001Okay. Uh it is 7:02 and uh I'd like to call the meeting of the board of education to order. If we can all stand and say the pledge nation, indivisible, liberty andice for all. Thank you. Um, move on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to uh I'll make a motion to accept the consent agenda. Do I have a second? Laura Cen. Okay. Uh, all in favor? Okay. 70. Thank you. Um, before we begin tonight's uh public hearing, I'd like to take a slightly non-traditional step by Can you not hear me in the microphone? It's bubbly. Okay. Can you hear me now? All right. Awesome. So, I was saying before we begin tonight's public hearing portion of the meeting, I'd like to take a slightly non-traditional step by conducting a straw poll of
002the board. The informal poll will help us to gauge interest in a potential the potential restructuring of a house at Greenwich High School with a formal vote to follow during the action item portion of the agenda. If there's not sufficient interest from the board in moving forward with this potential budget reduction, I'd respectfully ask those who signed up to speak on this item to consider yielding their time to others. We have 47 individuals signed up to speak this evening including 21 students and we want to ensure that we hear Thank you. We have a long meeting and I I appreciate um you know we want to ensure that we hear a broad range of perspectives on on things coming forward and per our board policy 9325 we have one hour allocated for public comment prior
003to the business portion of the meeting. And so we really want to use that time um to focus on items that are, you know, definitely under consideration for reduction. And with that said, um the board will still have the opportunity to discuss the matter in more depth before taking any formal action uh later. Um but I'd love to see, you know, if we could just do a straw poll if there is interest in having leaving this on the table for a reduction at the moment without an actual vote. Um, I'm happy to go down the line. No comments are needed. Just a Are you interested in in the reorganization of Greenwich High School possibility for reduction? No. Sophie, no. Jen, no. Kathleen, no. Laura, no. Wendy, no. And I myself am a no. Thank you.
004I so we have a long meeting ahead and I I just want to remind again every everybody here and those who are online at home. Um I know that there are over well over 200 people already online. Um so as a reminder in accordance with our board policies I mentioned 9325 uh community guideline comment you know commenting guidelines for community comments are as follow. We have one hour for public comment before we get to the business of the board. Um if we exceed 1 hour the balance of that uh the speakers will be asked to speak after the conclusion of our discussion on the action items which I know tonight specifically you know might might not uh have the same type of impact. So you know each speaker's allocated three minutes to address the board
005and please be respectful in your comments. no boisterous, inappropriate, disrespectful conduct should be permitted. And if I appreciate that you guys really are here to support and to support our educators and and what makes our schools run. Um, and we do appreciate that. So, but I I do want to make sure that we are able to get through everyone that had the opportunity to sign up um at least as many as we can before we have to get to the business of the board. So, um with that, I will turn this over to um our secretary. And I don't know if I see the students out there, but they're first up. Are we taking them before Lil and PTAC? That's the order in which with which they typically go. And we and we're also going
006to hear from GOSA this evening. Yes. Student government. No, no, no. Student government. We haven't gotten to those who've signed up yet. Yes. Uh good evening everyone. Uh Rocky and I both had long speeches planned to um advocate for the uh five house system to stay, but upon hearing this straw poll and the positive results, um we're just thankful that the houses are going to stay and they've had such a great impact. Having five houses and having available counselors, not being overwhelmed with work in such a big school is really important to us. I mean, they've always been there for us and all the teachers and assistant deans and everyone involved in the house. um they've just been so helpful at Grunch High School and it's good that the privilege is there for students to
007come. I concur. Well, thank you for speaking up in support of them. I'm sure that they all appreciate your kind words as well. And thank you for the very short second uh comments. So, next up is GA Lil. Good evening, members of the board of ed, esteemed educators, parents, students, and members of the Greenwich Public School community. Tonight I rise not just to speak but to ask that we listen, that we reflect, that we return to true meaning of the word efficiency. What does that really mean? Efficiency is commonly defined as ability to achieve a goal with little or no waste of time, effort, or resources to ensure that nothing is wasted and every process is optimized. But when efficiencies become synonymous with cuts, cuts that chip away at the heart of our schools, we
008have to ask, are we truly being efficient or expedient? Let me be clear. The recent BET budget reduction did not represent the will of the community and now the burden of finding so-called efficiency falls on all of you. We know it's very difficult and and we respect that and you have to make some really hard decisions. Um and we thank you for that. So the Greenwich Education offers the following real cost savings for consideration. Eliminate outside con consultants. We have extraordinarily talented experience when our schools. Let's value that and reduce non-essential external spending. I can skip this one. Um I don't think you're talking about it, but uh I'll just mention it. high school um uh in in their survey uh came out that 7:30 a.m. start time is supported by GE and Goa and
00993.8% of the GA staff says it restores money that worked. Eliminate unnecessary travel. I skipped this whole part. Thank you very much. We ask that you reinstate the GPS evaluation team. This team ensures consistency, high quality, and equitable assessment for students with special needs. Asking special education teachers to conduct evaluations after school or on weekends is neither practical nor ethical. It risks student performance, delays services, and undermines accuracy of assessments. The proposed alternative is not a solution. It's a liability. We also urge you to reinstate LF's position in grade 6 through 12. These roles support instruction professional development and curricular curriculum consistencies. Retain the 2.0 position at Central Middle School. Finally, keep the PE department whole. PE is not a luxury. It's an essential part of a well-rounded education. It supports physical and mental health.
010Build social skills and the classroom teachers time to plan, collaborate, and connect. Tonight, we ask the board to embrace the real meaning of efficiency, protect the classroom first, preserve what works, and prioritize students in every decision. We believe there is a better way forward. We ask you to stand with us to protect the programs and positions to make a difference every day. Thank you for the work that you do and all your volunteer work. You're much appreciated. Thank you. Thanks, Lil. Uh before before my favorite elephant gets up, we were gonna have GOA come up because they uh are on the agenda for tonight. Then we're going to have John. I figured I'd put you after Gossa. Yeah, after them. If if that's okay. I won't be long. It's okay with the elephant. Um, I'm
011going to ask all of my GOSE colleagues who are here tonight because uh they came out and forced to please stand as well. And I will not reiterate everything that Lil said, but many of us are dressed in red because we are one school district supporting the children. Good evening, members of the board. On behalf of the 57 members of the Greenwich Organization of School Administrators, we thank you for the opportunity to share some brief considerations as we continue to search for meaningful alternatives to the proposed studentf facing budget cuts. We thank you for taking the dismantling of the house structure at GHS and the elimination of positions off the table. We are a one high school district meeting the needs of over 2600 students. It is a school. It's schools within a school and
012the enrollment levels are higher than every other Greenwich school rivaling only Eastern Middle School if you take each house on its own. The change in the house structure is perhaps the most detrimental and far-reaching proposal to date. Tonight, we ask you to focus your attention specifically to the 620 lines um of in the instruction section of the budget rather than the broader BOE budget. though we do think that there could be some deeper savings found there as well. We ask you to review budget lines 5290 through 5210. If you look the actual spending in the 2324 tuition payment, professional development and related travel services totaled $361,884. The proposed budget for 2526 jumps to 584,000. We respectfully question the need to increase spending in this area, particularly on out of town travel and tuition during such
013financially strained times. Even simply reverting to the 2324 actuals would save over $222,000 and the equivalent of two teaching positions. It's neither feasible nor pedagogically sound to initiate meaningful out of district professional learning at the cost of teachers. We would also like to raise question about the rental and maintenance technology of excuse me of technology hardware and software budget lines. This seems like an ideal moment to evaluate device and software usage. We suggest the discontinuation of the purchase of iPads for every student in kindergarten and first grade. A class set per grade level would still allow teachers opportunities to use educational tools while limiting the cost of one-to-one devices for our youngest learners. Similarly, it could be time to consider a bring your own device program for Greenwich High School as has been done in
014other neighboring high schools. There are enough devices available for those who can't afford their own and this becomes another cost-savings alternative worthy of consideration and review. While we value 21st century technology, we have in past lean years temporarily limited purchasing. Families are asking for less screen time and more collaborative interpersonal learning. Let's examine whether all of these subscriptions are necessary or if some programs are duplicative or underutilized. As the instructional leaders of the district, we would like to revisit the board's discussion around a very modest reduction to the advanced learning program at the elementary level, particularly just the second grade enrichment impacting fewer than 85 students districtwide, only 2 to four hours a week, which does not begin until students are identified in late January. These offerings, while valuable, are not tied to pacing nor
015ongoing acceleration at upper grade levels. While we deeply value rigor and opportunity, decades of research have shown that early tracking and homogeneous grouping can have unintended social emotional consequences for younger learners. We support strong differentiated instruction that can prove that can improve achievement for all second grade students without reinforcing opportunity gaps. Inclusive models foster collaboration, pure learning, and equity. If second grade ALP were reconsidered, it could yield a 2.2 2 FTE savings, allowing us to preserve core classroom teaching positions or media assistance while still upholding our commitment to high expectations and inclusive excellence. Our highly qualified classroom teachers are well-versed in providing such differentiation. We offer these thoughts not to criticize, but to advocate for choices that keep our priorities aligned with classroom impact and student learning. While all cuts are difficult, some will be
016less intrusive and impact far fewer students across the district. We respectfully request the board revisit suggestions made previously, including a thorough review of assured experiences, enrichment offerings taking place outside of our robust core curriculum, as well as a review of scheduled consultants and subsequent funds for substitutes necessary for professional learning proposed in the 2526 school year. GOSA continues to stand ready to sharpen our pencils and come to the table to participate fully in conversations about the needs of our buildings, students, and staff. Thank you for your time and continued commitment to our schools. Thank you. Uh, next up now we have our favorite elephant, John Fischer, president of CH PTA Council, Chair Hirs, BOE members, Superintendent Doc Jones. Everyone here and everyone listening online, thanks for this opportunity to speak. I'm John Fischer, uh, Greenwich
017PTA Council President, parent of two of the 8,500 13 great kids in the Greenwich Public Schools. As everyone knows, the Greenwich PTA Council is a nonpartisan umbrella organization made up by and for 15 PTAs with just under 4,000 PTA families who care about the schools. I'm going to start by observing that tonight we celebrated the PTAC celebrated uh BOE appreciation night. Uh and we left you with some small gifts there on the table. um you might get a night uh but the last week was teacher appreciation week. So PTA's celebrated and lavish appreciation on our teachers doing our best to show the teachers the love and support and reflecting all the love and support that they give our students and schools every day of every year. Meanwhile, the BET members who could have called a
018special meeting last Monday to rec reconsider better funding the schools didn't, leaving an elephant-sized mess right on top of teacher appreciation week. They also messed on the BOE, leaving you all to clean up that $4.5 million pole. and based based on faulty numbers and bad assumptions. The elephant is in the room cuz it's a circus. To be clear, the PTAC and PTA community does not fault the BOE or GPS administration for doing the dirty work necessary to clean up that mess. BET forced this rushed development of costcutting options, rushed decisions, heightened tension and division, choosing the lesser of many evils. In the middle of teacher appreciation week, the BOE, albeit reluctantly, passed cost cutting measures that would eliminate 21 FTEEs, that's people in English, who directly or indirectly impact the educational experience of the students,
019the lives and the workloads of our teachers, and the community connection between our schools and our families. you just took the House restructuring off the table. Nonetheless, there's other budget cutting options uh that have been done and are to be considered that are big changes with some perhaps predictable and other totally unknowable ramifications. They are burdensome and disruptive. It has this decision process has been rushed and the implementation would be rushed as well particularly uh it as you consider axing whole budget buckets as Dr. Benango just said, "We would suggest you also consider that there are almost certainly opportunities to take a pairing knife rather than an axe and carve out and salvage some of the better parts. That's the people who support the students all within the cost cutting options that within all of
020the cost cutting options that have been presented that have been discussed and are still to be discussed. And as a final note, we urge you to keep the off the table items off the table. With that, enjoy your BOE appreciation night. Sorry, the BET elephant messed it all up and you have to clean it up. Thank you for your public service. Thank you for your for your comments. Uh appreciate it as always. Um for those of you who have logged on um since since we had a quick discussion here um up the front of the room um there are 47 individuals who have signed up to speak 21 of them are students and we typically allow our students to go first so they can get home to uh do their homework and on all sorts
021of other uh educational processes. Um, so especially as we simply have an hour to start with, even if we go slightly over, it still will require people to come speak at the end. The board of education took a straw poll. We have not taken an official vote, but uh the straw poll had seven of us against uh a reduction to and a change to the Greenwich High School House uh structure. So if you are signed up to speak and your name is called and you are coming up to speak in support of not making that reduction, I would ask you kindly to um seed the time to someone who is still speaking on an item that we are still in the process of discussing. Um you are always more than welcome to wait till the
022end to speak or share those comments with us via email. Um we do read all of them even if we have not responded exactly to all of them. there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds that have been coming in. And so, um, I just wanted to reiterate that and ask kindly for, um, for those, uh, individuals to, to, you know, seed their time if possible. And now I'll turn this over to our secretary. So, our first speaker is Sebastian Hess, age five. And since he may have trouble being heard at the podium, if he wants to, uh, Oh, they got a school. All right. take it away. Good evening. My name is Sebastian Hes. I'm five years old. I'm a kindergarter at Costco school. I'm I'm thank I'm speaking tonight to thank you
023for protecting second grade Alp. Some grown-ups think young kids don't need help. I think they do. My big sister Sabrina needed help in second grade, and I wanted to be there if I needed. Kids learn at different rates and that's okay. It's hard for teachers when kids have very different needs and some of us want to read chapter books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We also want to do harder math. AL makes it easier for all kids to learn the right level. Alp is really important even in second grade. Thank you for saving it. Our next speaker is Riona McCurs. Good evening, members of the board of education and Dr. Jones. My name is Rihanna McCursy and I'm a junior at Greenwich High School. I'm speaking tonight in favor of a 7:45 a.m. start
024time. But first, I would like to thank you for reconsidering the JHS House restructuring. In terms of the 7:45 a.m. start time, I support that versus the 7:30 a.m. start time. As president of four clubs at JHS, I can tell you from firstirhand experience that an earlier start time would be detrimental to the communities and achievements of GHS clubs. With the elimination of flex time, competition amongst the 120 plus clubs for meeting times significantly increased. As many students play sports, the 7:30 start time would cause issues for many clubs with an increase in competition for meeting times between clubs and sports teams. Clubs are an important part of GHS, bring prestige to the school, and aid in college acceptance. So, the extra 15 minutes would make a significant difference for many student clubs. Decreased attendance
