001right upon this meaning of the Board of Education to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay I get a motion so moved thank you and that's Miss Downey do I have a second yes Miss costen all in favor of the consent agenda that passes seven zero okay we are going straight into the public hearing I assume you're all here for the Strategic plan as Michael Joseph talked about so um so I don't know where Karen is but we have a lot of people so I want to get started so let's start with our ghs student government yay and this is their inaugural meeting I've had the
002pleasure of meeting them um at XCOM at Greenwich high school but here they are welcome guys good evening chair Stowe Dr Jones a member of the board my name is Mitch Goldstein and I am the student body vice president I truly can express how grateful I am to be speaking tonight almost a month ago the elected officers of student government met at Greninja High to discuss our goals for the year one idea that seems to be brought up repeatedly was the need for an increase in school spirit at Greenwich High School with masks cohorts and Plexiglas dividers the past three years have not been the best for students so this year we've been very busy trying to make our school feel less like a sterile learning environment and more like a warm community firstly two
003weeks ago the office of student activities hosted a freshman social all freshmen were invited to attend the social where they could play carnival games hang out with friends and get to know each other then this past Saturday we started off homecoming week with our homecoming dance once again our Student Center was used to provide students with the opportunity to dance and have fun following the dance we kicked off our homecoming Spirit Week With USA day on Monday and Country versus Country Club day on Tuesday which was surprisingly popular on Wednesday we had senior dress-up day which is always a favorite of the senior class today was pajama day and as we speak the senior class is sponsoring a dodgeball tournament down the road at ghs finally as we head into the homecoming football game we
004will have Cardinal apparel day and a pep rally in the carnival Stadium during school to conclude our homecoming week our varsity football team will play Southington this Saturday in our Stadium this year I'm thrilled to say that we've noticed more kids participating in homecoming events than in years prior and we are excited to see how this increased sense of school community and unity continues to grow throughout the year on the note of school Community this year each class is planning to host at least two events in order to foster a more Unified School environment currently the senior class is planning a movie night and while the specifics are still being worked out we want students to be able to bring blankets and shares and watch a movie on the field with their friends the other
005classes events are still in the works and I will have more information on their events next month to conclude I want to talk about my personal goals as student body vice president for the year to do that I thought I would be best to start from the beginning of the year a few weeks ago when I walked into the school I was thrilled that almost all the negative reminders of the pandemic have been removed well I was happy about this I knew that in my position I had been given the responsibility to make sure the current ghs environment feels more similar to the one that existed prior to the pandemic so this year I hope to make the ghs community a more spirited inviting one and I'm thrilled to have given this opportunity and over
006the coming year I'm eager to work with the Board of Education ghs faculty and the student body to make our school a more vibrant place on behalf of my peers I want to thank the board for the opportunity to speak tonight and now it is my honor to pass the mic over to our student body president Isabella good evening chairman Stowe I'm a little short one second good evening chairman Stowe Dr Jones and members of the board and meeting attendees a lot of us today my name is Isabella Giga and I am proud to announce that I will be serving Greenwich high school as this year's student body president Mitch and I are so grateful to be speaking for all of you today as the spokespeople of our beloved Greenwich high school as we continue
007to move away from the dreaded covid dare I say the name I am finally relieved that we are approaching a sense of normalcy in this coming year Mitch and I will work alongside XCOM to unite our student Community after two years of Google meets one-way corridors plastic dividers and Mass initiatives fostering school spirit through Student Activities will be critical in supporting our school norms and traditions that we hold so dear this year is set the goal of this year is to set new presidents for future classes this is the year we establish Greenwich high school as the Beating Heart of our community this is the year we dreamed of prior to covid and this is the year for Everlasting change similar to last year Student Government will utilize classroom reps from each advisor base in
008a fresher fashion and we will launch a new system called subcommittees dependent on issue-based conflicts we see within the school and they will be related to areas such as Food Services school spirit Communications and flex time given this new system I am optimistic that student Representatives will be able to dive into Community issues and events and participate in more school policy making issues and truly have their voices heard this will promote targeted change within our school and widen our scope for change sorry didn't commit subcommittees will allow students to participate in what they believe needs to be addressed and provide the opportunity to make a real impact within our educational environments in collaboration with students Mitch and I will continue to work to administer any to with the administration to address any student concerns and
