June 13, 2024 Board of Education Business Meeting

001all right uh we're going to start our um last scheduled meeting of the school year and I say scheduled because we'll have more meetings this summer for CMS but anyway uh let's get started please stand for the pledge allegiance I make a a motion to uh approve the consent agenda good yeah great perfect now um we have some student and staff recognitions tonight uh this is I think the board's probably most fun time of year uh with respect to all of the awards although it's always fun when we honor our staff and students and we've had quite a few of them in the last couple of meetings and so I'm excited to start off with um our GPS representative for Connecticut teacher of the year Dr Jones would you like to say a few words

002so I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Miss Falls classroom at third grade at New Lebanon and I just want to say it's this is one of my favorite times of the year because because with distinguished teacher I go out into classrooms and literally get to stay in the room the entire time and she is just such a master teacher and makes a difference in the lives of children and and I have to say the way it was announced your Administration that was so fun to be out on field day and everybody got to cheer you on and it's just so welld deserved and you are going to represent grish public school so well and Aria you can come on up and I think we have Miss lovess who had to say a few words

003and give some gifts yes have someone help me so that I can open this up and also on the scho very invol pull right out this has all sorts of aspects ofen that you can um I just want to take a second to members of the Board of Education everyone here Dr Jones thank you so much I am so so deeply honored for the recognition and the opportunity to represent Gren at the state level Greenwich has been very very good to me and I have had so many wonderful opportunities for growth throughout my time in Greenwich um my colleagues I just want to say thank you to my wonderful colleagues who have always really supported me in my professional and my personal growth really and without them and the opportunities I've had without grenage I

004really wouldn't be where I am today so thank you thank you for this on thank you for the Beau oh my gosh how wonderful thank you so much thank you I really appreciate it thank you thank you so much thank you once again all right and next we have uh the Greenwich high school student government vice president Omar so Omar we've uh gotten to hear you talk over and deliver your messages on behalf of the high school for the last several hold on stand right here in front of everybody I'm gonna make it as awkward as possible and um we've we've learned a lot from you and the high school and about the high school your advocacy for your student for the students that you represented was well received your accomplishments over the last year

005particularly with using the MinGa app in regards to help speeding up getting kids through the lunch line so not only how were they able to get their lunch easier but they actually had time to eat it once they purchased it all of those things with you and and obviously with Caleb's work were out standing and uh we as a board look forward to hearing of your next Adventures we think you are well suited to go on to anything that you choose to do and we are excited for you and wish you congratulations looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday and wish you all the best of luck all right Caleb you're next the student body president come on down all right now you have to stand up here and it's gon to be as awkward

006as I can possibly make it all right so also Caleb it has been our pleasure as members of the board having you attend each and every meeting I know with obviously with schoolwork and everything uh and staying and providing your uh words of in information as it relates to things all pertaining to the high school your ADV advocacy for your students off for your fellow students was well received obviously your work with um Omar in in the MinGa app um we are very we were been very impressed we appreciate what you've done for your for the students uh congratulations on all of your hard work uh we look forward to seeing you on Tuesday handing you a diploma and wish you all the best of luck in all of your future endeavors as I think

007grish public schools has uh prepared you well for whatever you choose to do all right Mr G we got uh the girls tennis state champions hello everyone can you guys hear me I'm online yep absolutely awesome so good evening superintendent Jones chairman Kowski Board of Education members and everyone attending both there and virtually I would have loved to have been there because this is one of the Thrills of my job unfortunately I had a um previous commitment I'm at the FC recognition as well because we have a coach that's being recognized today um who was recognized earlier for their swimming accomplishments but uh we're here again to recognize some terrific terrific All State all New England All American athletes as well as two championship teams so the first championship team that I'd like to recognize

008is the girls tennis team Unfortunately they scheduled their banquet for for tonight so they couldn't be there and their coach uh first year Coach Jerry Sully had wrote a quick little blur that he wanted me to speak for them before I recognize the girls dear Board of Education members please accept my apology for not attending the meeting tonight as we intently scheduled our team banquet for the same evening it was an honor and pleasure to be the coach of such a dedicated group of girls who went on to win the state championship the state was dominant throughout the season only losing one match in post postseason an outstanding 22- one record in addition to our doubles team of Yumi and Cammy who won the state doubles Championship winning a state championship was not the most

009important achievement of our team this year what impressed me the most were the positive comments I received from players parents coaches of the opposing teams as well as their players our team was considerably constantly praised for acting honorably respectfully and within with kindness when it mattered we can be proud of our girls representing the best qualities of Greenwich High School in closing I'd like to thank the Board of Ed our athletic department uh our assistant Don Stevens and everyone that made this possible for us to become state champions and now for the list of the kids um I know they're not there because at the banquet so Avery Lee Bella barin Caitlyn Mahoney Cameron solder Emily Weinstein Emmy porin India Smith Izzy Everett harod debas who was one of the captains Maddie Wilbur molena shra

010another Captain Olivia pop shining sun and um and agawa and those are your girls state championship team now being with them for the last three years I know they've come close three years in a row but it was a really positive experience to see how much they've grown and bringing home the championship this year and to announce the second state championship team of the spring we have Ray Marshall who um has accomplished something really rare their team are three pets and state champions and FCX so Ray if you're there would you mind coming up and announcing your team he's coming up thank you us only two years in a row want me to announce the players yeah please half of the guys aren't here they're and they're not attending the girls banquet just studying for

011exams or they're working whatever um captains Bruce lunder who is here Manuel Harrison Harrison wolf and then by class Tristan saer Alex SB isan embasa Rohan middle Matt hunt who is here we go co fruman Daniel Lee Adam McFarland who is here Noah Everett who is here here August vty dumbrowski Elias Orel who is here Owen Quan who is here and will will newfeld who is not here it's an amazing team and last but certainly not least we have all our All State all New England all academic um athletes for the spring athletes if you are there I'm gonna ask you guys to come and stand in the front as I call your name first for baseball we have John McHugh boys lacrosse Colin Zeller boy tennis Harrison wolf Rohan matal boy track Antonio cicarelli

012Ben Hayes mato charara and Ryan Nukem girls tennis we have Kyra de Bay but she was not there girls golf we have Caroline McShay and Allison Bower girls lacrosse Emma abazia Jazelle D Petro Grace o' Conor and Leon cier girls track we have Esme daplin Gemma Hardwick Kate Freeman and Maggie mcui Ora mirer and in sailing Richard Sykes and Molly Wood ladies and gentlemen these are your spring athletes they did a great job this year representing grenis High School we're all proud of them congratulations wow thank you again for having us we're hoping to have another huge list in the fall we're looking forward to it all right up next we have the 2024 science transfer Awards with Mr veronte how long is the list this year okay we're ready we're ready this is always

013a good thing if I spin this around beenin hello everyone how are you um my name is Andy bermonte I teach the research class and the junior innovators class so it was another F oh good evening so uh it was another fantastic year for science research uh first in school history one of our students traveled to Stockholm Sweden late last summer to eventually win an international Stockholm Junior water priz competition on water research another traveled to Grenada Spain in September to give a talk at the ibro World Conference of Neuroscience uh for the 15th year running at least one ghs student was selected as a regener and science Talent search scholar uh this year three of our students were selected as Scholars uh in early March our students took part in the Connecticut Junior science

014and Humanities Symposium uh mid-march the Connecticut Science and Engineering fair was held and 18 of our students defended their research and an astounding 11 of these kids were selected as the top 15% of the fair or Fair finalists I went on to win notable Awards including many first place finishes uh in April 18 student researchers participated in What's called the Norwalk Community College Science Fair taking three top prizes and in late April one of our ghs science research students was selected again as a state winner in the Stockholm Junior water prize competition in the hopes that he like his predecessor will compete at the national level and then move on to to Sweden um and finally only weeks ago three of our students competed in the amongst the 1200 brightest kids in the planet or

015in the world at the regeneron isep fair in Los Angeles so and finally this was the second year of our Junior innovators program where our Middle School eighth graders are provided the opportunity to conduct independent science research once per week prior to their school day so that takes a lot of commitment the kids have to get to the high school at 7 AM that I I see them now and they're actually awake which is very impressive um so uh nine Junior innovators participated in the state fair and won many top Awards including four nominations to the prestigious n National Junior innovators challenge which is the top middle school science competition in the nation so let's meet some of these um fine young science so first let's acknowledge the Greenwich high school students and their participation

016in the various state fairs including CF jshs and no Community College Fair so what I'd like to do is call each name one at a time give you some idea as to what they have won or he or she has won and if you guys can come on up here um so first some of these kids are not here so I'll read it for those that are online uh isan ambasta winner of the Frederick Oleander engineering award at at CF uh ISAC Bell and and guys clap when I'm done because it's it's a long list a finalist at the CF Fair um Owen bennison who is here I saw him first place in oceanography and second place in environmental Sciences at CF and winner of a $96,000 university New Haven scholarship and also posted presenter

017at Noah Community College excellent Justin Bernstein CF finalist and winner of the NASA Earth system science award and selected as the best project for the state of Connecticut in the Stockholm Junior W prize competition awesome job buddy uh Sam beer presenter at CF see Sam uh Hannah de Cruz CF finalist in Applied Technologies um William doer poster presenter at Noah Community College uh Zara Hawk presenter at CF and NCC and I thought it worth mentioning she as a high schooler is the director of the middle school science fair that is run here in Greenwich which is pretty pretty amazing oh there you are I I wasn't looking um Lauren Wong I I thought I saw you there um presenter at CF and NCC and you winner of the US metric supervisor award very nice how

018you doing um Ava Jackson finalist at CF where she won second place in life sciences and a trip to the international science and engineering Fair only weeks ago where she and then also post a presenter at NCC where she was received honorable mention awesome Henry Jenn is he around CF finalist and winner of the aquarium water company award Avery C I see Avery presenter at CF at NCC welcome Avery you good job uh Cindy Lee is she here presenter at NCC um Ashley I know you're here finalist at CF where she won first place in life sciences fourth place in biotechnology and a trip to participate in ISF I have to Shake while I'm reading sorry um Ashley delivered in presentation also at the 2024 Connecticut JSA chess where she finished in fourth place and

019won a trip to the national competition New Mexico we had Frank skeo presenter at CF and NCC um Ryan wadwa CF finalist and posted presenter at NCC uh Lula Wang Lula's here I saw her somewhere there she goes first place in biotechnology at CF and again was awarded a trip to ISF she also presented at NCC H where she received honorable mention award um Marley Marley whis finalist at NCC was awarded third place in math third place in computer science uh Marley presented her work on developing a much-needed electric vehicle recharging infrastructure at NCC where she finished in second place as well and finally Alex Z CF finalist and poster presenter at CF I'm tired uh so fabulous job to all of these creative and talented students could everybody wish them a right uh next

