September 25, 2025 Board of Education Business Meeting

001Okay, it's 7:04 and I am going to call the meeting to order. Uh, if everybody could stand and say the pledge, that would be fantastic. standy. >> Thank you. Uh we are now going to move on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion? Well, you can't. You >> Kathleen. Motion to approve the percentage. Do we have a second? >> Okay. Uh Jen, thank you. Uh all in favor. >> Okay, perfect. That's 6. What? Um and we are now going to move on to the public hearing portion of our meeting. And I would just like to uh just say welcome back to everybody. Hope the start of school uh has gone well for everyone and their students. Um, speaking of students, the first individuals up are our GHS student government leaders. Come on up,

002guys. All right. Uh, good evening, distinguished members of the board of education and Dr. Jones. My name is Colin Reynolds, and I am very excited to serve as student body vice president for the 2025 to 26 school year. This school year, I want to take a different approach and I want this year to be powerful and filled with various events. As someone who wasn't too involved in student government in the past, I hope to bring a new perspective and challenge our thinking. For instance, the homecoming committee is some is discussing changing up homecoming and the dance. I support this decision because we should ask ourselves not whether our whether our traditions are meaningful, not whether they're just familiar. Moreover, every student deserves to feel connected, welcomed, and heard. The most important ideas come from small

003interactions at the bus stop, passing time, etc. I will seek to inform myself on the different outlooks of varying students through our school, and I'll encourage the rest of student government to do so as well. After all, in the words of Steve Jobs, great things are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people. Earlier today, Gabe and I had our first student government mass meeting where we introduced our new subcommittees, atmosphere and amenities, relations, culinary, community service, school spirit, and the advisor base and carnal kickoff committee. We've changed the names of all of last year's committees to feel more open and allow subcommittee chairs more freedom to pursue initiatives they felt were beneficial to the school. The environment and student center committee was expanded into the atmospheres and amenities committee to

004include all facilities of the school including bathrooms, the gymnasium, pack, etc. We will also have only one chair for each subcommittee to reduce delay and increase productivity. Furthermore, each class has had a successful start to the school year. The senior class has have many events planned for the whole year. They've had two successful concession stands for football games, a great senior sunrise with exceptional turnout, and discussions of having the Harlem Wizards come for a basketball game. The junior class have begun work on several long-term projects, including a possible battle of the bands and a junior class cookbook. And they've discussed having a pie fundraiser and pumpkin carving contest upcoming. The sophomore class has planned bake sales and is working ambitiously in organizing a schoolwide house games competition. We're off to a great start this year

005and will soon have the subcommittees and freshmen elected. Thank you for your time. I'm excited to work with you this year to make this year most meaningful and impactful for our students. >> Um okay. Uh good afternoon members of the BOE, uh Dr. Jones and community members. My name is Gabriel Lesa and I have the honor of serving as the student body president at Greenwich High School for the 2025 to 2026 school year. Uh thank you for allowing me and Colin to speak. Uh the real positive changes that come as a result of meetings like this serve to benefit all students with real student perspectives included. And so I'm very excited to work alongside you this year to do just that. I came to student government with the aim to better our school. I made

006this promise to my peers and so now action must follow. Student government this year will aim for efficiency and have our hallmark goal of this year being getting things done. This year we will identify problems, set timelines and achieve success. This approach begins with listening. Student government has been very receptive to the voices of the student body. We follow in the footsteps of Rocky and Mahir who fostered this and plan to continue their work that have that has allowed students to be better represented across the board whether it be the administration or the BOE. This year is about listening action and effectiveness. This extends to the core of student government where our interpersonal relationships determine much of what we can do. We are grateful for the friendships within our executive committee through fun traditions like

007our postmeating ice cream shop trips. We build personal connections as well and efficiency. As such, I'm happy to share some initial feedback from XCOM on policy number 6141.11. As honors classes are weighted greater due to their heightened workload, it makes sense to continue this to the AP as their course workload is greater. As per the homework guides set forth by GHS, AP courses have an expectation of 33% greater homework workloads per day compared to honors. alongside the classes themselves being more rigorous. This goes unrepresented when it comes to calculating GPA. This policy would honor the work given uh but also incentivize higher AP participation rates. However, in consideration of this, it is hard not to acknowledge the already competitive and stressful atmosphere at the high school. So, while weighing the classes may be more generally

008positive, uh we are hopeful that the board and GHS administration can help mitigate the adverse effects. With this in mind, we hope that voting on this issue uh at tonight's meeting can be postponed until it is investigated further. Uh I do I would like to thank Dr. Jones for bringing this idea to the table. Uh as personally I am very in favor of it. Uh my team and I plan to work hard so that our results are measurable and substantive substantive. On behalf of GHS uh of the GHS student body, thank you for your time and I look forward to any and all future collaboration. Thank you. Thanks guys. Always good to see you and uh we look forward to great things working with you guys this year. Um next up is GA and uh

009we welcome our new GA president. Thank you so much. Good evening members of the board of education, Dr. Jones and members of the community. And yes, I'm Margaret Jkins and I am very proud to be the new president of the Greenwich Education Association. It's now about four and a half weeks since teachers returned to school. Classrooms have been decorated, children have been welcomed, class norms have been established, and we've hit the ground running with our eyes on a fabulous school year. Dr. Jones, we appreciate the consideration you have shown hearing our concerns about proposed changes to the 202627 school calendar. We also appreciate you surveying elementary school teachers regarding the potential shift in conferences. We hope our members provided some valuable input. In spite of a positive beginning, I need to let you know that

010many of our teachers, not to mention GPS families, continue to struggle with the work life balance challenges that have resulted from the changes in this year's school start times. Different start times mean different end times, which can make getting to other district and life obligations difficult. Our teachers have heard parents grumble about the difficulty of getting to work on time because their child's school now has a later start time. As we look forward to next year, we encourage you to strive early on for a more consistent start times across the district. But speaking of a work life balance, I ask you to consider when did work life balance become work work balance. Balancing the work we do at school with the school work we do at home. These days teachers are not just expected to

011teach. We are expected to be curricular experts, tech support, cultural liaison, emotional first responders, and much more. But first and foremost, we are human beings, and there are only 24 hours in a day. Nevertheless, the expectations keep increasing. Prep periods are sacrificed to fill in for substitute teachers who can't be found. Students don't get all the attention they need because class sizes increase or there are not enough paraprofessionals to go around for those students in need. Teacher burnout is on the rise and it should come as no surprise that there is a national teacher shortage as a result. You may be tired of hearing that morale is a problem, but it is. It's a big one. Teachers want to love their jobs. You can help by prioritizing teacher voice and involvement. Include teachers in decision-making,

012especially when it comes to policies that concern their workload, curriculum, and classrooms. Honor their input. Don't just pay them lip service. When a board of education truly values and uplifts its teachers, it lays the foundation for thriving schools, inspired students, and a stronger future for the entire community. I look forward to working with all of you. >> Thank you. And much like our new student government leaders, uh we welcome you and look forward to having the opportunity to work with you uh going forward support of our educators and beyond. Uh, next up, it's it's a year of all sorts of new individuals. We'd like to welcome President of PTA Council, Miss Lisa Sylvester. >> Hello everybody. Good evening, Dr. Jones, Chair Hirs, and Board of Education members. My name is Lisa Sylvester, and I'm the

013PTA Council President this year. All four of my children attended Greenwich Public Schools, as did my parents and grandparents. My grandmother worked at Eastern Middle School as a teachers aid and eventual secretary back in the 60s,7s and 80s, as did one of my aunts who worked at Eastern in the school cafeteria. The pride I have for the Greenwich public schools in this town is immense. I'm now in my 25th year of volunteering in the schools, and I am truly, truly honored to be in this role, even if I have very big shoes to fill. The PTA Council is a nonpartisan, non-political, nonprofit organization, and our mission is to advocate, coordinate, and communicate with all 15 schools in our district for all students and teachers. I am blessed to have the most amazing and dedicated PTA

014council board, PTA presidents at all 15 schools, committee chairs, and countless other volunteers. They all have the needs of the entire district at the forefront of their minds. We have all actively listened to the parents and teachers in the last few weeks and we are here to advocate for everyone. Some topics that we have discussed and are important tonight. The first on the list was the 2026 proposed school calendar, but I will completely bypass that and just say thank you so much. The busing issues. We would like to continue to see progress on the timeliness and consistency of the buses. Busing is now, I think, arguably more of an issue for Greenwich families than the start time change. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I I think there should be an answer somewhere.

015I'm not sure. Maybe it's more buses to relieve some of the stress on the busing system. Whatever that is, I'm hopeful that we can get that resolved as soon as possible. We are all aware that the bus parking is an ongoing issue. It is particularly disruptive and an intrusive issue at Western Middle School where it's impacting traffic, parking, and the students lunch routines. We do appreciate the email you, Dr. Jones had sent earlier today to the Western school community to reassure them that the Greenwich Public Schools is working on it to find a solution. But reassurances are not enough and we're asking that the district please find a fix even sooner than as soon as possible. I stopped by there today at 5:30 and counted 64 buses. The upcoming budget process. We hope to be

016in the know on all things budget and stay ahead of what is to come. We plan to be involved from the very beginning as partners, advocates, and to help educate and spread the word to the community. We want to be proactive, not reactive with our health and response. And we hope that the district and board of ed will continue to demand that the Greenwich Public Schools have the budget they need. I will finish on one exciting and fabulous thing that the PTA council is doing this year, and that is we are going to have a rebrand. We're launching a logo contest to give our organization a fresh new look that reflects both our proud history and vibrant future. It will be open to all Greenwich Public School children and their families. And we want a

017new logo that unites all 15 schools under one vision. It will be amazing to see what the students come up with. I thank you for your time. I look forward to working with all of you this year. And now I would like to bring up John Fischer for a moment. Oh, please tell me there's an elephant in there. >> There is an elephant in there. >> So, as um as people know um well, you probably thought you were rid of me, but um I'm back. As Lisa said, I'm John Fischer. in the past PTA PTAC president uh and one of the current GHS co-presidents. I'm the father of two of the 2560 brilliant potentially se sleepdeprived students at Greenwich High School. I'm here to talk about not the elephant, not an 800B gorilla, but the

0181,000B gorilla. the Greenwich PTA Council and the 15 independent PTAs that power our schools better than espresso shots at a 7:45 start time. On the agenda tonight is the PTA Council's 202425 annual report. It's more than just a 100page document. It's a tribute to every parent who's ever volunteered or donated. It's a cornucopia of information about the endless contributions made by more than 3,600 PTA families. In the annual report, you'll see that the PTAs truly are the 1,000 pound gorilla in town. Over 1,000 activities and events for students, families, and teachers. Thousands and thousands of talented volunteer hours to make it all happen. and over $1,255,000, that's over one and a quarter million in financial support. We hope everyone will enjoy reading the PATAC annual report. It's informative, it's inspiring, and perhaps surprisingly interesting. Thanks

019for allowing me to speak, and thank you for your service to our town. >> Thank you, Lisa and John. Um, I know we're going to be moving on to community comments, but before we do, I was going to say I will suggest that people, even though it's not on the agenda to discuss tonight, there's two um, year-end reports, one from PTAC and one from um, the alliance, and I highly recommend that people go take a look at those, even though we're not discussing them this evening. Um, we rely so much on our partner organizations and parents in this community who, as John pointed out, donate thousands and thousands and thousands of hours, which are priceless, uh, to give back to our students along with funds and and other things. We couldn't do it without any

020of you and without the alliance. So, please take a look at all the incredible things that these uh, organizations do to help support our students and our community. Um, and with that, I'd like to move on to community comments, and I will hand it over to our secretary. The first name we have this evening is Oh, they're coming up together. Oh, okay. Uh, are Sadi Raman and Zara Dada. You will have three minutes each. Good evening, Dr. Jones, Chair Hirs, and members of the BOE. My name is Sadi Raman, >> and my name is Zara Dada. >> We are sophomores at Greenwich High School, and we are here to speak on behalf of our fellow classmates. >> With the festival season coming up for many religions, families have to find a way to balance school,

021homework, extracurricular activities, and cultural practices. While we have been provided with days off for Jewish and Christian holidays, many members of Greenwich remain unrecognized. >> Simply acknowledging the holiday and the morning announcements is not enough for families to feel represented in our community. >> For these reasons, we believe it is necessary to have a day off on the religious holidays of Dvali and Eid and any other major holidays that are not recognized. Greenwich is an extremely diverse community. Despite what many people think, the people living in Greenwich are not just Catholic. Even within Greenwich High School, you will find hundred hundreds of students with different ethnicities and different cultures and traditions. As a Hindu myself, the festival season tends to be extremely difficult. Many of our major holidays happen between August and November and many

022students, including me, struggle to balance the holiday with extracurriculars and homework. Diwali is a holiday occurring in October and is a major part of Hindu culture. It represents new beginnings and the triumph of justice and liberation. Last year during Dvali, I was unable to participate in most of the celebrations because of the amount of time it took for me to finish my sports practice and my homework. Even my brother, a student at Eastern Middle School, struggled to complete his homework on time to celebrate the holiday while balancing his after school activities. In Greenwich, hundreds of people, not just Hindus, struggled to balance cultural practices with homework in school. The valley is not only celebrated by Hindus, but by Sikhs and Janss. The holiday was recognized statewide as of June 10th, 2025 in Connecticut. Yet in

023Greenwich, it's still not acknowledged as a school holiday. Neighboring districts like Stamford have honored the volley as such since the 2022 to 2023 school calendar, but our district has not yet taken that step. Another issue is the lack of representation. Naratri is a 9-day annual Hindu festival observed in honor of the goddess Durga, the supreme goddess. It spans over nine nights and is a joyous expression of spiritual devotion celebrating good over evil. It is observed as a transitional point between seasons. Navaratri occurs at the same time as Rashashana but remains unrecognized in the Gish community. Even without being super religious myself, I understand the importance of these holidays. My family is diverse with half being Christian and the other half being Muslim. My dad is Muslim and we know several other families who f whose