009set forth leadership that listens to their constituents beyond that I aim to continue initiatives from my previous years such as fundraising reimagining the Student Center midterm final policies and enhancing Food Services with the supportive staff with our supportive staff advisor Mr silkman back there the support from our administration of course and the wonderful wonderful Board of Education I am optimistic for the future we have in store I am so excited for the year to come and Beyond ecstatic to see what the future brings thank you so much and look forward to speaking with you every month at the Board of Education meeting thank you thank you both and welcome again it's great having you okay next up we will hear from Gea will it's okay I got this i got this all right well good
010evening board members our Greenwich parent Community students GA members and everyone watching online my name is Lillian Perrone proud president of our over nine oh thank you um over 900 Gea members I first like to thank my negotiations team for many hours of hard work that they put forth in the negotiation process Robin Chino Chuck Costello Chrissy distel Leanne Hinkle Kevin kroyce Melissa Marquette Michelle giulanda Rosa Brian Wallach and David Ong and Juan rcea unicever rep I would also like to thank our Board of Ed negotiations chair Joe Kelly Kathleen Stowe Christina Downey Dr Jones Dr bud I believe we negotiated a fair contract for both sides I want to say thank you for your hard work um I anticipate that the board will vote tonight to move the process forward as well as the
011RTM and bet since we were all in the same room and all sat at the same negotiations table to reach this Fair contract thank you all um for participating in this process I like to address a few items that are on the agenda tonight uh two of them uh School climate survey and GPS strategic School plan and update first of all I noticed um our parents had over 75 percent of positive responses in all four areas including homeschool connection and a strategic metric welcoming partners and Children's Learning adequate opportunities for me to express my concerns and opinions how confident are your ability to support your child's learning homeschool connections composite next students feel they are valued members of the school Community 58 percent staff and learning environment 54 now hold on to that that thought
012in those numbers I want to move into this strategic plan that was from the survey so on a strategic plan the mission of Greenwich public schools to educate all students the highest level academic achievement to enable them to reach and expand their potential to prepare them for productive responsible ethical creative and compassionate members of society I want to focus on goal four increase family and Community the engagement um on four I see that from 2022 to 2007 we start with the annual parent conferences and we end up with two Pre-K for the high school my question is this I'm not arguing the powerful effect of Community connections with our parents but from reading the statistics and the data that was in that chart where parent satisfaction is close over 75 percent almost 80 percent while
013our students and staff are 58 and 54 respectively instead of adding two conferences K-12 with parents which will add more to the teacher's play and workload shouldn't we be focusing on the low student and staff results as our top priority goal seven increase positive working environment so uh cabinet members and GPS Administration team recognizes that a robust and supportive School climate and culture are essential to the success of our students and schools gdps leaders prioritize the empowerment and professional growth of all employees totally agree with that strategy five how will GPS accomplish this goal increase administrator and coordinator support around teacher academic freedom and resource vetting talk a little bit about the vetting rubric which is a draft and process GE knows that this is new District initiative and we are still learning about it
014as it is in draft stages we know this because we met with Dr Jones and the cabinet members this week to discuss its implementation the district has said there is a first draft an involving document Gea has requested that going forward we must have a seat at the table and allow teacher feedback to be part of the process that will be we will be in the trenches actually using the rubric bottom line our teachers are outstanding professionals highly qualified individuals with multiple degrees a majority have years of experience there are Educators who have always put their students first and they make students well-being their top priority our teachers want to give a wide range of District approved resources and curriculum they want to know that everything they put in front of the students is vetted
015and trusted resource academic freedom is not teaching whatever you want it is highly qualified professionals using their expertise to make decisions about which trusted approved resources and lessons work best for the students in their class our gesh staff are specialists in their area of expertise not generalists Gea looks forward to learning more about the vetting committee and their timeline and Effectiveness as well as ensuring teachers are receiving adequate time in their planning period to incorporate these new steps in closing I have no idea what will be coming out in in the comments tonight but I do want to say on behalf of Gea we've been through we everybody in the community teachers administrators we've been through this together we've stuck together things weren't perfect but we worked it out we were in school and we