020is this uh ibro World Conference of Neuroscience that I've been mentioning um each year ibro the eyo competi or conference it's not a competition is held in Spain in September and it draws global leaders in neurological disorders to discuss the most recent advancements in Brain Research this past fall the ibro folks invited high school student to present her work entitled identification of Therapeutics for neurological disorders through development of a novel machine Learning System for predicting drug Gene interactions in the glymphatic system that is Ashley Malcolm awesome job okay um next is the regeneron science Talent search I don't see these gals here so uh I'll briefly describe it each year graduating SC seniors have the opportunity to publish completed independent research at this regeneron senior Talent search or STS in December STS announced 300 High

021School seniors that were named as Scholars from a list of over 1,200 kids each uh semi-finalist received $2,000 for regeneron with an additional $22,000 uh going to the school and not not the mentor unfortunately um this joke um I'm proud to say three science research students were selected as Scholars and they are Lucy Lee uh Audrey Lynn and Naomi Park awesome job for those guys okay um Stockholm Junior water prize I'm very excited to explain what was going on with this student so we've all heard about it it it's basically empowering students to research ways to solve water problems in our communities this year's State winner will compete in the National J uh JW s WP another acronym in a few days I guess Justin you're leaving in a couple days um so he's going

022to compete at the national level and he tackled the melting of Arctic glaciers due to climate change which has led to J dangerous uh increases in our sea levels this phenomenon is exacerbated by the absorption of incident solar light by the Arctic Dark Water once it melts which increases sea temperature accelerating this melting process in a a negative feedback loop uh the Connecticut state winner of the s wjp or SJ WP I having trouble with that bioengineered cryo bacteria that is native within the Arctic ice so this B this bacteria lives in the ice Justin re-engineered it so that it would now manufacture its own silica so the idea being this ice will now reflect the light slow down the um freezing process and slow down Global uh the waterers warming so the Arctic Ice

023with this new bacteria would reflect one and a half times more sunlight than than now and could potentially reverse 30 years of decline in Arctic Ice coverage that is incredible uh that's Justin Bernstein come on everybody uh next up before the junior innovators you coming right is the uh regener on ISF fair so each year more than 1,200 of the brightest Young Min are invited to compete at regeneron uh ISF the largest pre-ol science competition in the world each of these students has received one of the top prizes at his or her local or state science fair in order to qualify while many Stu schools would find excitement in sending a student to ISF ghs research has sent 55 students to ISF in the past 17 years it's simply incredible uh this year three of

024our research students competed at ISF and they are Ava Jackson an ISF finalist for her cre creation of an early detection europian based sensor for Alzheimer's detection which would allow for measure of Deering in the blood awesome job congratulations uh Ashley malcin an ISF finalist for and finished in second place at ISF for her development of a new polymeros nanocarrier for transport of drugs across the bloodb brain barrier using a novel machine learning model amazing and finally Lula Wang for her is an ISF finalist and finished in fourth place in translational medicine for her creation of a new magnesium micromotor encapsulant that can deliver drugs that would otherwise degrade within stomach it th the stomach via the digestive acids into into the small intestine where it can be absorbed fully intact and then it's motorized

025into the intestinal walls incredible project awesome job girls and finally you guys the junior innovators they're invited to par don't get up yet uh they're invited to participate um the junior innovators are invited to participate in the Middle School portion of the Connecticut Science and Engineering fair this is the second year of the program eight of our eighth graders basically participated in CF and they stole the show literally um we had best of physical science best of life science four of these students were nominated to participate in this national thermofisher sponsor Junior innovators challenge which is the which is a competition for the best middle school projects nationally so here's a here's a list of the kitties and some of their Awards so M Kalin all right first one first place in Micah I'm sorry

026I did it again oh my gosh I'm so embarrassed Micah m m um first place in physical science and best physical science project receiving the Marty tapl student award amazing Brier laau first place award from the Southeastern New England Marine Educators and third place in you can in future sustainability awesome um here's a name you'll recognize uh Tyler Malin first place in life science best life science project and nominated to participate in the thermofisher junior innovators challenge awesome job Caroline Stow come on up uh second place in physical science and once again nominated to compete in the thermofisher junior innovators challenge uh Lily bitman up second place in life science third place in applied technology second place wow you got busy that day uh second place in biotech as well um Arthur Arthur Li right

027first place in computational BIO and bioinformatics awesome awesome job good job uh low Auto second place in computer science low I know you're here great job L and Macky Wilson first place in engineering third place in biotech and participated for the ji challenge awesome we an amazing group guys let's hear I'm in the way let's hear FR thank you guys chat about these research kids good night see L oop sorry sweetie all right congratulations again to all of you guys wonderful wonderful work I was going to say um as my daughter leaves that was something I know that is is new and that you brought to the district because it was um it was such a success in the high school it's been so lovely to see it come down in the middle school and

028I know that I feel personally lucky now to benefit from it it's been such a great experience and hopefully we have more and more children joining it so and thank you congratulations to our All State athletes I know I know one sting me back there on the back thank you all right so for the last and final time I am introducing our grenwich high school student government uh comments from Caleb and Omar good evening board members and meeting attendees my name is Omar galal and I'm the student body vice president at ghs today is my last day as student body vice president as I part ways with all of my political influence I am overwhelmingly satisfied grateful and appreciative for my time in student government I'm proud of the work Caleb and I were able

029to achieve this year the meaningful of change is relative where a small change is just as meaningful to a small group of people as a large change is Meaningful to a large group of people and I believe that good representatives are as attentive to small changes as they are to large changes and this year we pursued change of wide ranging scale from altering the flags in the student center to be more representatives of small communities of students to improving several facets of our cafeteria to become more efficient and to protesting budget Decisions by bringing students to speak at the board of estimation and Taxation meeting I would I would like to express my gratitude to the Board of Education Thomas Jefferson is often attributed the quote the government closest to the people serves them best

030based on this I conjectured that Jefferson would be pleased with the elected representatives of the board who often Bridge the people to the government where Dr Jones Miss sto miss hirs and miss Kowalski have engaged Student Government at our lunch meetings and where the board invites the elected representatives from student gov Pac and the Gea to speak at every meeting separate from the public common these meetings and the way that the board conducts themselves uh are an ex exemplary model of decentralized government and participatory democracy it has been an honor to speak alongside Caleb Lil and John and it has been a privilege for me to be invited to speak before the Boe that being said it should always be a necessity for the board to take into consideration the viewpoints and ideas of the

031student body Student Government reaches out to share their opinions on the topics that we can get to but there are many topics that get by us I urge everyone not just the board but everyone to proactively consult the wisdom of the student body in order to form your opinions I would like to thank principal Mr Mayo vice principal Mrs Tada and the director of Student Activities Mrs Foster all of whom play a crucial role in making Student Government at ghs successful your Open Door policies and amicable characters ensure that members of student government are not alone when working on events or policy changes I really appreciate all of the help youve extended to me over the past couple couple of years and I'm happy to see say that I see a friend in each one

032of you especially Mr Mayo who once joined my friends and I outside during our lunch block for some chitchat I would also like to thank Mr Silman who is the adviser of student government in addition to being the adviser for two other student Le clubs the assistant adviser of the ghs yearbook and a dedicated social studies teacher the breadth of Mr silkman commitments to the student body are very impressive especially when considering that he consistently maintains the highest caliber of organization and an indomitable positive attitude Mr silkman I really appreciate all of the guidance You' have given me with my roles in student government and finally I have a message for the incoming student body officers rocki and Mahir sha when students and young people speak up people feel that their voices are profound so

033whenever there are decisions that will impact the student body you must be consistently sharp and vocal about your opinions speak over and over again so that people begin to expect student government to have opinions uh on matters expectation is key because there is a direct relationship between those who are expected to speak out and those who are treated seriously speak to the ghs administration speak to the Boe other branches of our local government and even the Press speak to as many people as you can as frequently as you can speak to celebrate the positive aspects of ghs and speak to rectify the negative aspects in short as representatives of of the student body you must not be passive and you must work towards harnessing the potential of student voices and with that I've spoken my

034piece thank you for having me thank you all for hearing me speak uh I'll be back for the community your comments but have a good evening good evening chair Kowalski Dr Jones and members of the board I'm Caleb kalind the student body president at greenish high school as I reflect on the year on so many different moments it's hard to believe that this meeting is Omar and I's last board meeting there are so many great things to look back on from beginning a process to upgade our lunch system to addressing concerns with offerings for lunch specifically the muffins there are many things that I could speak about in terms of the accomplishments that that student government has achieved over this year though I want to turn the focus in to the immense gratitude that exists

035for everyone here firstly I would like to thank the board I want to thank you all for working so closely with us for allowing us to reach out with concerns and coming to our lunch meetings to hear them thank you we thank you for allowing us to sorry thank you for helping us with our proposal process as well as taking our concerns into consideration on other proposals or issues the work that Omar and I have done this year would not have much direction or momentum without the cooperation of this board I know these meetings aren't always easy and I could not be more grateful for your commitment and for allowing us to be so connected I would like to thank our teachers for assisting Us in spreading mess messages to the student body especially in

036engaging them in our efforts to prevent budget reductions that would threaten positions of teachers at our school along with the uh teachers and students help we were able to effectively make a point to the bet about how their proposed budgets threatened our schools offerings and though we weren't able to retain the ghs positions we had wanted thankfully there were no further reductions made I would also like to thank our principal and vice principal Mr mayo and Miss Salada as their hard work for us every day is what allows student government to function so effectively if not for their genuine concern for the students and what issues they may face student government would find itself stuck but because they are so open to ideas and considerations concerns are still heard changes are made and in most

037cases compromises are reached I very grateful for the flexibility that they have shown us as it allows us to be much more creative in our Solutions as well as gaining understanding of what is reasonable and what is not I also extend my thanks to the P the parents and the ptas at our school the contributions that the parents make to our community are the reason why we have our Junior and senior proms as well as our graduation party and knowing that we wrap up next week I have them to thank for their support that allows us to walk across the stage to get our diploma lastly I also wish to send the message to our students to any parents of a student in this room to any student still in this room or to any

038anyone watching the stream or listening later I have these words to say former president Barack Obama said change will not come if we wait for another some other person or if we wait for some other time we are the change that we have been waiting for we are the we are the ones we've been waiting for we are the change that we seek sorry as you move through life always have the confidence that you can change the world because if you don't do it then chances are it won't get done if we don't continue to speak out when issues arise and if we don't continue to have a voice in this community then the environment will no longer support the needs of the students we need to be the chain we seek in a world

039of so many different concerns and issues we are the generation that has to face either solving these problems or facing the repercussions and I'm hopeful that we will make the right choice in that and as we look into to our future generations of student leaders I confident that we will continue to be the change that we need with that is my pleasure to introduce you to the incoming student body officers student body president-elect Rocky zo who is unfortunately not here and vice president-elect Mahir sha these are incredibly talented in individuals with many strength many strengths academically and interpersonally and both are highly qualified for the positions that they have been elected to I confident that they will serve grish high students as great leaders and build on the foundations that Omar and I have set

040as well as spearhead their own initiatives I'm excited for them to continue voicing students concerns and representing the student body at these meetings thank you all again for the opportunity to speak at these meetings this year I wish you all the best in any Endeavors you pursue and best of luck to our leaders next year hello my name is miir Shaw and I'm honored to be elected student body vice president of grenwich high school I hope to work alongside the administration and Board of Education to continue the work that Caleb and Omar have done to improve our school and hope to work over the summer to make the most impact on the next school year although Rocky could not make it I can assure you we are both excited eager and grateful for this opportunity