024festivals are an important aspect of their lives. Specifically, Eid, one of the biggest Muslim holidays, has been overlooked by the Greenwich community. It represents the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan. It is necessary to represent those with different religious beliefs from the majority of Greenwich. As a Christian, I get a day off for all the holidays that I celebrate. I assume this is true for many of the people in Greenwich, but we do not make up the entire population. Other holidays are being overlooked because people have decided this issue does not impact them. Greenwich cannot pride itself on its diversity if our schools refuse to recognize and appreciate the religious the religions outside of Christianity and Judaism. Um, if granting us a day off is too much of a hassle, which it shouldn't be,

025the district should at least prevent teachers from giving homework, including optional work, in order for students to participate in their cultural celebrations. Um, most schools around the country have these religious holidays off. It's more common for schools in New York to recognize Dvali as a school holiday because of a law signed in November 2023. I personally know many students living in New York City and schools like the High School of American Studies at Layman College are not in session on this day. In fact, they even got both days off for Rashana and this is the case for most other schools. Although New York is more diverse than Greenwich, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't also have these days off to allow families to celebrate together. The main concern seems to be that it could extend

026the school year. Rescheduling your family vacation a week later is a small price to pay for these students to feel seen and relaxed during these important holidays. Additionally, adding these days doesn't make a significant difference in the long run. For example, at my friend's school in New York, um classes started a week later than ours, but their school year ended only 2 days after than ours, and students were given time off for these holidays. As residents of Greenwich and students at the public high school, we believe it is necessary to represent those who currently remain unrepresented. Acknowledging these holidays is a small step toward making the community feel more unified and connected. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Ambika Ja. >> I don't know if >> Hi, good evening members of the

027board. Just checking. Can everyone hear me? >> Yes. >> Thank you. My name is Ambika Ja and I'm a senior at Grunch High School as well as the president of the South Asian Heritage Club. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here on behalf of many students from the South Asian and Asian communities at GHS to request greater visibility in recognition of our cultural and religious holidays in the school calendar as well as offering a possible day off. As the girls before me suggested, it is incredibly important to us in our livelihood that our holidays are respected and accepted within our communities that we truly cherish. And currently we don't have much of that in our schools. These uh cultural traditions aren't taught in our, you know, district as a whole.

028We have festivals and events for these types of events, but there isn't much appreciation outside of the Asian commu community to celebrate this. I propose that Diwali, Holi, and Lunar New Year be clearly marked on our official school calendar to show this appreciation for our South Asian and East Asian community. This small gesture would build awareness, foster inclusion, and help teachers and students plan around these important occasions, making students feel more seen, and make it easier for us to fully participate in both our education and our traditions. I hope the board will consider this action to help every student feel that their culture matters in Greenwich. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Vana Kapor. Is she is she online? >> No. >> Maybe if she comes back we can >> Okay. No. So,

029next speaker. If she comes back, we'll we'll add her. >> Okay. Uh Manish Singh is our next uh >> speaker. You'll have three. >> Yeah, that's more than enough for me. Good evening distinguished members of the board of education and respected audience. I'm here to speak regarding Diwali um the festival Hindu festival as it's known. I'll start with one line from Sanskrit sloka. It goes asya. What it means is Lord take me from untruth to truth and from darkness to light. So here darkness refers to ignorance and light refers to wisdom and knowledge and Diwali is a festival of light. When we go and light a diya or a candle or a lamp, we are not only illuminating a physical space, but we are also illuminating or enlightening our soul. We are recognizing that we

030are moving from ignorance to knowledge to wisdom. And what's the best way of attaining knowledge and wisdom? There's no better way than education. So I request that there should be a one day in a school calendar where the kids celebrate education, they celebrate knowledge. We can do that by lighting a diya. We can ask students to go back and reflect, introspect that how education is helping them alleviate ignorance and attain wisdom. Right now it's primarily celebrated by Hindus and in India but the significance of this festival transcends geography, race and religion. It should be as universal as yoga which started in India by Hindu sages thousands of years back but everyone is getting benefited by adopting yoga. So I request that there should be one day in the school calendar where we celebrate education, we

031celebrate knowledge, we celebrate wisdom. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Uh our next speaker is Amu. Good evening, Dr. Jones, Chair Hirs, and members of the board. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and listening to my daughter and her friend, Savvi. Uh, I am here not to debate vacation changes, but to address something far more important, the inclusivity of our school calendar. As you heard, on June 10th of this this year, Governor Lamont signed a law officially recognizing Dvali. It goes into effect on October 1st and several Connecticut districts including West Hartford, Avon and South Windsor have already committed to closing schools in observance. Greenwich now has a chance to be a leader in Fairfield County by following suit. And if we are to recognize Dvali, then Eid and Lunar New

032Year should also be considered at a minimum. This is not just about days off. It's about respect and fairness. For too long, students from minority faiths have had to ask for special permission to miss school to celebrate with their families. That request, however small it seems, sends a powerful message. Your traditions are not part of the community norm. Worse, we've already seen how that othering leads to dismissive or disparaging comments in classrooms. No student should ever feel their cultural or religious identity is something to be explained, excused, or minimized. I appreciate that Greenwich is not supposed to give work on these days, but the optional work implies that they can. Let's look at our own data. Greenwich schools are changing. Districtwide, almost 10% of our students are Asian and over six% identify as multi-racial, many

033of whom observe these holidays. At Northis, the percentage is closer to 15%. At Julian Curtis and Kasco Cobb, Asian and multi-racial students make up nearly 1ifth of the school. These are not small numbers. These are our children, their classmates, and their friends. Our communities with similar demographics like West Hartford are already leading the way. New York City and Westchester schools have shown us that adding these observances does not hurt achievement, but it does strengthen trust, engagement, and unity. So the question, Grenidge, is not, can we do this? We can. The question is, will we choose to honor the students that are already here in our classrooms and the families in our community? Will we give every student the chance to celebrate their heritage openly, without stigma, and with the full support of their schools? I

034believe we can and we should. By recognizing Dvali Eid and Lunar New Year, Greenwich will not only align with state values, but also send a powerful message that every student belongs here, every culture matters here, and every tradition deserves respect. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Francis No. Uh, good evening. My name is Francis Wobb and I am speaking tonight in my role as PEK facilities committee chair. The PEK facilities committee brings together facilities representatives from each of the neighborhood school PTAs. a monitor carry on the great work previously led by Janet McMahon. Tonight, I'd like to highlight three topics. First, we voice strong support for the FY27 capital update and appreciate the $160 million in capital that the town has invested the last three fiscal years. If you set aside the

035$30 million placeholder for the GHS pool, the proposed capital spending is modest. The majority goes to the building projects at CMS, JC, and OS. We're happy to see western field lighting and ghs HVAC included. We look forward to adding NSS and Parkway Vestule security reconfiguration. We support the continued funding for maintenance line items which are critical for student safety and basic functionality. Speaking of safety and basic functionality, respectfully ask the district to consider five pressing additions to this year's budget. Number one, in light of the recent safety incident at Eastern Middle School, we ask that all security cameras at all schools be checked, that they meet modern resolution standards, and check for any visibility gaps. Number two, as mentioned um by my counterparts, the bus situation continues to be a disruptive struggle. We're all in

036favor of optimizing bus routes, but the ongoing schedule changes are resulting in buses turning around mid- route, not following routes, and arriving inconsistently. It's upsetting and confusing to students and parents. What funding is needed to restore busing to the prior level of service? Number three, at Hamilton Avenue, the pickup line and entrance are obstructive obstructed by temporary HVAC equipment and an old shed. Worse, when poor weather hits, parents are forced to stand in the field, which due to drainage issues means standing in pooling water. Hamilton Avenue families need a safe and dry place to pick up. At Central Middle School, with the fields closed, classes are using the tennis courts, which are uneven, flooded after rain, and pass their life. Moving the plan is to resurface them. Moving the resurfacing forward is needed to prevent

037injury. At Western Middle School, settling of the 1950 school has caused 3-in slopes, cracks, and gap gaps in the flooring. Hazard tape and area rugs will do nothing to cushion a serious slip and fall. Lastly, but most concerningly, we are absolutely devastated to see nearly 60 GPS buses parked at the brand new multi-million dollar Western Middle School Fields and the Wwing Blacktop. After years of advocacy, seeing the fields and recess space used as a parking lot instead of a playing field is salt on an open wound. Add to that fumes, traffic, noise, oil leaks, and 27 bus drivers using very limited staff parking. This is wholly unacceptable. We know that you're working on it, but this needs to change immediately. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share our concerns, and I look forward

038to playing this new role uh for this school year. Thank you, Francis. Our next speaker is Julie Finers from the Greenwich Alliance. Thank you. Um, I've learned some interesting new things from our speakers tonight, so it's been great. Uh, good evening, Chairwoman Hirs, Dr. Jones, members of the board of education, PTA's GA and community. My name is Julie Finnears, and this is my 16th year as the executive director of the Greenwich Alliance for Education. The Alliance is our town's only public education foundation and our programming and funding supports Greenwich Public School students, teachers, and alumni. Congratulations PTA Council and each PTA for all that you make possible every year in our schools. And it is nice for me to have John and Lisa on the Greenwich Alliance board. Tonight, you have the alliance's annual written

039report. mentioned is the adoption of a three-year strategic plan to help guide our future growth and community impact. We list a new mission statement, but actually it is not a new mission. It just better articulates the work we have been doing since 2006. Our mission statement is now to advance student success by funding innovative programs that promote educational excellence and equitable opportunities for Greenwich Public School students. Our reaching out grants fund both innovation and academic enrichment opportunities. Congratulations to the teachers and program coordinators who are championing these projects. This year we awarded 168,000 for the following Greenwich High School studentf facing AI science bowl teams and book break A-list A-list authors in all three middle schools and in the elementary schools. Hamilton Avenue teachers are participating in AVID training to bring it to the students

040in 2627 making AVID available from kindergarten to 12th grade. And at Hamilton Avenue, we are funding Kplay afterchool enrichment to help continue the academic growth demonstrated last year. We continue our investment in the theater arts programs and new lab and Julian Curtis schools. And I highly recommend I highly recommend to you watching the declamation contests in the spring to see the students shine. It is wonderful to be working with Leah Stillman, arts coordinator, and her team of music and art ed art educators. Greenwich Public School music teachers are nominating eligible students for our tuning into music program. Through these private lessons, students are becoming more confident and skillful skillful musicians in their school ensembles. Now, I am wondering if Costco school will win the turkey trot competition again this year. Registration is open for our

04115th annual 5K and onem race. And new this year is a mini trot for ages 3 to 5 years old. Thanks for signing up for the race everybody and for helping us promote our largest fundraiser. And another thing, next year the alliance will be celebrating our 20th year. We are looking for ideas and volunteers to help us mark this milestone. Let me know if you are interested. Thank you for the opportunity to speak and congratulations on another successful start of school. Our next speaker is Vincent DeMarco. Evening, Madame Chair, Dr. Jones, members of the board. Uh, I was the lone speaker for this request at your June 12th meeting, a non-aggenda item as it is again tonight. Not a very memorable testimony, I'm sure, following, especially following the dozen impassioned students pleading for the reinstatement

042of their beloved music teacher. You all remember that. Perhaps you don't need to be reminded of the request though, which is still the same, to accept the gift of a plaque permanently mounted in the courtside stone with the words David DeAndrea Community Court to honor David who was supremely instrumental in the creation of that court outdoor at at Hamilton Avenue and for securing the funds to maintain it. It's an honor that it's supported by generations of Chikah residents as a tribute to David for what he has meant to so many in this in his native community and beyond. As a coach and a mentor, a model citizen among the the St. Rock faithful and an advocate for all things Chikah. It will remain forever a link to the Hamilton Avenue that's legendary for what it

043was for the better part of the last century uh and to what it can be for the next century. I'm joined in testimony tonight by three others, all of whom have made their mark in Greenwich, to tell you why David is worthy of this honor. And if I can request that uh Scott France speak next, would that be okay? Thanks so much. >> He is on the list. Next. Is he online or here? Can't see over the I don't see him here. So, we'll see if he's online. >> I don't see Scott online. >> Scott. >> Yeah, I don't see him. >> I don't see him. No, unless he's Unless he's Scott, if you're on, can you uh raise your hand or I don't know if you're dialed in with a phone. Oh, okay. I

044see him now. Okay. Can we elevate him to speak? >> Thanks, Scott. I mean, Mike, >> can you hear me now? >> We can hear you. Thanks. >> Uh, thank you, Madam Chair, and all members of the board um for letting me chime in tonight very briefly. Um, I've already uh uh submitted some written testimony uh to you, but uh we all know that Dave Dandri has been a terrific uh basketball coach over the years. He's coached literally hundreds of kids. And not just how to be great basketball players, but to be great team players and to be great people in their lives. And I know a lot of people have signed the letter or petition to bring about this uh initiative to name the court after him or name it in his honor. Um

045and I I'm behind that 110%. He's known for having assembled some of the great uh basketball teams in this area and has a remarkable track record. Um and and while that's important, he's he's also just a wonderful guy that's done wonderful things around town. He was instrumental in building that outdoor uh basketball court at Hamilton Avenue School and he was instrumental in raising some money to maintain it. He's willing to do that going forward which I think is um terrific especially given the um uh budgetary uh constraints that we all face um today. That's very very important. Um, but most of all, you know, Dave's one of these great guys around town who um has done so much for this town, both on a voluntary basis and and also as a town employee, having to