025will mean the end of many clubs and their achievements. As a student at GHS, I sincerely urge you to consider the impacts of these decisions, not just to current GHS students, but to the teachers, staff, and future Greenwich High School students. Thank you. Next up is Martin Lip. After Martin is Haley Dibus if she would like to also make her way over to the uh podium. Oh no, that's crazy. Okay. Hi. Um, so I had a speech prepared for now, but um, seeing as you've decided your seem largely in agreement to uh, not consider cutting Caner House, um, I will be making up a speech um, instead. Um, so first I would like to thank you for um, not considering the Cody Pander House. The resources that the house has provided me as I am
026a member of it have been immensely valuable in both my school life and my process towards applying towards college. Uh however that means I have something else I'm here to ask you for and that is as late as possible a start time because I already have to wake up very early comparatively due to medical reasons and other such things and allow um forcing students to wake up up to an hour earlier would be incredibly detrimental to their mental health and to their ability to get extra help in the mornings. especially when you consider that um most students end up going to bed far later than they should due to excessive homework and other extracurricular uh responsibilities. Um so in summary, uh I'm just here to ask you to um let me wake up as late
027as possible because I would like to protect my mental health and I would like to give students the ability to get help when they need it and to be able to be their best selves for the school day. Um, obviously so long as it doesn't interfere with cutting Caner House because I do like that house. Um, as I said, I'm making up the speech as I go. Thank you. All righty. Next up, Haley Divas. I said that correctly. Uh, board superintendent Tony Jones. Similarly, as Martin, I had a speech prepared um to help you guys reconsider cutting Caner House. Uh I, as a junior in Canor, I'm entering my college process and removing our counselors that we've been getting to know for three years would be detrimental to not only our recommendation letters, but also
028to all of those experiences that we've built. Um I also personally had um notes in my speech about supporting the 7:30 start time. I know that the high school in the past had historically had a 7:30 um start time and the start time was moved down uh based on studies that said uh test scores would be improved uh with lower start times. But the 7:30 start time going back to it, we would be getting out almost an hour earlier, providing students with ample enough time to get their work done, make it to their extracurriculars, and be able to go to bed earlier. Right now, I get out of school, I go straight to work, go straight to my extracurriculars, get home at about 9:00, and then I start my homework. If I got out that
029hour earlier, I would be able to be so much more productive before I have to go to my job, to my training, or uh to gyms, which I am also a part of, and I would able to be go to bed at maybe 9:30, 10 instead of 11:30, 12, which I do go to bed at some nights. Uh so please if you'd considered 7:30 start time and obviously you took a informal vote but please keep those uh informal voices and turn them into formal voices and keep Caner House because as Caner students we are all immensely in love with our administration and we would hate to see them go. Thank you. Uh next up we have Ignasio Aldante. Ald Alunate, I apologize. Followed by Samaya Dawkins. Um, hi. Uh, my speech also mostly consisted about
030not cutting Caner House. Um, the whole of the Ker staff is incredibly important to me. Um, they've helped me grow as a person, as a student, and I just couldn't see myself in high school without all of them. Um, when it comes to my speech, there's one part I really would like to still say. Uh, and I think that could the consideration of cutting the staff really sent the community a message um that our uh education is negotiable and I really think it isn't. Um, we the students only get one shot at a high school education and the decisions you make with these cuts um shape me and my fellow students future. Um, so please I ask you to take into consideration that these cuts aren't just like numbers on a spreadsheet. Um, but they
031are the future and of my education and the livelihoods of all our staff. Uh, thank you so much for your time. Uh, um, the next up is Somaya Dawkins. If she's she's at a concert. Okay. So, she's having a better time than the rest of us. Uh, how about Thomas TJ Duncan? Hello. Um, I also had a big speech prepared, but I would just like to begin by saying I want to sincerely uh thank you for your decision to keep all the houses of Greenwich High School. As a senior, I've experienced how much the house system matters. It's more than just a structure. It's a a support system and it helps students feel known, cared for, and guided throughout their high school career. Being part of Caner House had a huge impact on me. The
032relationships I've built in my four years with my counselors, social workers, thank you, Miss Finn, and the staff have helped me through challenges and shaped who I am today. I know many other students who definitely feel the same way as me. As the new hot topic is the 7:30 start time, I ask you to consider and listen to the students stories as they will be heavily affected. Not really me though. Um what some might overlook though is the major effect that it will have on our educators. Um my current science teacher Mr. Baxley has discussed this topic with me and he uh very clearly stated how his two daughters will also be very affected as he has to find a new way to transport them to school as he has to get to school very
033early. I wish not to see more struggles between teachers and students. So please take that into consideration. Your vote on the House restructure shows that you value those connections and understand how important they truly are. I'm very grateful for your leadership and your commitment to our school and community. Thank you. Next up is Nicholas Sosa followed by Nala. I will put Thank you. Well, good evening. My name is Nicholas Sosa, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak here tonight on this pressing issue. I want to speak specifically about the 7:30 a.m. start time. I believe that it's not the perfect solution, but it's a responsible one. We are currently facing a large budget gap. By moving to a 7:30 a.m. start, we can save approximately $2.5 million through transportation efficiencies without cutting teachers, reducing course
034offerings, or eliminating arts and enrichment programs. That is a strategic choice that puts students in classrooms first. I understand the concerns. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends later start times, but let's examine that more closely. The CDC's youth risk behavior survey found that over 70% of high school students sleep less than eight hours regardless of when school starts. Screen time, homework, and social schedules play major roles. In other words, later doesn't always mean better. The Sleep Health Journal's 2020 meta analysis confirms this nuance. It found that while later start times can potentially increase sleep duration, the actual benefit depends heavily on students nighttime habits, not just the morning bell. Later starts only help when paired with behavioral change, something no schedule alone can guarantee. Even the Rand Corporation, a leading think tank, concluded in its
0352017 economic analysis that later start times only provide benefits when implemented without cutting into critical services. Their model showed that if you shift start times but lose teachers or academic programs in this process, the long-term harm outweighs the short-term gain. And that's exactly what's at stake here in Greenwich. Let's not forget that Derenne High School starts at 7:40. New KN&N starts at 8 and both communities continue to thrive. Greenwich students are capable of adapting, especially if it means keeping our classroom strong and our teachers supported. To our educators, this proposal protects your positions. It keeps the integrity of the learning environment intact. This is a special shout out, but to our media assistants, we stand with you. And to my fellow students, this is an early start, yes, but it's a worthy one because it
036protects what truly matters, opportunity, academic equality, and stability. So, let's not sacrifice the excellence for the illusion of perfection. And let's support the 7:30 start and invest in the heart of our schools, the classrooms, the teachers, and the media assistants. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Nala, followed by Owen Benninsson. Hi, good afternoon. I was also going to talk about the house removal, but I Oh, sorry. Um, I was also going to talk about the house removal, but since you guys all voted, I appreciate that very much cuz Sorry. Um, I just want to take the time to shout out Miss Shaw, Miss Finn, um, Miss Mrea, Miss Al, and all of them. They've helped me so much throughout the whole time. Sorry. They've helped me out so much, and I was honestly
037stressed this whole week. Um, that they the house was going to get removed, that I wasn't going to have the support I do. I honestly spend my entire I honestly spend even my entire time in school with the Caner House. Um, I'm always in Michelle's office bothering her, taking her snacks and everything and Miss Finn helped me get involved with the community with Greenidge United Way and I was able to get into um a lot of programs outside of school. So, I just wanted to take the time to thank you for considering keeping all the houses and that the students appreciate appreciate it very much. Thank you. So, next is Owen, if he's in the crowd or online. Is Owen here or online? If you're online, can you raise your hand? Okay, maybe Owen is
038uh getting some rest. Um, next is Chloe Ribinowitz, followed by Reese Ribowitz. Um, hi. So uh we also had a speech prepared about the cutting cander house. Um so I want to thank you all for making the decision and I still want to share quickly that the importance um the guidance counselors and the staff have on us. Um specifically my guidance counselor Miss Hinckley has been one of the most important people in my life. She hasn't just helped me with college applications or class schedules. She's helped me through family struggles, heartbreak rejection rejections and acceptances. She knew me well enough to write a letter of recommendation that felt like it was written by someone who saw all of me, not just my transcript. That relationship didn't happen overnight. It was built over time through check-ins,
039conversations, and real connections. That's what the house system gives students. Consistency, community, and someone who knows their name before senior hits. I'm happy now that the house system will remain and other students will get to experience what I had and my sister will also get to experience what I had. Um, hi. I'm Reese Venowitz. I also had a speech prepared, but um that doesn't really need to be said anymore. Um, but thank I just want to say thank you. Next up, thank you, is uh Gabriel Elaz, followed by Dylan Amoa. Gabe is currently having a little medical issue. Are we here now? uh kind of I I just want to preface this by saying I was at the hospital for like eight hours today. So I'm sorry if I'm a little shaky. Um I also
040had a speech prepared but that's um now away. Now, when I start talking, I would like to speak um primarily about one thing, and that's the importance of listening. Um now, when the BET did decide to cut $4 million, um from what I've read, the lack of communication that did occur in the BET led to it being a $4 million cut instead of a $2 million cut. And that's simply because no one wanted to cooperate. Now, so if we're here today and we actually want to, you know, or we have to cut this money, I think it's really important that listening actually occurs because if listening occurred at the BET meeting, we could only be looking at a $2 million deficit in lie of a $4 million deficit. And now when we did look at
041this $4 million deficit, I was I to be quite frank, I was very disappointed in the um solutions that were presented. You know, the very first things that were on the table to be cut were all related to high school student mental health. And you know, in the wake of the three deaths that occurred at GHS, I think that this was the completely wrong direction to go. The first thing that was looked at was um what was it? It was cutting Caner House, which would eliminate counselors and psychologists. I mean, when my French teacher passed away, it was those very psychologists that pulled me from my class without, you know, causing a fuss or anything and exempted me from the four tests I had that day. And exempt me from the four tests I had
042that day and, you know, made the day go from an impossible one to a bearable one. And then in the wake of the death of a student, you know, you look at cutting um student start times, which is proven to help student mental health. And I mean, when you look at moving the start time to 7:30, that's with the automatic assumption that students have great time management when when you consider that um I don't doubt that many teachers can vouch for submission times, but that simply doesn't exist. So, I I don't think that moving the the start time either is a great idea, especially when all of this could have been avoided with simple communication from the BET. 30 seconds. Okay. Um I I really stress how important it is to listen because, you know,
043instead of facing a $4 million deficit, we could have been facing a $2 million deficit. And I don't think it's right to look at a lot of these solutions that would affect the entire school year when you know you can maybe look at I mean Miss Miss Ball, Miss Karen Ball, she went through the line items and I think it was 51309 or something along those lines which included uh crosscountry flights and instead we look at you know cutting um student mental health support in a time where we have so much unprecedented death in school. So yeah, that's all I have to say. Uh, so next we have uh Zara I'm going to say this terribly. Hawk cake. Thank you. And followed by Toby Leonard. Can everyone hear me? Yeah, perfect. Zara was first. Oh,
044someone said it. Oh, okay. You're here. We'll take it. Um, first of all, I want to thank everyone for showing up. Um, I know everyone here has incredibly busy lives and with all the APs and tests going on, uh, teachers and students alike, it's very very uh, a good indication of the health of our uh, sort of structure that people feel like not only they have the time um, but they have the means and the ability to have their opinions uh, heard and uh, carried out uh, by this board. So, thank you everyone for showing up uh and thank you board for all the great work that you've done up until this point. I've had very very few complaints throughout my high school career in terms of uh the work that you've done. So, uh
045thank you for that. Um as it comes to the Caner House, um thank you for the vote that you've done. But when I saw that that was even an thing that was considered in the first place, um I was I was kind of shocked because the role of a board of education is obviously to um ensure the quality and um sort of streamlining of education for everyone. and seeing such um I guess an admission of defeat in that goal um sort of it made me question um the confidence that you guys had in your ability to carry out your jobs. And so I thank you for taking it off the um taking it off consideration, but I implore you in the future to please try and limit um even bringing to the table anything that
046could possibly interfere with like the the learning experience. Um, following up on what Gabe said, I think that there is a lot of fat that can still be trimmed from, um, the current budget cuts, uh, there was a lot of expenditure in terms of personal development and, uh, training for teachers. Um, I believe that there are, um, quite extensive resources in house and, um, going outside the school for a lot of these, uh, professional development days, um, seems like a waste of money. Now, I'm not going to pretend like I'm the most qualified to make um any sort of comments on the budget that you've done. You've you've obviously put a lot of time and effort into it and the shortterm notice of these uh these cuts definitely played a role um in sort of
047the how this was carried out. But I really really please do implore you to consider anything that would not directly um negatively affect students lives and students abilities to further their education. We we trust in our board. That's why um a lot of people don't show up to regular board meetings because as students and um as members of the district, we have trust in the institutions that have been appointed to represent us and carry out our best interest. And to an extent, I think that's like the best way it should be. But when those institutions don't have our best intentions in mind, that sort of undermines the whole trust that we have in the system. So I would please beg you to um review the budget overview and uh look to where you can trim
048other things that don't impact student lives as much as they do. Um and then thank you again for everything that you've uh you've done. The vote today was great. a great show of uh just coming to a democratic situ conclusion in a tough situation. So, thank you and I yield the rest of my time. I have somehow lost uh Dylan or no. Yeah, I lost Dylan. Is Dylan here? That was Dylan. Oh, that was Dylan. Oh, so I haven't missed anybody. Zara, you're next. Um good evening. My name is Zara Huck and I'm a senior at Greenwich High School. I am deeply thankful for this opportunity to have my voice heard in my school district's budgeting and planning. Like many of my peers, I too had a speech planned for tonight. However, considering the board's
049decision to remove the issue of dissolving a GHS house from the table, I no longer need to give that speech. That said, this is a moment that I will always remember. a moment where my elected officials listened to their constituents and showed me that our town does value education, excellence, and support. Though there is always more work to be done, at this time, I would like to sincerely thank you for your thoughtful reconsider reconsideration of how to balance the budget. Thank you, Zara. Now is uh we have Chase Nef followed by Sora Singh. Are they in the house? Oh, did I skip Toby? Is that who I have? That's all right. Okay. Sorry. And if the other two are here, you'll be next. Um, you have three minutes. Thank you. Good evening. My name is
050Toby Leonard. I'm a junior at Greenwich High School. And I wanted to thank the board for reconsidering their decision to cut Caner House. I think it was a great decision and I thank you for your consideration. Um, again like my peer Dylan, I have some ideas about what else could be cut in lie of important resources like counselors. Um, namely a project for furnishings and program space equipment at Greenwich High School, uh, account code 680. There are $300,000 allocated for new furniture at GHS. And as a student of GHS, I can tell you that I think we're doing all right and we can hold off on that for now. How much was that? $300,000 it says the current requests. But good work. Thank you. Thank you. A for him. Okay. Uh, who did I say