041to work alongside you the board as well as well as the rest of the school to make sure that Greenwich High School is the best it can possibly be thank you thanks guys and those were um really profound words I recently read an article that suggested and uh that this generation is the smartest generation thus far given their access to information and and the like uh and you guys uh as well as York student fellow students before with all of the awards I think are proving that to be true so thank you very much guys it's been a pleasure this year all right um L she's online all right l is she online yes okay the floor is yours Lil okay now I'm unmuted we hear you okay thank you good evening chairwoman Kowalski do

042Jones board members my GAA members and the Greenwich community first i' like to also um recognize anamarie FS our GPS representative for the 2025 Connecticut teacher of the year congratulations to uh Omar and Caleb mad props to you excellent speeches all the time yeah you do an excellent job and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors my friend Mr Pete georgeu in the athletic department uh the tennis team uh state champions and Ray Marshall great job on that that three Pete Trifecta and to the all all state um mentions all New England and all academic athletes and uh Andie brante who uh always does an excellent job and to all the science feere uh reward winners innovators and reran winners you know to be reflective these are truly many examples of very

043high level of achieving excellence and the important things the achievement happens in many Pathways one our teachers of Excellence our demonstration of our leaders with the board um Student Government athleticism academics creative problem solving that will help our future Generations this is what a Greenwich Public School System offers our students through all our GAA members I want to thank you that you rise to the occasion every day because what you do matters every single day so I want to congratulate our great Public School System our Board of Education members who work hard are dedicated our administrators our teachers our support staff our parents and most of all our students thank you you make the Year great and everyone have a great summer thank you Mr Fisher excuse me uh Cher Kowski uh board board of

044ed members Dr Jones everyone here everyone listening I'm John fiser the Greenwich PTA council president and a parent of two of the 8,611 great kids in the grish public schools I want to start by piling on the congratulations for Caleb and Omar uh our our student our ghs student leaders I am going to miss you guys at this these meetings um not to take anything away from the Boe discussions but their comments every month are the highlight of the meeting uh PTA Council also wants to add congratulations to all the ghs athletes and the science fair Award winners I think I counted 85 people tonight who who are truly amazing individuals and to uh reiterate What Lil just said isn't it great that we have a public school system that supports people to grow and

045Achieve as those people do and congratulations to to anamarie Falls uh for being recognized for the CT te the Connecticut teacher of the year another truly amazing individual and one of 900 great teachers in the Greenwich public schools and a final shout out on the final final final final final Final pnz approval to get the new CMS school built uh thanks and congratulations to everyone who put in their time and energy to make this happened so we can now start building the new CMS and now let's talk about the elephant in the room the PTEC board of directors uh supports extending superintendent Dr Jones's contract for those who don't know or don't remember the history Greenwich had 12 superintendents in 17 years and six superintendents in the last eight years before Dr Jo Jones join

046the district local media headlines at the time talked about the revolving door it was said that Greenwich was a town that couldn't attract and retain good superintendence we must not condemn ourselves to repeat that history the district has benefited from having Dr Jones's Steady Hand for five years as we move forward with the CMS project as we move forward with the Strategic plan as we move forward with curriculum updates as we move forward with so much else that's been put into motion under Dr Jones the way to continue the progress and the improve and the improvements is by extending the superintendent's contract but that's not just an argument that the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know Dr Jones has been a fantastic superintendent we know some people Grumble about this

047complaint or that complaint but it's like the fifth year of any marriage the blush is off maybe The Thrill Is Gone and there are plenty of reminders of all the things that Annoy Us but that doesn't make it a bad relationship also let's have a little self-awareness the town has not always been exactly the best and most supportive partner but let's talk about how good the relationship is we've got good operational agility and control we have building issues that predate Dr Jones but when burst ceilings fall walls crack Dr Jones pivots with Incredible efficiency to ensure that kids have places to learn and regardless of how you feel about how the federal and state governments handled covid Dr Jones demonstrated leadership to keep the schools open longer than other districts then to Pivot to remote

048learning faster than other districts and then to Pivot again to open our schools before any other District in Fairfield County we've got good academic achievement as we saw with those those kids today people Grumble about the academic achievement but we have test scores that are as high or higher than any of the durg B districts and pretty darn close to the dur a districts we have significantly larger higher needs populations who test as high or higher than similar High needs populations in the durg B and the dur a districts and when the non special needs students scores are broken out separately they too have results that are as high or higher than the durg B and pretty darn close to the dur a schools people Grumble that there's room for improvement there is the Strategic

049plan developed under Dr Jones is a plan for that Improvement we've got satisfied families the our schools surveys implemented under Dr Jones the vast majority of families with students in the schools indicate that they strongly agree or agree with measures of satisfaction and those scores are moving up year on year we've got high rankings and ratings by thirdparty evaluators the district and ghs are rank number five in Connecticut by Niche US News and World reports ranks ghs as number five and EMS as number two greatschools.com rates seven of our schools as nines or tens and three more as is eights the schools in the district earn many other accolades as we often hear during the recognitions at these Boe meetings we've got responsible year-over-year budget Management in a town where the budget planning and approval

050Cycle takes over a year or a full year from start to end having Dr Jones in position long term has led to better budgets we're moving forward and completing capital projects that were ignored or delayed for years before Dr Jones arrived and on the operational side Dr Jones has managed to ban balance operational needs under lean budgets that for years increased at less than the rate of inflation and less than the increases in fix and contracted costs we've got a superintendent who collaborates listens and communicates with the Boe the ptas and the community we urge the board to extend the contract of a superintendent who has accomplished and done so much good the alternate the alternate is to demonstrate that we have forgotten our history and condemn ourselves to be that town that can't attract

051and retain a good superintendent it'll hurt our students our families our schools and our town and with that I thank you for this time to speak and for your service to the community we have uh Community comments up next uh first is Jackie Homan and then Joe lari on Deck good evening Board of Education members and superintendent Jones I'm here tonight to ask the Republican members of the Boe not to extend Tony Jones's contract I know the Democrats love Dr Jones because she's really good at promoting Progressive values and teaching practices in fact during her tenure she's managed to politicize schools in breathtaking alignment with the Democrat agenda my public comments in May focused on the equity and social justice criteria Dr Jones proposed to include in GPS evaluations of Educators equity and social justice

052are squarely Democrat agenda items Republicans value Educators who promote academic Excellence but Mr McAn Anthony as a republican wasn't president and didn't attempt to vote so the Democrats were able to pass the equity and social justice criteria even without these criteria in place recent hires by Dr Jones certainly checked the equity and social justice box she hired a principal who was recognized for building an anti-racist Workforce anti-racism might sound nice but it's actually Reverse Racism the architect of anti-racism ibram kendi is a prominent supporter of critical race Theory Jones says there's no CRT in GPS but she hires anti-racist educators who can inject these ideas into the classroom anyway let's not forget Jones had Greenwich administrators do a guided reading of the CRT classic white fragility or when she promised an activist group that she

053was making Greenwich an anti-racist District don't be fooled anti-racism is racism Jones even hired a principal with an Ethics violation from the social justice middle school started by Jamal Brown the Democrat congressman from New York who triggered a false alarm to stop a vote in Congress she hired a principal who in 2020 shared an article that suggested using the pandemic to transform schools to keep race and equity in focus and combat the alleged systemic racism in this country Republicans don't believe the country is systemically racist however systemic racism is a key part of the Democrat narrative by the way Jones has appointed five new Elementary School principles and three different Middle School principles over the last year and a half that means leadership has changed at nearly half of our elementary schools and two out

054of three middle schools in a short period of time I'm wondering if there will be stability with principles at the other six elementary schools under the rest of Jones's leadership or if given more time she'll replace them with equity and social justice Warriors too 30 seconds just to be clear I'm here tonight to represent a group of Republicans who voted for Republican Boe members with the expectations these Republicans would represent Republican principles with that in mind I'm asking all four Republicans including Mr mckany Anthony please do not extend Miss Jones contract thank you Mr sl's up and then after that we have um Jen Kai and audre odonovan M question before I start is is the whole board present this evening I noticed that one doesn't seem to be here what they are online okay

055great well good evening members of the Board of Education Dr Tony Jones thank you for your attention and commitment to the betterment of our educational system you're all serving here uh and appreciate it very much it's not an easy job to have so as you deliberate the extension of the superintendent's contract it's it's crucial to assess the sup of performance against the success profile for this pivotal role let's begin considering what the ideal superintendent for one of the most prestigious high-paying and budget intensive positions in the country looks like the success profile what do Central Casting look like for this key position it stands to reason that a track record of elevating educational achievement and standards should serve as a fine Baseline a fine start starting point so if the track record the past 5

056years doesn't reflect that or concerns persist about the ability to do so going forward then what should the board do the decision to extend this contract is truly a litus test for the board and for our community if a superintendent's tenure has been marked by numerous issues that challenge the integrity and effectiveness of our educational system then you should know what you need to do not let politics and horse trading or personal Ambitions get in the way of what's right not sacrifice the means for the end you board members are usted to prioritize what's right for our children our schools and our community we're counting on you to do what is objectively right not what is subjectively politically convenient I would hope that you can have this discussion amongst yourselves outside a public forum for

057the grace and dignity of the position and the board itself but comments were welcome this evening so I'm providing them to you now thank you thank you up next Jennifer and Audra Jennifer Cai and Audrey odonovan Alison hi can you hear me yep okay I'm G to speak for audre and myself um members of the board we are here tonight as founders of the special education advisory Council we are Republicans and Democrats but more importantly we are parents with children who have been enrolled in Greenwich public schools for the last decade in 2019 when Dr Jones was appointed a superintendent the special education Community was in total disarray there were protests outside of town Hall and teachers were speaking out at board meetings Dr Jones promptly intervened requesting a meeting with parents and teachers to

058gain a deeper insight into our concerns all sides knew there was ample work ahead what we understood then and acknowledge today is that meaningful advancement remains Out Of Reach if we continue the cycle of replacing superintendents every few years despite the challenges we faced along the way our unwavering dedication to ensuring the best education for all students has remained constant in collaboration with Dr Jones this commitment led us to achieve a significant milestone in 2020 the founding of the seak a groundbreaking initiative that marked a first for grenage and the third Council of its kind in the state of Connecticut our superintendent is a Beacon of Hope for greenage community and embodies the very essence of dedication and passion for our children's education with unwavering commitment she leads with a vision that ignites the Flames

059of curiosity and excellence in every student her tireless efforts in fostering a nurturing environment resonates deeply with parents instilling a sense of trust and confidence in the future of our children Dr Jones's empathy and willingness to listen to our concerns make her not only just an administrator but a true Ally in our journey towards providing a first class education for our children under her guidance Greenwich Public Schools will continue to flourish as centers of innovation and academic growth shaping the bright minds of tomorrow we are grateful for Dr Jones's leadership unwavering support and unyielding dedication to our children's success in this time of profound political division we implore you members of the board to refrain from letting politics influence your decision-making process we urge you to Rise Above The Fray fulfill your responsibilities and unite