046do with the Griff, the golf course, and and a bunch of other great assets that the town has. Um, so I I'm totally in favor of of naming this basketball court in honor of Dave Dandria for his service um and and for his devotion uh to this town. And again, I want to thank all of you for letting us uh bring this uh proposition before you and um hopefully you'll agree with all of us that it's an appropriate thing to do for Dave and for the town. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Garland and Allen. Garland Allen. >> Also on Zoom. >> Can you hear me? >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh good even good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Jones, and members of the board. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to

047express my support for naming the outdoor basketball court at Hamilton Avenue Elementary School in honor of David DeAndrea. To fully appreciate why I support naming the court after Dave, one only needs to understand the role that court played in the lives of so many. Some places shape us. They hold our beginnings. They carry lessons that stay with us throughout our lives. For those of us who grew up in Chickahony, the outdoor basketball court at Hamilton Avenue was one of those places. And no one embodies the legacy more than Dave. That court was alive with running, shouting, laughing, no trophies at stake, just the joy of being in motion, of being with friends, of figuring things out together. That kind of free play, spontaneous, self-directed, and joyful. It taught us how to navigate relationships, manage conflict,

048build resilience, and to lead for us. It was both a sanctuary and a proving ground. My own story comes full circle there. I I went from playing on that court as a youngster to teaching at Hamilton Avenue School, becoming the head basketball coach and athletic director at Greenwich High School, where I hired Dave as an assistant coach. two kids from Chikah guiding the next generation from the same roots that raised us. It may have seemed unlikely, but it made perfect sense. As I think about that journey, I can't help but notice how different childhood looks now. In a culture obsessed with early success, adults increasingly take ownership of children's lives and with it the freedom to learn on their own. That court stands as a reminder that the most important lessons kids learn often come

049from their freedom to play and grow without adults hovering over every moment. So when the court was removed during a school's expansion, Dave didn't wait for someone close, someone else to restore it. He raised the funds, led the effort himself, not for recognition, but because he knew what the court had given to so many. He wanted the future kids to have the same experience and to dream the improbable. Naming the court after Dave isn't just about honoring his memory or his legacy. It's about sending a message that pride, loyalty, leadership matter. And that true success comes from remembering where you came from and lifting others as you rise. The court is more than pavement and hopes. It is Dave's legacy and with your support it will also carry his name and continue to be a

050place where hopefully kids will dream the improbable. Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Tom McGarity. Distinguished members of the board of education, good evening. My name is Tom McGarity. I was born and raised in Greenwich, raised my family in Greenwich. My kids went to school here, uh, and I've been an RTM member and a member of the board of parks and wreck. Athletics and the lessons I learned from athletics have been a northstar for my personal and professional life. I played little league football and little league baseball here. I played basketball and football in high school and went on to play football at Colgate University. I've coached for the Greenwich Basketball Association and the Greenwich Youth Football League. Sports has always been a guiding light for me.

051In seventh grade, I tried out for my first organized basketball team, and Dave DeAndre was my first coach. He was demanding, and he pushed me and my teammates to be the best basketball team we could be. We won the league that year. What a wonderful lesson I learned that someone else could see in me what I couldn't see in myself. Since seventh grade, through college, through adulthood, and and up to now, I see Dave around town. Always the positive outlook, always the happy smile, always the Hey Tommy, which only he and a couple of people get away with calling me, always the mustache. My story is my story as it relates to Dave. But how many share a similar story as it relates to the positive impact that Dave had on their lives at an

052early age? dozens, hundreds more. Dave taught aka coached young people a sport, basketball, which like most sport most sports is a metaphor for life. Work hard, get along with others, help your teammates, strive to meet goals. Dave taught me and a lot of other young people who grew up in Greenidge those lessons. I still think of Greenidge as a small town. My definition of a small town is a place where you get to know people. To be more succinct, Greenwich for all its natural beauty is a town of people. You hope to live in a place where the people you come across help you in your journey. Dave is one of those people. He helped countless young people with their journey. We are a better town because of Dave Deandria. As fate would have it,

053as I was listening to my Transistor Radio, which my kids me about listening to a radio, twice in the last 24 hours, I heard a radio commercial for Dick Sporting Goods Stores that said, "Sports has the ability to change lives." That was my bingo moment in terms of trying to put some thoughts together. That sums up what Dave DeAndrea has done in Greenwich. I can't think of a better way to honor Dave than to name the Hamilton Avenue basketball court after him. I hope you decide to honor Dave in this way. I thank you for your time this evening and thank you for your service to Greenwich. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Grace Stantel. She is online and you're elevated. Go ahead. >> Good evening. My name is Grace Nataly. I'm co-president of

054the WMS PTA and co-chair of the PEX scholarship committee. I speak tonight on behalf of the WMS PTA board and the many families from whom we've heard on the issue of the district's bus parking daily at W. While we appreciate that this is a challenging situation and we encourage continued communication from Dr. Jones, the current solution is untenable. WS families are frustrated for a few reasons, including that many of us don't feel as though our concerns are being adequately addressed. First, let me please make the important distinction between GHS and other schools having had buses parked on their property and WMS, whereas Lisa counted 64 buses or the majority of the district's buses, including those previously parked at GSJS GHS, are now parked. Second, please realize that the WS parking issue is not just limited

055to how much space that these buses are taking up. It's a fact that over 60 school buses enter into and exit from Western Junior High daily as they begin and end their routes and in what is one of the most densely populated areas of town on relatively narrow, congested surrounding streets. This is a huge traffic and safety nightmare for WS students riding their bicycles, staff, families, and the surrounding neighborhood. It is our understanding that bus drivers are asked to park their personal cars elsewhere during the day, but not all do. Just this morning, the PTA counted 27 bus drivers who parked in the W-wing staff parking lot. With rainy and cold weather only increasing in the coming weeks and months, this trend of drivers parking their personal cars in staff lots or on neighboring streets

056may continue. Third, the one designated grass surface that Dr. Jones mentioned in her email to WMS families as being approved for bus parking at WMS is on all three sides of the grass field below the new turfs fields. This area comprises nearly the entirety of the grass area that is normally used for recess. This board has likely seen the pictures in the Greenwich Free Press article published this afternoon. As you can see, from where the buses are parked, recess is no longer able to be held safely on that grass or on the blacktop. It's having a secondary impact on our PE classes that must now share use of the turf field with these lunch recess blocks and have accordingly adjusted their use of the fields. So, what are we asking? until permanent bus parking is

057secured. We would appreciate help with solving the immediate issue of extra 10 to 15 buses that arrive at WMS when students are being dropped off and picked up. These are the buses that are unrelated to WMS and that just arrive at WS to park. Perhaps those buses could wait at the door at the Hamill Rink or elsewhere until drop off ends and students right and staff and buses leave. Finally, please know that there absolutely has been and there continues to be a large and adverse impact on the WMS community with these buses parking at WMS. We would love to see measurable progress being made. Please prioritize finding a solution to this problem. Thank you. Thank you. And our last speaker is Rajie Pua. >> There you go. I did my best to read the writing.

058>> Thank you. So I'm Rajie Pahuja. I actually am the gentleman who elevated the Wall-E to be a state of Connecticut holiday. Um and I basically um my advocacy I'm an IndianAmerican advocate and I'm also an activist. Um so I played a big role in diversity, inclusion, equity, and cultural representation. My advocacy played a significant role in public act 25-95 becoming a prominent voice for HinduAmerican inclusion in United States public policy. The proposal which led to SB1519, the law that made the Wallally a state of Connecticut holiday, a recognition holiday was written by me and the Bali bill was passed unanimously in the Connecticut legislator legislature known as the act designating various days, weeks and months. So it was actually passed 147 to nothing by the house, the senate 36 to nothing, by the ga

059committee, the general assembly election committee that was run by Matt Blumenthal, Senator Blumenthal was 19 to nothing. So we were able to do this very successfully in me doing this. So the law that designates the 15th day of Kartik in the Hindu lunar calendar is the observance of the Diwali and um I'm calling for appropriate religious accommodations in the school system. And so I think making Dewali a school holiday in Greenwich and as everyone said tonight, you know, I heard all the comments tonight, it actually will ensure that future generations of Indian-Americans will be seen and valued in Connecticut. So putting it on the school calendar, I think would be great for the students. I mean to having the day off. Um actually I'm the one who actually did the Tom proclamation with Fred Camilo,

060the first selectman. actually worked on it last year together. So he wrote the Dewali proclamation and as we've seen I've seen the growth here in the town of Greenwich. We have now 15 Indian-American residents living here in Greenwich and I think based on this state holiday I think we're going to see even more growth. I know the the New York State Assembly woman who actually passed in New York City. I know I know her personally and I actually, you know, talked to her and I have the flyer right here in my hand learning about Diwali and the New York City Department of Education is right in my hand right here. So, so I'm respectfully requesting if this in the Gren students in the GR public school system get this day off. Thank you. Um, so

061we are closing in on one hour of well no not really of public comment because we had the other speak. Um, so it came to my attention there's somebody here who signed up to speak but they are not on our list. Can you raise your hand? Oh okay. Um, well you've got three minutes. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair, respected members of the board of education and Dr. Jones. My name is Roi Agarwal and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today. I come before you not just as an individual but also a parent in the Greenwich public school system for the past 10 years and a representative of a growing community of students, families and educators who celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights. Diwali is one of the most significant festivals in Hinduism,

062Janism and Sikhism. It symbolizes the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance and good over evil. It is a time of family reflection, spiritual renewal and cultural celebration. Similar in many ways to Eid, Christmas and other holidays. Unfortunately, Diwali often falls in a school day. This puts students and families in the position of having to choose between their education and their religious and cultural traditions. That's not a choice any child or family should have to make. By recognizing Diwali as a school holiday, a day off, the board would be taking a meaningful step towards inclusion, equity, and respect for the diversity that strengthens our school district. Our community includes a significant population of South Asians and other families who observe Diwali and their voices, traditions, and celebrations deserve to be acknowledged. Not only that,

063it serves as an opportunity to educate our students and celebrate our differences. This is not just about a day off. It's about visibility. It's about belonging. It's about sending a clear message that our schools truly welcome all students. Not just in words, but in action. I urge you to take this most important step. Make Diwali a recognized public school holiday. Let our children see that their heritage is honored and celebrated in the place where they learn and grow. Thank you for your time and your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our schools. Thank you. I think that is our last uh individual who had signed up to speak. Uh so we will be moving on to our monthly reports. Um and we will start with our superintendent. Thank you. It's nice to be back

064for our first business meeting of the year. Feels like it's been a while since we've been at Central. Um we've had a great start to the year out in our schools. Just lots of energy. Um wonderful parent nights have taken place all across the district. Um just a couple of um things I want to mention. We do have homecoming on October the 11th uh which is a a big event obviously at GHS and for the town in general. Um we also have because we did have the safety um situation um for over by Eastern um we are doing a forum. the three PTAs with Old Greenwich, Riverside, and Eastern have had a lot of questions and so instead of doing like three separate meetings, uh the PTAs really worked together and have asked for kind

065of one meeting that'll be happening in early October um so that we can just answer a lot of questions and just remind people about all of the safety um all of the safety support that we have and what a great relationship we have with the Greenwich Police Department. Um, I also, uh, will mention the calendar for those people online because we were handing out the newest draft. It got posted very late, um, today because we were gathering feedback. Um, so if anyone online hasn't seen that, if you go on to board docs, it is posted there. Um, and last but not least, I mean, I have to mention the buses. I don't even like saying that word anymore because it has been definitely a very, very challenging year. And um can't disagree with anything that

066our Western PTA president just said. Um including that the drivers are not supposed to be parking there. And somebody did share with us today that there were about 26 of them that parked in the lot first thing in the morning. Uh they did get them moved later on, but that's not acceptable to us either. I will say from a route standpoint, the vast majority of buses are running uh the way they're supposed to now. We still have a handful that we're working on. Either it's a timing issue uh because of the tiered system and it's totally new routes. Um some of them it could be a driver issue where they're driving a new route and they keep missing stops. Um again, all of the routes because of the start time and the tearing had to

067be redone. And some of these drivers have driven with us for years and they've driven the same route. And so it's been a big challenge um for a lot of our drivers, but we continue to work on it and I know it's getting better by the volume of email. Um and we also have an online form and we're getting about five submissions compared to a hundred or you know the first couple days it was a lot. So definitely it's getting better. And as far as when we will be able to move to a lot um we all wish it was yesterday. Uh, we have a real estate professional um, helping us locate a lot. We have some that they're looking at right now. I'm hoping it happens sooner than later, but I cannot give you

068a definitive time. Um, well, I had two questions. One is I was aware or made aware I believe that there are some other lots in town like town-owned lots that might have space if we are able to divide up those 60 buses um, to place them there around town in the short term at the very least. only in the fact that, you know, again, it is exceptionally disruptive to the students at school. Um especially if they can't use the outside um they finally got their field back only to lose their space for recess. Um amongst other things, sort of a big issue there. Yeah. And Mr. Brandon, I know you're on too. Um generally when people are making a recommendation to look at a lot in town, um that one's already been checked off the

069box um because they have been so thorough. Um, you know, it it is it's hard to find space for the number of the buses and just especially the larger size buses. Um, but you know, Ben could give you a better list than I could just at all the different Somebody was asking about Holly Hill yesterday. Yes, we looked at Holly Hill. Um, you know, we've just we've looked at everything. Um, so we're going to continue to work on it. Again, there are some leads for some lots uh with the real estate uh individual that's, you know, helping us, but again, until it actually eventuates, I don't want to say that. And then my followup on that is a second. I know we've also gotten some emails in regards to overcrowding on some of the buses.

