michael is an undisclosed location. secure location. >> Um, okay. So, the um uh motion is on the table as amended. Um, this is scenario three to request funding in the full amount of 8,177,174. All >> we need to clarify who the is it the original first and second or Mr. Cheneyy's amendment first and second that we're voting on. think it's the first one.

139>> We should just clarify that. I think it's Mr. Cheny's. >> It's the amendment adding the roof, the 10% and the roof. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> He's as >> Is that what you were asking, Michael? >> No, I was asking if we voted on Mr. Cheny's a uh you guys voted on Mr. Cheny's amendment. As we're now voting as amended, is that a new motion or is it going back to who made the motion and seconded? >> Oh, >> at some point before that, >> right? It's it's it's it's who made the motion and seconded. >> I think it was just the wording of the amendment >> that was at question. It wasn't it was the amendment was to change the vote to vote on the scenario. >> Right. So, >> I think to

140be safe, we just get a first and second again. I mean because that can't be wrong. >> No, no, you you are. Okay. Do we have a >> It could impact state reimbursement. I think that Mr. Capi makes a good point. >> Fair enough. Okay. So, is there a um um is there a first for the motion as amended? Bob? >> Yes, I'll first >> and second Karen. Seconded by Karen Hirs. Okay. All in favor of the motion as amended. One, three, four. Oh boy. Four. Okay. Um against abstain. Okay. So that is 43 1. Um motion doesn't pass, right, Michael? Because it needs a majority. >> It is. >> It has a majority at due to the abstension. >> Great. Okay. So motion passes. All right. Thank you. Now we can move on. >>

141Are you excited by the Okay. Now I'd like to welcome um Mr. Demo who is going to talk about uh what is very exciting new courses at GHS. >> Thank you, Chairman McCanthy Anthony, members of the board. Good evening, Dr. Jones. Happy New Year. I've been sitting so long, maybe it's not even happy new year anymore. Um, you know, I thought I'd I'd change things up and I'd bring my own support group with me tonight since usually by the time we get to my presentations, there's really nobody left in the audience. So, I'm feeling pretty good about our our audience capacity this evening. Um, did you know that we have currently uh 350 courses offered in our catalog? And did you know, thanks to Microsoft Copilot, they told me today that on average, a high

142school of our size roughly has in the range of 230 to 280 courses offered. And to be considered an elite high school, you have to have at least 300 courses. And so tonight, we're going to ask you to consider four more courses. But before I do that, I just have to take a moment and say, you know, uh, from the middle schoolers that spoke tonight to our postgrads, I mean, poised, articulate, confident, and accomplished. You know, usually when I'm up here speaking to you, I'm throwing a lot of numbers at you, and you're asking me about growth and what numbers we need to to get to. But, you know, the story that numbers don't tell, the students tonight told. and I'm really impressed and proud of the students that we produce in the Greenwich public

143schools. And so I think just the future is so bright. Um I also take to heart what one of our um student government um representatives said about too many AP courses and I think I'm going to try and invite myself to maybe one of their um future meetings to hear more about that. Um but I look at it a little bit differently. I think because we have 2,600 and something students at the high school, I think choice is a good thing. And I think giving kids opportunities to go down different learning pathways because everybody is so unique and individualized in their interests. The more we can offer, the better. Um, but I look forward to having that conversation and engaging with our high schoolers. Um, so to that end, um, usually this is where I

144would tell you a little little bit about how we got here, but when Mr. Mayo told me he couldn't make it tonight, I thought I would do something different, especially since you're going to hear a whole heck of a lot from me next month at the retreat when we're going to put forward a brand new K12 STEM and ELA report, uh, which I'm really excited about. I thought I would bring our vice principal from Greenwich High School, who you don't hear from all the time, Miss Dana Tulada, to walk you through what it takes to recommend a new course to the board, and then to introduce you to the folks that came out and stayed uh late to try and answer any questions that you may have uh and and and give you confidence in

145in voting next time on approving these four courses. So, Miss Tada, you. >> Good evening. So, I thought it might be helpful for everyone to understand the process we use prior to bringing any course to the board of ed for approval. When a department recognizes a need, they bring a draft of the new course to the principal and vice principal. We give them feedback before they present to LPC. That's our learning program council. This is a team that has representation from all departments and is a mix of teacher leaders and administrators. We ask questions of the individual presenting the new course to ensure that it meets our high standards of excellence and is truly a course that we think our Greenwich High School students would benefit from having the option to take. Once we have