060for the betterment of our children's Futures just as we the found founders of the seak have set aside our political disparities for the greater good so too must you let us Forge a path where the Brilliance of our children's potential eclipses the shadows of political stri thank you thank you up next is Allison Khan on Deck is Amy MTH actually we're splitting our time Miss Pac Dei co-chairs uh good evening Dr Jones Board of Education members I'm here to speak in my capacity as co-chair of the Dei committee for Pac my co-chair Alison Khan will speak after me first let me say congratulations and nearing the end of the school year your jobs are not easy and we appreciate all that you do in the best interest of our children and families Dr Jones you

061have nav ated many challenges in your tenure we appreciate the care compassion and rigor that you have applied I know there are some here tonight who aim to oppose you we stand here in support of you we think this town our schools and most importantly our students benefit from your continued contributions as superintendent the mission of the PAC diversity equity and inclusion committee is to Foster an overall sense of belonging with within the GPS Community by intentionally building relationships and inviting diverse perspectives Ives to the PTA our mission is inextricably linked to pac's broader mission to ensure all students have equal access to education and enrichment the Dei committee partners with local ptas to create programs initiatives and events that allow for Meaningful conversations and lead to clear actions for creating a truly inclusive environment

062in order to help every student reach their full potential the momentum over the past 2023 2024 school year has been meaningful in partnership with the local Dei reps from hpta some of our efforts that we're most proud of this year include supporting GPS Dei reps around Dei committee's Mission a priority focus on accessibility transportation for students to school ADA compliance and special education resources fostering a tighter partnership with special education services and Exploration with SCS leadership to find Opportunities to support them in their work empowering schools to host International or other events to promote celebration of cultures while many schools have international events already this was the first International night for new Leb and the first school sponsored International Day for EMS our goal for 2025 is to have a week that includes International International

063day and nights for all GPS schools whenever possible continuing to collaborate with the middle and high school GSA advisors and Community agencies promote a welcoming safe environment for the lgbtqia students and families including collaboration on the town of Greenwich Pride event participating in the first selectman's diversity advisory committee to promote education and opportunities through an inclusive lens 30 seconds the Committees organ organized the juneth celebration and flag raising event on June 19th and partnered with the Greenwich Historical Society for the juneth family celebration on June 22nd sharing information and local events that celebrate the Heritage and culture of all Greenwich residents and promotes the value of diversity and inclusion locally including a continued partnership with grenage Library my co-chair Alison will continue time thank you oh should I okay thank you I gotta I have

064a height adjustment here um good evening Dr Jones board members we're proud of all that we did this year but there remains a huge opportunity that requires our continued focus and commitment as m MERS of f fsdc we continue to work with Town leaders to bring common circles to Greenwich without success we must keep moving that forward to help address hate including but not limited to anti-Semitism in our schools and Community our community continues to tell us that not enough is being done we continue to witness an ongoing Mental Health crisis among our young people bullying and discrimination are high and trending higher we hear all the time from students and their families who feel on the margins in our school system when our students get to learn about other countries where families immigrated from

065or meet others from similar cultures they feel a little less alone importantly students learning about other cultures increases empathy and understanding of what makes America and granite unique we are teaching respect for one another when students cannot get the resources they need or the facilities they require and which the law requires to learn in a safe environment or even access that learning environment at all we all bear that burden at an absolute minimum we must bring our schools up to ADA compliance and we must create greater transparency around our SCS work in order to fix what is not working when students see pride Flags remove from school when we give into the hate and ignorance of the few and fail to remain strong in our convi convictions for what we know is true and just

066we fail to protect our lgbtq students and ultimately all children we bear that burden when we fight along partisan lines that are tied to special interests rather than stay committed to what will drive the best outcomes for our children we bear that burden diversity Equity inclusion Dei has become a buzzword a lightning rod for extreme political grandstanding the truth is there's nothing controversial about teaching fact-based history about celebrating the American Multicultural Heritage that makes us different and critically accepting that we have more in common than not we have the power to discredit the noise and disinformation that aims to divide us we have a responsibility to do the right thing by our students and future generations of students in this town as one of our reps so poignantly said we have students parents teachers and

067administrators wanting to be a community of Learners we have a responsibility to create a safe space without fear on campus in the classroom at field day at concerts at graduation we live work and study as one town one family 30 seconds we appreciate your continued commitment to serving our most important asset our children and encourage you to remember how important it is to our children and staff to have consistent leadership we wish you a wonderful and restorative summer thank you um next is Kathleen breedy and on Deck is Janet MCM thank you to the board and Dr Jones for your time and commitment this year my name is Kathy Brady my family and I have been in the Grange Public Schools for the past 12 years during this period we suffered through a protracted period

068in which we had a revolving door of superintendence it appeared that the Boe was constantly chasing shiny the next shiny new leader while leaving the school district in the Lurch with a lack of Direction a superintendent resigned in frustration or there was a lack of support thankfully Dr Jones was firmly in place by the time Co hit hit and with their Steady Hand the district returned to a 5-day in-person learning in September 2020 an amazing feat considering many of our neighboring towns did not there have been many fundamentals which Dr Jones has addressed over her tenure and which John Fisher had previously discussed things which were previously unaddressed or lacked momentum due to the inconsistent leadership this includes a revamp of the curriculum aligning all the schools now what is taught at one school is

069taught at others across the elementary and middle schools for the past three years I've had the privilege of being a co-chair of the scss PCH committee while I'm not speaking in that capacity today I will say after years of inaction as stated by the cak on special ed under prior administrations the ball is now firmly rolling in the right direction overall the district has momentum on a number of critical areas including the capital budget and most importantly student achievement I'm therefore bewildered by way the board would not extend Dr Jones giving her a multi-year contract are we chasing the next shiny new idea we turn our backs on what works we have't Dr Jones a strong steady leader with a vision one who has tirelessly worked for the benefit of all students and has the

070respect and the support of the teachers and the parents and know overall she has endured unwarranted scathing criticism from some members of this community with dignity and Grace and she has stayed and steadfastly shown her leadership she has not resigned in frustration despite these attacks I believe she has stayed due to her unwavering commitment to our children so why is the board not extending her contract for multi- years why are we debating this I am looking for an answer as the reasons given simply don't add up against the facts thank you for your time next up is Janet McMahon followed by Robin leer good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight about my unequivocal support for Dr Jones's contract extension my name is Janet McMahon and while I'm a member

071of the RTM and Pac my comments tonight will be my own as a GPS parent of two first of all I'll start by saying that I'm in the unique position of knowing and working with Dr Jones in a variety of capacities in my role as a PTAC committee chair for three years a delegate to the education committee on the RTM for seven years and most importantly as a GPS Public School parent for 10 years in other words I'm about as director a stakeholder as one can be so I do not take superintendent performance lightly over the past 5 years our GPS parent and student Community has benefited under Dr Jones's leadership in many demonstrable and impactful ways but given my three-minute time limit I'll just draw your attention to the top three of a long

072list of assets that she brings to the GPS Community number one Dr Jones successfully navigated us through covid we were one of the first school districts in the state to implement remote learning and we were one of the first first school districts in the nation to send our kids back to school in person that following September as a result our school district experienced only minimal learning loss for a brief period of time we have not only fully recovered from that learning loss but we are now exceeding our pre-co academic performance benchmarks and it shows Niche ranked GPS the number fifth the F number five best school district in Connecticut and Greenwich High School the number four best high school in Connecticut US News and World reports ranked grenwich High School number five best high school

073in Connecticut and Eastern Middle School the number two best middle school in Connecticut these are truly impressive metrics when you consider our Town's difficult budgetary parameters number two Dr Jones's Dr Jones is a skilled Communicator committed to transparency never before had we had a superintendent who checks in with parents via weekly telephone calls and emails but also frequent social media posts surveys roundtables and public forums Dr Jones makes herself accessible to all there is no doubt why an overwhelming 80 to 90% of our school families report that they are satisfied with their schools year-over-year and parent surveys number three and probably most important Dr Jones cares about our kids when the tra tragic Uvaldi school shooting happened Dr Jones advocated the police department for more security personnel and equipment in our schools when the ceilings

074at North Mayana School caved in and one year later when Central Middle School was condemned by the building department Dr Jones jumped into action to find alternate venues for the students to learn in and work diligently to get the schools open and ready for the students and staff to return no one has worked harder for our kids than Dr Jones in the 10 years I've had kids in GPS please vote Yes to extend Dr Jones's contract by the industry standard of three years or at a minimum two years thank you for your service and thank you for your consideration next up Robin leader followed by David Lancaster hi all my name is Robin leader I'm an alumni parent and ant of current and former granch public school students I've already sent a letter to the

075Board of Education with my thoughts but I want to emphasize my support for Dr Jones by speaking tonight I do not need to recite and repeat all the reasons that have already been said tonight on why Dr Jones is been an asset to GPS in grenwich Dr Jones has excelled at her job even with the RO even with roadblocks and complications now is the time to give her she uh she has figured out how to maneuver within the state Town parent and pandemic roadblocks now is the time to give her a multi-year contract and let her use that knowledge to continue to improve grunge public schools for all our students and teachers starting over with yet another student superintendent who doesn't have the skills Drive local insights or relationships that Dr Jones now has would

076be a big step backwards for grenwich I could list all the short-term superintendents of the recent past to make my point but in the interest of time I won't I will just reiterate my family's strong support for Dr Jones Thank you thank you uh next up is David Lancaster followed by Peter Sher thank you all right go ahead two minutes the Board of Education should finally do the right thing and vote not to renew Dr Jones contract as superintendent of schools for the following reasons she has been unable to meet the Strategic academic performance targets unan unanimously adopted by the Board of Education Gren two grenwich schools spend more per student than any town in the state with a comparable student body yet stagnant and declining academic scores do not reflect this three Dr Jones

077has a history of hiring ethically compromised principles lauded for their commitment to social equity in addition to one who portrayed grenet schools negatively nationally by casting aspersions against Roman Catholics as unworthy to be teachers she has not taken more leadership and ownership of the town's school and capital project School budgets and capital projects which has caused unnecessary confusion and distress within the town on many levels she has worked consistently to implement a personal ideological agenda rather than working to raise academic standards in an environment free of political noise where the innocence of students is protected she continues to transform our school system into a social justice training center by evaluating personnel based on the promotion of e educational Equity another opaque term plucked from the diversity equity and inclusion lexicon her ongoing lack of transparency

078with parents in the general public has created a growing level of mistrust in the town's highest School official if her past experience as a superintendent of other school dist districts is any indication this situation is unlikely to change cost will continue to rise and scores will continue to fall over the next five years in light of this the members of the Board of Education need to answer the Public's questions as to why they see fit to retain Dr Jones it's time to stop ignoring the issues the bo the Boe does not report to Dr Jones Dr Jones reports to the Boe the Boe should vote not to extend her term and seek a new superintendent immediately who has the same Zeal to improve academic performance and teach children how to think as Dr Jones has