016have a steady administrative team and we would like to continue working with our administrative team we've built and collaborated a strong relationship with Dr Jones we've hired some new exciting principals the teachers love their principles well most of them foreign and it's important for us to have collaboration and work together on this because we are here this is about our students and what's best for them and they need us we need to catch up on what they're missing and they're learning we need to help them with Stress and Anxiety and we need to put them first and do what is best for them thank you to the board thank you Dr Jones and thank you to everyone thanks will um up snacks PTA Council good evening Dr Jones chair Stowe Board of Education members I'm
017Francis unobe mom of three GPS kids and the 2022-2023 president of PTA Council Greenwich it's an umbrella organization representing the 15 Greenwich public school ptas and their families I'm honored to speak tonight and remind everyone to please join their school PTA or in my case three ptas entering tonight's Board of Education meeting p-tech takes note of the rallies being held outside as a non-partisan non-political non-profit organization p-tac's mission is to coordinate communicate and Advocate across the district for our students with our teachers administrators and parents Greenwich public schools are for decades and continuing to this day high performing High achieving highly ranked and highly respected relative to other school districts in the nation in Connecticut and in nearby New York communities these high standards and achievements are the result of the talent skills and professionalism
018of all the dedicated educational Professionals in the Greenwich public schools in Partnership we thank honor and support our GPS team who do the hard work every day especially as we turn the corner beyond the pandemic turning to tonight's Hot Topics PTA would like PTAC would like the Board of Education and School administration to a continue to make up the pandemic loss and ensure our students continue to achieve and Advance academically we're looking forward to hearing tonight's strategic Plan update B continue to work with Greenwich public Greenwich Police Chief heavy who's here tonight to ensure our students Safety and Security and find a solution to have on-site presence all day every day C keep focus on ensuring our kids get bust to and from school and sports safely and on time and yes I'm one of
019those families on the tardy part of town that's bus 25 and all drivers please remember to stop at least 10 feet away from a school bus and do not proceed until the bus has retracted the stop arm and deactivated the red flashing lights for our kids do not pass school buses and D keep up the increased family communication from The District in each school with some parents never having seen the inside of a school building or meeting their teacher in person The increased communication via phone emails more and even video message is so important to build back our school community we believe these Basics school buses safety security Scholastic achievement along with capital projects and the Strategic plan are what the Boe should continue to laser focus on without distraction and as importantly with the
020new school year upon us we welcome new beginnings new friendships new connections and new ideas Bienvenidos Bienvenu welcome to the 100 plus new GPS teachers welcome to the new ghs student body presidents falche to the new 9th graders Ben vinda to the new sixth graders ahla Masala to the new kindergarteners benvenuta to the new preschoolers you got this let's have a great year of learning in closing please join our October 7th PTAC Public Presentation with doctors boy to support National bullying awareness month and the October 25th Mark bracket presentation with our p-tech Di AI which are p-tech di committee will also mention and for those celebrating Shana toga thank you Francis okay we will now start our public comment um as a reminder everyone gets three minutes we would like to hear from the entire
021list in the first hour if that's possible so we'll say the name the next person so they can sort of be on deck keep it moving we'd also appreciate everyone respecting the time Karen will give you a minute warning moving from speaker to speaker without delay and we'd appreciate of course everyone being respectful as we um as we are to you so um with that let's get started um Dana Franks followed by Anna kostovic foreign several things have recently come to light that are very concerning for me as a parent I have three boys under the age of eight and I would like to be home right now reading them all bedtime stories but my concern with what is happening in our school district has brought me here tonight instead I would like to start
022by expressing my sincere gratitude to our North Street School teachers and leaderships who have been nothing but wonderful to my children last year my oldest son got sick at school and his teacher rubbed his back while he threw up at recess she treated him with love and compassion and I couldn't have asked for a more caring person to spend the days teaching my son she helped him with his reading comprehension and encouraged him to ask important questions about what he read the last thing I want to do is take away from the amazing GPS teachers who truly do the job they were hired to do care for our children and nurture their growing brains I have nothing but respect and love for the teachers who have remained focused and professional during these difficult times where