146the support of LPC, we share with the chief officer of K12 curriculum and leadership who then brings it here. I am delighted to have the opportunity to introduce the members of our high school administration team who are happy to answer any questions you have about the four courses we are presenting this evening. Mr. David Walco will present AP business and personal finance. Miss Lucia Reco will present AP Human Geography. Mr. Dr. Andrew Burn will present AP cyber security. Miss Leah Stillman and Mr. Tom Pereira will present honors art history. And they brought two teachers who helped create the proposal, Miss Liz Vasquez and Miss Cheryl Aozo. >> Good evening board. Uh, as you heard, I'm David Walko. I'm the Clark House administrator and I oversee business is one of the departments uh at Greenwich High

147School. Uh the business department is excited to be pro proposing this new course uh AP business and personal finance. Uh first I want to say that this course will also uh cover the graduation requirement for personal finance as that is part of the class. Uh it is embedded within their uh course description. Um this AP business course is also part of the AP career kickoff. Uh the course blends foundational business theories with applied personal finance. Uh students will study analyze business practices both local, national and global. Uh our targeted students if you want to say that we're looking at is 10 through 12. uh we also would like them to have the requirement of having completed algebra 1 because of some of the accounting that's in the course as well so that they're successful in

148those courses. Uh in the course uh the course is broken up into five units. Uh the first unit is business new ideas some competition within the business uh realm. Unit two is marketing. Unit three is this is where the personal finance it's broken up into two parts. So part one of uh unit three is the personal savings and borrowing. The part two is the business finance of creating businesses and looking at that part. And then unit four is the management and strategies of business and then unit five is personal goals, budgeting and investments. So it really covers all those areas. Um, and as I should have mentioned also starting this off, business is our number one declared major for students applying to higher education. Um, not only at Greenwich High School, but when you look

149at national trends, that is the most declared major that students are looking at when they are applying for schools. Um, the course itself is case studies using real world real world um, examples. It's a lot project- based. It is currently being piloted this year. It is a brand new course that AP is putting out. So, next year will be the first year that this course will be ever offered um with the test at the end in May. Uh currently, the only cost right now is the textbook. I don't have a specific price. There's a range. Um and that's why you see it in the proposal. I went with the higher end um if we looked at having two sections. um thinking we probably would have more with the interest of the number of classes that

150we do offer in business, but at least this gives us the opportunity to run two classes at the same time. Um that also the staff development that goes along with this because it is a brand new course from College Board is no charge. And currently the three business teachers have signed up for all of that in the hopes that you pass and move this course forward so that they are already on board and getting that information. um and when those staff development opportunities present themselves. Um and I guess with that that is the overview. If you have any specific questions that I can answer >> really >> I was I don't actually have a question but I was going to say I'm glad to see this as a new recommended course. I have, you know,

151the maj so many of our students go on to college uh and and are applying specifically into the business schools um at at specific colleges all around the country. We're seeing more and more and more of that. So, I think that this is a really incredible opportunity uh for students to have some basis to truly understand, especially if they're applying to business school, um to also have an understanding of the different career paths that they can take once there. I know I had a student that applied as a an education major and then transferred once she got accepted into the business school and is now questioning those paths because she didn't have access to know, you know, maybe what a lot of them meant. So, I think this is a great opportunity for our students

152giving them that leg up before they get to school. >> Yeah. And I and I think this is also a great complement to the other business courses that we offer within you know the accounting the entrepreneurship um all of those it really does lend itself. >> Thank you. Um I know that you mentioned the course will have case studies. Will there be any um real life practice? I I don't have a finance background at all but I was thinking like where they might invest a little bit or or play around with something like that. >> Sure. And that really is up to the individual instru uh teachers. you know, we might be able to use the case study of roofs, um, you know, and help that along. But, uh, um, but no, the the the

153case studies, um, there are some that are being driven by college board. Again, as I said, this this is being piloted right now. Um, there are, I think the last I saw was about five schools in the Northeast um, that are piloting right now besides obviously across the nation. Um, so they're looking at some of those case studies, but yes, they leave those opportunities up to obviously the local areas. And that's where in the course description, it talks about both local and national, and that's where they really want to pull the case studies from is some of the local issues that you you're seeing. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Lucy. >> Hello. I'm Lucia Reco. I'm the program administrator for social studies. I'm very excited to propose AP human geography as a new course at

154Greenwich High School. Uh this is a very unique course that covers topics uh not already covered in any of our other courses. Um in general it explores the relationship between people and the spaces in which they live. uh to uh give you an example of some of the uh major topics. Uh the units cover population and migration patterns, cultural patterns and processes, agricultural and rural land use, uh cities and urbal urban land use, um cultural uh diffusion and industrial and economic uh development. Do you have any questions about this course? >> Go ahead, Ken. >> Uh, yes. It's it's this course and extends a little broader. I noticed as I was going through this, you've got a prerequisite of a C or better. Uh, which concerns me. That's a really low bar for an AP