079to teach children what to think thank you very much thank you next up is Peter sure followed by Brian Zeller heard a whole lot of beep in there do you need to okay tell me when you're ready okay uh my name is Peter Sher I served with three Granite superintendents and three interims I gained experience about hiring evaluating keeping and releasing superintendent I'm very concerned about what the board is doing to our town schools six of you passed a strategic plan for grish schools it was principally written by Dr Jones and then the Boe approved her plan you told all of Greenwich this is the plan and we will eval everything we do against it are you doing that in order to decide on extending the contract with Dr Jones the most important question is

080is Dr Jones the right and best person to achieve the Strategic plan over the next five to seven years this board has repeatedly kicked that leadership can down the road through a series of short-term contract extension it's widely understood board members are doing the same again this year through a pro politically negotiated one-year extension cooked up by a few board members in fact former chairman Joe Kelly explained as much to his political party leadership just last night uh essentially explaining this is the best deal that this political party could get our kids and Dr Jones should not be subjected to these minations you owe Our Town courage and conviction you certainly owe everybody stability and certainty if Dr Jones is the right person to execute the Strategic plan that's the only question then make the

081commitment extend her contract for the maximum allowed through 2028 show some courage and leaders ship if the answer is no it's not a statement of whether or not Dr Jones is a capable andc competent superintendent it says she you believe she may not be the best person to execute this plan um and you should begin searching for the next leader while Jones finishes her term this year Tony Jones is a tenured professional this is not her first IO she will accept whatever decision the board makes with Grace and professionalism but the board members need to make the decision bring stability to our school system stop with these short-term patches 30 seconds everything else is a political stitch up and our kids are the losers next up is Brian thank you next up is Brian Zeller

082followed by Omar galal good evening board members and Dr Jones uh my name is is Brian Zeller uh I me I'm the proud parent of uh three granch public school students uh twins that are a junior and one that's a freshman and I'm happy to say they've all been uh in the granch public school system um since uh kindergarten and I'm uh speaking and like to express my endorsement for Dr Jones's contract um extension um you know in addition to having the the three kids in the public school system I've invested a lot of my own time back into the public school system uh when my kids were at ccob school I served as the co-president and the the uh president you know from 17 to 18 and then 18 and 19 and then also

083my children were at Central Middle School I served as the uh PTA co-president president uh there as well and I've also coached lacrosse here uh at the high school for last four years and just finished up as the assistant coach of of the varsity program um but I wanted to speak about one of my experiences with Dr Jones during my time uh when I was on the the CMS PTA I I happen to be the the president of the PTA uh in 2022 uh when the building was was closed down to to the structural issues um I'm sure as you guys all know it was kind of the Domino that you know we're still dealing with now um you know so the CMS PTA we had to hold an emergency meeting that was a Friday

084they they closed the building down by that following Wednesday we had reached out to Dr Jones in her office uh she made herself available to the CMS parent Community uh she also brought Dan Watson who's the director of school facilities uh to handle any of the technical questions you know they both took um especially Dr Jones took both written and live questions from the parent Community uh she addressed the concerns and provided the road map of of what lied ahead I know at that time the CMS Community uh was very grateful her Le grateful for her leadership uh you know not only during that initial uh time but also uh in the following wake you know that was provided uh from that school closure um you know another interesting tidbit about my PTA time in

085those four years there there have been three different superintendents and um you know I know when Dr Jones was hired I read somewhere that she was actually the 14th superintendent in 20 years here in um you know here in Greenwich I I feel that Dr Jones is a proven leader uh that she is good for the grunch public schools but most importantly I feel that she puts puts the kids first uh so thank you for your time and consideration and all that you guys are all doing for GR Public Schools thank you up uh our last person up is Omar gal my name is Omar gal I'm back on business now I'm speaking on behalf of the Astronomical Society of greenage The Bowman Observatory is the state-of-the-art observatory behind the Julian Curtis School owned by

086the Board of Education and generous generously managed by the Astronomical Society and loved by students and grenage residents alike the following letter to the Boe probably pertains most to Dr Jones since it outlines urgent repairs that needs to that need to be forwarded to the board's facilities or grounds Department here's the letter dear Board of Education the Astronomical Society of greenage would like to report the following maintenance issues of The Bowman Observatory number one the lightning ground the lightning grounding wire is loose it has apparently been damaged while the grass was being cut around the observatory the ASG will soon donate a new Observatory control PC at no cost to greenage taxpayers the old Observatory PC runs Windows 7 but the astronomical software that controls the observatory can no longer be updated on that outdated

087PC without a lightning grounding wire that isn't loose the new pc and the telescope Electronics would be susceptible to fire damage from a near lightning strike we await for pair of the lightning grounding wire before we can donate a new windows 11 Observatory control PC number two there are large cracks in the observatory cement stairway many students visit the observatory during the course of the year and this is a potential injury Hazard and number three in or in or around 2009 a trench was dug and an Ethernet conduit was installed from the nearby School building the Julian Curtis building to the observatory so there's a trench and a conduit however the ethernet cable was never actually installed inside the conduit thus The Observatory has no internet connection The Observatory sorely needs a connection to the

088internet to operate properly the Astronomical Society of grenwich would be willing to finance the internet cable installation that's the end of the letter so they're very there are three very simple but important repairs that need to be made an electrician must repair the lightning grounding wire the crack corner of the staircase must be filled with concrete and an ethernet cable must be run through the already existing ethernet conduit when I was speaking to Rick Bria the VP of the ASG he told me that he wished for the observatory to be completed within his lifetime I hope that you guys all agree with me that if you knew his age that is a pretty ridiculous expectation if the board acts on these requests The Observatory could be completed I hope in a matter of months at

089most uh so and I believe that the board ought to act on these requests given the asg's Decades of generosity to the town and their dedication to granted students so please forward these requests to the appropriate Department the Board of Ed at the hire building that's all I have for tonight thank you have a good evening thank you you too thank you Omar all right uh we are up that concludes our community comments and we're up to the superintendent report Dr Jones yes um first of all just congratulations for all of our elementary and middle schools who have either already had their moving up Ceremonies for their students going from 5: to six or they're having them on Tuesday for our eighth graders uh moving up to ninth grade just as a reminder that the

090last day for sixth grade and 9th grade is Monday because they always start a year early early a day early not a year early uh a day early um so that's on Monday and then all students have an early release on Tuesday as a reminder um we have a couple of updates that went out over the last two days but I know it's a busy busy time so if anybody missed those uh the well at Parkway is now ready to go um the infrastructure is ready so we'll be back to normal and we know in in September we're just waiting on the sign off um from the Department of Health for local health and also at the state level so really excited about that um I know somebody mentioned the Planning and Zoning approval for

091CMS which is uh terrific to be moving along on that and then uh we did update the Riverside uh Community as well we're moving uh full steam ahead for feasibility that uh the RFP we could already tell was uh that we thought it was going to pass the budget so we started building it before the budget passed so the day after the budget past we got it posted and or shortly thereafter so it closes like the first week in July and we'll be um On Target to start feasibility in the in the fall so that's very very exciting um I still remember my first year here I was invited to the Riverside PTA meeting standing in their library and they all knew we had a long range plan for facilities and they were asking me

092if their kindergarteners were going to be in the new in the new renovation or expansion and I was really honest with them and said I don't think so just and it just had to do with you know how the whole plan and all the buildings that we had in place but so this is very exciting for for that community and last but not least graduation is Tuesday and I do want to remind people that it's expected to be in the 90s and perhaps triple digits and we are on a turf field it gets extremely hot so dress cool um there will be water for the students so we make sure they stay hydrated and and uh those on the stage as well there will also be water for sale um as a fundraiser for one

093of the groups so I just want to point that out be weather aware because it it will be hot um but we're looking forward to Tuesday and just can't wait to say congratulations to the class of 2024 all for me that's all for me great thank you Dr Jones uh are there any reports from uh committee members in Leones all right I have an update for the Julian Curtis building committee the um the committee received the final Planning and Zoning approval pending some minor tree modifications and is now in the process of finalizing the design plans to go out for bid um those should be completed by the end of June and then that process should kick off uh just as a reminder this is for phases one and two of a four-phase plan um

094phase one is the elevator phase two is the front entrance and the um Ada parking and access and phase three is the cafeteria and phase four are the final touches or wrap-ups um so construction for phase one and two will likely begin within the next 12 months and should be completed shortly thereafter uh likely maybe like next summer great um Laura did you want to say anything regarding CMS your favorite topic uh would you like me to uh speak about future meetings now or later oh let's talk about that later okay well um you know the big news Dr Jones already delivered we are through Planning and Zoning we are thrilled and um uh I can tell you uh we are in continued discussions with the tree Warden about how best to keep our grounds

095irrigated once we have our landscaping and trees planted so those are ongoing discussions and uh you may be invited um uh Karen and Dr Jones to some extra meetings just so you know I know you're excited about that um to discuss uh those issues so thank you and we can discuss the future meetings uh I guess under planning sounds good and I just want extend my gratitude to you Laura for all the work that you've done on that building committee um not putting aside the other members it's been a lot of hard work and uh Laura has always had some really helpful comments and at every Planning and Zoning meeting and otherwise but I have to say that uh Laura's comments at the last meeting as I think helped push it all the way through

096and she has been a true advocate for CMS and and I am grateful that she was at the helm pushing this through because through her diligence I think we're getting this this project has main is on time and that is all through the thanks of Laura and the work of the committee but thank you Laura for all of your work there and thank you to you as well for your advocacy thank you ask a question Central whatever happened with the uh chair situation there uh Laura do you want to address that issue uh yes the uh chair has let us know that he'll be uh stepping aside from his position although remaining on the committee uh in mid July I believe the 17th is the date he provided oh that's great thank you any other

097all right I will just do a shout out to the senior who too sorry Karen um Sean politely told me to look behind me my next life I'm coming back with eyes behind the back of my head but go for it Karen don't tell your children you don't have eyes behind your head because I think they all think we do um I was just going to give a report on the ghs entryway project um we are heading uh Fast and Furious towards the Finish Line um you know just to to ensure that uh you know things are on track and should be still we're still targeted for uh have everything finished or at least the majority have everything finished up by the start of school next year um and also as a reminder you know

098the wall the front uh of our high school will not be uh fully open uh for graduation uh there will at least be um all of the more parking available because we've have ask them to uh you know not take up parking spaces on that particular day but um things are good the bricks have come in they haven't been obviously put down um outside yet and once School's Out they'll be doing a little bit more work indoors is they didn't want to be disruptive to the students and will be building the actual um front foyer inside so um things are really starting to take shape great uh I just want to give a shout out to uh those that participated in the senior Awards uh I got the opportunity to uh to be there present

099deliver a few messages and deliver the cave award and I have to say that it was a quite inexperience we have so many talented students here that uh and and the number of them and and it wasn't just repeat students receiving multiple Awards it was different students receiving Awards and that's just a wonderful um tribute to just the our senior class and all of the The Talented students that we have so I was glad to be a part of that all right uh moving on to discussion items um Dr Jones can you give us an update on our Western Middle School soil update that's become a discussion item for the last several months yes this is on every agenda it will be until this project is finished and we give kids back on the field