070Um, and I want to make sure that we are paying very close attention to that. Our students safety and ability to access their education, getting to school on time, and you know, getting home safely as well, um, is exceptionally important. So, should we need any extra buses um in order to ensure that, let us know. Certainly, we'll go and ask for an interim if need be. >> Yeah, we always have trouble with overcrowding the first couple weeks of school. That's not unusual. And we do right now we have, I would say, three that we're really watching. One of them has 47 students registered, but there are more students than that that are getting on the bus, which also tells us the first couple of weeks, you know, because routes were be or stops would be

071missed and things of that nature. It's like if students standing there, you got to let them on the bus. I mean, we're not going to drive past and leave them there because they're not on a list. Um, but that we're working on right now and trying to figure out which buses do have overcrowding legitimately. And if we need to add a bus, we will. I believe we're up to four buses. We've already added back in where we needed to split route uh splitter route and sometimes it's not the number of students when we need a bus. It's when you go up to back country and then like trying to get down to Western, you just can't pick up that many students because the houses are so far apart. Um so we've had to add a

072bus um like at Western, you know, for a reason like that. And I know different different students from kindergarten all the way up to fifth grade for instance take up different amounts of space on that in their seats. Um I saw I think was Mike your hand was up. >> There was a comment was made tonight. Could you just clarify? Um we're not parking there's no buses being parked on the new Western Middle School Field. >> I'm so glad you said that because I did write that down. No, we are not parking on the brand new beautiful turf fields. And have we looked into in your search for permanent parking? Is there any consideration of u multiple lots instead of one big one? We're doing that too. >> We're looking for everything that we can

073find. Yeah. >> Laura, >> one suggestion was the stop and shop parking lot in Stamford. That did not generate in my head. That came from a conversation with somebody else who wanted to make the suggestion. Yeah, that one was actually we were very hopeful um in the summer about that one and they said no and we actually went back to them again. We've gone to the Tesla lot. That's why I say if you send me a name more than likely we've we've talked to them um and they just you know if especially if they think they might be able to develop the building they don't want to commit um you know for the year. Uh Kathleen, >> um it's more of a comment. I think that like we need to remember, you know, that we're

074talking about the different star times. I need to remember that we were forced into this situation and that shouldn't be forgotten. It's kind of, you know, we we always sort of get the receiving end of the um of the anger, but let's remember that these were not exactly the ideal start times for any of the schools. And so we ultimately chose these different start times because it was the only way we could optimize frankly the utilization of the buses which leads to less money. Um as for and I'm sorry I'm just going to repeat what everyone's been saying Tony but um you know there are a lot of town owned properties. I mean town hall I know you've mentioned the dump the skating rink. Um, I feel like those are a lot of I mean

075the dump is I mean I don't know who's there during the day, right? It's more active on the weekends. Um, and then the skating rink is obviously not um, in use yet. So, I would think that there's parts of town hall seems to have a lot of empty space. I'm just wondering, you know, has the town could the town help us out here since we're kind of in this situation again because of the budget cuts. So, we are certainly trying to look at anything that's town owned as well. Um, right now, I will say the town did help with at least the um old Greenwich uh train station area. We have some buses there. Um, we we actually we're just working with them on getting the driver's cars moved out of the skating rink area

076and and getting another portion of a lot where they'll drive and then hop on a shuttle to get to Western. So, I mean, we're trying to make adjustments right now, as many as we can. I actually sent Mr. Brandon a big long list last night. Can we not put two here, three there, four there? Like, I we are all working on it every single day. We could use parents driveways. >> And I and I have to say too, I mean, >> they generally charge for that. >> I I feel like get a break on your taxes or something. I don't know. I don't know. it just somebody have acorage or you know we'll put gravel down but I you know it's it has been a real challenge and I also want to acknowledge not that

077um you know busing is for public and private school and this has been a challenge not only for the public schools it's also been a challenge for the private schools um so I just acknowledge that you know having to go in this direction this year it has impacted the all the children in town >> okay any any more questions No. Okay. Then I would suggest we move on to the reports of officers, committees, and liaison. Is it Kathleen? Did you No. Did you have something you wanted to ask? No. Okay. Does anybody has anybody uh report? >> Um I Sophie, just because I don't have it, I think it would be helpful to make a motion at this time to amend the agenda. And in order to do that, we'll need twothirds vote. it. So

078if you if you can make the motion I would like to make a motion um to add as a discussion item and also as an action item um the tentative agreement with the GA um for the teacher contract for the years 2000 um July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029. >> I'm happy to second that. We do need to have a two-thirds vote to amend the agenda. >> Um can you just read back I I have motion to add as a discussion and action item the tenative agreement with the GA blank from from July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2029. I mean, I can I'm adding it as I have a motion to make after we discuss it. I guess I can read the full motion. >> Yeah. No, I just wanted to make sure

079I had the correct motion before we voted on it. >> Okay. >> Because as a discussion item, we can't discuss a >> Okay. I'm going to read I'll read the full I'll read the full motion for the action item. Um the Greenwich Board of Education hereby moves as follows. To one to approve and it's >> No, no, no, no, no, no. You No, no. We're not motion. We're not adding anything right now. You want to add a dis as a a discussion and potential action item, right? The tenative agreement with the GA, but it's for a discussion would have to be, you know, you'd have to ask to add an executive session because we can't discuss a pending contract. That's why I'm >> would want to move into executive session. Yes. >> Okay. So, motion

080discussion in an executive session and a potential action item for the ten of an agreement with GA. But I I still after the GA I was that was what I was asking. I missed what you said. I have the dates but then >> okay sorry >> that's all. >> Um to discuss the labor contract for the period of July 1st 2026 to June 30th 2029. >> I know Kathleen was revised second. Okay. Um, and again, just to note for all those listening, because this is a a tenative agreement and a potential labor contract, uh, this is something we would not be able to discuss here. It would have to be in an executive session. So, you would potentially be making a motion a if this passes to to move into an executive session. >> Well,

081once we said that apart, >> you know, I said potentially. Okay. So, I'm going to call a vote to add this uh to our agenda this evening. All in favor? I think that's over twothirds. That's a six all. Okay. Um, so I'm not sure I I think you know if you want to add this before of the discussion items or before we get to action items. Um, just because I know people are here waiting to discuss discussion items. >> I thought we should do it at the end of the discussion items. >> Right before action items. Okay. So then I'd like to make then I'll make a motion to add um an executive session or you know to discuss uh the tenative agreement with the GA to discuss the labor contract uh from July 1st

0822026 to June 2029 uh prior to uh action items on the agenda. >> Is there a second? >> Sure. >> Okay, Kathleen, all in favor? 6L. Okay, perfect. So, we'll move on to discussion items and then for um all you listening here and at home, uh prior to getting to our action items, we will move into an executive session. Uh the board will and then we'll come back to discuss action items. Okay. So that was kind of my report of my committee was that we have um the negotiations committee worked all summer um and as did the teachers union and um today we actually reached a tentative agreement and um I think it's important and it's timely that we were able to add this to our agenda this evening. So that was my that's my

083committee report. >> Perfect. Thank you. Uh, are there any other um committees, liaison or officers with reports? I know we just started the year, so there's not many. >> Nope. All right. No. Okay. >> Sorry. I have um Well, I went to XCOM. >> Oh, and then I was going to say pool update. >> Okay. Yeah. No, so I was going to say I went to XCOM this week um or last week actually and it was great to have the new student government leaders there. We had a really good discussion about the new um Cardinal Kickstart and was good to hear that even though students are a little bit grumpy about having to get up earlier um I think it was twothirds of the clubs are now meeting before school and onethird of the clubs

084are meeting after school. So they're really taking advantage of the extra time that they have to meet with clubs. There's a lot of meeting with teachers is happening. One of the really positive things that came out of it is that it sounds like everyone is getting to their first period class either early or on time. So, um, that kids are much more settled in the beginning of the day. So, that was some really positive feedback from the students. They're also getting used to having the phones in the pockets like having that fully instituted at the high school level in every classroom. There was some just suggestions about how to improve it, but overall they liked it and both the students and the teachers were saying that they felt like the classroom discussions were more robust

085um and that people were concentrating better in class. So, I thought that that was really encouraging um and I've been a big proponent of it. So, I was especially pleased about that. Um but it was it was a really good start to the year and I think there's a big focus that we heard tonight about school spirit and um they're doing great job. So I was thank you Karen for giving me the opportunity to go. Um and then also the swimming pool committee continues to meet. We're having another meeting next week. Um like anything that's happening on the high school campus, it's complicated because it's always a puzzle um to figure out how we're going to um squeeze something new in. um but or re you know completely rehab something old but we're working on

086it um very diligently and I think we'll have an report coming soon. >> Thank you for both of those reports. Anyone? Anyone? No. >> Kathleen, >> sorry I don't have another report but just because this is why you talk about things in public. Someone just texted me Todd's point. It's brilliant. Like for buses? No. Talk about narrow narrow and very dangerous. There's a trying to just get them into that little narrow space. I I >> I thought it was a great idea. >> It is. >> Much space, right? October narrow entry point, but it's a private it's a private association there, so I don't think that they're going to want to do >> I like Eastern Greenwich Civic Center. That's a huge empty parking lot. >> Okay, we should make this a game. Okay. I

087think this is a this is a good game we can play after the meeting tonight because we have people waiting to speak. So, but I think it's a good more suggestions. Bring them on. Um, with that we can move on to the discussion items. Um, first up is Mr. Brandy and Mr. Watson with our capital update first read. Gentlemen, >> good evening. The document before you, you saw the 15-year plan back uh in September 4th. Uh we made a couple adjustments in the 15-year plan, but you also have the individual project sheets now included. Gives you greater detail on the overall uh projects. Not much has changed. There's a little dollar amounts here and there. Uh we still have the placeholder for the the pool as Sophie gave you the update that uh that continues

088to be uh um investigated. We we still hold at 30. Uh we made some adjustments. if you saw something disappear, we really were taking a a hard look at our open capital and then if we had significant open capital, we thought it would be prudent to to hold off for a year. Uh but uh other than that, nothing else has significantly changed uh from the first time you saw this. And on your agenda planned, you have it scheduled two more times uh at the retreat on October 9th and it's scheduled for vote on October 23rd. But Dan and I are happy to answer any questions you may have on the document. >> Laura, Mike, >> was there a change in the amount of money being requested for JC? >> Yeah, thank you. I should have

089I should have highlighted that we spoke at the last meeting that we were going to just have the year one which was going to be or the year three or phase three was just going to be the uh mill work. Uh we moved up the ADA work that was scheduled in a couple years out in the plan. So years three and four I think it was slated. Working with the building committee. Uh they thought it was be prudent that we put put that work while the committee still working. It makes sense to get all that work done now rather than get the work done for the mill work and then go back into the building uh two years later. So it hasn't it moved the uh scheduling but not the amount of the dollars for

090JC. >> Okay. Thank you. Mike. >> Yeah, Ben, thanks. I I I appreciate all the work here. I think it's so um helpful and I don't think um the community as a whole uh realize how much we have we have changed this over the years so that you have these um standard lines over time that that get funded by like roofing and plumbing and all these other things where you know for years the the knock on the district was that we deferred maintenance and now we have these lines that are funded sustained every year to to support the ongoing improvement of of the plant and and I think that's huge. Um, all that said, talk to talk to me about the life security systems. Um, um, what's the thinking there? And is there a reason

091why um, much like JC, we wouldn't want to fund that all at once considering um, what sounds like the the importance of that. >> I'll have Dan jump in on on that, but before he does, we we do have some uh, a healthy amount of open capital on that. So it does take some significant planning, but the life safety is is fire alarms. It's not that they're not working. It's just that they we should be planning to replace them. So it's the schools are never in jeopardy of a system not working. It's simply u looking at best practice when when do when should it be updated and we we constantly look at can it go another year or where does it belong in the plan? But we think where it's placed it's it's prudent. Uh

092but I know the name can be scary. uh because of the name, but uh we we still think it's appropriate where it's placed simply because we have open capital as well and it's not simple. It's just plug and play. It requires some design work. >> Yeah. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. I guess between now and next time I is because just on paper you see that it's um right, we're going to spend you know 50,000 uh you know 200,000 next year then 50,000 then 1.8. I think that um leads to questions is if we think in two years we need to put all these fire alarms into place. Um do we waiting two years prudent or if we you know they um I just think we we it sounds like that might be something

093that if it's if it if it makes sense I think we need to flesh out on paper as to why it makes sense because on paper it seems like 1.8 8 million that we have to do to firearms in two years sounds odd to me if that we're going to waste wait two years if we think they're going to be dead in two years. You know what I mean? They uh >> I know what you mean. Dan, do you want to add some additional color to that on the particularly Parkway? >> Yeah, sure. The So Ben hit it right nail the nail on the head is we have some systems throughout the district that are reaching their uh they're aging out. uh they're still functioning uh well. They're functioning well. We're we're testing them uh

094as needed. Um but we're getting to the point where we realize that some of the equipment is outdated. Uh trying to source replacement parts uh is becoming more and more difficult. Um new technology uh in in the fire alarm business is is out there. And we'd also like to uh we have several different types of fire alarm systems in the district and we we'd like to hone it down to one or two. Um and and that's our game plan. Parkway um is probably the school that needs it the most. Uh the function the system is still functioning. Um but it does need a new panel and we're ready for an upgrade there. So, I'm just I'm just one voice, but this is not this is not big dollar amounts. The um if if we're looking

095at something where the system is aging out in the next couple years, I'm wondering if it makes sense if we can do more of that sooner rather than later. I think that would that sounds like a good idea. Uh, >> well, I think the way we have it laid out and and Ben, please jump in, is that the I'm going to say smaller dollar amounts or for the design. Um, you know, I think it was $50,000 or whatever it is would be for the design to review the existing system and having a professional uh come in and tell us exactly what we need. the million and a half um probably equates to I'd like to say maybe two schools, but uh it's an entire school. There's a lot of different components to a fire alarm