155class. I mean, our AP classes should be designed for our kids who need extra challenge. And in light of what we're seeing in terms of mental health challenges, uh, kids who are struggling with too much homework because they're in classes where they can't keep up, I and and frankly they're they're overwhelmed because they're in classes that they shouldn't have put in. Um, I would strongly encourage the school district uh and the individual teachers who are setting prerequisites to reverse what I would consider an ill-advised AP for all and raise the bar. I'm concerned about the number the percentage of students we're seeing who are scoring threes on APs which is not a good score and allow put the power back in the hands of the teachers who are best calibrated to assess which students can

156handle the rigors of these classes. >> Sure. It has been a a a focus for us for several years to not gatekeep our students. And I we we believe in it strongly as educators. And if you go back and you look at our student achievement report, what you see is we do have more students taking AP courses. Um they're taking more courses than ever. And we've had the highest results that we've had um just this last year. And so the kids are being successful. And I I know some people don't see a three as okay, but our goal is to prepare kids um young people to go to college. And for some students, a three is absolutely celebratory. And I would rather have a student make a three, which again, many universities count as college

157credit, but I would rather have them make a three and be in a really rigorous course and have a great experience than be in a lower level course because we said no. and if they really want to go and they really want to try and I think some of the kids that you heard speak tonight um you know if you speak two languages and and you didn't move here until seven years ago uh you should have the same opportunities as other kids um but it's going to be harder and they may not be ready to actually score a five but I think that um they can do some really great work and I don't know Dr. Mark McKanti Anthony you may have something to add as well given that you do this work. >> Well

158I was I was going to ask is that how common is the is the C prerequisite for other AP classes? Do you know that in in social studies? >> It's for all of them. That's the same prerequisite. >> It is for all of them. Interesting. Okay. Eric >> um having a C as a prerequisite that is definitely something I think maybe we can have a discussion on. I I I was I was wondering that myself also, but I you know I want to see all of our students succeed. Um so my specific question about um this class is I know you had surveyed a lot of students in the freshman and sophomore year as to what they might be considering taking if they would consider taking this um course and we really don't have you

159know anything. I'm sorry I was looking at my notes. you'd said, you know, it was basically a leap from, you know, global studies andor US history. Um, so I was just wondering, you know, it I know it it leads to I looked it up, you know, PL, you know, urban planning, data analysis, policy, uh, positions, you know, international relations, um, opportunities, but, you know, I'm wondering because this is such a big leap because we don't really have anything that kind of aligns with it in lower courses if this is something that's really something we should do as AP or if there's an alternate that we could possibly consider adding that may not be of AP level um, as somewhere of an in between that students might be interested in in seeing this before we add

160an AP level just because I know the cost is really high for AP courses. Um and it also requires students to put in that funding to pay to take the AP course which is a sort of requirement or maybe it's not always a requirement for APS that to sign up for it but um so I'm just curious to see if there was something else you know there's not a direct u linkage between the two courses that you know I would say that you had asked. So, I was just wondering if there's something that might be of a another course that we could consider that might not be AP level um that we could give to students cuz not everybody is, you know, is necessarily ready for an AP course, but I think that some of

161the things that are being covered in this are very valuable. Um so, that's sort of sort of why I was wondering because I know we were being offered three AP courses and one honors. um if there's a lot of students that would take this instead of another AP course or instead of in addition to um I don't want AP scaring students off um and I want to make sure it's sort of open to students who might be you know dipping their foot into this area. >> Let me let me tack on to that question because I I think I'm saying the same thing like who do we see as the audience really for for the course class? >> Um well it's open to juniors or seniors. Yeah, but like what kind like so student on

162what path is going? >> Yeah, I was going to say the progression because I didn't see anything prior to this as an AP linkage. That's why I was wondering if there's another way to do it. Well, if you think about some of our other AP courses that a student could take junior or senior year, um they're similar in that, you know, students have not been exposed to the topics prior, such as AP psychology, um AP economics. Um we could certainly consider a semester elective similar to AP human geography. I I'd have to think about what that is. um that would be an option for students who did not want to opt for the um AP class. Um interesting though in the survey at least 20% of students in honors electives did say they would consider

163the AP human geography uh in lie of um the honors elective. So I I I do think um it appeals to uh maybe a new group of students who um don't see um something in particular interest of our current in our current AP offerings. I was just going to note I think it also is hard for us to look on the black and white document here because we have like yes, no, maybe we take it instead of and the dark numbers are pretty much all look the same to us. So maybe we're not seeing it in the same manner, you know, in the the pie chart. Am I? Yeah. So >> yeah, if you read the text, the text um above um gives a percent add it up. Is this a new course from the