100um these are pretty short right now the long uh presentation was in the April uh meeting where we had the experts here that did quite a long presentation uh just to say we will over the summer send out at least one if not two updates as the field starts to develop um we hope to get the kids back on the field um you know by the end of next the first semester next year so um moving right along and we're just very very pleased with this project great uh Dr carabillo can you uh come on down for a discussion on our summer school planning thank you good evening how are you questions do I have to press it no okay good so your questions I'd be happy to answer them to the best of my

101ability well I I know that I send some questions in advance and I appreciate that uh and just for the public I had asked some specific questions regarding just the the tutoring session and the opportunity for students to participate in both the tutoring segment as well as the actual the the actual program yes some parents have signed up for tutoring plus the program no I think that's a wonderful option and I know we had done it last year and I think it's it you know having that small group setting and learning component is quite helpful I think kids can truly take advantage of that and I think it actually has more impact which I I think is great and if we can continue to build that out bigger and include more children in it that

102would be wonderful oh um quick question so the are you considering sorry what the math Bridge courses which I guess is now leading more and more to the block zero concept is that correct are you seeing an uptick in that from last summer or about an uptick from last summer yes definitely that's inter that's actually that says a lot that means that people are kind of catching up to the concept okay great thank you you're welcome be right anyone have any more questions for Dr Michael so and I appreciate the um I send some questions ahead of time so I appreciate your answers there um when we think about uh I know you you you do this twice a year we do we come you come back and Report out on outcomes in again in

103the fall how are we have we thought about ways of uh reporting that out in in the fall as far as like take what kind of baselines we can take the beginning of the summer and then where we're going to be going and how we can measure the impact of the program so this this year we are going to be using Dibbles they're going to do a pre-test a mid-test and an end test so Kim palad you know has been working very closely with Anna Maria uh simonelli who is our uh site supervisor for the elementary school and because she is at the elementary school she's very familiar with it so I think that that will give us a better idea as to how we're doing with all of the programming that we have for

104our early literacy and literacy and writing so I think it's I think it's going to show us some good information right anyone else have any questions okay thank you you're um next up um is the tle executive summary oh Dr bud is he online oh there he is Dr Dr Bud you're up good evening everyone this could be the shortest report at least this formal part but once a year the board of education is asked to have a report uh from the administration on the success of the teacher uh evaluation plan so I'm here to tell you that what you've seen in paragraph summary is accurate that we've used this plan to evaluate our certified staff uh in the next four days all of our certified staff will be finished evaluating on this plan and

105small number of our certified staff have uh been on Improvement plans some of which will continue into the next school year so I'd be happy to answer any questions if you'd like but as you know you voted uh at a prior meeting uh to end this plan uh June 30th and a new plan will begin any questions so before you leave the podium and I appreciate that this is not an agenda item but I'm fairly confident that my board members fellow board members will not object um I recently signed 17 certificates regarding retirement and I was wondering if you could say a few words regarding that for the board true I am a little prepared on this and it's much more interesting than the uh Temple success so I think you know Stephen Hawkings Words

106which are be every exceptional person is an exceptional teacher right and uh we actually have 21 exceptional teachers professional administr uh professional assistants and administrators retiring from Greenwich Public Schools this school year and uh our children are better as a result of their contributions um so to recognize them this evening I'll start with those retiring at our elementary level we have Audrey Barrett a Riverside grade 2 teacher retiring after 30 years of service to Greenwich Beth blell North Street speech and language pathologist retiring with 24 years of service to Greenwich Maryann Bri North Street Professional assistant with 19 years of service to Greenwich Nina dryer New Lebanon and Hamilton Avenue strings teacher with 14 years of service to Greenwich Karen anazo Julian Curtis literacy specialist with 34 years of service to Greenwich Lauren Marson North

107Street special education teacher with 30 years of service to Greenwich Carol Morado Glenville literacy specialist with 23 years of service to Greenwich tiricia Maguire Julian Curtis principal with 27 years of service to Greenwich at the secondary level at Western Middle School Bradley Wallace math teacher with 25 years of service to Greenwich and at Greenwich High School Thomas aberly business teacher with 14 years of service to Greenwich Jennifer Benoy special education teacher with 40 years of service to Greenwich Robert Conlin biology teacher with 14 years of service to Greenwich Mary Cutler School social work with 31 years of service to Greenwich Elizabeth fer French teacher with nine years of service to Greenwich Brenda Jenna razio school psychologist with 18 years of service to Greenwich Jean Marie mandley ESL teacher with 25 years of service to Greenwich

108Joan OD Day School social worker with 32 years of service to Greenwich John Pond dejour math teacher with 25 years of service to Greenwich Anna Romano professional assistant with 19 years of service to Greenwich Mary Beth Smith English teacher with 32 years of service to Greenwich and Joseph verdak professional assistant with 21 years of service to Greenwich so if you're keeping track that represents a total are you ready a total of 56 years of service to the Greenwich Public Schools that's a total of just shy of 95,000 work days and just think on each of those days each one of those people interacted not just with one child and not just with a handful of children but with many many dozens of children so it's well over a million daily interactions with our children and

109in closing we as you know work to hire the best individuals possible for Greenwich Public Schools but these 21 are really in so many ways Irreplaceable so I know that uh they appreciate you and joining me tonight and thanking them for their exceptional service to the district so I think Karen you wanted to say a couple of words oh I just you know well I wanted to share a quote and just a thanks as well um so Sydney hook once said everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers not methods and techniques the teacher is the heart of the educational system um and I think you know it's it's it's clear that we have incredible you know teachers and administrators in our district and just heard about the uh number of years of uh you

110know the Educators uh who are retiring this year so I wanted to just say on you know behalf of of at least some of us or all of us that we are extending our heartfelt gratitude to the 21 teachers and administrators who are retiring this year for their unwavering dedication passion and commitment to education and to our students your profound impact on countless lives through nurturing minds and inspiring Hearts has left an indelible mark on our schools and our students and as you embark on your next chapter I hope you all find joy and fulfillment in the next and future endeavors and thank you so much for all of your exceptional service and the lasting Legacy that you leave behind in all of the students who have stepped foot into your classrooms and into our

111schools thank you I can't I Echo Karen's comments and I can't say enough about the dedication of all of those uh all 21 uh professionals that have graced the halls of Dage public schools for so so long uh it is remarkable and they've touched so many lives and so we often uh celebrate all of the new that come with all the emails and the announcements and it was I thought really important given the Milestone of the over 500 years of service combined um that these individuals be recognized here by the board tonight so I appreciate the little snafu with the agenda but I did think it was important to honor these individuals uh the right way and so I thank them from the bottom of my heart for all of their service to our students

112I will pass that on thank you many of them are watching tonight so thank you and I really did think I only signed 17 and it was 400 some odd years a few in after you agreed to sign the 17 I just wanted to make sure thank you very much all right perfect thank you thanks Dr Bud all right so uh Dr mcy Anthony you are up to discuss the policies the hot button the the hot button issue of the night right the policies um so hi everybody um before you um our three policies on first read uh the policy committee um has met a few times since our last meeting and we've tried to prioritize we have a number of policies that we want to uh work through as well because we have to

113um either by Statute or because the um issues are outdated and then there are other policies like uh more more bigger issues that um might involve some Community conversation so what you're see here with these three policies are um not are not those uh bigger issues but are more more loow hanging fruit things that we have to uh work through and and establish here because of Statute so these are all on first read there was a suggestion that um we if we're okay with them that we wave a second read and try to vote for them but my understanding is we're going to vote we're probably going to have another CMS meeting next week so I don't know if that's necessary um and we're going to we're going to we're going to meet again in

114June so maybe we we can get these done because they would be important to try to have these IES approved by the by the beginning of the next school year um so we'll go through them one at a time and take any questions and then we'll we'll take it from there okay so good so the first one it's policy 115 um we have this is an existing policy that we have educator and Lead evaluation and support that's an existing policy this is a revi a revision of that policy the old policy is about 11 pages long um very unnecessary and um very much Gets In The Weeds um it's a lot of Regulation instead of a lot of actual policy so this streamlined version of that as you can see is one page long um

115but when the policy committee looked through it um it contains we changed a little bit of the wording but it pretty much contains everything that we would want at at the policy level and comparing both the old policy and the new policy um I don't know if there's anything Dr Jones you need to add there the big change is from tle the deck it's more language based any questions on that one no so seeing that the second policy is one everyone is familiar with and um of self-evident why we have to um get this one approved this reflects the change in kindergarten age um and as as as everybody knows the state changed uh the the age of eligibility for kindergarten so in the age of attendance so this is a revision of policy 5111

116which reflects um those changes anything else say anything else Dr Jones is that pretty good okay any questions on this one and the third one is policy 5141 213 which speaks specifically uh to the the use the protective use of noram um in schools this we had an existing policy but we wanted we um as we know this is an evolving uh challenge for communities across the country and we felt the importance of updating our policy um and making sure that it's um aligned with with best practice and and and safety um so we met with the nursing supervisor at the policy committee and we reviewed that and she made a number of changes to the policy uh the biggest change here there's there's two one is that the old policy only the nurse could

117um um administer um um naram and as Naran in the case of an overdose um now any trained individual and the policy defines what that training is um similarly we we we we made sure that this policy specifies specified that nans to be stored in every nurse's office um in every building um for for safety I think those are the major things I don't did I miss anything okay um any other questions on on this policy when do we have to have these policies enacted by July one all right so um um I guess I can get a general sense we could if there are no additional questions we could make a motion to just vote on these policies to wave the second read the motion would be the wave the second motion correct thank

118you the motion would be the wave and I'm just um doing that out of an abundance of caution and time I don't know who we will all get I know people of traveling and doing things next week and obviously we have have a meeting on CMS and I'm trying to be mindful of that already starts into people's summer vacations and to hold that meeting as short as possible so if we're here and everyone's in agreement I'm happy to make a motion to wave the second reading oh sure of course I'll second okay that's one quick question yeah well the policy committee I took took a vote Yes I was just that's what I wanted to say the policy committee voted three in favor of all three policies right then I think that I'm happy to

119vote then yeah okay so do you want Aon you seconded did I hear that yes I seconded and I was also going to note that all three of those uh you know the policy committee had uh voted unanimously to for the changes okay all in favor of these three motion oh is that waving W read yeah sorry I'm getting ahead of myself as I often do okay uh for those in favor of waving the um the need for a second read please raise your hand okay that's 70 I would I would like to move to approve the policies numbers 5111 and 5141 213 as presented I second all in favor of the motion on the table great 70 pass thank you thank you all right do we have um Miss Castro or Mr bran on

120for our monthly financial report hi good evening everyone um I'll be taking the next few items so the update on our FY 24 refers specifically to page three of the monthly financial report at the time of this report we were about 92% through the year and have three remaining payrolls um but overall we're in alignment with FY 23 spending percentages and estimating about 99% usage through year end um a consideration for this fiscal year is gme retray uh as the previous contract expired on June 30th of 2023 and lastly we're working closely with the scss team in regards to tuition and settlements but I'm happy to take any questions are there any questions I have one okay thank you should I ask yes please okay sorry um I just wanted to ask a quick question