051is next? Chase Nef is followed by Sierra Singh. Honorable Board of Education, I am Chase Nef, an 11th grader at Greenwich High School. Uh, first of all, I would like to thank you greatly for not cutting Caner House and all the amazing, wonderful staff that they have. And since this is no longer an item, I would like to shift my talk to the focus of a 7:30 start time at Greenwich High School. Um, first of all, while students potentially, as some of my fellow students have said, do not obtain enough sleep with or without um a late start time, a study by NAD at all called sleep health finds that 8:30 start times saved an average of 46 minutes of sleep for teens. While this does not sound like much, this amount saved is actually
052a big deal. Uh, studies find that teenagers circadian rhythm are one of the most impacted times of their lives, and it allows for the best sleep between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. This is made impossible by early start times. Um, in addition to this, early start times for high school have links with much higher rates of car crashes. One study showed that more than 520 high school sleepreated accidents occurred in an early starttime district. And while the CDC recommends 8 hours of sleep, on average 77% of students in early sight time districts do not have enough sleep as the 8 hours that is recommended on a daily basis. This contributes to more than 6,400 drowsy driving crashes in the US each year. fatal dy drowsy driving crashes in the US each year
053with the highest rates among 16 to 24 year olds. In conclusion, while this suggestion may save money, I would argue it's more important to save lives. And as others have mentioned, there are other unfortunate but necessary ways to save money that do not impact either the health and livelihood of teenagers at schools as well as the employment opportunities of teen teachers. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Shia Singh. I'm a junior at Caner House at Greenwich High School. And as many of my peers, I had a speech planned regarding the potential restructuring of the houses. However, I'm beyond grateful that the board has opted against a rush restructure of our house system. I do believe that moving the start time to 7:30, while not optimal, would be practical. We face $2.5 million in deficit and this
054change is the most painless. Changing the house system would change the core of the school and result in major inefficiencies considering the short time frame it has to be done by. Furthermore, as my friend as my friend Gabriel said, doing this in the wake of the deaths of three people in the ghs community is ridiculous. Additionally, changing the start time can have benefits for the students. Connecticut winters are harsh and students who do extracurricular activities like sports are those most harmed by this. Being released at 2 p.m. gives students an extra hour to participate in extracurriculars, another key facet of what makes our school so great. Moving the start time back would accordingly allow students to be more involved in the ghs community. Again, while not what I prefer, as I myself do not get
055enough sleep, I do believe that this is the best way for the school to go to move forward. Thank you. Next up, we have Axel Harrison and then Maline Jones. Uh, I'm Axel Pson, a junior at Greenwich High School. I would like to yield my time tonight as I know you guys have a lot to do, but I'd like you all to know that you have left a tangible impact on the Greenwich High School community forever for for attaining this um crucial part of the Greenwich High School culture and um education. And I'd also like to encourage the BET and the BOE to stop voting on um political lines and instead vote uh for what they think is right and for the interests of their students and constituents at Greenwich High School. Thank you. Is
056Mattaline in the house? Oh, I think so. Hi, I'm Maddie Jones, the president of the sophomore class. With that, I understand many aspects of our school and how it would function best. I would like to first thank you for keeping the Caner House. I too had a bit written here for that, but I can skip it over now. Um, I would like to speak against the idea of cutting more teachers. This would cause class sizes to dramatically increase, resulting in teachers having to handle more students and classes would overall be chaos. Even now, there are times where teachers are unable to have a class become quiet for large portions of the class. This issue would not this issue would become dramatically worse if more teachers were cut in the next year. But above all else,
057above all else, the productivity of the classes would become worse and become and us students would become less educated. Our classes have been increasing every year and cutting more teachers is not the solution. There would be less help put towards our education that is so important in these fundamental years. My education is my future and I don't want it to be compromised. Thank you for your time. Next up is Charles Gulliner and then uh that is our last student and uh and then it will be uh Mr. Mayo after Charles. Okay. Dear members of the board of education, 2750. That's how many students go to go to Greenwich High School. And that's how also how many cranky students you'll have in the building next year if you move our start time to 7:30 or 7:45.
058My name is Charles Goliner and I'm one of the class presidents at Greenwich High School. I'm here to speak on behalf of myself and many of my peers who are deeply concerned about the proposal to change our school start time from 8:30 a.m. to either 7:45 or even 7:30 a.m. I understand the urgency of the financial situation with more than $4 million needing to be cut from the district's operating budget and I recognize that transportation costs are a major line item. However, I urge you to reconsider changing the start time as a solution. The proposal may save money, but it comes at a high cost to student health, learning, and safety. Costs that cannot and should not to be measured in dollars alone. We've come a long way since Greenwich High School made the decision
059to an 8:30 a.m. start time for the school. That change was based on overwhelming research and supported by national organizations like the American Academy of Academy of Pediatrics, the Center for Disease Control, and American Medical Association, all of which recommend that high school starts no earlier than 8:30 a.m. This is not about students being tired. It's about how adolescent brains function. Teener teenagers experience a natural shift in their internal clocks when entering high school. We physically can't fall asleep much earlier earlier than 10 p.m. And asking us to be alert and ready to learn at 7:30 a.m. is is like asking one of you to be sharp and productive at 3:30 in the morning without coffee. It's not um it's it's not just difficult, it's neurologically out of sync with how our bodies work. Before
060the shift to 8:30, students struggled not with not not just with fatigue, but with real consequences. chronic tardiness, falling asleep in class, difficult concentrating, and rising rates of stress and anxiety. Since the change, many of us have have experienced better sleeping sleep patterns, improved focus, and greater in a greater ability to balance school with extracurriculars, jobs, and family responsibilities. Reser reversing this progress would be a disservice to the very people our school are meant to serve, the students. This isn't just a short-term budget issue. It's a long-term health and education issue. We are asking you to be bold enough to find creative alternatives to budget savings that do not sacrifice student sleep. Whether it's exploring phased solutions over multiple years or reconsidering smaller reductions in a broader range of areas, we believe there are better
061options. As students, we already face enough challenges from high academic expectations to balancing extracurriculars, college applications, social lives, and mental health. We ask you please not to make it harder for us to show up ready to learn. Keep the 8:30 keep the 8:30 a.m. start time. Protect the progress we've made and keep student health, safety, and academic success at the center of your decision-m. And also, do you really want to do deal with 2750 cranky teenagers in the morning? I don't. I know I don't. So, please don't change the start times. Thank you for your time and commitment to our school community. Thank you. All right, Mr. Mayo, my speech in the bag as well. I do have it though, folks. I have my speech with me. Um, on behalf of the staff, Backley, students
062of Grange High School, I'd like to thank the board for its decision to take the restructuring of Greenwich High School off the table. Thank you so much. We deeply appreciate it. Next up, we've got Amy Har, followed by Jim Healey. Good evening, everyone. Um, I'm Amy Har. I was the parent of a GHS student with a 7:30 start time and a 6:30 a.m. pickup. The days were marked by exhaustion, triage, and stress for four years. And then I had another high schooler with an 8:30 start time which felt radically healthier and more normal. In fact, we had forgotten how great normal could feel. I know the BOE is in a tough position, but I implore you to not make any more cuts and rather declare an emergency to the BET to revert to um revisit
063their $2 million compromise. I mean, what has materially changed since then? If the BET refuses, then the BOE must take changing GHS start times off the table. Sorry, guys. Um, and here's why. First, and most critically, it would be almost certainly a permanent change. Start times shape a community's ecosystem, transportation, extracurriculars, family logistics, business, everything. Once that's locked in, moving start times back to 8:30 would require specifically allocated future budget increases and major stakeholder coordination. Highly unlikely. Second, it's mind-blowingly irresponsible to consider unilaterally just reverting school start times without full due diligence and datadriven costbenefit analyses examining the short and long-term impact on our students. Third, early start times guarantees harmed students through institutionally forced sleep deprivation. We've just learned about circadian rhythms. This isn't opinion, it's biology confirmed by all sleep experts. That means
064students who want to get sufficient sleep will actually be denied the option. Um, I mean, I respect the students who spoke here, but they haven't lived through it. Uh, who wanted earlier start times, but they haven't lived through it and often don't understand till they have to live day after day. But what they should understand is the risks of sleep deprivation are severe and well documented. We've seen them firsthand. And no parent wants these for their kids. Higher risk of depression, anxiety, injuries, poor academics, more car crashes, and tragic ones for young teens. um higher stimulant use, Red Bull Aderal, illicit drugs, junk food habits to keep the energy up and compensate for uh no breakfast often uh at 6:00 a.m. permanent biological damage. Yes, it's confirmed that developmental processes lost to lack of sleep
065cannot be caught up on weekends. They are lost forever. Lastly, today's savings will lead to tomorrow's costs from ER visits, mental health services, public safety issues, reduced lifetime earnings, um, more and more. But since these won't appear on the BET's ledger, they're ignored. So, I want to reiterate, changing GHF start times will not be a temporary measure for this year's budget. It will be a permanent change without any due diligence or stakeholder feedback. And let's be clear, Greenwich is one of the wealthiest towns in the US and has the fourth lowest property tax rate out of 169 towns in Connecticut. Okay. Sorry. Anyway, please do the right thing. If you have additional comments, you're more than welcome to submit them to us in email. Okay. Thank you. Next up is uh Jim Healey followed by
066Wheatly Dunham. Uh good evening. Um, as Amy mentioned, we have two sons that went through the Greenwich school system. And the reason we're here tonight is we're afraid how this meeting is going to play out. We are worried that the BET will put the BOE in an untenable position. We all understand that. Of having to choose among some very bad options for our students. We're worried that the BOE knows that rolling back school start times will harm high school students, but that it ha but it will say that it has no choice. It has to be fiscally responsible. Then in expressing how sad it is to do this, I'm afraid it will vote to roll back school start times and the damage will be done won't just be done this year. it will be done
067for in the years in the future as well. If that's how it plays out, I would tell you it is unethical. Rolling back, and you'll hear this later tonight, rolling back school start times is the single most damaging thing you can do to the greatest number of students. The Republican block of the BET bullied its budget through against the objections of the Democrats on the BET, the first selectman who's a Republican, the Republican and Democratic vast majority is the RTM, of course, the BOE and the Democrat and Republicans parents that came out to complain. So my question to you is how do you what would you advise somebody to do when they're up against a bully? And I think you have to stand up to the bully. What do you do when an authority figure
068tells you to do something that is morally wrong? You follow your conscience. That is what you should do. I'm here tonight to urge you to fight back. Now the question is how do you fight back? Now I have one proposal. I propose that you cut whatever you can. And when you really cut it down to the bone. I propose that to fill the gap we and I would help would immediately launch a save school start time fund and it would be supported by local philanthropy in the community. That would require community effort, but it is so worth it. To help ensure the success and as an incentive and fundraising, Amy and I received confirmation from a charity that we're involved with today where it would commit to donate a matching $200,000 after the first $200,000
069is raised in this fund. I regret to tell you you are out of time. If you want to know more, let's talk later. You're more than welcome again to email us with the rest of your comments. Thank you. Uh we've got Wheatley Dunham followed by Katherine McCursy. Good evening. My name is Wheatley Dunham. I'd first like to depart from my prepared remarks to recognize and thank all the amazing teachers, staff, faculty, supporters of our Greenwich Public Schools. You are the heartbeat of our community. Our schools do not exist without you. The work you do, the sacrifices you and your families make, and I want to thank you very much. And next, I'd like to give my appreciation to each and every one of you on this board and to our superintendent who has provided so
070much stability over these years. You work so hard. You put up with so much work. You put up so much grief and I just want to thank you very much. I'm here tonight to urge this board, do not reverse the 8:30 a.m. start times for Greenwich High School. I'm here as a father of three GHS grads, all Caner house. I see a lot of familiar and friendly faces here tonight. I'm also a PTA volunteer in the past and a retired Greenwich volunteer firefighter. We talked about crashes. I sadly went to too many and I'll never forget those faces. We know you didn't ask for these shocking budget cuts. You don't want to be here. We don't want to be here. This is not your call. This is purely on the backs of the BET. They
071didn't listen to you and they're not listening to our community. This isn't about buses or budgets. It's about the health, safety, and future of our students. Reversing to reversing start times before 8:30 a.m. would be a medically wrong step backwards and one that could carry tragic consequences. We've heard this tonight. Let's be clear, the science is settled. Teachers experience a biological shift in sleep during puberty. Waking them at 6:00 a.m. or a 7:30 start is the biological equivalent of waking an adult at 4:00 a.m. Can we do it when we travel? Is it something we can do for an entire school year? It's rough. It's hard. Chronic sleep deprivation increases risk of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, drowsy driving crashes, sports injuries, and impaired learning. The data is there. Please read it. see my letter. Major
072health authorities, the American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC, and the AMA all agree high school should start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. If you go in between at 7:45 or 8, it's like taking half a dose of an antibiotic. You're not there. You're not following the doctor's advice. Greenwich filed this guidance in 2007 after years of community debate and expert input. the results. Better sleep, better outcomes, and a string of academic and athletic successes, including many state champions. You're out of time. I'm sorry. The rest of your remarks to us. Thank you. Thank you for your consideration. Uh we have Katherine McCursy followed by Amanda Finn. Good evening, Chair Hirs, Board of Education members, Dr. Jones GPS teachers, staff, administrators, and the community of Greenwich. My name is Katherine Mccersie. I'm the parent of a fifth
073grade cost cop student and a junior at GHS. I'm also PTAC first VP, but my remarks are strictly my own this evening. If you must change start time, everyone needs to remember that we are breaking what is not broken. I don't support breaking what's not broken. And notably, this suggestion was not offered prior to budget reductions. Thank you for saving the F house structure. And now I have a general comment for the community listening this evening. I'm a relative newcomer to Greenwich, having moved here in 2012. While superintendent turnover has stabilized, from the outside looking in, things here look shaky, not stable. lurching from budget problem to budget problem, lawsuit to lawsuit, drama to drama. When I speak to family and friends elsewhere, I'm kind of embarrassed to tell them the latest. I'm proud to
074share news about ALP, but I avoid sharing how these kids are used like ping pong balls. No one minds using their test scores. arts, music, physical education, counselors, administrators, library professionals, teachers, I could go on and on, are all being picked on and thrown out, not just this year, but in budget discussion after budget discussion. What on earth is going on in Greenwich? This can be justified and explained away, but my question to this entire community is, is this who we are? People in communities with much less capacity head to BOE meetings to hear about programs, discuss and debate curriculum, listen to the latest accomplishments. But here we are meeting after meeting like this. Painful and sad. Unnecessarily painful and sad. I worry about what this is teaching our kids who are worried and distracted