096system. There's and doing the installation includes uh a a new fire alarm panel, new devices throughout the school, which would include possibly removing ceilings, uh adding components to the walls, patching, painting. So, it's a it's a significant number, but the original number is for professional services, >> but we I hear you, Mike. We'll we'll go back and take a look at whether or not it makes sense, whether or not that one-year gap if if we can do it uh close that gap. I I hear the concern. >> And can I I'm going to jump in because it's the same topic. Um, I just want to make sure that we're also looking at adding that because it says, you know, and fire suppression systems because we do have still have a few schools who I believe

097is, you know, earlier this year had asked us about that and the fact that they don't have a sprinkler systems. Um, are they in line to get them as soon as possible as well with this funding >> as presented? Uh, no, I don't have the inventory in front of me, unless Dan, you have it off the top of your head where sprinklers are not installed in a school, but that is a absolute s huge project to be installing uh sprinklers throughout a school that never had that infrastructure to begin with. But we we can work on the inventory. I just don't have that in front of me. >> I'm sorry, I don't either. It would be great just before we get this back the next time even if it's not something that we can put

098into the you know discussion immediately for the you know this coming year whatever but I think it's really important that we have that listed in there and and are looking further out uh obviously it's something would need to be done over the summer but I think you know we're talking about aging systems and we have some schools with no systems so that's exceptionally important as well is Anybody else have a question? I know Mike has a few more, but I just figured anyone anyone. While they're looking, I'm going to go back to you, Mike. Right back to you. >> Can you um Ben, could you explain a little bit why um on the story behind why we need a new generator at New Lebanon? Um obviously, this is a new building. So, do do we

099know what what what happened there that um we have to we have to go back and and replace that? And I guess the second part of the question is whatever mistake was made there, are we sure we're not doing the same thing at CMS? >> There isn't one >> there there is no replacement. It's and that's why you can see the price is substantially lower than the other ones. The outyear uh and in all honesty this this is a casualty of value engineering when you do a building project. Uh first thing they'll put in the infrastructure the pad so the the the equipment can be installed. however, uh is just a as a cost containment when you're building the building itself. It's one of the first things that can go because you can add that

100on later. But the infrastructure is there. That's why you see the the 250 versus a 750 for the other ones that have no infrastructure for the conduits and the pad and the the fuel and etc. >> So, it's less a replacement than it's less a replacement than an actual installation. >> Yeah, that's we can look at the project name. We we sort of how do you come up with all of it? So we we kind of think that was an upgrade, but I I hear your point on it's replacement could be um misleading on new lab. We can make that clearer. >> Um I am um to the point of if we can move things up a year, uh I just thought on the on the playground line um it seems odd. So 2728 we

101skip a year. Um I don't know if that's on purpose. It seems like if there's one thing we should fund every year, it's a it's a new playground. So, I don't know if that's something we can and then the next following year, we go back to funding a playground at a new school, though. So, those are the kind of like the little details that that sometimes I wonder about. Why why why skip a year if we're going around to other elementary school and trying to replace a playground? But that's a couple years out. >> Uh that that entire uh sheet was worked in uh in partnership with Parks and Wreck. It's based on the age of the of the playground. So just the pure math shows you that based on the useful life of the

102playground and their inventory of all the playgrounds, no significant work is needed on in 28. Uh if you if you moved up for example parkway up a year, you just would be doing it one year earlier than other facilities that have been done. It's but it's a judgment call and you know it's hard to hard to argue over one year but I hear your point but we we worked on based on just trying to maintain the same level of replacement schedule from useful life >> right yeah I guess it where I guess >> right so it's that's a judgment call or if it's do we just fund one every year if the next year it's due um why skip a year if you've got that spot in the budget but fair enough um one more

103I I think I had one more. Oh, so what are the um at what point does something become um um worthy of a of a building committee? Um because I guess now you've got um Dundee, you're looking at the entrance way that's a couple million dollars and then a couple years later you've got a big ADA number. Um that seems like that's approaching JC money um um over the next few years at at Dundee. >> I can answer that question. If a project is getting state or federal funding, you're required to have a building committee according to an RTM ordinance that was passed before we joined the board. I see James Waters smiling in the background. >> Looks like for James to James to chair the Dundy committee at that point. >> I'm I'm sure

104I am sure that he is going to be ready, willing, and able to jump right from one to the other. He looks ready, willing, and able. Are there any other questions um on this budget, the capital update? Because we will funding. >> I think that that's not a discussion we can have right now. I think it there's certain requirements that it a project has to have in order to even trigger the possibility of asking for state funding. Um and it it's sort of, you know, I think what why are you looking at me funny? >> I mean, it's in this budget. We're going to have to we're voting on it. >> No, I understand that. But I'm saying I assume that the reason it hasn't been looked at for state funding is it may not

105have whatever may be in the project but didn't trigger that. But we can certainly ask. I would think any project we put forward we initially look to see if we can get state funding back for it. Am I correct on that one, Ben and Darren? Ben Dan, >> you know. Yeah. Absolutely. We take we take a look at that. That was the question that was raised with the the Amab geothermal before we had the design money. Was was it eligible? And uh it's it's easier. It's certainly the the bright line is if you get state funding, you need a building committee, but there's a there's significant strings attached to the building committee and the process involved at the state. It it can slow things down with the review and the like. So we try to

106balance execution of the project versus what is the re the reimbursement. And as we know we we based on the Greenwich as wealth our reimbursement is is relatively low and it takes our legislators uh to work to actually get special reimbursement on rates for us. >> Okay. Uh does anybody else have a question? I know that this is going to you know we have a lot now that we've gotten the pages we can uh take a deep dive before our next uh review of this. So uh we do have at least another crack or two at it. And I see, you know, our, you know, current favorite, uh, you know, chair of building committee standing and ready to discuss, uh, the next item, which is the Old Greenwich School Building Committee update. Uh, are we

107ready to move on for that? Perfect. Yep. Come on down, James. We can't wait to hear what's happening over at Old Greenwich. >> Hi, good evening, everybody. Um, okay. Um, so good evening to everyone. It's nice to see you uh for the fall. I hope you all had a great summer and thanks for having me here. Um so, as you know, I've served as the chairman of the old branch building committee for almost three years now. Um and the building building committee um met this morning bright and early as always. So, my second meeting of the day with Mike. Um uh and I can tell you that everybody remains eager to get this renovation started and we are nearly there. Um I think all of you know that we had hoped to start construction this

108summer. Um unfortunately um I want I I wanted to come brief you a little bit about that. So unfortunately I think two factors made that extremely difficult. Um the first is that the ongoing national uncertainty around tariffs negatively impacted our bid process. So we had many subtract contractors either not bidding or including additional markups in their bids. Um I think we're all hearing about how the entire construction industry has been impacted by this tariff environment and our our project was certainly no exception. So, as a result, our public bid process extended deep into the summer, uh, which ate up much of the time that we'd allocated to the critical first phase of the project this summer. Um, about two months ago, our construction team um came to the building committee and said that the only

109way the project could proceed this fall uh would be to extend the construction period and significantly revise the construction phasing plan. Uh the building committee um discussed this at length and I think ultimately determined that we weren't willing to do either of those things given our focus and commitment to you and to the community on safety and keeping the project on time and on budget. So, while I wish I could be here tonight providing an update on construction pro progress, instead I'm here to tell you that we are planning to bring the project back out to bid in October uh with an eye on starting construction at the beginning of April break. Um construction as such construction will not impact the first several months of this school year. Um, and I would say based on

110our meeting this morning, it does seem like we are on track to have this back out to bid towards the end of October. We certainly have some uh work to do between now and then over the next 3 4 weeks. Um to include, you know, going back and meeting with the state in the beginning of October. Um but um you know, everybody's working on multiple fronts. So, you know, look, we're going to have to see how this tariff situation and our our ne next bid process plays out, but you know, I I I I do want to flag that it is certainly possible that we may need to ask for additional funding uh for the project uh on top of what's already um been approved. Um bit too early to say and I want to

111see what the bids uh do say. Um, so with that, I'm certainly happy for any questions you may have and and thank you all for all your support along the way. >> Before before we get to questions, I know Mike has one. I just wanted to just again say thank you because I know as a you know building committee chair you weren't necessarily expending expecting uh that role to continue much longer than it is but we greatly appreciate that uh that you're they're ready willing and able I'm hoping uh to stay in that role as long as need be because you're doing a great job and you know obviously nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. It's probably an old saying that most people don't know but you know anyway but I appreciate it. >> Thank you.

112All right. >> Lined up his next job, so he's he's good. Uh um so obviously as a member of the old Greenwich building committee, um I I can say that um I I don't think there is a more hardworking and dedicated group um in town. Um this is a uh a product of of awful timing. The obviously we targeted or the committee targeted construction to begin the summer which went we had went out the bid last spring and if you recall last spring was at the height of the uncertainty around the tariff around the tariffs when nobody knew anything was going on. There had been no international agreements or anything and quite frankly a lot of people were afraid to bid and if they were bidding um we got some interesting numbers. So, um the

113committee has done an exceptionally prudent job um over the last 6 months in um uh calling it audible uh and and revising the project to make sure we can move forward here and go back and and hopefully break ground next year in in a way that is both cost-effective and benefits the children of Old Greenwich. >> Um does anybody else have any questions or comments? No, just again big thank you to you and the all members of our, you know, old Greenidge building committee and our board liaison as well on that project. What I think everybody there has a has it plays a significant role and so we just really wanted to say thank you because it is such an important project for that community and for the town overall and you know nobody likes

114delays especially when it's out of our hands. So we appreciate you uh updating everybody. Thank you and and we'll certainly keep you in the loop. >> Thanks. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. Um next up we have Dan Silkman and Miss Farnum who are going to discuss the summer school executive summary. Looking forward to hearing about uh Dr. Jones. Of course, while they're coming up, I just want to acknowledge that um Amy and Dan both were brand new at running uh ESY and summer school this year. And I just want to publicly say thank you. what a fabulous job you did and I'm excited for you to have this opportunity to present to the board. >> Thank you, Dr. Jones. >> Yeah. All right. Uh, Chair Hirs, Dr. Jones, members of the board, and members

115of our community in Greenwich, thanks for the opportunity to talk with you about some of the highlights from our 2025 summer program from this past year. Um, we're really looking forward to um, yeah, talking with you about all the gains that we made, um, some of the changes that we brought to. Um, yeah, my my name is Oh, sorry. Oh, I was just going to interrupt and just say for members of the board that would like to see there's a presentation that's behind us. So, if you would like to watch as our presentation is happening, certainly feel free to move to the front row there. >> And we also shared it in your emails, too, if you'd like a copy there. >> Yeah, I happen to have it on my screen. So, >> yeah, thanks.

116Um, but yeah, again, I'm Dan Silkman and I was the general education supervisor this summer. >> And I'm Amy Farnum. I was the extended school year supervisor this summer. >> Right. Mike will go to the next slide. And the next slide, please. Great. Um, and so just wanted to talk a little bit about the structure of our program from this summer. There were a couple of shifts. First was that this year we had 24 instructional days that was over six weeks. We met Monday through Thursday with Fridays off and got some good feedback from students, families, and teachers that they appreciated um those 4-day instructional weeks with a long weekend. Um, but in service of our overarching goal to ensure that we're trying to minimize our summer learning loss, we have these four summer goals

117on our slide um that students and families were able to take advantage of this summer. The first uh comes through as our literacy and math goals. Um students at each of our schools were identified uh and invited from their schools to participate in our summer program if maybe they didn't hit their target scores on their benchmark in literacy and math during the regular year. and we were excited to welcome them to New Lebanon for our uh K to4 literacy and and numeracy program. At the high school, we had a credit recovery program through a new hybrid learning model that we're um looking forward to talking through with you all tonight uh to recover credit that maybe was lost during the the regular school year. And also there was a new opportunity to take a personal

118finance course through Egeneuity um for the first time that we launched this summer. A hallmark portion of our summer program of course is our extended school year program for students who um qualify for that that service. Um and so uh for our prek through 12 plus grades uh students were working through their IEP goals and receiving the services um that they need. And then finally students and families had that opportunity to accelerate in math if they so chose to jump uh a level in math over the summer in preparation for a more rigorous experience the following year. And so we'll walk through how we hopefully met all of these goals over our uh six weeks together. >> Along with academics, a central goal of summer learning was to build connections and confidence. Next slide. We

119had students coming from 17 different schools. Uh and our goal was to bring them together across those locations as one school with two different locations. So we had 830 students from 17 schools, but they were all our sharks. As summer sharks, it was important to us to uh accentuate these values. They were courageous because learning and working hard requires you to be fearless and courageous. um curious because curiosity sparks learning and compassionate because if we wanted our students to excel, they needed to feel accepted and included. And these values you'll see will be found throughout the presentation and we hope that you can find them in the pictures of our students. To build confidence and connections, we created themed weeks that combined engagement with academic enrichment. These were woven within the curriculum as well as

120during five minute transition breaks. During space week, students explored the planetarium with Richard Baxley, an incredible science student at the high school. Um, and in they also read books, wrote creatively, and used math to work on scale and proportion. Adventure Week brought trip planning and journal writing with live exploration of the cat bears catching salmon and authentic connection to our ecosystems and science. And during shark week, our week um students adapted and tracked real sharks, blending technology from OARCH with literacy, science, and also excitement and wonder. These experiences extended beyond our classrooms. Families often joined in reading together, watching live streams, and tracking data, turning the learning into a community experience. Next slide. In our weekly, Shark Splash newsletter reached an average of,300 views per week, keeping families and the community engaged. Each newsletter not

121only highlighted what students were learning in our programs, but also activities for families to continue that learning at home. Whether watching those bears from Catme, they could continue to watch fat bear week this week or tracking sharks on O Search, families extended the classroom experience into their living rooms and their kitchens, reinforcing skills and sparking curiosity together. And so with this important foundation, this culture that Amy mentioned, we wanted to share some of the data um that highlights all the great things that were done in our schools with our teachers and students. And so this section will talk about our enrollment projections that were critical for us in hiring our staff for the summer and then of course our attendance um that helped us monitor progress of our students toward uh their their various goals.