164College Board? >> No. >> Okay. This has been around for a while. Yeah. Okay. >> Thanks. Thank you. You're welcome. Good evening, Board of Education, Dr. Jones. My name is Andrew Burn. I'm the Fulsome House administrator, also overseeing our computer science and math department. As I mentioned, uh, in the fall, our department has been spending some time taking a look at the new College Board offering in AP cyber security. Um, this course follows a very similar model as Mr. Walco outlined with his personal finance. So, I won't reiterate all that, but I will say, you know, it doesn't a day doesn't pass where you don't pick up a newspaper and see that there's been a cyber attack of some sort. And so, um, this course would give our students the opportunity to plan for, um,

165uh, protect, uh, for those cyber attacks while also mitigating responses and hopefully, uh, ensuring things like this don't happen. So, it would serve as an introductory course um, for our students that are getting ready to go off into college. As you may or may not know, uh there's about 50,000 jobs in America right now that are going unemployed because we don't have kids that have this skill. Uh so I think this is a timely uh program and something that we should be offering our students. And I would also say that we do have many clubs um at Granch High School who participate in a variety of hackathons or uh cyber patriot uh exercises. And we do think that um students will come out and and be interested in uh uh participating in this course. It

166also allows us to offer another offering for those students who max out their uh math classes and computer science classes while at Greenwich High School and uh want to get another AP credit. So I think it's the next logical step for us as a department, as a district, and I would appreciate the board's support in moving this forward. Go ahead, Veronica. >> Thanks. Um, are there other uh districts nearby that have this course? And um, it's it's uh, my other question is I would be very impressed with any teacher who's able to teach. So, what what sort of a staff member might might we be using or looking for because this is such a specific and unique but very cool skill? >> Sure. Um, yeah. So, similar to uh what Dave was sharing earlier, uh,

167it's brand new to the College Board. it's being piloted throughout the country. Um, so they're gathering information on how that pilot is going right now and, uh, I'm sure we'll learn even more in the coming months. Um, but we do have, fortunately enough, as I'm sure no surprise to you, we have an amazing cadre of mathematicians and computer scientists at Greenwich High School who teach our wonderful students. And so there is an interest uh among several of them that they would love to participate similar to how Dave explained uh in some of those free professional development opportunities over the coming months uh through the college board. >> It sounds very cool. Thank you. >> Yeah. Yes, it certainly does. [gasps and sighs] >> So So Andrew, just can you help me just understand um the

168progression again? So So if you're taking computer science, like what would be what would be a student's typical path to AP cyber security? Yeah. So, we're looking at um we we still like to have everyone have the same foundation. So, we do require an intro level uh computer science course and then from there our students do go on to AP computer science principles. Um and that is the prerequisite for this class. Uh so, we would we would expect that we would see kids deciding between either going into computer science AP computer science A or taking uh AP cyber cyber security or flip-flop. They may decide to do it both or they may just decide to go in one direction over the other. I think as some of you may know with AI uh being what

169it is, the emphasis on programming is actually uh somewhat going down. And so I think this will also uh fill a void that may be happening just naturally anyway. And then given what we heard earlier the um for the student is there are there options for that student um who took computer science is there what were there a next step in this field not at the AP level? What would what would would there anything that they could move on? >> Yeah, we we were fortunate enough as as Mark mentioned we have quite a few uh courses on the books. We do have uh several computer science classes that um we do offer students to enroll in every year. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to uh necessarily run those classes, but uh we have everything from

170uh uh uh courses where the kids could design apps um to doing some really creative things in in the arts as well. So, there are some really ne neat outlets and of course uh one thing that I think is true of all about Crunch High School is we have a tremendous number of kids who participate in independent studies. So, if they don't if we don't have the enrollment or we don't have uh something that's on the books, we're we're willing to work with the students and the administration to ensure that they get the experience. >> Okay. >> I was going to say I know that this is a new course that's being piloted this year as you mentioned. Um so, I have two questions. I I you know, I do see the the the absolute

171need for this because this is such a growing major for students throughout the country. Um, and we're seeing it popping up more and more more colleges in in certain areas. Um, do you know because I know it's a pilot this year. I mean, a I assume we'll also be seeing how many schools have are offering it this year versus how many are asking to offer it next year. Um, I don't know if you know that data, but more importantly, do you know if a student gets a three or above? Like, will this also lead to credits for them in college like the other APs? Uh, is it a pilot this year? I don't know if we know that answer or if this is just something that'll give them a certificate that they've completed, you know,