075by this. and they are worried and distracted by this. By the way, I worry about teachers, staff, administrators, distracted and worried. And I worry about next year and the year after that and the ones after that. And if you've been paying attention, Dr. Jones and her team are very worried about next year, too. If something does not change, all of this will not change. I don't have the answers, but I want all of us to get back to education and the wondrous capacity our schools and the people in them have to change our world for the better. Teach our kids what compromise looks like. Teach our kids how to find solutions. Just let teachers teach kids. Thank you. Do we have Amanda Finn? Hi. Where's that stool? No, I'm just kidding. Um, okay. So, I
076did also write a speech about the cutting of a house, but I'm going to pivot a little bit. Please bear with me. My name is Amanda Finn. I'm the school social worker in Caner House and a proud proud GHS graduate, class of 2002. I'm a lifelong Greenwich resident. My pride in this community runs deep and so does my belief in our education system's ability to foster connection and belonging. That spirit is embodied in the ghs house system. And I just want to side comment here. All personnel at our schools are in this community and depend on this connection. So please, wherever I say the houses or the house team, I'm referring to the media center assistants. I'm referring to the administrative administrative assistants um and everyone. So, this isn't just philosophy. It's grounded in decades
077of research. Adolescents with consistent, caring relationships with adults are less likely to engage in risky behaviors like substance use, early sexual activity, and delinquency. Dr. Bruce Perry, a world-renowned expert in trauma and brain development, puts it simply, "Positive adult connections are not just beneficial, they are essential." It is through human connection that the brain develops, trauma is repaired, and resilience is built. Each team's work is deeply individualized and student centered. I've stood in students living rooms with counselors, deans, administrators, and special ed teachers encouraging kids to to attend school. We collaborate with doctors, therapists, and crisis teams when a child is at risk of suicide or self harm. We've ridden in ambulances with them, sat beside them in hospital beds, and develop plans to ensure a smooth re-entry to school. Mental health care requires a
078coordinated team effort with the very roles that are at risk of being cut. With the loss of critical positions, our ability to do this work with that level of attention and care would would be impossible. In addition to PPTs, 504 meetings, staffings, parent and teacher meetings, MTSS sessions, and regular communication with families and outside providers, each member of the house team also guides students through difficult decisions, tough conversations, and provides support as they navigate friendship issues, family conflict, and personal crisis. Our office suites serve as a home base for countless students who come and go throughout the day simply because of the trusted relationships we've built with them. We provide a safe space for every student. We listen. We validate. We nurture. Legally, we stand in loco parents in the place of a parent. During
079the school hours, we are entrusted with children's safety, well-being, and emotion emotional care as if they were our own. Now ask yourself this. Would you want the s support system around your own child to be taken away? The more access students have to safe and consistent, supportive adults, I'm sorry, you're out of time. Oh, there's like two sentences. Go ahead. Finish. Okay. The better off they will be. Eliminating a house and key staff will have immediate and lasting consequences, especially for our most vulnerable children. Some of our students have spoken to you tonight and I hope you listened carefully because the decisions you make here will shape the rest of their lives. Okay, next up uh Jessica von Broccol followed by Craig Hanapari. Oh, hello our friends. Hello. Um, good evening board members, Dr. Jones,
080and my many colleagues from the Greenwich Public School System, and some of my students. I'm Jessica von Brockl. I'm a ghs parent, a graduate, a Greenwich resident and taxpayer, and I'm a teacher at Greenwich High School. I'm concerned that some of the decisions that might appear to be best for students are not and the decisions might be made without full consideration of all of the implications. The house restructure, for example, was a serious option until you heard the whole story. What I ask is that each of you put aside your initial biases, regardless of how experienced you are or how much you've heard or researched about a topic. I ask you to inquire and explore before you make decisions that will impact all of us for years to come. Do your research. Question your assumptions.
081Put things in context. For example, is the later start time really more beneficial than the other supports, some of which Amanda just talked about, would have would sorry that we would lose through other cuts. I am not arguing the science that says it's better for kids to sleep later. It is better. And I'm not arguing with some of the other statistics that people brought up. But in practice and in context, the later schedule has also added different stressors and put strain on other parts of student and family life. I experience it myself. And frankly, kids don't appear to be doing better. So without a holistic examination of what the student experience is, I'm not convinced that the start time as a standalone is doing the job that some people think it is doing. I don't
082know if it's going to bring us a net improvement in our children's happiness and health. And now that we're talking about taking the reorganization of the houses off the table, I fear where else we're going to find those cuts. And just looking at Nala talking to talking about Miss Shaw, you can see that every single individual is important. Whether it's the media assistant or it's an administrator, administrators are not topheavy parts of our organization. Every single person is a part of the health of our students. So I'm afraid of what will come at the expense of keeping the start time 8:30. And I hope that you will really take the time to be objective and study it in context before you make a decision that would put so much else at risk. Thank you. So
083if Craig uh Konopari is in the house, he will be our last speaker before we conduct our business portion of the meeting and then come back for the remainder of the public comment. We we had 47 speakers sign up. Um we only have as I mentioned before an hour of set aside. I know but you're number 34. So appreciate it. We're we're going in order. It's the last speaker for this portion before we have to get to our discussion. So if you are your name is on this list and you haven't been called yet you are also welcome to send you know your comments to us you know now or just a couple of bullet points specifically. I know it's difficult but we would have more than another hour of public comments. So hello and
084hey uh this is Craig and are you guys able to hear me? We are okay great. Um sorry I couldn't be there in person guys. Um Jim had asked me to speak and it's pleasure to see uh Wheatley as well. Um uh so I I am Dr. Craig Keniperry. I'm a pediatric sleep physician. I'm the director of the Yale Pediatric Sleep Center and an associate professor at Yale Medical School. Um I'm also the father of two adolescents and live in Guilford. uh where I can tell you uh in our town, like many towns in the state, we watched with envy uh when you moved your high school start times from 7:30 to 8:30 in 2016. Uh I was involved in some very small way in that effort. Uh and was very pleased to see such
085a blow for adolescent health being struck. And some of the points I'm going to say are going to reiterate what especially that uh young man in the jacket said. So anyway, I don't remember your name, but kid, you you've got a job at the Yale Sleep Center uh when you finish your education. Um I'm going to just talk a little bit about why this decision could be so impactful on the children in your town. Uh it's already been discussed how teenagers naturally go to bed later. And this is this is just simple biology. This is based on research that occurred in the 80s and 90s demonstrating that adolescence have this later shift in their sleep time and wake time. This is before the era of smartphones, Xboxes, online gaming or social media. And it is
086very clear that the primary driver of how much sleep teenagers get is when they have to get up in the morning. uh study after study has demonstrated that later start times are directly associated with the amount of time that amount of sleep the teenagers get. Um unlike college students, high schoolers cannot take later classes and unlike grown-ups, they can't switch to a different job if they don't like their current job and when they have to go to work or commute to work. Let's take a hypothetical situation. Let's say the board of ed needed to replace the tiles in the ceiling of the high school classrooms. They could save $2 million by using a cheaper material. Unfortunately, the material has some unfortunate side effects. Exposure to it can result in higher blood pressure, obesity, and blood
087sugar. Student athletes exposed to it be more prone to injury, less accurate in free throws, and have worse times in the pool and on the track. will also result in higher levels of anxiety and depression and reduce school attendance time, school attendance standardized test scores and graduation rates. And finally, perhaps most importantly, car accidents will be more common among exposed student drivers. So, who is voting to make this change? Well, voting to go regress to an earlier start time is making the same choice because these are all consequences of chronic sleep deprivation. And uh the young man who spoke about the effect on mental health I think is very timely. The fact is in a town like Greenwich where your children do have a lot of resources. Your standardized test scores are already very high.
088This is I'm sorry you're out of time. It's been three minutes. Okay. You can send the bulk of your comments to the board. I already did. Thank you for having me speak. Okay. Thank you, sir. So we have 17 more speak. We we've reached exactly the hour mark. We have 17 more speakers, I believe, signed up. Um, which if everybody speaks for 3 minutes, it's 51 minutes, not including the time it would take to walk up here. I'm happy to, you know, have a quick discussion, make if the board would want to make a motion to have other 17 people speak now or to wait till the end of the meeting. um you know or ask if though any of those 17 that are still here are only speaking on uh the house to not
089address us but you know thank you I have to have to yeah but so uh I'd be happy to make a mo you know I' make a motion to see if you would like to extend public comment if anybody wants to second that I'll second it well I think Mike did you have a comment or are you looking to second okay well we have two seconders so Um I'm you know happy to take a vote on that if you guys would want to do so. Um asking the those who are signed up to to try to be as considered as possible um in timing. So um Yep. Sure. Because I do think it's I do think it's really important to to hear from everybody on this important topic. I also think the greater community is
090also once really important for them to um get some closure and to be able to point but get some decisions. So I would just strongly encourage um anyone who's um speaking on a subject has been settled uh just to wave your time um and move on um so we can move on to our business. So all those in favor of of extending the public comment section time, raise your hands. Okay, that's a 70. So thank you. uh to the other members of the board. Um we can continue. Uh who's next? In that case, we have Jen Koutai followed by Karen Ball. Is Jen online? She's no one's standing up here. Okay. So, if she's if she comes back on, she can let us know. But, uh I move on. Okay. In that case, Karen Ball
091followed by Alexandra Stevens. Just to reiterate, everyone has three minutes. I can interrupt you with a 30 second if you like. I've been told to behave. I promise. Thank you all. I'm Karen Bald, library media specialist at GHS. I've worked in this district for 29 years. 20 as a library media specialist at the secondary level. The cuts that we have to make must preserve staff to continue to give our students the support and the instruction they need at all levels. Our library media centers at the secondary level have been decimated in the last 5 years. Media specialist positions at the middle school were cut by 50% to elementary school levels. Now they are all facing a 50% cut in their desperately needed support staff. The work to maintain and run each library is not going
092to go down by 50%. That will not change. The available time to support students and staff will. This cut will affect students and student learning, staff and collaboration time at every school K to2 across the district. At GHS, we are averaging 800 student visits every day. 800 kids a day. Our media specialist positions were cut by 25%. We lost a media specialist at GHS. We now have three for 2600 plus students. Supervising the library space from 8:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. requires 1.3 full-time positions. That leaves us 1.7 positions to work with staff, students, classes on research skills, independent reading options, and manage a myriad of requests for collaboration, research, and assistance from staff and students in every direction. Our days are filled with wonderful interruptions from our kids, and we love supporting them, and
093we love supporting our staff. We are stretched to the hilt. We have had to reduce direct research skill instruction time with our sophomores for sophomore research project. That is a graduation requirement. We used to get to 100% of them. Now, we've had to cut that by 70% in direct classroom instructional time because of how we're scheduled and how we have to work. With the media assistant cut that just went through, we will not be able to maintain our before school hours and current schedule. We have had to cut after school hours. We have had to cut 30 seconds other things. When you cut the support staff, understand the work they do and the supervision responsibilities do not go away. The time necessary to do that has to come from other places, forcing choices that absolutely
094impact students and learning. Our media assistants are our extra eyes. They are our extra trusted adults in the media centers. We need them. We need you to reconsider that cut. You can do it. You have the power to do it. three minutes. I'm sorry. Thank you. Good evening. I am a teacher, parent, and taxpayer. My name is Alexander Stevens. 15 years ago, I was offered what I thought was an absolutely fantastic job to be a teacher librarian at the high school in my town. The district was in the top of the one of the top in the state and a community highly invested in their children's education. I would get to spend my working days with teens and books and I would get to engender in those teens a love of reading and the muchneeded
095ability to do research and develop literacy skills. Given my lifelong obsession with books and my 10 years as a big firm litigator who spent countless hours on research, this was a dream come true. I was finally doing something I loved while also contributing to my community. Little did I know that I would spend many of those 15 years trying to justify to that same community the importance of reading and libraries and literacy. Too many times I've had to go before boards of education and fight the proposed elimination of jobs. For years, every time my colleagues and I did that, the board asked important questions, gathered data, and went back to the budget and found the money to support libraries in this district. Something changed four years ago. The BOE appears to have decided that librarians
096and the subject matters they teach, reading, research, and literacy are no longer important or as important. During the past four years, the BOE has eliminated the library media coordinator, four teacher librarians, seven media assistants, and two learning facilitators from our very, very small department. We work with every student in the district. 13 media specialists and assistants, nearly half of the whole department, have received the district's differencemakers award in the past seven months. And yet the cuts continue with two of those difference makers being given pink slips this week. These ongoing cuts have been devastating to our delivery of services to your children. And what about process? Despite being dated 2 days earlier, the document detailing these cuts was not posted until after last week's meeting ended. This suggests a lack of transparency, a lack of
097regard for stakeholder input, and a real lack of fairness to my colleagues who were let go yesterday. You spent just a few moments discussing these cuts and relied on one paragraph in one letter from one union for support. There was no meaningful student input, teacher input, parent input, building administrator input regarding what the impact of those cuts would be on students instruction. Something my union specifically asked you to study before considering any of those cuts. Tonight is opening night of The Little Mermaid at GHS. My son is a senior and he earned the lead role, something he has worked toward for the past 12 years. And I'm not there to celebrate with him, to celebrate his achievement. Instead, I'm here once again trying to convince you that libraries and their staff are integral to education
098in Greenwich. This shows you how much I value the people and department you have cut to the bone. I urge you to do what previous boards have done. That is, please listen to the stakeholder input, reconsider the significant impacts these cuts will have and look at every single budget line item to determine the weight of its impact on direct instruction and the cutting of people that parents, students, and teachers have identified as difference makers in your children's education. And then I'd urge you to bring a motion for reconsideration and vote to rehire the essential these essential personnel, these difference makers you voted to fire last week. Thank you for supporting while teacher speaking but we are trying to we have to be able to actually get to the discussion portion. Thank you. Uh Lindy Lillian
099followed by Karen Gilder. Uh thank you. I am a parent of three adults. I know I'm largely preaching to the choir on this and my intended audience is not here may maybe not listening. Um I thank you all. I applaud your efforts in your difficult task. Um I just want to make sure that we have the history here on the later start time. I experienced it both ways. So did my family. Um I want to make sure it's not just about a line item and logistics. It's about science. It's real science. It was exhaustively studied, presented, discussed, voted on by some of the smartest people I know and respect. Um, it was a huge implementation challenge. And you know, these kids, they've been through COVID, they have they experienced so many challenges to mental health.