121um on this one for it was under uh you know section two SCS s instruction uh for special education it says settlements for special education it was for uh 36,000 and change well you know 365 and change that um was added I I just was trying to so is that for just outof District placements because it says settlements but it's under instruction so I just wanted to um see if you knew what those were that was what that was for I'm sorry can you just repeat your question so under two you know number two which is sess the second to last line there says you know it's a620 instruction special education and then it says object settlements special education and it's an increase of 36 you know 5,000 in change it says settlements but it's

122under instruction so I'm just wondering if that's for out of District additional out of District why is under the instruction line if you don't know that's fine we can yeah I I can definitely touch base off line but um our tuition and settlements lines are under instruction rather than like Administration or any other departments so uh generally speaking if it's a620 it's instruction it would fall under that category but I'll be sure to that's I just that's I just assumed it was for out of District I just wanted to you know so I just wanted to make sure okay thank you can I say something yeah I just want to say hi Ben welcome I just I was gonna say the same thing so good to be here on day number four officially so I

123didn't really have any questions I just thought it was so odd that we didn't say hello so we're so excited to uh be working with you it's great to have you back on this side it's good to be here at a tour of Duty number two so thank you yes welcome and um just in the right time because as we know Tony's budget schedule starts you know in a couple of weeks yesterday yeah um we just got one approved and then we start it again next year so wonderful uh nice to have you aboard thank you all right uh the next item up to talk about well did we talk about budget transfers in the same go around are we all good there or where are we at budget transfers still no present that they

124all covered it okay sorry I I think I might have got that back I have a quick question then on the financial report but it might be also a good one for uh Mr bran oh go for it then Karen so I just wanted to since we're if this is we're doing the financial report um I just wanted to ask a quick question because we we've asked this in the past I know when you were round one in the position that you're at and then blae and I had talked about it and now you're back so I'd like to just sort of put this back there when we were talking about um the general fund Revenue um it says most of our fund revenues deposited to the town general fund um I know it's a

125topic we've discussed in the past so I'm just sort of wondering something I would love to sort of take a deeper dive into as to why that why some of the revenue that's generated by the Board of Ed um or grants uh for certain things such as a rental of our facilities um since it's basically to support the staff that needs to be there to run the facility when we're not there and the funds from things like the state excess cost uh sharing grant for special education why those aren't deposited back into the Board of Education accounts as opposed to the town of Greenwich I mean the fund general fund only in the fact that it's specifically for things like um you know the the excess cost Grant um it's specifically given to this back

126to us from the state for special education and it's still we have to ask for it so I was just curious as to I think it's a discussion that we can have further with you know members of the be but I'd love to just put it back out on the table now that you're back no we can certainly have that conversation going forward I would just say the easiest way we've do it is we budget gross so you're just managing the overall gross expenditures where you don't have to be concerned about the revenue in the past I think the first time I was here we actually had the revenue embedded in the expenditure so you never truly got the the really good run rate and people have well what's the true expense so the revenue

127was bued you never knew the true expense now this is 100% gross at you see gross expenditures uh the the revenue the special excess cost Grant as we know the state law does allow you to grab money that above the revenue so you have to collect more than the the revenue amount so you do the Board of Ed would have exposure if you look at the budget page 11 in the report now has the budget of 1.8 million for special education cost a year dat actual 1.2 I think there's one more payment coming in if that's less than the 1.8 that exposure would be on balancing on the board of education expenditure account so it's it is a cleaner approach as it's been presented now just to keep expenditures and revenue separate so you just

128have to manage the expense but we can certainly have that conversation with yeah just it's like you know especially when it comes to the you know education cost sharing Grant and the special education excess cost Grant that's over $2 and A5 million and I know because we're you know we we always end up having to ask for uh you know interims for uh special education um I think it's such just something it's a good starting point to have a discussion with members of bet before they build next year's um you know budget guidelines um as to what you know what we discuss when it comes to spend on special education and what we should be able to because we ask before we really you know plan our budget before we really know what the cost

129from the year prior was so anyway this just a little thing to put a pen in for the future thank you any other questions all right great uh moving on to action items um do you guys want to take the lead on authorization of Summer transfers so so our uh fiscal year ends June 30th so this action item if needed would allow the budget committee to approve transfers to balance our department accounts in order to close our books we have to get the motion on the table Karen and it's actually the executive committee not the budget Committee just you you want me to do it um authorized the Board of Ed executive committee to approve all budget appropriation transfers during a special board meeting date to be determined I'll second all in favor 70 all

130right the next action item is to consider the superintendent contract extend does someone have a motion to make I seem to be on a rooll I'm happy to make a motion to extend Dr Jones contract an additional year through June 30 2026 is there a second a discussion uh M Dr mckany so one of the things that um related to this uh the next item um is around board goals and one of the things that we've been talking about is our own structure and how we're trying to uh better uh better improve our own policies and procedures and practices as a board um one of that refers to the superintendent uh evaluation so we know that um as a board we have a tradition of the last few years of meeting um in private um

131an executive session and we did that a few weeks ago and we gave Dr Jones uh feedback um um around around around her performance this year and there were a lot of strong commendations and some some areas where we talked about where areas of growth of the district um so connected to that what we wanted to do this year we thought which is more consistent with C policy um and and effective governance is to we created a um a summary of that feedback um and um um we're going to share that um as part of our continuing practice and trying to support the um evaluation and the the governance of the district so that's kind of what we've been doing behind the scenes over the last couple of weeks and things and I think now

132we're in a place where we can we can bring this this matter to a close for the benefit of the of the community are there any other comments so I had a a few and um so I just wanted to um explain my vote uh I viw the role of the board's uh most important decision is the one regarding the superintendent essentially our CEO uh it is one I know um many of us have had multiple discussions at length about over the last several weeks uh we renewed Dr Jones contract last year for a year in large part several of us wanted to see where she measured up for the metrics that she set for herself in our strategic plan to have an opportunity to see where she uh weathered against those goals there are

133several concerns that we had raised last year including the state of special education transparency and academic achievement for all we did receive results October based upon the AC academic achievement of our students and we knew that many of those metrics had not been ma met in fact some had slipped below prior year marks which was very concerning our our graduation rate has even slipped overall academic achievement is is down and while we can K I'm sorry this is a point of order you're talking about things that were said in executive session no these are my comments these are we're all going to do that okay these are my comments these my comments as to why I'm voting the way I'm voting and I have a right and an opportunity to give an understanding as to

134why I am voting against the renewal all right then I guess I will follow up okay thank you that's fine you have I'm not saying anything that anybody else has ever said um while we can argue that we now have a uniform teaching system in place uh our students are not performing equally and I am concerned regarding the trend that we seen over the next several years we've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to revamp special education and we are not close to achieving the goals for which we started in that process and there are children within our special ed that are not receiving the services that they've been guaranteed to by the state and our teachers within the special ed program are overwhelmed and making it very difficult for them to affect change our

135ability to retain talented teachers continues to be a concern despite having the highest paid teachers in concut and I'd say we should not be fooled in those that have left for propotional opport opportunities I believe in part our talented we are losing talented teachers that were and replaced by other teachers that I have concerned we've our beloved award-winning art program uh will be run now by a high school band teacher with no administrative background I hope he surprises me and all of us and and we have not yet set and we have not set him or our program for failure moreover I have no problem hiring from outside to Enlighten our way of thinking but I have grave concerns when they come from schools uh that are not performing to our expectations and standards overall

136our teacher satisfaction uh and administration satisfaction is low and the server the survey that allegedly tests that satisfaction level asked one question regarding teacher satisfaction and it had nothing to do with the views of senior leadership and how our district was being run so to me that is telling how one one can say there is a higher rate of staff and administration satisfaction when we don't even ask the right questions so I'm voting no on renewal as I have grave concerns going forward and I think it is a time to explore different opportunities for the advancement and growth of our Greenwich po our Greenwich public school system okay good many of the speakers tonight in addition to chairperson Kowalski re reiterated many of the concerns that I shared with the board during our executive session

137and for those reasons I cannot in good conscience vote for the renewal of this contract Kathleen would you like to go I mean I'm I'd be I'm going to just sort of say um I I don't like to repeat what I've said in executive session because it's an evaluation of an employee in that realm I am very happy to say publicly that I think Dr Jones I Echo a lot of the comments that we heard tonight I feel from um the head of Pac to Robin leader to Brian Zeller who I thought had an interesting perspective as a um coach and a parent and everything um I think I've heard from so many parents and teachers um such great things from her being a great leader in the face of so much difficulty um when

138you have so many different constituencies to respond to and I I I started write down the list but I think we all go back to covid because it's an example of how you are so Innovative in extremely difficult situations and um you just have led us through so many difficult times and I look forward to you continuing to uh create stability for our district so thank you any other comments K can I make a comment oh go I'll go after sopie go go ahead okay go first Cody um um go ahead Cody oh I was just going to make a um well I think the vote is already sort of baked here but uh I think my hesitancy on extension relates to unrelated to Tony who I think is great in a lot of ways

139I as you all know really uh do not like elements of just the way that the contract itself is set up and I was seeking to make some adjustments to that and feel like I'm being a cut a little bit short because I thought we were making good progress on ways to address particular tweaks to the contract and set precedent around that um so uh that is why for I I was hoping that this wouldn't be on the agenda tonight and we'd have a little bit more time obviously understand everyone else's comments but um that's why I would vote not to extend it out of uh just the contractual concern and uh sort of the procedural element of not having a little bit more time to kind of put some um conditions that I think

140would have been useful in the future but that's just uh offering up a little different perspective on that cie so I just want to speak to um what a challenging job it is to be the superintendent in our district with 15 schools and an extremely diverse student body um and that our responsibility as a board of education is to ensure that our children have the best education possible and I think that Dr Jones is doing an excellent job but I would also just say you know cont continuity and structure is so critical in a very Dynamic um system like the one that we have in place particularly right now when we are embarked on a number of projects around improving our academic experience especially improving our special ed program for example and also that we

141have many extremely complicated capital projects that are in the midst of being implemented at many different states ages and to do a change right now is to put all of that in Jeopardy um and for me as a board member and as a parent you know we can talk about oh being Dynamic and how exciting it is to think about different ideas the reality is like our responsibility is to children and a transition is very disruptive and it is really harmful for their educational experience and we're talking about as John fer likes to say 8611 students and what is the impact going to be on them and I think that is the very first thing that every member of this board should be thinking about when they're making this vote is it in the best

142interest of the students in the Greenwich Public Schools par Laura I'd like to call the question please I was just going to say you know I I echo in a lot of ways what Sophie had said and like we have already as the superintendent review was given and we have already shared that that's not it's not on the agenda tonight so um you know she's met all her all of her goals she has you know consistently put our students uh at the Forefront of things we heard that from countless parents and uh PTA council members and others that have stood up and spoken on behalf and and in emails that we have gotten as well um we do have five uh five years of a strategic plan to meet you know the fullon uh academic