023the country is divided on nearly every possible topic with that said we are all well aware of the viral video of the Costco assistant principle admitting to hiring teachers with his own political bias this video is unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg parents have been speaking up for the last two years about inappropriate content in the classrooms and instead of taking those concerns seriously and considering ways to stop it these parents were gaslit and dismissed again and again chairwoman Stowe last week you were quoted in the Greenwich times saying the Board of Education operates in a bipartisan Manner and our focus and responsibility is the education of our students we do not get involved in any political group pushing an agenda I guess it's election season end quote please understand parents want a bipartisan
024education you are saying the Boe operates in a bipartisan manner but there is now clear evidence that some teachers have been pushing political agendas in their classroom without consequence you guess it's election season I promise you after November these concerns will not go away we now have the results of the Freedom of Information Act requests and we have seen the politically charged material that has been taught for the last few years we are simply asking for controversial political topics to be left out of the classroom many topics do Merit discussion in older grades but they must be approached in a balanced manner with open discussion and debate without anyone fearing to express their point of view none of us want to micromanage our children's teachers I have always put my full trust into our teachers
02530 seconds I want to continue to do that we want our kids to be kids this is not an extremist concept I sincerely hope that these issues can be addressed quickly and with full transparency to restore the trust in the Boe operations please don't just say the right thing do the right thing thank you thank you very much Anna kosovic followed by Joseph Solari sorry we'd like to keep on moving so everyone get going so please hold your applause if possible go ahead Anna Then followed by Joseph Solari good evening my name is Anna kostovic and I'm a parent to three children in our Greenwich Public Schools I also grew up here and attended Greenwich K-12 public and private schools I find myself over the past few years doing what my parents never felt the
026need to have to do and that is to attend and listen to every single Board of Ed meeting and it's sad that I say this because I'm doing it as a concerned parent Dr Jones we have been told by you time and time again that parents have full transparency in any form of indoctrination has no place at GPS yet what came out of the Costco assistant principles mouth showed Prejudice discrimination and political and religious bias it's shocking and intolerable this high-ranking educator said that he can't get past the parents because we the parents shape our kids his solution trying to mitigate the influence we have on our own children these are the people that are putting Progressive ideology before education and the love of our youth these Early Educational years are a highly impressionable point
027in our kids lives and I believe that most teachers devote their time and work tirelessly to teach our kids to be free thinkers and we are grateful to every single one of them we love our schools we love our teachers I've been blessed to have some of the most compassionate and caring teachers Challenge and support my kids in Old Greenwich School unfortunately Mr Boland isn't the only educator in our school system that is creating a disservice to our kids there are more of them and we want them out of our schools the Board of Ed should instruct School administrators to remove any instructional material that has not been reviewed and approved by majority vote by the Boe a staggering statistic more than 50 percent of Connecticut school children are not at grade level expectations in
028English and math our kids are our future and we are neglecting to teach them we need to go back to basics and get rid of wasting time on politics sexually explicit material gender and race I don't care what are teachers ideologies and political beliefs are as long as they're teaching them Reading Writing and arithmetic our pup our public education system is being hijacked all across the country but we the parents are here to stop this madness we will not stay silent until we are assured that we can entrust you to make sure that our children are free to develop their own moral compasses thank you thank you very much Joseph Solari followed by Jackie Homan can we keep it moving Joseph are you here are you online oh okay Joseph Solari followed by Jackie Homan
029good evening Board of Education you know what you're supposed to do tonight which is do the right thing I'm seeding my time and this Kimberly fiorello um thank you very much thank you Joe I'm state representative Kimberly fiorello thank you for your time um when I came to the United States I was in the ESL in a public school system I love the public school system I'm a product of that and um but the public school system I went to was focused on core knowledge foreign I serve on the education committee up in Hartford and what I want folks to know is that there is a trend that is going away from recognizing parental rights and it's coming up from Hartford there were bills in education committee as well as in the insurance committee that
030allows outside adults to bypass the role and the importance of notifying parents this you are the body that is closest to the parents here I urge you to listen to the needs of these parents because they're there is a great desire for these folks to have to be heard the things that came out of that video that were most disturbing is that the assistant principal mentioned that the agenda is subtle that they serve the child not the parents and for him to suggest that for him to admit that actually his ability to get his agenda through is harder because the parents are on to him the refusal of Hartford to take on a parental rights bill which I proposed is indicative of how important your role is as the Board of Ed to protect the