100A lot of those weren't even present eight years ago. um we won't be able to change this. It's almost a a practical impossibility if we take it away. Um anecdotally, it'll be rough on our parents, our families, our kids, especially working parents. Um sleep is not a luxury. Sleep is one of the most crucial pieces to good health. In fact, recent research puts quality sleep as one of the two factors way above anything else that promotes health and longevity. Um, I really fear this outcome. We're toying with 2800 developing adolescent brains. A cost a cut of such magnitude should only be made after careful analysis and evaluation of the program and science to date. I urge a solution that reinstates these budget savings, funds this for this year, conditioned on such a study. Um, I'll
101just say again what's been said adnauseium. I cannot believe this horrible pitting of priorities that is being forced upon this community. It is so unnecessary, harmful, disheartening, and shameful. We expect our students to do their homework and come prepared. This is the result of the adults. Our children count on failing to do just that. Please, please, please remember this in November. Next up, we have Karen Gilder, followed by Janet McMahon. Good evening and thank you so much especially for giving us this forum tonight. My name is Karen Gilder and I am the media specialist at Greenidge High School. I a media assistant sorry. Um I want to speak to a statement that was made last meeting specifically with when Dr. Jones mentioned that Gosha and GA supported these changes. This caused a major brewhaha throughout
102the community when that comment was made. Goa and GA have since tried to clarify what they meant, but the bottom line is the leadership in the schools were not asked to comment on the impact of these cuts to their programs. It did not happen. It didn't happen even at the grassroots level. I also want to speak to the timing and the last minute inclusion of these staff position reductions. It seemed disingenuous and I'm sorry to say suspect, especially given that the layoff letters were sent out yesterday afternoon, just one day before the board was scheduled to final finalize their vote and to give everybody a chance to speak to those. Our department has been decimated. If you asked me who at Havier has responsibility for media, I couldn't tell you. I've been here 16 years.
103I am the face of the media center when you walk in the door. Dr. Jones, I don't think you would know me from a hole in the wall. It's just a fact. I have never met you. I have never had a discussion with you. The only person in Havomayer on staff that I knew was Anne Carabella and she's gone. I want to ask one question. Anybody here that is still here that's in a media department, can you please stand? I just would like you to see the faces of people that have been ignored. Ignored and not by any force of your own. I don't know who is in charge of media at Havier. I will tell you that building leadership has come up to all of us to tell us how important we are. We
104are the nurturing studentfacing people that are non-disciplinary that your children come to on a daily basis to find comfort and peace and just a semblance of acceptance in a school certainly in the high school which could get overwhelming. There's a problem and I asked Dr. Jones this the last time 30 seconds the last time we were put on the on the book I asked you to come and talk to us to see to do a postmortem it never happened you don't know what we do that's all I can say just as a reminder um I know I read part of our policy before but just you know please don't make direct attacks on individuals or you know Amy names is just it's part of our policy to not do that. So I would appreciate it.
105Thank you. Is Janet uh in the house or online? Oh, there she is. Good evening, Dr. Jones, Chairman Chairwoman Hirs, members of the board of education and guests. My name is Janet McMahon and while I serve on the RTM and the education committee, tonight I'm speaking to you as a parent of two children in Greenwich Public Schools. First, I'd like to start by saying that I'm sorry that you have been forced into this impossible situation because of the despicable and financially irresponsible actions of the Republican members of the BET. Tonight, as you grapple with the difficult decisions regarding further cuts, I implore you to remember that many cuts deemed non- studententf facing absolutely do have a direct impact on our children's education and well-being. Consider, for instance, the proposed changes to the start times for
106all 15 schools. Since 2016, thousands of families in town have had to adjust to the new start times, and we may now be asked to readjust again. If it was only about an extra hour or half hour of sleep, that would be one thing, but it's so much more than that. I won't get into all of the science, data, and research. Um, but it is about adolescence improved mental health, proven positive academic outcomes and enhanced physical health as well as fewer car accidents. I just learned about that. Um, furthermore, I urge you to reconsider and reinstate some of the cuts made at last week's meeting. The two full-time positions for the CMS cross team, the seven media assistants and the learning facilitators are essential not only to the students but to the teachers who rely
107on them to help manage their everinccreasing workload. I understand that there may be opportunities to find cost savings through pivoting to remote professional development and/or eliminating all outside consultants and an assistant to the chief officer of the K12 curriculum role which could potentially free up about $1.5 million. Please explore these avenues before sacrificing any more vital staff and programs that directly support our students and teachers. In closing, I want to thank you for your hard work and dedication in navigating this incredibly difficult situation. However, I urge you to prioritize the needs of our students and teachers and ensure that we maintain the highquality education that Greenwich Public Schools is known for. Our children deserve nothing less. Thank you. Uh, we have Kimberly Pennings followed by Kira Mstreda. I'm here tonight to deliver a strange sort
108of love letter. I love my job. I love my students. I love this town. And I'm grateful for the hard work of the board of education, what they have done and they are about to do. I'm up here tonight not because I think it will change things. I'm too discouraged for that because of what has already taken place. But I think it's important to be part of the record and a witness to what is being done. As a taxpaying resident of Greenwich, as a parent of students and a teacher at GHS, I don't see the value of these cuts. I see the continued slow death by a thousand cuts. We all know that the teaching profession relies on a lot of free labor. And it is my free labor that will make all these cuts
109possible. I and teachers like me will directly bear the costs. I run the critical discourse club at GHS for an hour on Thursdays after school. I used to have flex times for running a club, but now I do it for free because I love your kids. I run the National English Honor Society with 157 members. I do that for free because I love your kids. I assign essays every two to three weeks regularly as preparation for the AP exam. essays on which I should only spend five minutes grading each, but I often spend at least 10 because I love your kids. I grade after school and on weekends for free because I love your kids. Schooly was just cut. I need to transfer materials, a process which will take weeks and which I will do
110for free because I love your kids. My own two children say, "You love us, too, but you work all the time." Tonight, I'm missing my daughter's first high school performance on opening night of The Little Mermaid, so I can be here to stand up for your kids. I'm really tired, but that love for teaching your children is sustaining me. I don't have room in my life to take on the portion of the learning facilitator that will inevitably become mine as responsibilities are passed down the ladder for me to do for free. I've watched the BOE choose not to cut English teachers, but just quietly not hire replacements when they retire, resulting in the quiet growth of my class sizes and the quiet loss of my free time as it gets quietly eaten by my free
111labor. I have near perfect attendance, by the way. I took one day off this entire year because I was too ill to get to work fly to Italy, as we were publicly accused of doing. But as I lay in bed, I was still grading essays because I love your kids. And I would do that again. And we are all here because we love your kids. Teachers like me are part of the problem. We make you believe that we can keep doing more with less. We are at the point when less is just less. I have no more free time to give you. It will just mean less for your kids. Guys, I I really I appreciate your support of one another, but we really Yeah. Thank you. Hi, my name is Kiara Mstretta. I'm a
112GHS class of 99 graduate and a GHS faculty member since 2008. I've worn many hats. English teacher, assistant dean, ESL teacher, STARS interventionalist, just to name a few. Having worn so many hats, I have a unique perspective on our school and its needs. Revisiting start time now is fraught. In 2017, we rightfully listened to the science on adolescent circadian rhythms and move to an 8:30 start time. But today's non-stop smartphone and social media use fragment sleep, erodess focus, and fuels daytime fatigue, no matter how late we start. New studies show screen use delays sleep onset and disrupts rest, leaving students chronically tired and distracted. This is certainly worth further research and problem solving. Anecdotally, the second class after lunch block is more challenging to engage than any 7:30 group of sleepy students I ever had.
113I appreciate that you're keeping the house teams which support students as they navigate such complex issues as the fallout of tech and social media overload as well as well as the lingering pandemic stress. I can encourage you now to consider that the dean of student life is critical in containing managing and supporting GHS's toughest conduct and discipline challenges. As an English teacher, I coached students to hide all their hard work behind beautiful essays so it looked effortless. Our dean of student life hides all the hard work, makes it look effortless. Tonight, you choose between a 7:30 start time, saving just over 2.5 million, and a 745, saving just under 2 million. That 15minute gap is 543,845 or 36,256 per minute, which is pretty steep considering it leaves the door open to cuts like the Dina
114student life, LF's media assistance, roles that quietly keep classrooms and learning running smoothly. Thank you. Next up, we have Cara Peters followed by Wave. Okay. Uh, cool. Uh Amy White House followed by Roly Argawal. Good evening Dr. Jones, members of the BOE and the Greenwich community. My name is Roly Agaral and I'm here speaking on behalf of the International School at Dande PT executive board. We all watched on decision day as the BT made the budget cut and forced your hands to make some difficult decisions. We watched our discussions and even empathized with the situation you were being forced into. A cumulative reduction of 20 FT FTEES in sheer staff power. People who work in our buildings support our students and build relationships. And we tried to understand your reasoning. But what we find difficult
115to comprehend is the execution of these decisions. Our media assistant has been completely cut away from our school and moved to two middle schools. She's not someone who can be easily replaced. Other than the regular duties of a media assistant, she also supports the success of her IB program and has been doing so for 10 years. She not only understands the basics of the IB tenants and planning, but also have seen but also has deep knowledge of our school community and the thoughtful curation and creativity that goes into putting it all together behind the scenes. For example, capturing and sharing photos of student led IB projects and events, providing the necessary evidence of learning which fosters pride and continuity across classrooms, designing and executing units of study posters which highlight the strengthened lines of inquiry
116for each grade level. And making these abstract concepts visually accessible and engaging not only for our young learners, but also for our parents as they try to understand what the IB curriculum really entails. Wouldn't it make sense to keep someone with such a level of knowledge and expertise within our IB schools? Like most in our GPS community, I families and staff are saddened by the reality that is upon us and the difficult decisions that must be made tonight to finalize the budget. We do not want to see anyone in our school's administrative assistants, be teachers, or any other members of our staff be taken away from our ISD family. Our administrative assistants are both incredible and bring smiles to every child's face while performing countless tasks while performing countless tasks to keep our school running
117seamlessly. Our PE teachers inspire every child to try new skills, to push themselves to reach their potential, and teach them important life lessons along the way. We understand these unfortunate cuts are inevitable, but we urge you to handle these cuts in a way that makes the process seamless, maintains continuity, celebrates the culture of all our schools, all of which have unique needs, and most importantly is least disruptive to our children. Let's not make these decisions only on credentials, qualifications, seniority, and travel time. Let's take the time and consideration necessary to do it right and consider each person's expertise and experience. Let's take a moment to see them. Let's take a moment to see these staff as individuals. Let them know that we are grateful for all that they do every day for our children. Thank
118you. Is Amy White House online? Oh, her hand is up. Okay. Can anybody hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Perfect. Sorry. I I'm on the other side of the state. Um so, and uh sadly I could not travel down there in time for this meeting. So, um so good evening. My name is Amy White House. I am the proud graduate of Greenwich Public Schools, class of 97 when there were only four houses. I'm also the proud daughter of a media assistant who has given nearly 50 years of her life to this town. And after nearly half a century of service, she's being told her job is no longer needed. That her work can be replaced by unpaid and untrained volunteers. And that's not just disappointing, it's insulting. It tells her and every media assistant that their
119experience, their expertise, and their commit their commitment doesn't matter. Media assistants aren't extras. They're essential. They run the daily operations of the libraries. They manage materials. They assist with technology. They support instruction, guide research, and most importantly, they help students discover a love of reading that stays with them for life. And I know AI is trending. Some people believe it can help sort out who's important and who isn't without having to get too into the weeds. But AI won't tell you this. Media assistants aren't simply book clerks. They provide real support to students, staff, and families. And their work doesn't stop at the media center. They organize literacy events. They go out of their way to create safe, welcoming spaces for kids who feel like they don't belong anywhere else in school. And I was
120one of them. They are the foundation of what brings meaning and value to a student's education. And in a time when schools are stretched thin and students need students needs are greater than ever, media assistants offer structure and stability, which seems to be a common theme I've heard from other speakers this evening. They make libraries one of the only spaces where every child, regardless of ability, background, or behavior, can feel seen, supported, and successful. My mother has done that for nearly five decades. She's organized literacy events. She's crafted summer reading materials by hand. She's helped find students their first favorite book. She's built relationships and supported teachers. And she's done it all quietly without ever asking for recognition. And this is when I start to cry because I've seen it. I have been fortunate to
121see it for almost 50 years. She has shown up for this district through curriculum changes, through budget cuts, through technology overhauls, and her own personal loss. She continued to show up. Thank you for students, for teachers, for the integrity of public education, and for the amazing school system that I was proud to be a part of from kindergarten through senior year. And now the message to her is you're replaceable. Not just that, you're replaceable by any random volunteer volunteer the town can find. I urge you to reverse this decision, not just for my mother, but for every media assistant who has quietly kept her schools running for years. These are the people who matter, and it's time you showed up for them. Thank you. Next up, we have Dan Silkman, followed by Jennifer Gillerin. Thank
122you for maintaining our housebased system and our administrative structure. On behalf of the assistant deans, I just want to say that Jennifer Gillan and I yield our time. All righty. Uh, we've got Kyle Clark followed by Andrea Kase. Is Jennifer online raising her hand if you're there? Never mind. She's here. Uh, well, Kyle is first, but I do. We have Kyle Clark in the house. Are you online, Kyle? I don't see a hand raising. Okay. Uh, let's go with Andrea. Good evening everyone. My name is Andrea Cassenbase and just full disclosure, I am a member of the Greenwich RTM district 4. But we are media assistants and many of us are losing our jobs. The cuts to the positions and the plan for each media assistant to cover two schools will drastically diminish the services
123and support of all the library media centers in all the schools. I am an elementary media school elementary school media assistant and I love my job. I've been doing this for over 15 years. My job title, media assistant, sounds like something out of a bygone era. My 15 colleagues and I that work in this position with public schools do so much more than checking books in and out. We are specialists in logistics, inventory control, organization, and communication. We work directly with students and we see every student in our schools. We are a forward-facing position. We help everyone. We know which books our students like and what they want to read next. We listen to their suggestions. We work collaboratively with our media specialists to give all of our students an enriching experience in media. We
124help the adults in the building, too. We provide printing and lamination services, find books for teachers and administrators when they need curriculum materials, readalouds or books for reading groups or special interests. We repair things. We fix things. Our media team provides audiovisisual support for assemblies, concerts, field day, and many more schoolwide events. We help our PTAs who fundra to provide so many extras for our students. I bring over 40 years of my varied work experience to my job every day. I can answer questions that others cannot. I proofread, edit, and refine communications. I'm proud of my work and the part I play in the rhythm of my school. I'm also proud to be a recipient of the GPS differencemaker award, which I received in November. And so far, six media assistants have received this award.