122Next slide. Perfect. And so we had really solid enrollment in each of our programs. Uh at New Lebanon for our preK to four students, uh we had 333 participate in person. That's ESY students and nonESY students. At Western for grades 5 through 12 plus on site, we had 199 students. And then we expanded our offerings this summer with our hybrid learning program through Egeneuity. And we were really um impressed with the interest in turnout of 298 students who took advantage of the various offerings, whether that be for credit recovery or personal finance for the first time. To dig a little deeper into some comparisons for our secondary general education registration. In the past, we had offered these in-person courses for credit recovery, ESL, tutoring, and literacy and math. Um but because of the flexibility and

123accessibility of our egeneuity program uh in the hybrid learning model, we were able to significantly increase as you can see from the slide um the number of students that we supported at the secondary level. 456 total students in person and virtually um were part of our program over this summer. And then finally, once we had our enrollment and you know, we were able we were fully staffed, um, we were working to ensure that we had as many students in the building as possible to maintain high attendance because we know in order to minimize that summer slide, it's best to have students with our teachers working on the skills to be reinforced. Um, and so we had relatively consistent attendance each day. On this slide, we we include um on any given day the average percentage

124of students in attendance within our two buildings at New Lab and at Western. All right. And staffing is at the heart of our summer program this year. We're proud to share that 100% of our staff was either Greenwich teachers or former Greenwich teachers. That means that every student was taught and supported by our teachers who know our students best and our knew our community. And with strong enrollment projections and models, um we were able to decrease um prek tape 12 staffing in 2025 compared to 2024. Um, we supported 281 more students and we did so with 24 less certified teachers and we did with 20 less non-certified staff. And here you could see the breakout of the staff that we hired. Um so we have general ed teachers and special ed teachers and specialists and

125service providers as well as our um support staff, our pair of professionals and our building staff which is us and our we had a greeter, a nurse um and then security every day to make our building safe. for our K through four program at New Lab. Um we dedicated 60 minutes per day to our math curriculum and 90 minutes per day to our literacy curriculum using of course um you know our district programs big ideas math and foundations to reinforce those important skills from the year. Um and so in tracking progress um on that next slide right here. Perfect. we um we were using some important attendance data to ensure that we were measuring growth for students that were consistently there in order to um participate in our program. And so this slide just captures

126the the subset of our students that participated in a pre-assessment and a post assessment and attended at least 19 of the 24 total instructional days. Um, and we're again counted towards sort of our our measures of success on the next slide related to our math and literacy benchmarks. Where math is concerned, again, our our goal is to minimize that that summer slide, that summer learning loss. Um, and we were really pleased to see that where math is concerned, all of our grades demonstrated actual we growth um from the pre to post assessment um significant growth, almost 30% um in some cases. And so we were incredibly proud of the work that our teachers and students did um in the area of math. for literacy. Um we had a little less consistency across grades um as

127you can see from um from the chart, but we were proud that on average students maintained their skills across the board. Um and that our goal again of reinforcing important lessons from the year, answering questions that students have and filling in gaps um across the board was largely achieved. All right. And our extended school year supported 191 students. And these students all had their own personal individualized goals. Every child at ESY has a unique set of goals. And we were proud to share that many of our Sharks made exciting and meaningful progress this summer. For example, one of our youngest students walked, then ran, and even climbed for the first time this summer. In our secondary program, we have a student who is new to our district who worked with our amazing speech pathologist and

128was able to talk for the first time. We also saw students with behavior goals exhibit far less behaviors because of the work with their amazing special ed teachers. and uh our um behavior team. An equally important new friendships were built supported by our student support team helping students feel more confident and connected back one. And here's a cross-section of our ESY students. And um you'll see the other column is the percent of those students who were registered who attended 19 out of 24 days which was that benchmark data for the literacy and the mathematics scores. So you'll see some highlights our uh prek 76% of attendance of our students. Um and also if we look at that grade four 80% of them came 19 out of 24 days. And it's important to note some of

129our kids go to pretty amazing camps for a week or two and so they don't show here but they were consistent otherwise. And our tutoring program um if we go to the next slide. So, this is an opportunity that has grown over the last few years um where students or families that just want to come for a little bit and get that extra literacy or math um learning and then go on about their day, whether that's to go to summer camp or um to go to the beach. Um they're coming, they get a choice of 40 minutes per session. They could choose to do up to two sessions, one in math and one in literacy. They could also choose to do that two days a week or four days a week. um some of the

130highlights from our secondary programming. We had said that there were goals of students to accelerate in math um or receive some enrichment opportunities. And then of course with our hybrid learning um I'm looking forward to doing a deeper dive into the uh credits that were earned by our students too. And so on our next slide we highlight the math acceleration enrollment. We offered five in-person courses that students could take in order to gain the necessary skills in order to skip up to the next math level in the um in the following school year. Um I will note that our enrollment this year had slightly declined from a couple of past years. Um but these numbers are largely driven by the acceleration opportunities that are currently available within the typical academic year. For example, at the

131high school, we offer the zero hour math course uh before the school day for middle school students to participate during the academic year. So then they wouldn't be, you know, candidates for this course during the summer. Um, additionally, for students who maybe didn't pass or earn the grade necessary to accelerate because of uh during this math course, um, we did want to indicate that it was still a great enrichment opportunity for those students to gain the foundational experience and and familiarize themselves with the content um, to then be successful the following year. All right. And then here is a a highlight of um, our hybrid learning program. Um so again this uh this program was run through egeneuity which has had great success at the high school and at at Windrose that we then brought

132um sort of greater access to over the summer. Um certified teachers were hired to um to oversee and manage uh the courses that were available for credit recovery through Egeneuity. They hosted Google meets every morning for students to log on and ask questions about content or troubleshoot tech issues um or really just to maybe get a pep talk as they go through the content. Um, and we were really impressed to see students recover not just one course, but maybe sign up for two or three and really make a concerted effort over the summer to get back on track so that they can hopefully graduate within four years. Um, and so we had 139 credits that were recovered um over the summer months, which we're really proud of. Then in addition to the credit recovery opportunities,

133we offered um all students the chance to um jumpstart their experience in personal finance. This is a new course that's required by the state of Connecticut that's been introduced at the high school of course. And so 171 students took this course and successfully completed it for the first time. Again, not credit recovery for the first time. Um and this really frees up their schedule for the coming year so that um that they might be able to take an extra elective or u maybe have a couple more opens. Um but we got some great feedback that this was um an important way for kids to feel that flexibility over the summer to um use their time as they saw fit. Important comparison on that last slide to add on. Um last year they recovered 32 credits

134total. All right. And budget. Our goal is to maximize our resources and the impact on students and not have any reductions impact them. And we're proud to say that we made that happen. As you could see, our staffing numbers went down uh 37%. Transportation rose 53%. Um supplies and printing decreased 20 or 59%. So the overall total reduction of the budget that we managed to do um as a team at Dr. Jones and Dr. H is 21.5% reduction or next slide. We had a decrease in $313,93 which is within we also increased the students served by 37%. All right, in closing, we want to say thank you and first that we are so proud of our summer Sharks and the progress that they made this summer as they return to their home schools. We look

135forward to watching their continued success and their growth throughout the year. >> Just thank you to our students, our teachers, and our families and for the board support. And we look forward to any questions that you guys have about our programs. Thank you. >> Well, yes, big claps. I just amazing and incredible. And you know, the board has spent years talking about summer school and how to redo how to revise it and redo it so that it was most beneficial for our students and it's once again amazing to see the incredible growth and progress that's being made and the changes that you guys have made. I mean, are clearly showing um you know through your through your growth data and so forth. Um I have a question, but I I saw Laura's hand go up

136first, then Mike's, and then Jen's. So in that order, get it. >> Oh, well, thank you for presenting. I'm looking at all your slides. Um, would you say the uptake of tutoring increased versus previous years? Um, because I know some families prefer to take their kids to get some tutoring and then head off to whatever their summer camp might be. And I see it ends, you know, the most popular time slot being the 8 to 8:40 time slot. So they can still get on to their next um destination. >> Yeah. Can >> Yeah, we can get the exact numbers, but there was a small increase from last summer to this summer in interest in tutoring and um we think it'll continue to be popular. >> One other question. Um do all obviously the kids who

137have IEPs and need to work on their goals are are attending. Are there also students who have time with math or reading interventionists that are invited to attend or is there a specific threshold where they're invited academically? >> Absolutely. So um Jen Laauo actually pulls the data on link scores um and identifies early on any student who's at risk and should be invited to summer school. That list then gets shared with our um principles at all of the schools and they as a team go through that list and see if was that just a bad testing day or is this a continued trend with this student and they can choose to um also add students that they see things that they want them attend to attend and we we get that list and we were

138able to send out um those invitation letters to those families. Thank you. Okay, Mike. >> So, if um if I'm summarizing your report for you reduce the cost, increase the number of students served and increase the level of achievement realized. >> Nice work. Um so so first time through the program first summer I'm sure over the course of the summer you automatically you know you start naturally start thinking about next year or things doing differently and things. So in doing this report and putting everything together um what are your thoughts as far as h how you might see um um next summer um continue on this success >> I'll start and then we can add >> Okay. I I know one of the things that Amy and I and Dr. Jones have been talking about

139is I'm hopefully maybe getting communication out to families earlier in the school year. I know that there were a lot of um challenging priorities in the spring um and we got a little bit of a later start than we would have liked, but we're we're hopeful that earlier communication about offerings, registration, bus routes, um tutoring schedules, I know families would appreciate and I think from like a planning and and logistics perspective would be appreciated on our end too. So that's one thing for sure. Um, another to address that that tutoring thing, we also noticed that 8:30 spot is super popular. So, we we did talk about the idea of taking some of our teachers, maybe they just want to come for an hour and a half and take one position, split it into two, and

140have more people at that prime time slot. Um, >> do you think there's enough awareness of what the summer slide is and the importance of tutoring and why why this matters? >> Um, I'm not sure that um, we we could share some data because we did some research on that um, and share it with our community right now. Um, but give us one second to find it. It's on your achievement ones, right? There's the letter. >> There it is. >> While they're finding that, I'll just say too that because the principles and the sitebased teams are really, you know, recommending the students that are coming to summer school, they are so connected to the parents um already. So I I do think they do. That's probably one of the reasons we're seeing such great results,

141you know, especially in those title one schools where we want to see it because during the year they're accessing before school, after school, I think they do really understand. >> Yeah, I I just give a couple average national numbers. Um the average national summer slide in math for elementary school students is 29%. Um and the average summer sign in literacy was 23% on average. So um that's typical students and um our teachers are aware of that and in the first couple weeks of instruction we catch them right up to speed. Um who really gets recommended for summer school are students who are at risk of not meeting you know having a much bigger slide and that compounds year-over-year. So, we're so lucky to have such a program that catches those students and um and make

142sure that we don't have that entering our schools every year. And I think that'll speak to the achievement report that's going to come out next month. >> Jen, um I just wanted to say great work this summer. Also, um we were a family that took advantage of the personal finance, the online, and I think it was wonderful. Um especially during the summer when students I mean in our family you know my son is in crew and that takes up a lot of lot of his time es even in the summer and to have kind of a self-paced course where he could still be achieving and working through um I thought was wonderful and I think it also adds another dimension for kids to be able to you know self-pace them self-pace >> their course courses.

143Do you have plans to add an additional course an online course next year, next summer for, you know, in other areas? >> Yeah, I know there's definitely have been conversations about how we can expand this hybrid learning model. I know, yeah, Dr. Jones, I don't know if you want to speak to it, but um I know that there are plans during the school year and then of course, you know, we we would love to see it strengthen for next summer too if that's available. >> We offered so much this summer and traditionally what would happen is we would put classes out then they would just all get cancelled because, you know, we didn't have this option. Um so we offered almost all of the courses that are available and it was a lot um that

144are available. And not only that, but it also gives us the capacity um to offer something like US history in Chinese, you know, or Japanese. Um so it also can help students who may have been an IB student, you know, in Europe and then they arrive here, they don't they're not strong in their English, but you don't want them to get behind in credits. So there's so much potential. Um but I call it high C and I think that's we're catching on to that um with hybrid learning because there's a highly qualified teacher attached to it. Um, and I think you're just seeing the effect effectiveness because the teacher can actually have more of a load of students. Um, and it works beautifully in the summer and the students I think because exactly what you

145said because of the self-paced portion. They can get help every day if they need help. Um, but they're also able to go with their family, you know, to Mexico or wherever and they can still do their work um, you know, in the summer. So, I think it has unlimited potential and I think we're going to see it as an intervention uh in the high school. It's I think it's going to really grow there as well and uh Christina Shaw is leading on it this year at GHS for us. Um so, it's kind of unlimited potential. Okay. Well, Jen took part of my question, which was I mean I know in the past we've offered I mean I remember way back in the day Lisa and I were looking together because I we've had these discussions

146uh like a a a course catalog with tons of different options for students that were not just course recovery and you know with what Jen was saying with you know self-paced for students who have very heavy course loads in the in the fall um with requirements and sports and college applications for instance and other things. I think this is a great opportunity for some students to to get ahead um or even, you know, learn, you know, take courses and things that we don't actually offer at the high school. And I I'm really looking forward to seeing what you guys bring forward next because this is just fantastic. I may even sign up a course myself. Um the other question I had was I I know also in the past we've sometimes over the summer offered

147SAT prep. Um, I didn't hear you guys discuss that, but I didn't know if we were offering that as well or is that something we might consider uh going forward uh bringing back? >> Yeah, we we didn't offer it this year, but um definitely if it's been done in the past and there's precedent and and interest um you know, definitely something to discuss. >> What? >> Oh, did you have a question? So, so if you No. No. Anyone else? Anyone else? Anyone? Ber Mike, >> no shade, but um in the in the spirit of ingenuity and then hybrid learning. Um be awesome if next year you you you make this a video so that way we can use all the time for conversation. Totally. >> I liked hearing what they had to say. Sometimes it's

148nice to have that personal connection as well. But I just wanted to again from the board members and I'm sure members of the community and the parents and students with the credit recovery and such growth just thank you guys for for what you've done. This is incredible. Um, and I know this is something we talk about, especially when we talk about our, you know, five-year strategic plan and other things and something that the board and I don't know, countless education experts and boards around the country have talked about is not just the summer slide, but also, you know, that's an incredible way to help with the big, you know, difference in in quality of not quality of education, but uh, what's the word I'm looking for? You know what I'm we whatever the issues that

149we've had over the years where there's different growth levels and different achievement levels at different schools in town and what achievement gap. Thank you. This is what happens when your ADHD medication wears off uh by nine. So um I'm open about it. Um going to tell you the achievement gap. Um and I and I was it's a huge thing that we talk about here all the time. And so I think that having parents be able to see what what we can do over the summer uh in a few hours that they don't have to give up their whole summer or camp or if they you know this is something that really can be used towards that and I'm just really excited to see what what what's going on with that going forward. So thank you.