031rights of these parents the school serves the parents it is in the Civil Society it is the role of the parents we must see the parents as a primary decision makers for our children and I I thank you for your time thank you thanks very much uh next up Jackie Homan followed by Peter share good evening Board of Education members and Dr Jones as you know I've been coming to these meetings for the last year and a half asking you to stop using profanity lace sexually explicit and divisive racial content inside our schools I've asked you to stop teaching unapproved and therefore illegal curriculum I've asked you to be honest about the white fragility training that you conducted with administrators I've been gaslighted and mocked by liberal parents the local press and even the previous
032chairman of this board for making these allegations but after 10 months of waiting I've backed up my allegations with the results of a number of Freedom of Information Act requests I found emails that show how you sidestep the required Board of Education approval process to add the controversial ruler program I learned about how you accepted gifts you accepted gifts from radical third-party organizations that are attempting to undermine the morality of our children now we have this video from Project Veritas that seems to corroborate the things that I've been saying and more potentially revealing systemic discrimination in the hiring practices even though some have chosen to attack the messenger and the editing of the video the assistant principal still made all of these allegations in his own words and like it or not project Veritas hasn't
033lost any court cases over editing frankly I don't understand how you could let it get this bad I don't understand how you can be in violation of so many of your own policies and procedures and not be doing anything visibly to rectify the situation I don't understand how we have so many scandals in this district and we still have the same leadership in place if this was Corporate America the leadership would be held accountable especially since this culture appears to be pervasive and driven from the top down sadly our schools have become way too politicized we've allowed ideology to replace fact in certain classes we've allowed emotions to replace academics in our schools parents are here tonight because we love our teachers and we want to support our schools we want to see a focus
034on excellent academics we want politics free schools we want a high quality education for our children not an indoctrination I hope you take action tonight you need to put the superintendent and the deputy superintendent on leave while you conduct and 30 seconds independent district-wide investigation of all of the allegations you need to immediately stop using all the unapproved curriculum and you need to start following your own policies and procedures and if you aren't courageous enough to take these steps yourselves then perhaps you should consider resigning from the board so that others can step up and do the hard work for you thank you very much next up Peter share followed by Cara Philbin Peter is he here or is he online Peter's here online uh he can he's ready to talk is Peter online yeah
035can you hear me yep go ahead Peter okay uh good evening Board of Ed members um I know you're sitting tonight in a difficult meeting I know that many of you may have uh personal or political animosities against me so therefore you may not be listening to what I'm saying but I hope that tonight you'll set those aside and maybe consider or take in what I'm about to tell you when I joined the board in 2009 I realized that I had inherited a legacy of many people who had come before me who had built the amazing school system that Greenwich Public Schools is has been and is today uh you have a responsibility the same as I did at that time to be Trustees of this Legacy the school system is in a state of
036Crisis not because of the revelations of Mr Bolin and his hiring practices although incredibly troubling as they are and I'm certain you will conduct a complete investigation of his specific acts and I understand and I'm probably pretty certain by now you've received advice from Council that you need to properly handle yourselves in a way there so that his rights are protected as an employee but also the rights of the board are protected I want to talk to you though more about the issue that is much more troubling if you listen carefully to what Mr Bolin says and he explains why he was doing what he was doing that is far and away an existential threat to our school system he made clear that his purpose was and the purpose of hiring teachers in this way
037would be that so they could subtly send messages of a political nature to cultivate students to have a particular political point of view when they leave the Greenwich school system that's an incredibly uh troubling uh development unfortunately you as board members have had indicators even when I was on the board that this was happening I can think about the teaching of unapproved curriculum particularly the white privilege checklist at Western Middle School you were also aware of it with the miseducation of the American boy being taught at Greenwich high school and there are many others as 40 seconds we knew this was happening you must protect the school system and you must separate yourself from the employees and you must conduct a comprehensive investigation so that the system can be brought back into pop balance and