125But none of that matters. where just numbers heads to be counted and cut. I'm extremely disappointed that the cut to our jobs was based on supposed recommendations from two unions which represent our colleagues. The complete inaccuracy of the job description that you received from Goa would be laughable if it were not so dangerous and damaging. I'm grateful that the GA has clarified their position. I'm encouraged by my colleagues at Glendel School who have been incredibly supportive during this terrible time. What I'm most frustrated about is the hypocrisy of the BET. If the BET was looking out for taxpayers, especially those who are members of the working and middle class, why aren't they looking out for us? But that's water under the bridge now and it's in your hands. It's a hard job and I appreciate
126all your hard work and volunteering. Please buy nonforward- facing cuts. Thank you. Uh, next is on uh Danielle Nash followed by Audra O' Donovan as our last speaker. Uh, then finally uh Audra is oh online. Okay, great. Go ahead. Can she be elevated? Okay, she's been elevated. Hello for Audra. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi, my name is Neva Donovan, 10th grade GHS, and I'm asking you to not move start times forward. As a competitive athlete and a student with a learning disability, it is crucial for me to get extra help in the mornings. Me and many other students across ghs need these early morning support for extra time and for extra support. When I have these supports, I am able to succeed. But I need the BOE to ensure that me and other students
127have this opportunity to succeed. This is vital for special education students. By choosing to move start times up, you are choosing to put special education special education students at a further disadvantage. This is detrimental to an already disadvantaged group. This isn't okay and shouldn't happen. I urge you to consider our special education community by not moving start times forward. Don't hinder special education student success by pushing start times earlier. Thank you for your time consideration. All right. Thank you for your patience. um every uh all 380 people online as well as those here. Um we are now moving on to our monthly reports and I will turn this over to uh Dr. Jones. Thank you. I'm going to be brief since it's already 9:00. Um first of all, Little Mermaid will be um at the
128GHS pack this weekend if you still want to get tickets. Um for people who have been wondering about summer school, the bridging classes uh will be coming out. That all of that's getting organized right now. And the last thing I'll mention is North Byanis will be celebrating their 100th year and they are doing alumni tours on May 30th that will be led by students. So if you're an alumni, they're happy to come and give you a tour. That's it. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Jones. Um, next up on our list are reports of officers, committees, and liaison. Does anybody ever have a report committee? Anyone? Buler? No. Okay. Well, it sounds to me like everybody is ready to uh move on to action items. Um, so just as a reminder, we have, you know, policy on
129conduct. So, please, you know, keep your cheering and booing if you have any uh to a post meeting um discussion. Next up on our agenda is the acceptance of the GHS entryway project. And I'd like to invite Steven Walco, the chair of the committee, forward. And while he's walking up, I'd like to make a motion to accept the GHS vestibial building project as complete. Second that. Okay. Thank you, Kathleen. Now, floor is floor is yours. Uh good evening. I just have a short 75minut presentation if fantastic. Did you send slides? I did. Uh good evening. Uh just very briefly, as you may recall, the entranceway project, uh the town appropriated uh $3.5 million for that. Uh I'm here to tell you that that uh project was in fact finished on time and under budget. In
130fact, we have about $100,000 uh that we hope to be able to return to the general fund once uh all eyes and tees uh are do are dotted and crossed. Um we've received uh about 487,000 from the state and that's out of a total of uh 600,000 that we still hope to get uh once we make the final submission to the state and they do their audit. So probably won't be for some time but again this is a success story both for the board of ed and for the town in terms of a project that came in on time under budget and is uh doing its job. So uh we're here to turn the building effectively over to the board of ed. Thank you. Does anybody have uh any questions? No, just thank you so
131much for all you've done. I was going to say thank you for your strong and forward-minded leadership of that committee and as a partial member of that committee because I only came on part of the way through. Um we are where we are on time and under budget uh due to your leadership. So, thank you. Thanks. Uh, and with that, I'd love to um take a make a motion uh well take a vote on the motion uh to accept this. All in favor, Wendy. Oh, perfect. 70. Thank you. And again, thank you for your time and leading leading that uh building committee. So, I will move on to the next action item of the BET reduction from the FY26 BOE operating budget. Um, and I would turn this over to uh Miss Stowe, who is
132uh I guess heading up our budget committee at the moment. Um, but before that, I'd like to just officially make the motion if if it's okay in order to to remove the high school um, you know, restructuring off the table so that we can you don't we just don't need to make a motion for it. It's kind of Well, you made a motion on everything else, right? So, just to make it clear. Is that okay with Sure. I think I guess. Sure. We did it last week, so I just figured I would just um So, I would just like to make a motion to remove uh the suggestion of the budget reduction to change the high school um house structure uh from this year's budget reduction. Happy to second that. Okay. So, all in favor?
133Okay. that is 70. But um just as a note and I'm sure others will say like I do think it's uh something that we can certainly uh take the time and energy to look into and have the input of stakeholders, our staff and others um to see if what we're doing there is you know certainly makes the best meets the needs of all of our students um and continue to support our staff and our students at the high school in the best way possible. So um I think that's a discussion for another day uh you know so we have time to do research and everything. So now I will turn this over to our budget uh guidance expert. Okay. Yeah, it's not it's not something you always want to be an expert on, but um
134first of all, I just want to say thank you all for coming out tonight and appreciating that we're trying to do the best we can. Um we're all quite frustrated by the process. Uh count me high on that list. Um, I mean, I'm on my final year on the board. It's been eight years. I spend a lot of time. This is obviously volunteer work. I have three children. One's about to graduate in four weeks. This is not what I want to be doing. And this was, we were sort of thrown into um a process that really didn't seem fair. I'd like to reiterate that the board of ed passed, and a lot of you have said it tonight, but I think it's important to get on the record. The board of ed passed a bipartisan
135budget 71 supported by the Republican first selectman. Um the RTM supported it. So somehow six Republicans on the BET know better. Um so I don't like any of it, but it it is our obligation to start the year with a balanced budget and we have to do that with the dollars we are in fact allocated. So we have really no choice is my point. And I think you all appreciated that. But I think it's really for important for the public and the students and the parents to know that. But I also think that we need to sort of land this plane because it's become um the only thing that everyone's talking about and it's it's really just not good for our community. It's sort of toxic. Um so with that, I I'm actually going to
136turn it to Miss Co because I think she has a motion that I'd like to hear. I do. Um, I would like to make a motion to um reduce the budget by uh 1.1,957 um and change the Greenwich High School start time to 7:45. I'm happy to second that motion so we can discuss it. Okay, great. Um, I want to say this is not a motion that I um am making happily. However, um, as Miss Stowe already said, you know, we're in this situation and I want everyone to know that we have been working tirelessly behind the scenes talking to teachers, parents, administrators about in particular this start time issue. I'm very conscious of the science. Um, I my oldest daughter was in the high school with a 7:30 start time, so I know what
137that was like. I went through the transition to the 8:30. I went to all of those meetings at that time. So, I'm sad to be here talking about that, but we have a $2.5 million um hole to fill and this will get us almost $2 million of the way there. But I want to give you a little more um color on what I'm what I'm actually proposing because it's not just a 7:45 start time. Um what I'm suggesting is that the first bell is 7:45, but then there would be a 15minute period. Um which is in a way would be like what flex what used to be. Um my the first bell 8. You said 7:45. No, no. 11:45 is when the day starts, but 8 would be the first academic bell. So, there would
138be 15 minutes in the morning for students to come in um meet with faculty, you know, meet with teachers, meet with guidance counselors, meet with social workers, um perhaps get something to eat in in school. Um I was talking to my sister who is a teacher, has been a teacher for 22 years, and was like, "What would we call this?" Cuz it's not exactly flex. Um, and her suggestion was, "You call it a wind block. It's what I need." And that Oh, well, I didn't even know we have All right. So, sorry. Um, in the elementary school. Okay. Well, it would be a windblock for the high school. Um, it would be an opportunity to get extra help if you need it. And actually, it was very interesting tonight to listen to the students. Um,
139particularly talking about we need more time for clubs now that we don't have flex anymore. I was Miss McCarthy was saying I wish we had flex for clubs. Um another student spoke about losing the flex block and not having time to meet with teachers. So this would restore that having that time. Um and then academically you would be starting at 8. I know that that is not 8:30. So for the people who are concerned about starting later and how important that is and um you know how challenging it can be for teenagers to be awake, I understand that. But 8 is better than 7:30. Um and also I looked at all of the bus routes and I used to drop off my daughter for the bus and it was dark out. At least if we
140are having 7:45, those 15 minutes, maybe they don't seem like a lot, but that is the difference between standing on the road in the dark and standing in the road with the sky is brightening. Um, and in terms of teen drivers, you know, 15 minutes really is the difference between driving on a dark road and um, driving in the light. So, I I hope it's meaningful. I thought it was very interesting for the that the students who were surveyed um there was 20% more of them were supportive of a 70 745 start than a 7:30. So, interestingly, the adults um whether they were teachers, non-certified staff, or parents, didn't seem to see a difference between 7:30 and 7:45, but the students really seem to feel that those 40 those 15 minutes were meaningful. And I
141hope that they will feel like it's even more meaningful if their first academic classes at 8. So, that was the rationale for coming up with this idea. And um I'd welcome, you know, to the other board members to talk about it as well. Um, I say the other op you the nice thing is that it, you know, means that there's also a slight 15inute window where so not everybody's trying to get to the high school at the same time and that may help reduce the traffic also on hillside where I know our neighbors and and others have always been very frustrated about that and especially with the road work that's being done throughout town and coming soon to post road. So, thank you for doing all that research. We appreciate it. Miss Cen, I am
142supportive of the motion which saves us 1.9 something million and I would even be supportive of having the first academic bell start even later at like 8:10 or just so it's a more meaningful block of time. Is you look like you had your hand up. Yeah. No, I think it's really thoughtful. I mean um Sophie thinking I mean like I said we've been put in a tough situation and the fact that you're trying to be creative is helpful. I mean it's also a compromise sort of I think that the surveys um really show that parents and teach and students were looking more for the later I know that was different for the teachers. Um but we have to consider everyone in this analysis. Um and you know what they say about compromise no one ends
143up happy right? But um that's probably the best thing to do at this point. And I like the idea of wind or um it actually perhaps gives students an opportunity to meet with their teachers or have that club. Um I know that that has been lost and also students getting out earlier for athletes on the other side of the um is also helpful. So um I'm I'm fairly supportive. Thank you. I would say not just athletes who get out earlier, which is helpful for them, but it also is for people kids, you know, high schoolers that have jobs and and time for their volunteer hours as well. So, um Mike, did you you look like you about you had your hand up. So, um I don't like it. Um because for all the reasons I
144think we heard um around the science behind late start time. Um I think um it is um troubling that we have to go here. Um I think when we think about the um at least the sentiment around what these I made this similar statement last week the sentiment around what these reductions were were made what the bet made talking about um belt tightening and efficiencies and things like that. I I uh changing the uh bell schedule is or the start time is doesn't fit that category. It's it's a um so in some in many ways we're we're suboptimizing things here. um the one silver. Now that said though, I I think it's very creative and it's I think the more we can do, the more we can push it back, the better. Um I one
145thing I think we need to be cognizant of is that the students turning the students that um it's still in students taking the bus which in um it's still at 7:45, right? You don't have an option there, right? So if you say 8:00 or we say 810, um if you're on that early bus route, you're on that early bus route. Um and that likely disproportionately affects students in certain socioeconomic areas that um can't drive themselves or can't rely on someone to drive them. So um so I think this is um probably a compromise that unfortunately um might disproportionately fall on certain certain populations in town. I will say um at the same time the one silver lining here um which I don't think we realized before we started talking about start time I pointed this
146out last time too is that our three title one elementary schools for years have been starting half an hour earlier than our other elementary schools and under scenario six here their start time moves from 8:15 to 8:30 so those kids get an extra 15 minutes u which is which is a a silver lining in the in the compromise. Okay, I see Wendy's hand up and then Sophie. Um I was just going to say that I think this is a good compromise. I think that, you know, um I think that it could help relieve the traffic as you stated, Karen, and um I think that 8 a.m. is or 7:45 is better than 7:30. And I like the creativity of the flex block. I was the only one that voted against removing the flex block. So,
147I think that it would be nice to get it back because I think, you know, I think the students did miss it. And I think that um maybe if we could increase the timing to 8:10 like Laura suggested, I think it would be more meaningful for the kids to go and get extra help. I don't know if there's so much that you could do in 15 minutes with a teacher by the time you unpack what you need to go over with your teacher. Um so I'd be supportive of of moving it even later to 810 or later. Thank you, Wendy Sophie. And then Dr. Jones had a comment as well. And then I see Jen's hand up after that. Um I just wanted to respond to um Dr. Mccante Anthony about the sort of uh