150>> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Back to money. Fun stuff. So uh we have the monthly financial report. Um, Ben and uh, Miss Oh. Oh, here I see Mr. Lie here. Come on up. >> It's nice to see you in person. >> All right. Thank you, Bren. Uh, Ben, you want to kick it off? >> You're in You're in good They're in good hands with you. So, you go right ahead. >> All right. So uh the financial report that we submitted and presented in front of you is uh to uh summarize the last school year's uh financial results. So there are few areas that I want to highlight to bring to your attentions. So first of all on the operating budget uh it is reflecting the um the school year results that we just finished

151in June. Uh we finished with 190.4 4 million in expenditures, 98.7% of the budget and it is very closely aligned as to the physical year 2024 result. The district uh budget balance is $2.57 million uh for the for the year ended in June. 2.5 million uh is allocated to the newly uh created non-napsing account and then the other six around $69,000 returns to the town. Uh the budget balance drivers mainly coming from three areas. Uh one is on the staff veance positions. Second is an overestimated in the budgeting for the actual pay assumptions during the budgeting. And then the other larger uh area, the third area is the 1.2 million savings from the special education out of district and the settlements um budget. Uh we budgeted 10.4 million on this areas for the placement and

152settlements. Uh the edos come in at 9.2. Uh this has the 1.2 million positive variance. This demonstrate a positive physical result in this high cost areas. Um if I move on to the school lunch fund, uh both revenue and the expenditures uh outperformed that the budget is better than we expected. Uh the net expenditures close at about $530,000 uh expense, which is about $49,000 better than the budget that we originally built. uh the program, the school lunch funds right now has the fund balance for an unodudited balance of $884,000 that carries into uh this um school year start that we have. And finally, I want to point uh to you to the last page which is the gift report. This is a annual report on the gift cap report and then this document the significant

153contribution from the PTA the alliance and also the community community donation as a whole to benefit the student the staff and the facilities in last year physical 2025 in total it is 1.64 64 million um gift and donation that we received it and then um this ref ongoing strong community partnership supporting the Greenwich public schools. So that's all I have and then see if you have any questions. >> No, but I will say we we used to get the gift uh gift report for years. It was always towards the beginning of the school year and uh you know a big huge thank you again to our partners in education from the PTA council the alliance and there's quite a few others um in town and community you know partners in education that that help support

154our schools with grants and donations and and all sorts of things and you can see that represented here. Um so we just wanted to say thank you. So that's uh it's really nice to be able to work with with those in the community to help support our students. >> Yep. Definitely. >> Sorry, Sophie. >> I just have a um a question about the revenues. Um the revenue report where you note the 1.862 million. Um what is the like sort of ballpark? What is the other revenue amounts that's coming in that would that goes to the town? Like is it tuition and um do you have an idea of what the total is? I don't know if anything off the top of my head. I don't have the number in front of me and I I

155I will I will look for it and then let you know. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I don't have a ball part uh in my mind. >> There's only missing two additional line items. It's the grant fund reimbursement to the town for their benefit reimbursement as well as a school lunch reimbursement. We don't include those here. Uh but this is pretty close to the the all-in revenue sands those two uh reimbursements for the benefits that's carried on the town side. we can get those to you uh separately. >> Okay. Thank you. It's >> also if we're going to be talking about that, it's also a good time to to talk about, you know, the funds that we uh that we do generate and re, you know, I know it goes back to the town general

156fund is to some of the stuff from uh special education, the excess cost grant. I know it's something we bring up every year as a discussion as to where it should be going if it's goes back to our budget line items or the town general fund. Um, so maybe we can add that as a a topic for discussion uh in one of our next budget budget discussions. Anyone else with questions? No, nothing. All righty then. On to the next, which is budget transfers. I don't know if you're staying up for that or if it's just uh >> the the budget transfer is a one page that we put together. Again it is summarizing the uh budget transfer in the month of June of the last school years. Uh most of the budget transfer um that

157it is in the theme about reallocating the available budget from one items to the others to support the needs of the um of the um of the purchase and also to balance the the budgets to close the year end closing. We also have met with the board executive members in July for uh some large items budget transfers to close out for the fiscal years that is also captured in this uh summary report on this one page. So uh nothing kind of like abnormal or out of ordinary in terms of the natures of the budget transfer but we'll let you see if there's any questions that you have. >> Anyone? No. No. All right. Perfect. Thank you so much. >> Thank you for uh sharing our June transfers with us. Um so, uh I think we

158already made the uh motion to add an executive session um at this break. Um so I will ask uh Mike Antinachio to put up a little note to people. Um and I would like to uh make that motion to move into executive session. Okay. All in favor. Okay. So, uh board will exit and head off to our executive session and we will be back. India. We are coming back. really going through I have no comments. We >> okay so the board is back um and uh just as a note we are back from our executive dis uh executive session I'm sorry to discuss the um uh contract for sorry I don't have it in front of me GA uh and no votes were taken um which leads me to my next item of saying as

159a head ahead of the other action items I'd like to add an action item um to approve the contract I mean I I'll actually turn it over to you because you have the actual language >> okay but we're first we're making a motion to add an action item to you have the language with which >> to add an action item to approve the tenative >> the tenative agreement for a successor collective bargaining agreement between the board and the Greenwich Education Association for the period of July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2029. I will second adding that to the agenda. Everybody ready to vote? All those in favor? Jen, did you have a question? Who's in favor of adding this? 6. Okay. So, since it's here, why don't we move right to that? Um, Sophie. >>

160Okay. I would like to make a motion. Um, I'm going to read it. The Greenidge Board of Education hereby moves as follows. one to improve approve in its entirety the tentative agreement for a successor collective bargaining agreement between the board and the Greenwich Education Association for the period of July 1st 2026 to June 30th and second to authorize the board chair to execute the final contract document on behalf of the board and to submit such final document as a stipulated award to the panel of arbitrators in accordance with the Teachers Negotiation Act. And three, to authorize the board chair to take any further action as may be necessary to finalize such contract in accordance with the Teachers Negotiation Act. Anybody else on the committee want to second that one? >> I'm happy to second that.

161All right, Kathleen. Um, all those in favor. >> Oh, I was going to say being that it is a contract, we don't actually discuss it, >> right? I think it's worth noting on the advice of council that because of, you know, why we're not talking about it because we're in this quasi negotiations phase. However, I'm sure there will be a lot talked about it in in months ahead. >> Well, it's not Yes, it's also it's not an approved contract until it's approved by both sides and approved. So as a such it's it's still in the contract negotiations and because of that it is you know protected and we don't discuss it in the in the public meeting. So all those in favor okay that passes 6 and can move on to GA. Um as a

162note before we move on to our next action item I just wanted to again publicly thank members of this board who were on the negotiation teams this summer doing this as I know you guys spent a lot of time this summer together. um and working towards uh having this contract be put in front of us for approval. Um your time and dedication, especially over summer break, was very very greatly appreciated uh at least by me and I'm sure by the entire board as well. So, thank you guys for everything um as well as the other members of the team um as well. Harry Fischer um was also on that that committee and Steven Selves as well. Thank you guys also for that uh for taking your time out of the summer to be supportive of

163our students. Thank you. So that moves us to our second action item, consideration of um the waiting on the advanced uh placement, which of course if I was smart, I would have had my motion up in front of me. >> I'll let you do it. Yeah. >> Um make a motion to approve policy 6141.11 as revised. >> I'll second that. discussion. >> Mike, >> I think it makes um I think this policy makes sense, but I I think given some of the anxiety we've heard about around student anxiety, um I think it's worth um it'd be good to have someone from the high school come back in a year's time or so to give a sense of, you know, from the counseling department about the the impact of this. >> Yes. I mean, um, I

164think it's, you know, we we've talked about this a lot. Um, I think any change is always hard. Um, we've did I appreciate how Dr. Jones brought forward the comps and um I've spoken to a lot of people about this because people have been talking about this for a while and I would say that the you know you heard it from the students tonight there is general belief that this is something that's um you know needs that AP courses do seem to have um deserve that you know additional bump um and that it might also be helpful just as we look at comparables in our rankings, but also when one is looking at college when you're going up against students that have um sort of these advantages in other school systems in Fairfield County that

165it's something that would likely be helpful to our student body. So, I agree with Michael Joseph and these students that we need to be mindful um to make sure that it doesn't, you know, change anyone in terms of their anxiety. Um but a lot of our students are geared towards taking this sort of academic rigor and I think it's appropriate that we recognize them for that. Yeah, I was going to say I I think that this is something that's done in most of the other districts that surround us and and certainly the districts that our students tend to compete with for uh spots and colleges. Um, and for students who have the option to take AP or honors, you know, it's it's often said a lot of students will I won't say gain the system,

166but you know, take the honors course instead where they know they can get an A instead of going for something that's slightly more rigorous where they may not get an A. Uh, it's the same weight, so they improve their GPA that way. Um, I think we should be honoring those students who want to, you know, do more and have a more rigorous course. or some of these are college prep courses and and college level courses, I'm sorry. Um, and as Kathleen has said, I know Sophie has mentioned it before. Um, I'll just use this as an example. I I think it's really important my son took enough and you know as as my well my daughter has as well but we won't know till later but that my son could graduate a year early from

167college which you know saves a lot of time and energy or allows those students who have enough credits going into college from taking APs to then have the opportunity to dual major or have a minor you know a strong minor um and we want to make sure that those students you know see that there's a benefit for taking APs is while they're in high school that gets them to college and I'm sure their parents appreciate the other, you know, the end of it as well. So, I I strongly support this as a as an option. But I will note um I think it's important we note we're not putting this into play for this year, right? Because the year is already started and some students would have made other course choices, correct? Starting with next

168year's freshmen. Okay. I just want to make sure that that's clear for anybody that's that's listening. Does anybody else have comments? >> No. Anyone? Anyone? Okay, Kathleen, >> one other thing I just think it's important to note is that and I think it's in here, Dr. Jones, but is that it's um AP or higher that gets the because it I think in the ranking class at the bottom it says weighted on a scale AP 5.25, 25, you know, should that say AP or higher? >> Are you talking about for the students that take like the the higher level math courses for instance, as an example? >> Right. >> The college level courses that while they're in the high school because they've >> Yeah. So, do you think that needs to be specifically called out or

169you think it's sufficient as the way it's written? >> You could say a I I agree. I mean, it could be AP or higher. AP or college level. could say college level [Music] thoughts, Dr. Jones. >> Yeah, I actually thought it was in here because I know we talked about it at the retreat, >> but I don't think I >> So, I I can add that in in here um where it just basically acknowledges that it's AP or higher level courses. And I and I do think that maybe over and I don't know if we want to even impact this in the motion, but I suspect over the course of this year there might you might actually have to delineate what that is, right? And I think about things like science research. Where does that

170fall? Right. >> Yes. It would need to be in the program of studies. Um so we'll we'll do that work as we prepare for the program of studies. >> Okay, understood. Thank you. I think that's definitely something when you guys are doing your looking at the high school and and sort of that program. I think that's something we can certainly look at uh independent study where that lands and and uh some of the higher level courses that these some of our students are uh are going towards uh as it pertains to this policy. So that's just uh so does anybody else have comments, questions? If not, I'm I'm happy to take a vote. Okay. All those in favor? Okay. Well, that was easy. That's a 6-0. Next up, superintendent goals. Um, I'd like to make

171a motion to approve the superintendent's goals for the 20 256 school year as presented. Jen got her hand up first, but sorry, uh, Mike. Um, any discussion? So, let me say I just appreciate the changes highlighted in yellow and I thought it was reflective of our comments last last meeting. >> Thank you. Any other comments? Okay, with no other comments, I'm happy to take a vote. All those in favor? [Music] Okay, another one. 6-0. We are rolling along. And now the big big discussion of the night, the 2026 what? The 2026 2027 school year calendar. Um so I'd like to make a motion for the board to approve the 2026 2027 school year calendar as um amended. Is there a second? >> Oh no, no, no. I have to have a second just to bring

172the discussion. >> Okay, Jen Bat second. Dr. Jones, >> I just want to be sure you're not looking at the one in the packet. Look at the one that was at your seat with the yellow on there. Uh that one was based off of the feedback from the community. And just very quickly, uh we surveyed our staff and our parents. We had about a thousand responses. 76% uh wanted um spring break in April, 24% in March. So that's why you see that reflected on this draft calendar. Um I also we had a lot of emails talking about the evening parent conference. It wasn't that we had done away with the evening. It's that as you know elementary now has two conferences. Only one of those fall spring has an evening and so we had put