172a certain level. >> No, that's that's a really great question. Uh, Miss Hersh, and I will say, you know, a couple years ago, I was standing in front of you about AP pre-calculus, and we had the same sorts of questions. Um, and I will say I I think, uh, the College Board does their homework ahead of time before they offer. Uh, I think right now they have over a 100 colleges that are willing to give some sort of credit. Um, it may not be in a major, but it might fulfill a requirement. Um, and I I will say I think we have a pretty good track record, you know, at at Cranch High School of being able to deliver. So, I think if we get the approval from the board, um, I I think we'll

173have some pretty good success. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Uh, my name is Leah Stillman. I'm the arts coordinator for Greenwich Public Schools and I'm really excited to uh introduce um kind of a pivot of a course um a change in a course. So, it's not actually a an extra course that we're adding in the in the visual art um program, but we're taking what was art appreciation and hasn't been really filled for a number of years and pivoting over to some feedback that we received from the board and from the community regarding our AP art history course, which has seen a ton of growth from 15 students all the way up toundred I need my glasses now. 102 across five sections this past year. And that's a 580% increase in growth. But also,

174we've had so many kids taking the AP, but not as many taking the exam. And there was some push back and and criticism from the board uh in the fall. I believe that was my first meeting as an employee here. So, that was I think that was my um onboarding um session here. But um now I come with the experience of about four months. So um and the teachers kind of teachers took that feedback and said wait a minute we could make a little change here and offer a course that it will now be called honors art history that will fill that need to give students a course before they take AP art history. So gives them some foreign foundational skills. It's really nice because students like to take a visual art class, but not

175all want to take a studio class. This gives them an option to take a history course and really learn about visual art history. And um this course has five units. Introduction to art historical methodology. Unit two is ancient and medieval worlds. The renaissance reformation and baroic reactions. uh revolution and radical break and global perspectives in contemporary art. So it really takes you through the history of art and it gives students a basis before they take AP art history which could decrease the AP art history enrollment maybe for a year or two but in the end it's really going to increase the type of student and the enrollment that will be happening in the APR art history classroom with this foundational course. So um does anyone have any questions? I know you have the uh proposal

176in front of you already. Yes. >> As a parent of a student who was following this, you know, trajectory in high school and was faced with, you know, when she was faced with taking AP art history was scared truly. I mean that a that particular AP is a tough one. You have to have knowledge such deep in-depth knowledge of a lot of these art pieces and past. I think this is an incredible opportunity for students who are either um scared to take the AP version of art history or a student who wants to go a little further in depth. Um I also think it supports some of the other courses that were being offered. I mean this is an a lot of students want to go into into that field. Um and there just this

177fills a hole. So I just I I couldn't be happier to see this as an option um for our students. some of again who are afraid to take it the AP because it is such a deep depth of knowledge that's needed to go into that and this will really give them that boost um to to move on to the AP course or just to give them what they are interested in and learning in art history >> and Miss Hers is correct APR history is one of the hardest AP course AP exams out there it covers such depth and such a breath of and broad broad topics um that this does really uh fit that bill. So >> foreign language and AP art history are usually those that the students are a little, you know, scared

178of sometimes. >> Question. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Deiko. >> You can um you can you you can tell your your um um your entourage can can uh can go home now. and we appreciate the early start next month at 6 PM. Thank you. So, so up next, uh, we asked Dr. Jones to give us an update on the consistency, uh, regulation that we, we passed, um, a little bit ago and has now been been up and running for a while. So, originally I was just going to have this as a part of a superintendent's update, but we decided to put it on as an item so that it reminds everybody the full document that was new for us in the fall. And this was based on input from

179from the board, from parent feedback, from student feedback over the last um several years where we were not consistent and people were saying, "Can you not be more consistent?" and the board held several retreats um at the end of last year and then also at the beginning of this year and really talked about where we had some of those inconsistencies. It while it is K12, most of the elementary had been we've been working on that over the last couple of years. Um, and it actually just notes like the new elementary report card that we're implementing this year. That's, you know, been a couple of years in the works and, um, you'll hear updates on that as we get towards the end of the year. In middle school and high school, it really was, um, an

180outgrowth of seeking feedback. If you remember, every department at the end of last year all answered the same questions. Um, and that's when I think we even had more of a realization how different it was across all the departments. And you could have a teacher who might think seven grades for a semester was okay. And then you might have another teacher who's giving 50 or 60. And it wasn't about telling them exactly what they must do, but setting at least a minimum standard. So all of our students are not are getting feedback and timely feedback. um we were hearing things previously um and probably this one is more at high school where the students might take an assessment they wouldn't have the assessment returned and then the next assessment was actually being given. So now