148equity question about the buses because I actually looked at all the bus routes and talked um with Dr. Jones about bus utilization. So really buses are used throughout the entire town by you know I mean I I didn't get more granular than that but there are buses coming from every single area of town. So, I do think that kids of all, you know, from all backgrounds are taking the bus. I I wouldn't have been in favor of this if I thought that it was going to disproportionately impact our most needy kids. Dr. Jones and then Jen. Yeah, I I think if we're going to pass this, what I would recommend that the board do is to just pass it and then let the staff do their work because we have teacher wraparound time and I'm
149not sure I don't want to speak for Principal Mayo. I don't know that he wants the students are going to get dropped at 7:30 because they always come 15 minutes before start time. I'm not sure they would want 45 minutes of just the entire high school um roaming around. But I think we can figure it out together and figure out the wrap time and what it looks like. Um and just as a reminder, we were asked to look at an 8 o'clock start time, but we can't do that. uh if which means they'd get dropped at 7:40 for an 8:00 because it pushes elementary after 9. So it's just we're a large system and it's a complex busing transportation mechanism. Jen, yeah, I I actually was going to kind of speak to what Dr. Jones
150just spoke to that if if scenario six with the 7:45 start time and I I would support that. I like that beginning flex or win or whatever the title will be. I think it offers a lot of potential for students either to get help clubs etc. um and they would be getting out on the earlier side but um we you know there would need to be like a little deeper dive on how to do that and I think the schools you know along with administration would be able to to guide that in terms of minutes and blocks etc. So um so obviously I I also want to support um what Dr. Jones was saying also to to allow the administration to have time to sit with this um and figure out the optimal you know
151time for the open block in the morning or whatever for whatever you want to call it win flex time etc etc etc um is that if if we add so I have a quick question so if we add seven you know blleh can't speak if we vote to start for the 7:45 first bell with academic time starting at you know 8 or whatever it is that the administration works through. Um what are we looking at as an end bell time? Um because I know scenario was it six that this was five or six? I thought it was 2:25. Yeah. But would it be pushed back because that first 15 minutes is no would no longer be it's a it's a window. So that's I just wanted to the instructional time, right? So 2:20, right? If
152instructional time starts at 8, the instructional time would end 15 minutes later. Correct. And that still works with busing. Okay. Does that I I know the height, you know, I know there would be some things to work out at the with the administration to sort of see exactly the timing, but Okay. Could could you I was just going to ask you to reread the motion. I didn't know if we needed to put any conditions around it or anything like that. What was the motion exactly? Um, the motion was to go with I guess it's scenario six. Thank you. Scenario 6, which is a start time of 7:45. Um, but the first academic class would start at 8:00. Okay. And it was for1,957 um $842. Yeah, Michael, I just wonder before we um make any decisions,
153we we heard a um a number of other suggestions this evening that I know we have talked um a lot about adnauseium both behind the scenes in the public, but particularly behind the scenes in certain committees and things everything from around travel to furniture and I don't know I I warned Ben the but I don't know if Ben could comment on some of the suggestions questions that he had on that we heard from the public because I think for people just tuning in tonight. I think it's important that um they hear about you know that we've been talking about these things. Yeah. And I just want to comment on the furniture that's in the capital that is not operating. So that doesn't work. Yeah. On the capital certainly you can't coingle operating in capital the
154appropriation before you is just operating. So as Dr. Jones says that doesn't work. I think it's important to note when you look at all those object codes that that have been referenced uh whether that's travel or professional development uh the district we budgeted over 2.8 million for the per pupil allocation to the schools. Some of those line items are budgeted in in the per pupil allocation. So when you look at it, it's not just a district expense. if you start cutting those expenses, you're cutting directly at what the school administration has budgeted for uh to run to the run their uh school. So, it's it's it's not as easy as just looking at the line and I'm saying that's the district expense. You really have to dive into it's some of it's program expensing at
155the district level, but also the per pupil allocation. Sophie, did you have a comment? I guess just one last thing I wanted to say was I talked to um people at other schools and this is also something so Brunswick has this model from 7:45 to 8:15 and I think um Greenwich Academy has it as well and also GCDS and I know Darian Darian High School also has something like this. So this is this is something that's happening in the region just for what it's worth as well. Okay. Did you have something else you want? Just to put a fine point on it without putting Ben too much on the spot. Pen, you didn't hear anything tonight that we haven't already tried to chase down, have you? Unfortunately not. Okay. Um, does anybody else have any
156discussion, comments? Okay. Well, then I'm What? Well, let's vote on this and then I can That's what I was That's what I was going to say. I was calling a vote. You So, all right. All those in favor of I guess whatever scenario through reduction, moving the high school start time to the bell, the first bell did 7:30 with hopefully. Sorry. 7:45. Scenario six. Sorry. Scenario six. Um, all those in favor? Okay. All those against. All those who abstain. Okay. So that passes. Uh 511. What? 61 61. Did when did you voted in support of this? Right. So Dan, I voted in support. Oh, support. I saw your hand at the end. Abstain. Okay. 601. My bad. Sorry. I thought I saw your hand up when I said abstain. Thank you. Okay. Can I make
157the next motion? Of course. Okay. Um I'd like to make a motion to reduce the budget by the remaining $551,469 at Dr. Jones discretion which might include reductions of the substitute budget or outplacements or any combination thereof with the condition that there are no additional FTE reductions. I'll second. Would you like me to give some insight? Um sure. Can you repeat that number? Can you repeat it? Yeah. I'm making a motion to reduce the budget by the remaining $551,469 at Dr. Jones discretion, which might include reduction of the substitute budget or outplacements or any combination thereof with the condition that there are no additional FTE reductions. Yeah. Yeah. But you you repeated it. Thank you. Now, I know you want to explain. So, the reason I'm putting it out this way is that we've heard
158a lot of ideas tonight, right? And I know that Michael Joseph, you were good enough to point out that we have analyzed all of those ideas, but I'm not saying we're perfect, right? And so, um, this gives an opportunity for further analysis. And the reason I also suggested just two of those ideas, just so you know, it wasn't without thought. Um the substitute budget is um something that the BET Republican member suggested that um we could you know just do without. So um I think that that is an interesting thing just to highlight. Um and then the because apparently people don't get sick. So I just wanted to get that in there. Um and then also if you look at the financial report that we actually just was on the consent agenda tonight, um the
159good news is that our outplacements um are trending in the right direction and this is something that I have to admit I've watched closely for years. Um sometimes with frustration because it is a little bit unpredictable. However, um perhaps because of our some our new programs, it is trending in the right direction. And so I would hope that maybe Ben or Dr. Jones with some further analysis could get comfortable with actually reducing the amount that's been put into this budget. Um because those are two, frankly, numbers that are estimates at our best guess, right? They're not people. They are they are estimates. And so um those are really just growth rates that we look at. and growth rates could always be adjusted as you have more information as you get closer right to actually delivering
160the budget. So that's why I raised those two, but I'm not saying they're perfect. And that's why I sort of say those are suggestions, but then no additional FTE reductions so that if there are things that were raised tonight that are of interest and that you could use and have a death by a,000 cuts um for the remaining 551,000 of the budget um hopefully that would provide everyone comfort that we're kind of done. So just for funsies, um with the reduction the votes for some of the for the reductions that were made last week and with the vote to move start time uh and busing, you know, for high school scenario six, does that take us down? I did. My math isn't always perfect, but 4,36,493 of reductions so far. It gets us to the
161exact number we have to hit. Well, believe me, I did the math. So it No, no, no. I I'm just double checking of the reductions that we've made thus far. Yes. So with the reductions that we've made, we had a reduction needed to balance of 25509311. We just voted on a reduction of 1,957,842. So you have 551,469 to go to get us to what? To get us to 4587962. So, and I'm going to pose this question because the reduction that was made to the budget that we submitted was only it was just under 4.1 million. So, I know that we have things that were not included in that budget that we put forward that we now know that we need like an extra preschool class which we would typically have gone to ask for an
162interim for as opposed to making cuts. Now, I'm just, you know, curious as to why we would be looking to, you know, cut an additional uh chunk from our budget that, you know, other than I know you want to start your Well, I think we're I think we're financially obligated to do so. I think we we have information now in front of us. It would be um naive to think that um you know, the prek students aren't going to show up or something. So, we know what we know. Um you know, we started developing this budget in October, right? So um now here we are almost closing out the year. Um we have more information. So I think it would be I mean that's an approach we can take. I don't I don't think it's
163wise but I'm happy to discuss it. I mean the only reason like I said I for me it's simply and I I think I mentioned this before the budget we put forward was reduced by 4.1 and now we're looking to cut additional things that were in that budget that we didn't even think we could do to get to 4.1. Um and like I said, traditionally we would have asked for an interim for these funds. So we would have been add further added back. Well, we wouldn't asked for them in the future year, right? That we're not in that year. We'd have to wait till we got to September. And then the issue is that we have to we have to, you know, put out teacher contracts now, right? I mean, I'll let Dr. Jones ask
164that answer this. Yeah. So properly, but you can't sort of wait until you get to September and then ask for the money that you when you're in the budget year, right? Since since it's a known, I think um Mr. Mr. Brainian and I are both in in the agreement we would like to be balanced on July 1. Um because this budget and what we've reduced there's nothing left. So we need to be very very thoughtful as we go into the next school year. Um you know it's a very very tight budget and so I think we also feel comfortable that we can find non-personnel by like what you just pointed out on the outplacement line. And I would be remiss if I didn't say, you know, thank you to Dr. High Galer because this is
165probably the first year where we've actually seen that outplacement number is trending in the right direction where we're able to keep some students with us uh in our programming that that we've been building. So, um Mr. Bry and I were both comfortable with with this when you ask us this. Thank you for clarifying that. I appreciate that, Sophie. And again, I just also wanted to add that having positive pathways start next year should also be something that would be really beneficial and helpful um with our outplacement number. And um just to follow up on what Kathleen mentioned previously, um I think it was Karen Fesley and David Alano who said we could cut $1.3 million from the substitute budget. That was their suggestion. So if we can find some fraction of that that we could
166cut from the substitute budget, maybe that's realistic. But the it was a $1.3 million cut to the substitute budget was um key part of their motion. Okay. Any other questions, comments? No one. Okay. Which I can call a vote. Okay. All those in favor of an additional uh reduction of 551. Oh, sorry. Do you have a question? Oh, no, no, no. The motion was already made it. Oh, I was going to say motion was to reduce the budget by the remaining $551,469 uh at Dr. Jones discretion uh with the condition there is no more no additional reductions to FTE. Correct. Yeah, I suggest I threw in suggestions, but they're no of no matter, right? No, I just Yeah. Okay. Did you have any other I'll let Kathleen remake her motion then. Um motion to reduce
167the budget by the remaining 551,469 at Dr. Jones discretion which might include reduction of substitute budget or outplacements or any combination thereof with the condition that there are no additional FTE reductions. Okay. So I guess all those in favor of uh this you know open-ended production please raise your hand open-ended cut all those in not again all those against okay so that passes I guess 61. Yes Dr. Jones, I do just want to note because we have so many people online watching and as a reminder, we build this budget. We're already working on FY27 right now. So when we build this budget, it's in the summer months. It's September, October. I present to you in November. So things like outplacement, we have no idea until we get farther along in the year. So we're constantly
168watching it. That's why this like these ideas and the financial report wasn't brought up four months ago because that's not where we were. So I just want to remind everybody the budget process is very very long. Okie dokie. Well, are there any other additional motions, comments or not at this time? Well, I will just make a quick comment in saying that this was probably the most difficult I'll yeah call you after. most difficult part of discussions that I've ever been participatory in and uh as a member of the board of education or had to be uh witnessed to I guess uh in all my time advocating for our students and staff. Um and so I I appreciate all of the input that we've received from members of the community on suggestions and ideas um for
169taking the deep dive into our budget items because you know that's a heavy book. It's a nice doors stop for you. Um, and also, you know, for our staff, for our students, for coming out, for speaking up and advocating for the things that are important to them, um, about the things that make Greenwich Public Schools so special and so unique and such a wonderful place for our children to learn and grow and become adults. Um, so I just really do want to thank the community for coming forward and speaking up and being involved. It's uh is as much as this was a difficult uh task for us and uh heartbreaking in many ways. I think having the support of our community come forward and and speak and advocate for what's important to them really was
170a very special moment at least, you know, for me. Can't speak for everybody, but I I would hesitate to say probably for the most of us as well. Laura, I had a couple motions and they may fail, but I'm going to make them anyway. Um, go right ahead. So, in my estimation, um, I've just done some addition um, to undo. Look, I think this has been a shameful process that we've had to be I'm just going to say it one more time that the BET has called us the schools the biggest cost center of the town. And I think this is the biggest value center of the town. So saying that out loud. Um to reinstate the cuts to the CMS um faculty because we've pledged not to touch the classroom and that's the only
171school who had a a cut to the classroom. Um and the media assistance, it's a total of 542,000. Um, my motion to offset those funds would be to eliminate for now the 200,000 allocation to the HAMAV extended day which is not currently uh reflecting an FTE loss. So because it's not staffed, it's not it's not you have to make a motion then we can have the discussion. So to offset those those um reductions um I would make a motion to under Robert's rules um it's a renewal of the motion and um to reduce ham a extended date by 200,000. That's the first motion. Um I will second that just so we put this on the table for an actual discussion. Laura, did you want to continue your uh Well, then there's uh Yes. I mean,