143and achievement goals and I think we're really on a on a strong path to get there um and we need that need a leader to keep that boat going forward um and to me that's you know we've seen growth we've seen improvements in a lot of ways um and there are you know other areas of you know Improvement to be made and in many different ways and um you know know that's something that's been already discussed so I I do think that this is a more something that will benefit our students in the long run um and uh you know we need a strong leader to to keep this boat aoat all right Laura called the question all in favor of the motion on the table to renew Dr Jones's contract for a year raise

144your hands okay that's five all opposed Cody I can't tell me is abstaining okay so the vote is 5 one all right next one on the list is the board goals Dr mccant Anthony that wrong I'd like to make a motion um to approve the 20242 board goals and self evaluation um have a second that okay so before us uh this evening a final action item is a draft I do expect there's going to be some changes here to the draft in front of us um but a draft of the the board goals for 2425 so if if you um we call our last meeting um for the benefit of the public the we met two weeks ago for our board retreat and um we started we collected some ideas around board goals for the

145following Academic Year the board goals are different than um superintendent goals they're different than strategic plan while the Strategic plan is the overall direction particularly the academic direction of the district over a fiveyear period um and the superintendent goals are the superintendent objectives for what she uh wants to accomplish over the next year much of that in relation to the Strategic plan the board goals are specific to our actions as a board itself um as our as eight uh the eight members of the board and what we as a board want to accomplish in the areas of our uh job description um as you can see here there are five so we developed this format for board goals a couple of years ago um since the retreat um I we then as promis collected all

146the comments from the board retreat we tried to make this draft of um the board goals uh Karen hirch and I um had several conversations earlier this week and tried to uh massage the language and we got some comments from others so um this current document this current draft represents the thinking of various board members as far as input into what we as a board want to accomplish um but there's probably a little too much here in all honesty which is why um we need to proba my suggestion would be we talk about it a little bit before before before voting on it I don't know you know the um um when we have too many priorities nothing is a priority so in that word we might have more priorities than necessary but I think

147it makes sense to open it up to discussion and see where we see where we fall um I know it's hard to see behind you Karen but I have my hand raised no I I I I I sensed It Go For It Karen uh no I was just going to say I know that we had put this motion on the table because it's under the action items um and I think it's actually since I I didn't realize it was initially going to be on as an action um item because we were still working to get input from um other members of the board and I know there's a couple of um items that were added here uh that were you know Mike and I have discussed um that we as a board should probably have

148a discussion about uh and so I was hoping to see if uh the board might be amendable to to not uh vote on this this evening um so that we can actually have a little bit more of a discussion and then put something forward that's actually properly revised um and I can point out for instance under the student learning and achievement it says you know evaluate Staffing at all grade levels uh to evaluate the relationship between Staffing models and student achievement and the relationship between class size and achievement um you know we can direct Dr Jones do that but that's not something that's our purview per se is Staffing um models per se in that regards but I think it's something that we can you know class siize and achievement again not every student is

149a not every tush in a seat is is a one some students require more than others so it's not always just about class size I use that as an example or under uh student support in health and safety conducting a review of schooled Foods its impact on student health and wellness we've had countless reviews over the years but it if we adjust that to regard you know reviewing uh School food uh and our participation that national school lunch program to ensure we're meeting the needs of all of our students I think that's something that's more in our purview uh in that regards so I just think there's some massaging that needs to be done yeah I was I mean in the spirit of this being our last business meeting I guess I was I was

150hopeful that we could do that massaging over the next 10 minutes and call of the day yeah um I know the both of those um I don't necessar agree disagree with your sentiment I know I don't want to put you on the spot uh Miss coin but I know both of you were you suggested both of those bullets so I don't know maybe we want to go one at a time here the um so in student learning and achievement um we've got three bullets um one is to conduct a review and evaluate the impact of changes made to the special education program um has had uh particularly given the light uh includ the lens of PCG and cak and all the other different feedback that we've gotten um the second one is to evaluate board

151present presentations according to the metrics within the Strategic plan that was the same bullet we had from last year and then the third one was um is your is was your suggestion evaluate the Staffing at all grade levels to EV to evaluate the relationship between Staffing models and student achievement investigate the relation between class size and achievement I don't know if you want to talk about that yeah I'm happy to talk about it um I think you know the reason why I raised that one one of the reasons actually it's too bad that Omar and Caleb are no longer here but that was something that they raised um at almost every meeting that I think we had this year their concerns about cuts to staff at the high school and what that would mean for

152class size um so I just think it's something that we should follow up on and and really understand I appreciate that over the summer we always have to see how things shake out and what classes students actually enroll in and all of that but I think that's a really important metric for us to be following and I also know that at the elementary school level and in the Middle School level um you know we've had some of the schools that have very very high enrollment that results in high class size because we're honestly limited by the physical capacity of the school and so the the number of classrooms that are available and I'm not an educator um but I do understand that class size is one of the things that has been shown um to

153be very significant to educational attainment so I think it's something that we should be tracking carefully and I you know just the fact that the students are raising it and then honestly I've heard it from parents this year who've had their kids in classes that are towards the top of what our Capac is I appreciate that we haven't exceeded that capacity but we're awfully close to it in some of the schools so I just think it's something for us to be mindful of yeah so I my just comment was that I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea that's behind it just the way it's worded there are alternative wording that make more sense oh go ahead why you think about that the go ahead Laura I just want to say I think think um

154you've done a wonderful job I would think it more efficient if we could maybe um work via you know a a Google um document so we could make our own edits and um bring this back you know I I know you've done a lot of hard work and I am grateful that you did but in the interest of efficiency had the Google Doc last week out there I I it's a very busy time to uh uh to make it happen but hey we got one more meeting uh coming up so if there was one other very important agenda item we could add I'd say this might be one okay so so I am hearing I am hearing Collective sentiment to consider um um um revisions to this document over the next week and we will

155bring it back at our at our next meeting to approve it um so that we can get this done and provide direction to the um to the district and for ourselves um speedily for the 2425 Academic Year that fair I just say I don't I don't think anything is lost since uh we're going into summer and uh you know school's out so if we wait another week it's not like we're losing um time yeah so we just either need to with withdraw the motion I will withdraw the motion and then we can make a motion to table this to the to our next meeting and thank you Dr Mary Anthony for your hard work can I ask one question before we we can make a motion to table it because there was one you and

156I had discussed that I think also might have been Sophie's that I was just hoping to get a little but more understanding it's probably better to have it here the rest of the board can hear um sorry for the the noise behind me but Sophie I think you may have uh asked or uh recommended uh review opportunities for social engagement in the schools and potential for expanding those opportunities was that one that you had suggested yes it was so if you could just give a little bit more background for that one because I wasn't sure it was if you meant social you know social engagement opportunities for the board within our schools and expanding opportunities or if it was for students to have more opportunity for I just wasn't clear the the you know what

157you were looking for there um I was not talking about the board socializing at school no I [Laughter] was I wasn't sure sorry I lost my um thing on this uh what I was referring to partly was in reference to that you know the change to the schedule now that we won't have flexb and and some of the students came and spoke to us at the Board of Education meetings with concern about whether or not you know what would happen to the clubs that been meeting during that time period so part of the reason I raised that is I just think it's something that we should be following and making sure that students have plenty of opportunity for engagement um whether it's through clubs or Sports um or extracurriculars because as we've also heard throughout

158the year you know there is a big Mental Health crisis in our schools and you know one of the best ways to help students is to make sure that they have opportunities to be with their peers and so that's why I wanted to have that on um as one of our goals is to be making sure that they are having that opportunity particularly in light of the change to the schedule which I'm supportive of but I did hear students you know raise concerns about the elimination of the flexbox specifically on that issue so that's why I want to track it so can I just ask since we're going to be bringing this document back with revisions I'm happy to sit with you and to maybe help revise that so that it it's it's a worthy

159goal I know we had one similar last year to focus on the social and emotional well-being of our students but I think if we just revise the way that's worded it will because I know it didn't make I wasn't sure it wasn't clear clear to me I think I'm happy I'm happy I'm happy to work with you on revising the language yeah it's a worthy topic certainly or goal I should say so Mike I know you withdrew your motion to approval do we need to make can make a motion to table this for till our next meeting that motion isn't isn't necessary okay you just just don't act on it and you can move on perfect thank you great well that concludes our action items and we need to go to agenda planning and so

160the next um all right so the next agenda planning event is Miss C would you like to take over because I think you're one of the principal reasons we need to do something next week yes I'll take full responsibility um I'm just switching screens away from you so I can um uh oh gosh my batter is running very low okay so I'll make this quick um June 20th we typically hold Thursdays um our professionals believe we need uh about 30 minutes to authorize um the building committee's final plans and the professional cost estimate I'm reading from a document that our professionals sent um so that we can move to early procurement of items that I believe have a long lead time and we want them to be ready for when we need them so uh

161that is the need for the first motion it is a um requirement of the state to have the board uh approve that and then in July um we will need again another 30 minute meeting um so that we can authorize um uh let's see phase two although uh they did not really give us a lot of information on what phase two would um imply so I wish I had more clarity on that but um maybe once we uh get some clarity on what phase two means um we can I can provide that to you uh in writing but I've sent you the document that I have which includes um uh a document from the Department of administrative services in hardford the office of school grants uh office of school Construction Grants and review so um

162I've sent you what was sent to me the and hopefully that provides some clarity but it doesn't seem to be that it will be a very long meeting um it's just an authorization um from the board that we approve the plans and that um we can move to early procurement on on the 20th so I'll get more clarity on the second um meeting that would be required in July but neither appear to be long and our professionals have time in between to give us more clarity on exactly what phase to end or three would be in July but at least for the first meeting um it seems It's really just for early procurement of mechanical and electrical equipment Tony did you have something to add um I just want to add that I did send

163the language to Mike Antonio today so he's setting up the agenda uh with the appropriate language because we would as we always do we post on Friday if we are in fact U going to be meeting next Thursday um so we'll try to get that online um tomorrow what I do need to uh understand better if we're posting virtual only which is what they advised unless the board is wanting uh it differently and what is the time of the meeting and it is expected to be about just 30 minutes now we have a second agenda item so probably be an hour now oh goalss yes say virtual yeah we can still say virtual yeah I would suggest virtual um should we stick is 7 PM sticking to our usual time sufficient since do the people

164that are are they that are presenting are they uh virtual is the plan um is seven o'clock you think they can do that yes okay so let's set it for June 20th at 7 p.m virtual meeting we'll have two things on the agenda which will include the CMS and uh also the board goals I think if we're comfortable with this I'd probably like to just go ahead and set the July 18th meeting also I think virtual unless Laura tells me otherwise at 7M just to have that calendared I think virtual is easiest for all of us over the summer particularly since this is a late edition so thank you to all my colleagues and uh I appreciate it great all right anything else all right uh would someone like to make a motion I'll happily

165make a motion to adjourn so I can go watch the Panthers game I will second that motion all in favor I'm GNA go Cody hung up so that's 70 thank you everyone