181the teachers all understand once you give an assessment feedback needs to be given before you move on and give another assessment. So again, this is just as a reminder and the one thing um that was also asked, are we actually monitoring what we said we were going to do? And so this was introduced middle school and high school staff um at the beginning of the year. Principles worked with their teams, their staff as well and admin teams. Um they actually just went back at the high school, reviewed this again before midterms. Um but they are doing uh I had a long conversation uh with Mr. Mayo. Uh, Miss Tada also shared with me some of the data that that she's looking at. They are doing a phenomenal job keeping up and really making sure that

182they're trying to implement this with fidelity. And I will say I haven't had one complaint. So that's that's usually a really good thing. So they're doing a great job. >> Well, go ahead, Sophie. Well, I just want to say I'm I'm just so thrilled with that update. Um I was really excited about this regulation and I think it's so beneficial for the students, especially at high school. It's so stressful. They're also worried about their grades and just to be able to keep on top of it and get timely feedback and and know that you're struggling, you know, and have the opportunity to go seek out extra help if you need it. So, I'm just so happy to hear that it's going well. That's great news. Karen, you had a question. Okay. All right. Thank you

183for for the update. I think that's like Sophie said, that's important. So, um up next, speaking of updates, you're still on Dr. Jones, the update on the CMS open enrollment survey we started last month. >> So, where we are, um as of today, we have um 14 sixth graders. We actually thought it was at 17, but one of the things that we had to go back in and do is cross reference, look every student up for their address. And so there was one family that actually was in a building where they were actually their home zone is already central. Uh but they were in a magnet that was central. So we have to check everybody's forms. Um so we have 14 sixth graders. We have three going into seventh grade and four going into eighth

184grade. Um just from um for your knowledge for K5 um HMBB has three, New Lab one, Glennville has six um one from North Miamiis, one from Parkway and two from JC. So it's really just kind of little bits all over the place. Um so that's where we are as of today. What I'm doing now is really trying to also dig into as students are applying uh making sure that I have really good data on how it's going to impact one school or the other. Almost almost all of these not all but almost all of them are coming from Western. So, we're trying to look at are we shift are we going to need to shift resources, not shift resources. Um, how many of these students could have unique needs? And what I mean by that

185could be EL services, special education, 504, maybe they're an ALP student. Um, how is it going to impact when you look at is it a level one student that needs a lot of support or are these mainly primarily like level fours um that are higher on the higher side. Um, so I'm digging in just so we'll have all of that information and the form closed today as we said it would at noon and then that'll be a decision that the board will have to make going forward because we want to be very very thoughtful um before you just open it and just keep taking students um that we are not which I think you know we had a speaker tonight mention that um impacting another building in a negative way so that I'm doing all

186of that work right So, do we have to make a decision on whether or not to keep it open tonight? >> No. >> Of course. >> Sorry. >> I mean, you could, but I'm not asking for that in the sense that right now until we understand. Now, you could open it and and we don't I mean, are we going to do it or not? You know, uh, and just because it is numerical as they come in. So, if you decided, okay, we're going to take 15, we're going to take 20, whatever. Um, it would be like doing almost like when you do the lottery or it's first in, first serve. But, um, these all were all in on time today by noon. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Ken. >> Um, yeah, just to clarify, and

187since we're kind of around the time of college decisions, I'll use those terms. Is this early action or early decision? Are the kids who whose name these 14 kids is it an option for them to attend or might they change their mind between now and September and the real numbers might be different? >> Well, I will say whether it's a magnet school open enrollment if they are zoned and their house is, you know, for a particular school, I don't think they could we could come back in the fall if they changed their mind and say, "No, no, no, no, you committed to that school." Um, yeah, because if they live in in a certain zone. >> Karen, >> I I like the way Karen phrased that actually. Well done. Um, no, I was going to

188say I think before the board really I mean whether we leave it open or not is is irrelevant. I think the question more is we now have an understanding of how many students might be interested in moving over and what impact that might have. But I think it's more important for us before decisions are made seeing what impact that would have on the schools these students are leaving. Um because we don't want to try to solve one issue by unintentionally causing issue other issues that we didn't have before. So I I mean I' I'd love to understand some of those factors before we have a discussion, you know, a deep discussion on this because we don't we don't want to create any unintended consequences elsewhere. Um so I think that's really important. And I know

189there were you know some questions asked uh you know PTAC and other things in regards to this too. So yeah. >> So go ahead. >> Yeah. If I can just add it is very very difficult to have a conversation with these types of numbers to a really granular level because you're talking about children. And so that's why I'm doing the work. Um and you know it's not I don't even have like all the principles aren't sitting around the table talking about this together. Uh we're looking at each child as they come in so we can better understand how it will impact. So I can give you the higher level but because we're talking about such small numbers of students like we might have if there's 14 students maybe it's six special needs children maybe it's