173the evening one in the spring. I've now moved it back to the fall and again that's based on parent feedback and teacher feedback. uh 73% preferred it in the fall, 27% in the spring. So this calendar is reflective of that. Um when we were here at the last meeting, there was a teacher collab day in November and it was noted that it was a little busy in November. So that got moved over to January and you can see that highlighted. It's January 26th. Um the other thing that came up at PTA in a little bit tonight as well is just acknowledging what some of those holidays are even if we are in school. So we have um put most of the ones referenced tonight. I think somebody referenced the lunar uh which was which is

174not on here but I certainly could add that. I don't know when that falls but on a Saturday. >> I thought they said it was a multi-day just just the one day. Okay. Um, I would like to I mean I I know I actually brought this up in years past about having other holidays for for other you know holidays for other you know uh religions and whatnot recognized. Um and I know since we are moving our um spring break back to we're discussing moving it back from March back to its original date in April where we don't have it tied up with Good Friday because Good Friday is earlier this year. Um, so we are also then adding Good Friday as a day off. Um, >> we always have that, >> right? It's so my

175point is it's not required by the state. We as a we as a district have chosen to have Good Friday off. It's hold on one second. As the same way that for Roshashana and Yom Kapoor, it is not a state recognized requirement to have those days off. We as a district have chosen to have those days off. Um, you know, I I I know we're looking to vote on this now to get things moving, but I I would really like to have a discussion on um I you know, I I don't know which is the more um holy of days and they know that they're all holy. uh but recognizing that we do have a lot of other uh religions and and um so forth in town maybe having a discussion of adding Diwali I

176think that was the one that was most discussed >> it's a Sunday >> this particular year is a Sunday but my point is going forward and this year itself would be having to revise this year's school calendar which is not on a Sunday Mike >> yeah I I I I think we all appreciated the the comments particularly from the some of the students tonight about uh some of the the different holidays and um um next year if we're looking at next year's calendar both Dvali and the Lunar New Year um and Russia Shana all all happen to fall on the weekend. So it gives us a chance uh perhaps unfortunately uh for the policy committee um to consider um um the ramifications of more religious holidays built into the calendar. Um for this specific calendar,

177I'm wondering if we should go the opposite instead of um you know um you know preserving Good Friday. But um um I'm not quite sure why we wouldn't um if we're trying to um support as many phases possible, why we wouldn't move the April break back one more week um so it corresponds with um Passover because that's the following week. >> So two things on that. First of all, on Good Friday, I would need to do some checking. When Jonathan and I talked about this, um, Good Friday falls in, uh, other contracts of the district, and I believe we would have no custodians or, um, administrative assistants in the district because it's in their contracts. So, that's why we have it off because we can't run the schools. Um, the reason that we went with

178April 12th through the 16th um, was trying to, um, be connected with the other school districts uh, around us. that's the week they're all taking so that if our teachers have children, their spouses, you know, teach in a different district that we are off when those other districts are off. Um, again, when we talk about teacher absenteeism, um, that it it's difficult when we're a different week. >> I guess it all depends because everyone in New York, it depends on which district because everyone in New York's off the following week for Russia for >> Well, l luckily for us, at least if they live in New York, you're probably right. Um but in Connecticut, the superintendents were all sharing calendars this week. U for this very reason because it's kind of a tricky calendar this

179year. Um and that's the most prominent week is that 12th through the 16th. >> The other thing I I think I I would suggest uh based on the comments tonight um um while we look at all these different holidays, I'm not sure it's probably not terribly helpful to have um the school conferences the same day as aid. Um, I think it would probably make sense to to have that a different day. Um, I'm also worried I'm also wondering about the comment comments we heard about optional homework on these days, which doesn't sound doesn't sound doesn't sound I shouldn't say it doesn't sound kosher, but it doesn't given wrong holiday >> but right but it doesn't sound doesn't sound appropriate that we would have optional homework on these days. So I I don't know about that.

180>> Well, I think that again this is initially how I brought it up. So if you see at the end so you know on days of major you know holidays like that even if we don't have the school day off there you know we ask out of respect to not have athletic games activity you know or you know competitions projects homework or major assignments the evening before on a recognized religious holidays it is recognized on our calendar even if we don't have the day off and as such I had you know I think it was a year or two years ago when we added this note specifically to the calendar it's an email that goes out at the start of the school year to all teachers and principles and so forth. I had asked, you

181know, we we put it on the calendar to include those holidays as well because those, you know, they have the same, you know, religious significance to to to those that celebrate. >> Tony, do you >> Yeah, we do. We have a a religious memo that goes out every year. We um go over it with leadership before school starts. They go over it with their staff. It's it's actually posted on the website as well that does reference all of these these holidays. >> Probably too early or it's too late in the school year to change for this year to do anything about the Wall-E, but um it probably is worth reminding folks about um the homework and whatnot. Um certainly con arguing that there shouldn't be any optional homework because that just put makes people in

182a put students in a bad situation. >> Yeah, we we do go through that memo with the staff. Um, but it was shared even even with our Jewish holiday this past week that some teachers, you know, weren't as sensitive to, well, we can't have a test because we're not allowed to. >> Um, so, you know, I'm going to follow that up. Um, again, that was shared with me this week just so that we're all very, you know, in tune and sensitive to the different holidays. Yeah, I was to say also as we note like Roshana, Yom Kapoor and some of these some of the other religious holidays here start at sundown the night before the day is if we're off. So obviously that'll be noted too. Correct. Yeah. Correct. For for for the some of

183them start at sundown the night before the holidays. >> Okay. Perfect Laura. So I mean in the 262 27 school year um Dewali is sort of not not an issue if it's on a Sunday but I am struggling about the Eid and having um I know there's other is that is there two days for um conferences for K5 in March? Yes, the uh where are we here? The 8th and the 10th. >> So, families who are celebrating have the option to come a different day um or who are observing um have the opportunity to come a different day. But I do I do think there were some very good points made about having some of these other religious observances, particularly the Eid. Um, and I mean if is New York closed? >> Oh, yeah. >>

184You're Yeah. >> There you go. >> So, I think one of the challenges I don't think anybody is against having the religious observance. What we have to do is figure out what are you giving up on the calendar because there's, you know, right now we're going to with our snow days we're at June 22nd. If we add three more, we're into June 25th. We will have students who are going to struggle. making um camps that are available for our students at colleges. It there are all kinds of impacts going all the way to almost the last week of June. Um what we have and I just want to reiterate because some people forget is a full week in February. If we want to take three of those days and make them instructional then you can

185actually you know lessen up in other places but we will also the the longer we go in June and we've talked about this is uh Junth is another day people want us to be off um but I think we've done a good job the last couple of years of making sure instructionally our kids are learning and we have really good units for that and it's worked well but it it's what are we going to give up because we can't go earlier in August. Um, and we're so late in June. >> What? >> Yeah. I think that's why I said I think this is a longer term conversation this evening probably maybe like I said for for for a committee u for right now. Um, I don't know if I'm alone, but I would be in

186favor. I I I I am I am I am opposed to the contract um without maybe moving moving the con maybe if we move the conference. I I would I think it makes sense to move the conferences to a different day other than Eid. Um and I don't know if we need >> There is another day though. There they can go. >> I still think that's fair. >> I agree. I have >> Yeah. And I and I like the idea of moving spring break to Russia to to to Passover, but I I will defer to the rest of the board if uh if I'm all alone on that. >> Passover is the following week, the 19th to the 23rd, and you can rest. I mean I I think again I I think we do have

187some time because we're talking about the 2627 school calendar if we approve it this way now. >> What >> I said they they've been calling us for over a month for this calendar people book. >> No, no, no. That's why I'm saying I think it we we have time to discuss if we prove this now. Dewali Dvali I'm pronouncing it incorrectly is on a Sunday so we wouldn't have to worry about that per se. um if there is one you know we've had to make minor revisions to future or current school calendars as we go. So if it if it should happen else >> Yeah. including both cases. >> Yep. >> Like I said, I I you know, this is something I I spoken about or thought about in the past and I'm you know,

188we had enough students and you know, spoke so so well and so impassioned for this. I think it is something we should discuss. Um I mean, I'm still happy to approve the calendar as it is now. Um, and if any slight adjustment then needs to be made for one day, I think we'd have time to if we had to. What? >> Wait. So, we're starting on a Friday, which everybody hates. If we if we shifted two days and started on August 26th, then why couldn't we gain two days for the Eid? >> Well, the teacher >> because then you just pushed every the whole school back by a year or by another week. So the teachers need what? Two days. >> Yeah. Teachers coming back mid August. >> One, two. >> Yeah. You have to

189remember that decisions things that might work well for elementary schools. The elementary school like having a not starting on a Friday doesn't always work well for the high school, which the later we go, the more negative impact it then has. No, no, no. Or vice versa. We also have to worry, you know, have to be not worry, but we have to be concerned about our teachers who then are required to come back even earlier. You know, I think that's a it's a big ask to have. Um, >> it's the same number of days that they work, >> but they're coming back earlier. >> Yeah. There's just I I think it's challenging on many on many things in that there are four professional days and and for all of our teachers with the exception of sixth

190and nth grade they need all four of they they use all four of those days. Yeah, they have four days but before that we also have two days before the four days of the new teacher orientation. So that's six days and we actually that same week do our leadership which is two full days as well. So you're it's just like you're backing up and I and I know I had this in our note last Friday but it's also being considerate of facilities work. I mean you don't want to we are right up until the day school starts and next year we are opening a brand new middle school hopefully on time. Uh old old Greenwich is going to have a lot of construction going on. Julian Curtis is going to have a lot of construction

191and we hope everything is going great at Hamav. We have geothermal and the parking lot there. So, we can't really afford to also from a facility standpoint to lose any days. So, it's all of that taken together. >> But look, I I appreciate people don't want to start on a Friday. It stinks. We discuss it every single year, but they're coming off an entire couple of like, you know, two and half months of summer. It's, you know, to just try to eek out an extra day where it negatively impacts so many others and other things is a problem. And again, you're pushing things back into June that are, you know, you have students who just don't show up then either. And that's when they're actually, you know, learning is still taking place. So, not that

192learning isn't taking place on the first day, but, you know, that's when kids have spring fever and want out. Toby, >> I was just gonna kind of go back to what Michael Joseph had said a while ago, which is I feel like we should probably have this conversation at the policy um committee and try and and really look at say like five or 10 years of calendars and work the whole thing out as opposed to just looking at one year. Um that would be my preference and I would love to call the question on >> Oh, I'm happy to call. I was talking about the Friday start, wasn't that was that was what I was referring to. Yeah, but I'm with you. Okay. Any other comments? No. All right, I'm happy to vote on this

193now and have a dvali and other discussion later. Anyone? All right, I'll move the question. Call a question. All in favor? All opposed? Okay. Because I supported not having a conference on Eid, but no one else wanted to move it. I don't know why. Oh, I I I can if you approve it, I'll bring back a revision for >> Okay. So, if we approve this >> with moving the pos moving that conference date that would be okay. So, I will call the question. I will retract my initial uh motion and make a second motion to approve the draft the 2026 27 2026 2027 Greenwich Public School calendar as revised with an additional revision for uh the school conferences on March 10th to be to be moved to an alternate date. Do I have a second?

194Okay, Kathleen. Okay. All in favor. Okay. 6. And thank you for letting us know why. It was a good point that we overlooked. Uh so I guess that leads us to agenda planning. I didn't see anything that needed to necessarily be added to the agenda yet. Okay. Mike, what did you have something you want to add? >> I have three things. >> Okay. Bring it forward. Well, um, in June, we had sec, uh, first readings of policies, um, that, uh, for whatever reason were, um, left off of the, um, agenda tonight. So, we want to, we need to bring those back for the >> So, we'll make sure to add those to the next one. >> Um, in fact, the PTAC report, if we read it, gives a shout out to our the first reader

195policy on page 10. Um, so, if you read the PTAC report, it's really cool. Um the um I also uh would um I think we should think about um having a um discussion item if not an action item on the board agenda around um in purs in keeping with our board policy around naming rights um um directing the superintendent to form a committee um to discuss naming rights of the basketball. It does court. It's a ham map. It sounds like it's not quite as cut and dry, but it sounds like it's something. >> Well, I think we already discussed this at the policy committee. >> Well, we have an existing policy. The board has to take action to appoint a committee. >> We don't Well, our policy is pretty clear. We don't name things, you

196know, that have already been around. I think we can have a discussion of the policy committee before we >> I don't think Well, I think Okay, well, we can debate that. I don't think it's a policy discussion, but that's all right. But that's what I think >> naming is is because if you start to be able to Well, we can have a discussion at the policy committee. I think that's a better thing to have. Okay. Then third third I'd like to bring back um um the issue of night games and lights um on the field uh for an aximite action item directing um um the the superintendent to schedule um night games at will um next starting next school year. >> I think that's also a longer discussion that needs to be had. Um, I'm

197not sure if we want to add that to agenda or if that needs to go through legal first, but we can have that as a discussion elsewhere before we decide if it adds to the agenda. But I'm I want to recognize your your interest. That's Kathleen. >> Um, I think you're maybe for the next one, we'll have to add something on Greenwich High School study guide or something along those lines so we can discuss any modifications that might be resulting as a result of this change on waiting. Yeah. >> No, I mean you're talking about but we haven't approved the follow the next years. >> No, but I'm saying we could start the discussion if you'd like. So at the retreat format. >> Perfect. That's perfect. >> Anyone else? >> Certainly anything can be added

198after this meeting. Just shoot an email over. Okay. And with that, I know Laura, this is your favorite part of the night. Would you like to make a motion? >> I love you all so much. Um, I don't want to adjurnn, but I guess I have to. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. >> Who would like to second that? Mike, do you want to second it since you spent all summer with us? No, you got to say it. Okay. All in favor? Okay. Thank you for all the board members and those on the public who've stuck with us all through our executive session and beyond. Um, tune in next time. Thanks.