038compliance with your existing policies I hope you will take this advice on board thank you very much Peter uh Cara Philbin followed by Gail lauritzen hi I'm speaking as a parent for the per first for the past year and a half I've been trying to warn people and it took a PV video to prove it true the GPS leadership District Gea Boe PTAC the Greenwich Alliance and League of Women Voters are all working together engaging in discriminatory practices politicizing our schools over sexualizing our children and embedding transformative SEL the new SEL into our core academics you are pushing all of this but you are not helping instead you are harming our children and families I know because at Western in an attempt to teach Suicide Prevention instead they taught kids to go into their parents
039medicine cabinet and take too many pills and how to find the veins in your wrists in their wrists these programs thought to be helping children have morphed into misguided twisted versions of their original Self it's not a surprise that suicide rates are up for 18 and under given what kids are learning in these misguided programs when parents email the school to have the SEL curriculum sent home the principal replies with legalese that parents can't receive Second Step proprietary materials to be utilized with students this curriculum does not go home but is handed out and collected I gave a Boe speech if you can't or won't send Learning Materials home don't teach it shame on the Boe for not doing their job to review and approve curriculum and if Administration respected families and kids you wouldn't
040sign a contract preventing curriculum from being sent home our families and children deserve better our students are underperforming despite being the top funded District in Connecticut because a poor District Boe and town leadership in a broken system soon our Boe will be rubber stamping cave State policies my advice to parents for your older kids start a countdown you're almost out for your younger kids don't stick around for the sports and AP classes your child's health and well-being are more important choose an education for your child that inspires of Love of learning out School homeschooler find an independent school that partners with parents um know that most of the private and prep schools have also taken the contain to covetesser funding and are pushing transformative SEL and divisive Dei over teaching personal agency Kimberly fiorello who
041spoke a year ago at a Boe meeting encouraging parents to be vigilant 30 seconds and works tirelessly to educate our community hosted Ian Rowe an immigrant Fair advisor and Harvard MBA who believes children should be empowered to develop agency agency is the force of one's Free Will Guided by moral discernment according to Roe developing agency is the alternative to the debilitating blame the system and blame the victim narratives it transcends our political difference and beckons all who dare to Envision lives Unshackled by present realities time thank you cara uh Gail lauridsen followed by Amy moose good evening when you do surveys is that oh okay when you do surveys collecting families personal data to determine the climate in the public schools do you ask how they feel about teachers who are hand-picked adherents to the
042blind group think make no mistake the climate within the walls of our schools is a direct reflection of the climate out in the community our community is aware of the comments Mr Boland made freely to an undercover journalist he does not represent and has damaged our town at a minimum a public vote should be taken to make his leave unpaid effective immediately Mr Boland brought to light a practice of indoctrination that fundamentally does not belong in schools and which is not surprising to many who have remarked On It In This Very Room for the past two years board members it is time to open your ears ignoring your constituents has resulted in town-wide embarrassment I dare say this is not Who We Are board members you may be tempted to believe it's enough to release
043a statement that discrimination and political indoctrination are not our policy we've reached a point where we need assurances we need to see that enforceable action is taken to require our teachers to teach fundamentals they are not paid to fill our children's heads with personal ideology and in and the content of our school's curriculum must be carefully scrutinized all controversial racist sexualized and frivolous content must be replaced with academics with nearly 60 percent of our students performing below grade level the status quo is unacceptable this is a wake-up call to parents who think Dr Jones is doing a good job in some ways she is but in light of record poor student performance and a nationwide administrative embarrassment How can any thinking person just accept all is okay our job is not to protect Dr Jones
044to ensure she does things she says she's doing she must be held accountable for her actions multiple instances of Rogue infractions in the last 18 months are not acceptable 37 of those infractions is evidence enough that all is not okay we cannot accept words alone only a truly independent unbiased uncompromised investigation will be acceptable finally I want to acknowledge the many excellent teachers in this District who do wonderful things for our children on a daily basis their efforts are made more difficult by certain disgraceful people among us parents please remember to give those teachers a lot of love daily thank you very much next up Amy Bruce Paula by Alyssa Vanos hello Dr Jones excuse me I'm Board of Ed members we are Alyssa Vanos and Emmy moose co-chairs of the PTAC diversity equity and