190two. Does that impact the staffing that we need in the building or not? That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I was looking more for I mean since you mentioned they're all coming from Western. We know that not I don't want to bring up racial balance again because I think that's a whole another thing but that was really what I was referring to. something as granular as does a student need added support in one way or another. something much larger is does this impact some of those other factors that we've been looking at for some of those schools or an overcrowded classroom for instance like if we were having a majority of these students that were interested in leaving uh Eastern uh to come over there because the class rooms there are so full

191and maybe they would have a smaller classroom or cohort at central just of students in a classroom that again that that could have a very positive impact on on things. So I that's what I was looking for some as an unintended consequence and not about an individual student just as a general thing. >> I think that's the hard thing about the unintended consequences is you have to drill down to the individual student because it's really kind of that totality of the group that's coming in or where they're coming from. And again the bulk of them are definitely zoned for Western. >> So it sounds like there's more to come here. You're going to do some digging and going some we're going to be talking about in subsequent months. >> Okay. All right. Um, oh, Mr.

192Mr. Capella, go ahead. >> We had discussed in one of our earlier meetings um whether or not opening this up for only Eastern students, whether that was a um a legal issue. Um, and we talked about potentially asking an attorney about that. Um, I want to be sensitive about racial imbalances as well, but right now the practicality of it is we're literally looking for bodies to move from Eastern to Central, but we may not be offering that exactly because we're not sure if we're violating any any laws by doing that. Have we asked an attorney about that? >> I have not asked an attorney, but we offered this to Eastern. It was offered to Eastern equally like it was Western. It's just they don't have the same level of interest. >> Yeah. I know. I

193I get that. Can we in the end can we tell the Western kids no? >> I can double check with the attorney on that if we're saying we want an attorney opinion, but um I would not recommend that. Um but I'm happy to get an attorney opinion on it. >> Yeah. Because I I think we all want to be conscious about causing another, you know, an unbalance in another school. Um but obviously we want to be careful with the law. I did go in and and again part of this analysis when you talk about racial balance um again I say that we're really all balanced everywhere. So I hate to call it imbalanced because we we're a very diverse community but um for racial balance could it have an impact? Absolutely. Um I I pulled

194the enrollment port just to refresh my mind on where Western was and they're very very close to already being impending this year. So, it doesn't take that many students um to change it. Um but I will calculate that as we go forward so I can have a better idea exactly of the percentage and where we're sitting. >> Sorry. I think on Paul's question though, could we open it just to Western? I think it's a moot point. It doesn't sound like anyone from or sorry, could we open it only to Eastern? I think it's a moot point because I think no one from Eastern cho put their name on the list. >> I think there's I don't have the exact where they're from. I could look it up, but I think there's literally like one sixth

195grader and then there might be a seventh and an eighth grader. Like it's very very low, >> right? So we there's a lot of unknowns here. So I think we we have to wait and and drill down here and so Dr. Stone come back. >> Okay, quick. >> I just want to make sure that this was we we offered this only as a survey who might be interested. this was no guarantee or promise to students or parents or families that they this was definitely happening. I know it's just to be clear of what problem we're trying to solve. Um so I just wanted to make clear that it was simply a survey of asking who might be interested and so that's leading us to the next discussion points at some point. Right. Correct. Just the

196survey. Okay. >> Okay. Mr. Brandon, you're up. believe is uh Patrick at the podium. Here >> comes Patrick now. >> Yeah, we're in good hands with Patrick. He's going to go through some of the highlights of the report. >> Okay. Um thank you Ben. So uh the report in front of you for this month is pretty standard as uh what was presented in the last uh few months. Um the things that I want to highlight on the monthly financial report is about the special education out of district and the settlement uh projections it has been stabilized at the 8.8 million as the projection with a 10.8 million of budget. So if this trends continues it will probably is a uh budget saving items at the end of the school years. So otherwise the rest of

197the uh financial reports are pretty standard and then if there's any questions Patrick I don't not necessarily a question but I think it's worth reiterating that that is not the standard across the state of Connecticut at the moment where districts are pointing out savings due to special ed settlements and I think that we need to trumpet all we're doing there um over the last few years because that's it's really impressive. You see headlines every day, particularly as everybody's in budget season about the amount of overages that people are hemorrhaging across the districts. >> Yep. >> All right. Right. The next one. >> Yep. The next one is on the budget transfers. So there's one item that you see on the report. Uh that one is for the cost cop schools. uh they are transferring the

198budgets to support their uh after school activities. So that is a um within kind of like the same uh major object of transfer is an information items uh for the board members. >> Yep. >> So just clarify this is transfers within Costco or from elsewhere to Costco? within costcom and within their um salary major object hooks. >> Yep. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Finally, agenda meeting agenda the the BOE meeting agenda plan. >> You missed the absentee report. >> Sad if you don't call on me now. >> He's been here this whole time. >> Dr. Everybody, how could I forget the >> Well, I just Yes. Thank you, Michael Joseph. I will just call your attention to the standing item report and uh you will see that our staff u like other