172that's 200,000 gets us part of the way there and um my further reduction to offset that um expenditure would be staff laptops at 225,000 and the remainder from any professional development and travel funds that are left. So, I think first you'd have to take up the motion on Hamav, which um you know failed before, but I'm going to renew that motion. Sorry, point of order. I don't want to be difficult, but I actually think under Robert's rules, you need to get a majority vote to bring back um for this. Yes, you do. Actually, I'm going to ask Mike Antonasio about that or Ben, but in fact, I'd argue you need twothirds of a vote. I don't want to be difficult, but it's precedent. So since these were things that were already voted on cuz think
173about it otherwise you could just keep relitigating everything. So yeah but that's I checked Robert's rules. I ask somebody Mike if you there can you confirm having to hum along with I would have to look it up. Uh I do not have that information in front of me. I apolog I believe Ben might Brandon might have that. He usually has the book as well. If it's a non-aggenda item, you can take you need to add something to a non-aggenda item. It's two-thirds vote for sure. This has already been a motion that the board has taken up and dispensed with. I'm asking for the renewal of the motion and that's what's allowed under Robert's rules. I am going to have to disagree, but I'm happy to hum some tunes while Ben and Mike look this up
174if you'd like. I'm sorry. You know, I was going to provide some I can do a little tap dance while we're waiting, but I'm sure nobody wants to see that either. Um, I can try to take a quick look as well, but um Ben andor Mike, are you guys taking a quick look? Yeah, my understanding is absent advanced notice, which in my world that means on the agenda, it would require a twothirds though of the members present to add it. Not for this, not for this. If when my next motion I did need to provide advanced notice of, which I did to the whole board. It depends on how you define advanced notice. It usually has to be actually a public notice. I'm sorry to be difficult, but it's like very important to follow the
175rules as it relates to Robert's rules. Otherwise, you could have people doing things that are really run a muck at times. I'm not disagreeing with with either of you. I did not look at this in advance to know my motion to amend required me to notify the body of my intent to make the motion. Well, I mean, it can, but I think, you know, I I I just wanted I mean, I don't want to leave people in silence while we're trying to look this up. But I do agree with Kathleen that we need to make sure that we're doing this in the proper because we have to follow our policies stipulate that we follow Robert's rules and you know, this is an unusual one in reopening a vote. So that's okay. Um, if you all
176would bear with us for a few moments of silence, I would appreciate it. Laura, do you know where you what page of the book? Only because I didn't bring my Robert's rules with me. It's at home. Thus, it makes a little Thank you all for coming. I checked it out of the library. No. Oh, so you don't know where what section it was. You don't write it down. It's under the motions. No, no. I'm saying the other thing the other piece of it is that there's such an intricate little sticky little book. It's for such a small small book. Um I think there might and I'm just I may be remembering this incorrectly. I don't know if there's a difference between reopening a discussion and a a vote during the same meeting versus at a
177different meeting. Does that ring or anybody else that's spent a lot of their time digging through make a motion to amend because that would have had to be done at the prior meeting or at at the very meeting where this happened. Karen, I believe if I'm reading this correctly that the you can re you can renew a motion if that motion had been defeated in a previous meeting. Boom. Has this motion been was the original motion to remove this and she's asking to relitigate that motion or are you asking to It's a renewal of the previous motion that failed. That did that motion fail or did that motion pass? It failed. Which one? No, it did pass. It passed the ham. Cutting ham. Cutting ham failed. then it's then it is acceptable to if it
178failed, you can do it as long as it's at a future meeting and this is a future meeting. We didn't vote on that, but we voted on the other half of your We did vote on and those didn't fail. So Hamilton Avenue one was withdrawn and the other ones didn't fail. Oh, so I can make a new motion. Uh, I'm doing mental gymnastics in lifetime. So then it's not Yeah. I mean, so it's not reopening a motion because we didn't we withdrew the motion for was the only one who voted for removing it. I I'm thought it was withdrawn, but let me double check. I'm going to go back and read the minutes. I would just like to say meeting I've ever had. No, we did vote on it. We voted on it and it
179failed. Yes. Okay. We had the motion to reduce and it it failed 132. So I'm renewing my motion to reduce Hamav by extended day by 200,000. Please don't give me another siloquy. No, Mike. He's looking at me. Again, I will second it so that we can actually have a discussion. So, if you have a comment that you'd like to make? Nope. I'm just trying to get to a number like the rest of us. Okay. Does anybody have any comments without a saliloquy? I believe that was I will I will I I will I will I will be brief but if if if you remember my poloquy last last week um this process is all about making difficult choices um and and prioritizing the needs of different diff different different stakeholders in the district. The most
180vulnerable stakeholders in the district are the students at Hamilton Avenue and other and on our other title one schools who are over level. What? Well, let me finish who are below grade level and in many ways the um when compared to not all of them but many of them when you look at our statistics not for any fault of our hardworking staff or teachers but because of socioeconomic status they um and that limits opportunities and that requires more time on task. The whole purpose of the extended day program at Hamilton Avenue is to provide that more time on tasks to decrease the uh to to decrease the the achievement gap that we have historically had um across this town. And it is a um it would be a disservice to the community. And it would
181be a great uh a significant um um it would it would be a significant uh um um um betrayal of our values um to balance the budget on the backs of our most neediest students. Sophie had her hand up first. Um, I just I I'm not going to comment on the Hamilton Avenue extended program specifically, but I'm commenting on process. I don't want to make it be a practice where we promise the community that we're going to do something for them and then a week later come back and cut it. And the Hamilton Avenue community thinks that they're getting this program and they've relied on that for a week and probably gotten excited about it. And just like tonight where we said, you know what, we're taking House, you know, Reorg off the table, you
182know, people should trust us. We said we're taking House Reorg off the table. I don't want people leaving tonight and being like, well, maybe they're going to reconsider it next week because like now we're in some new budget crisis because we seem to be in a budget crisis all the time, right? You know, so it's like some BET came up with something new and now you have to cut another however much and now suddenly we're talking about these things that we said we weren't going to do. Like I I just think it's a very bad precedent. I want to stand by the votes that we have taken as as painful as they are. I I don't want, you know, it' be one thing if we're doing something that would restore something, but I don't want
183to vote to take more away right now. Well, I mean, I'll remind you that there's a title one school that feeds into CMS and they're not going to have a teacher in front of them that they may value or or other two of them in fact. So, I think um you know those kids um exist everywhere in our town, not just at Hamav. And I don't think there's anything equitable about singling out a middle school um among and no others have lost actual teachers. So I think um I'm being true to my values by making this motion and I hope that the BET reconsiders what they've done. I really do. I you know I would name this reduction after the whole Republican pet if I could. So um it's you know not done with any
184kind of joy. It's I'm really trying to preserve what does make this place a you know uh a better school system. So, being that I did not um go through Robert's rules in depth uh prior to this meeting um in you know into looking at the process uh of doing this, I will say [Music] um I would I mean I would love to be able to find a way to to save you know all the LTE that we have had to cut um in in all the areas student facing wise. is because I you know it's true our media staff I mean the the mo the moments my children remember the most are often the ones that were spent in the media uh center um you know and and the individuals that help them find
185their favorite characters and their favorite books but I don't my biggest concern is to I don't want to be sitting here pitting one area of our administration and our staff against another um and and saying one one thing is more important important than another. Um, and so, you know, with what you know, Sophie had pointed out, I I would love to find a way to, you know, you know, to do some of these things, but I I don't think it's good to do it at the cost of another that just, you know, I I didn't it's irrelevant who voted to support what, but the board's voice, you know, was heard and we have to stand by that. I don't want to, again, I don't want to pit one against another. I think that's just bad
186practice um in how in how we would do it. Thank you. Okay, Wendy. Um, I was just going to say that I think that the HAMAV program is money well spent and um, and I think that it's important for us to look at for our title one schools. Does anybody else have a anything else to to say? I mean, I'm happy to call the mo call the um motion Um Laura, did you want to repeat what your motion specifically was? The first motion is to uh is the renewal of the motion to reduce ham extended to 200,000. All those in favor? All those against. And I'm going to abstain. So that does not pass. at fails one 51. Yeah, because there's seven of us here. That is a spectacular failure. Um so then the next
187motion to offset the cuts is um well first I need to also make a motion to amend because we voted well not me but uh the board voted to cut the 156 from CMS and the uh that motion passed though so I know that's why Isn't that what Ben just said? We can't reopen those. That didn't fail. And the 386 for the media assistance. Unfortunately, both of those passed votes passed, which I think Ben just said to us is that if they passed, could not reopen them. No, you can amend them. You're reopening them to amend them. No, it's a it's a motion to amend the cuts. I mean, I'm looking up something. It's the motion to reconsider, but I don't know what No, that has to be done at the same meeting. I know.
188That's what I'm saying. So, I I don't know if Ben wants to opine again. I believe what we said was the motion would have had to have been defeated at a previous meeting to renew the discussion of it. It sounds like what Laura is trying to do is to reintroduce the cuts or to reinstate the cuts as a a separate and distinct motion, not to renew it. Uh well, it's a motion to amend the cuts to be zero. That's the motion. Again, it's okay. Not not to be a stickler, but that's you're you're looking to amend something that passed. Yeah. And so Mike was just saying we I I I I'll defer, but I I don't think that's something you can't you can't reopen something that has passed and he would have had to have
189been defeated to renew a motion. You can only amend during discussion of that mo that motion at the pre No. According to Robert's rules, if a member believes a previous motion should have been amended or rescended, the member may must alert the body ahead of time. So, I emailed all of my colleagues to say I plan to make a motion to amend the um 156k at cut at CMS. And um um also adding the 386,000 for media assistance to that motion to amend. If you're telling me I'm out of order, then I'll have to believe you. But I hate to say, but I do, you know, think that Mike is correct. I think Antonio, right? Correct. That that's out of order. That's what it could be a motion to resend, but it's not a motion
190to amend. It'd be a motion to resend an action or a motion to amend something previously adopted, but it is a motion to resend. Again, is that something can So, you're saying that that's allowed because I in a subsequent meeting? Yes. All right. Well, who's in favor of a motion to resend? I I I'm in favor of rescending it, but again, I procedurally I just don't think this is the way that we can we can do it. And I believe that it's unfortunately, you know, those who voted for passing it the first time are going to I I just don't want to have this fail again the same way. It's going to fail. So I I'm not afraid to fail. I have a growth mindset. Uh, you definitely win on best comment for the night.
191Um, I mean, again, I I I will second it if if somebody wants to have a discussion, but I feel as though that we spoke about this last week and it's I don't think I could go go through it again. I it it's kept me up at night all week, but I did. So uh since it's not seconded at the moment, correct? Nobody. Okay. Then I unfortunately not you know we are not going to vote on that. Um does anybody else have any motions or comments to make in regards to that into the budget? Mike might be worth um clarifying um a lot of the travel time that is that that line of the budget is teachers drive driving reimbursements for travel between schools but we want to that's what we want to clarify it's
192the line item that we actually that I sent to the board today on that number and that Patrick pulled that for us. So yes, that's what that item is. It's the mileage. So, you're talking about travel. Is that 5210 0? I just No, I just didn't know. I'm just double checking cuz do you know what line item that was? Patrick's Patrick's uh it's on our sheet from Oh, there he is. uh which uh which line item you are referring to. Well, that's why I was asking. So, there are a few travel expense line uh but the mileage is the 52117. Well, because I was in say f I don't know Mike was which one were you which line item were you looking at because I had for travel I had 5210 0 is there another
193one for your so that 521000 is travel is that for professional development and and and those things or is that for there's two different travel Then so are you you're so you're saying the line was 52117 right that's mileage. Yep. The 52110 and the 52117 both are for the mileage. So there are other travel expense line which is for the air ticket, hotel and so uh but the 52110 and the 52117 both of them are for the mileage. Does that clarify what you were looking at or no? because I think I think we're at our number, right? We don't have to cut anymore, right? Like a half hour ago. Okay, so let's Okay, that's I'm just asking if anybody else had any other motions. If not, then we move on to the next item, which
194is uh our agenda plan. Wait, didn't Mike have a motion? Thought you were asking for No. Okay. No, you have no motion. as expected I guess. Yeah. But um written reports as agenda planning. Do we have anything that we wanted to discuss or add? I know we were looking at a date to have uh to rechedu our uh executive session on special education uh litigation and and so forth. So hopefully that I'll give you that date short. We Right. Well, no, we we would be adding a date. I just have to We might be I just So I just have to confirm that with uh the attorney. Anything else that we needed to add? Anything that was removed from tonight's meeting that we need to move move forward? No. If not, um we have one
195more motion to make this evening. I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. Who's you're seconding it, Laura? Okay. All those in favor of adjourning 70. Uh I wanted to thank all of those who logged on tonight uh for our meeting and all of those who were in attendance. Um so thank you for bearing with us this evening.