045inclusion committee we were initially introduced last year as a special committee but were voted in later this year later in the year as a standing committee we are excited to work with you all all of the PTAC the PTA committees the first select men's diversity committee Jomo the YWCA and other Greenwich Community organizations our mission has not changed our we are committed to fostering an overall sense of belonging within the GPS Community by intentionally building relationships and inviting diverse perspectives the Dei committee will partner with local ptas to create programs initiatives and events that allow for Meaningful conversations and lead to clear actions for creating truly include a truly inclusive environment the Dei committee will collaborate with GPS ptas to find the most effective ways to partner with all families to help every student reach
046their full potential this month we launched launched the PTAC Dei website the Greenwich culture Collective where we will offer content that celebrates our Multicultural Community we've shared content with the schools for Hispanic Heritage Month with options for activities and events to participate in and age-appropriate book selection selections that have been co-curated with the parrot Library going forward we will look we will update book collections that are relevant to the Heritage months and in hopes that all of our parents teachers and students can learn more about each other and be more aware of how our commonalities and differences unite us and finally we will add we will add any events in and around Fairfield County that might bring more of us together in celebration and understanding of different cultures this information will be shared through each
047of the local PTA School newsletters over the first three months of this school year our Focus will be on ensuring we have reps at every school partnering with p-tax curriculum enrichment committee to work toward more diverse curriculum-based opportunities working with all Dei reps to add content to morning announcements and collaborating with local organizations in Greenwich around diversity initiatives with all for all GPS students we will keep you all updated about other initiatives and longer term goals at each meeting although we are very optimistic about the steady impact we can have through our school reps greater impact to our curriculum and school communities can truly only happen with collaboration from the Board of Education and administration we appreciate the pushing ahead with new and diverse experiences in our current climate can be challenging but for the
048long-term benefit of our children to become adults in a multicultural world we implore a more active approach from the be Boe and administration as we stated at previous Boe meetings we were very excited that GPS have been chosen to receive a gift from common circles show a foundation for dimensions and testimony a million dollar artificial intelligence installation that was well aligned with our curriculum on the Holocaust and genocide ultimately the barriers that common circles encountered in Greenwich resulted in the organization choosing to partner solely with a White Plains School District instead who widely embraced this opportunity across learning disciplines as seen recently there are a multitude of areas for GPS in the town of Greenwich to focus diversity equity and inclusion efforts we are excited to hear how the New state-manded Black and Latino studies
049class is doing at ghs we are thrilled that Connecticut continues to be a leader in diversifying its education by becoming the first state to pass a state-funded mandate to teach Asian American and Pacific Islander history in public schools at all levels this requirement is part of a bill Governor Lamont signed into law in May after it passed near unanimously in the Senate and with overwhelming bipartisan support in the house as the I we were we have been they signed up separately please continue requirement will take effect in 2025 we are eager to hear how GPS is going to move ahead in its development we continue to encourage diverse and transparent hiring practices in order to increase representation across all Races religions cultures gender and sexual orientation sure to advance educational equity and consistency across GPS
050we encourage the district to strengthen assured experiences in all schools we can further combat socioeconomic based disparity in our children's education by formulating strategies to incorporate more curriculum enrichment across the board regardless of individual School PTA budgets we incur continue to encourage the Board of Education to increase accessibility to your meetings these meetings are important and affect all families with and without hearing sight and language needs the ability to provide in-person resources would be so beneficial of note we will highlight for those of you who don't know that recorded Boe meetings are placed on YouTube with the option of assessing accessing a multitude of languages thank you for the opportunity to speak we encourage you all to attend Mark brackett's presentation on ruler and the importance of emotional intelligence on Tuesday October 5th we hope
051we hope you all explore and celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month for those of you celebrating Rosh Hashanah next week we wish you all a sweet and happy New Year as a parent I would like to use the rest of my time to say that we support our 30 seconds superintendent and the administration and that we hope that everybody in this room will use the same respect we have used to listen to you speak that you have have poorly done listening to us thank you thanks very much next up Janet McMahon followed by Jamie Waters good evening my name is Janet McMahon and I'm speak tonight as a pair of two children in Greenwich Public Schools I'm very pleased to hear the positive results of the school climate survey hearing that almost 60 percent of students in