199humans in Connecticut uh experienced significant illness uh in what's represented on my chart as week 17 of this school year, which was the second week of December. So we rebounded from that on week 18 which was a really short week just a Monday and Tuesday. And in fact as the chart at the bottom of page one represents uh because we track for this and show the data Mondays through Fridays on a weekly basis because of interest um to the board has been weekly trends in absenteeism. Um it happens to be the case that because of that short week of 2 days before the December break, we actually have 18 weeks in August through December this year compared with 17 weeks the prior two years. So there's a little bit of a difference that I've represented

200in that asterisk with that asterisk u on the chart, but the point is um we certainly had very high sickness absenteeism that week 17. And you see that best represented I think on the very final chart uh where you see a very high uh sickness rates. Um certainly our staff has rebounded from that and it's not a surprise of course that uh illness tracks general trends because teachers and professional assistants are in high uh uh geographic proximity to students who also are sick and coming to to school. And certainly happy to answer questions. But if if I might, I just want to share a really interesting personnel tidbit with you that makes this even more worthwhile. And I want to give a special shout out to uh Mr. Browio Santiago who's retiring tomorrow uh from

201Greenwich Public Schools after 50 years in public school education in Connecticut. And many of you know Browio as having worked for the past decade or so as a program administrator for adult and continuing education. When that position ended in June, uh he transitioned back to where he began his career many years ago. He uh ended his career or will end it tomorrow teaching ESL and Spanish at Parkway Elementary School. And we were privileged to give him a nice sendoff there the other day. Raleio is well known in the state of Connecticut for many reasons, but one of them is he was an outstanding elementary school principal in New Britain for 28 years. And at the time he began being a principal uh back around 1980, he was the youngest elementary school principal in Connecticut. So

202I'm happy Bralio, I think, is watching. And I want to say it's a great privilege to have worked with somebody of his high character and quality till the very end of 50 years coming to work every day. So congratulations to that. But I'm happy to answer any questions you might have on this report. >> I think we just have to echo I mean that is uh that is an incredible I mean if he is listening um you know all of us wish wish him um really heartfelt congratulations on on on what an amazing career. >> See no questions Dr. Buck. Okay, thank you everybody. >> And now the agenda agenda plan. Uh any any thoughts? >> Um I just want to note I I heard one of you comment about what Mr. Demo was speaking

203about at 6:00. If you look at the agenda, the six o'clock is the presentations for the retreat. Um so that's why he said thank you for six o'clock. Seven o'clock is the executive session. Um this is an executive session that generally we do with the board every year. Um one section is on the outplacement and settlement and things that we can't help educate the board publicly about but our attorney comes and does that section and then the other one will be the legal update and pending. However, um if the um the board current board issue legal issue is not resolved, uh it will probably have to be rescheduled. um because there'll be a conflict of interest and which attorney is going to be, you know, in that meeting. Um so I'll be watching that and

204the attorneys are all set and ready to come. So hopefully we we'll get it resolved by then. Uh other than that, that's it for me. >> Any comments on future agenda items? >> Go ahead. >> Um I'd like to add at some point I know we have a couple sessions that are specifically focused on academics. Um, I don't think I was the only one up here who was a little surprised to see C as uh the threshold for an AP. Um, what I'd actually like to do is I'd like to to maybe do a deep dive into uh what the criteria are for the different levels of courses. Um, and and see trends over time. There's certainly been some concern of uh I'll use sort of more of a policular term of a watering down

205of ALP and APS. Um so I'd like us to take take a double click on that. Um, last year we talked about um um um and then we put it in our board goals having a a um a midyear um kind of a mid-year review. We felt it was unfair um we also she's not here the unfair to um talk about Dr. Jones performance only once a year. Um so we'll talk more about that and I'll talk with Sophie about it. But February 5th retreat, I was wondering if that was the time um to have um some of those conversations. Um we did say about we did have that conversation back in the spring. So um it would make it might make sense to have that um that would be an executive session. So that's

206something we'll have to talk about um for that would that would the February 5th meeting. Um it also might be a good opportunity since we have so many new board members um to talk a little bit what that looks like. So that um I know when I was my first year on the board that that review process in at the end of the year was was was kind of weird. I didn't know what to expect. So I think it might be good good on boarding for new members. Anything else? Seeing none, um does anybody have a motion? >> Make a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn for Mr. Cheney. Second. Miss Hirsh will second. All in favor? >> I >> that is unanimous. Thank you everybody. Meeting a jured. >> Thank you.