052grades 3 through 12 feel that school is interesting useful and important up from 55 last year is commendable similarly 84 percent of parents felt they were welcomed Partners in their child's learning and 79 percent of parents felt there were adequate opportunities to express concerns and opinions about important issues impacting their child these are incredible metrics that the GPS Administration and staff should be proud of and the GPS Community should be celebrating instead there was an ugly partisan rally outside attended by a vocal few who continued to terrorize our teachers politicize our schools polarize parents and derail our school board meetings during the past eight years my kids have been in Greenwich Public School System we've been happy with the academic rigor of the curriculum taught by scores of wonderful teachers I consider myself an active
053participant in my children's education and never once have I suspected or experienced any indoctrination By Any teacher or administrator neither have I encountered anything remotely close to CRT or any of the political propaganda that these same protesters allege at every single board meeting excuse me it should surprise no one but the vast majority of this vocal group does not even have kids in the GPS and or have any kids at all indeed of the 67 Republicans who signed this letter calling to cancel Dr Jones and Dr carabillo less than a quarter actually have children in our schools that said GPS administrators and Educators we see you and we appreciate you while Mr bolin's comments were reprehensible and inappropriate we know that he is an outlier we know that the vast majority of you are selfless
054so excuse me our selfless empathetic Souls who sometimes put our own children before yourselves and your own families we know how thankless your job is most days your lesson plans are scrutinized every book you assign every email you send is over analyzed it sucks the joy out of teaching and maybe even your spirit sometimes I know it's difficult but hang in there keep teaching and continue to inspire guide and motivate our children Dr Jones and Dr carabillo the overwhelming majority of Greenwich Public School parents stands with you I speak for many when I say that you are doing an excellent job and have weathered so many crises with courage Grace and wisdom it's a shame that not even two years ago those angry few who praised you for allowing our children to return to school
055in person when most country schools around the country were still in lockdown do not listen to the noise continue to do the good work you've been doing and if you ever doubt yourself just look at this 30 seconds School climate survey some of us remember what it was like years ago when we had a revolving door of superintendents thank you for bringing back stability and continuity to the GPS leadership we need you and we're much better off with you thank you thank you very much next up James Waters followed by Lorelei o'hagen I'm going to ask that everyone please stays quiet during speeches that's we do that as a board and we expect the same um level of decorum and this otherwise we will have to ask you to go thank you go ahead James
056followed by Lorelei o'hagen excuse me excuse me if you cannot be respectful please leave okay excuse me I I will I will there are police here I will ask you to leave if you continue and they will escort you out so I'm going to ask we've kept it together please be respectful all right I think you can go James please go followed by Lorelei ohagan thank you good evening Madam chair Dr Jones members of the Board of Ed I'm James Waters North Miami's parent and an Eastern parent now member of the RTM and a member of the Old Greenwich School building committee tonight I speak for myself with inputs from constituents across town you face big decisions this year and we thank you for your service these have been Rocky times and we're all thankful
057for our great teachers administrators and your steady leadership as I've gathered input parents repeatedly mentioned four topics they are addressing learning loss making progress on critical School capital projects enhanced school security and completing the investigation and taking action on the hidden camera video coveted learning losses affecting schools Across the Nation including Greenwich I'm pleased Greenwich is doing far better than most but we must continue to do more we shouldn't be content with recovery we want our students to accelerate on the progress we've made on academic excellence and helping our kids become great citizens we'll only get there with steady leadership a surprising number of residents are engaged on school infrastructure people are tired of crumbling schools the rebuilding of central is a top priority and I encourage you to carefully consider the important need to
058renovate ogs and JC make long overdue Ada improvements and complete Cardinal field phase two the ghs track the Western fields and cellular service at ghs please work with the bet in advance of approving the fy24 capital budget request let's learn from the path from the past and work to create a path I'd like to see us avoid controversy through constructive and early dialogue with a potential Capital request of 130 million dollars there will be trade-offs we'll only get there with steady leadership third thank you for taking action on school security in recent weeks I was proud to support you in the RTM where all but six members voted yes I hope you'll complete the conversation on campus monitors and get those in place parents were happy for approval of police patrols and security Hardware but
059don't want safety monitors kicked down the road we'll only get there with steady leadership finally please complete a thorough investigation into the hidden camera video and take action I don't think anyone here supports indoctrination of our kids or hiring discrimination with a number of ongoing investigations your provision of due process transport parent reporting of the findings and appropriate action are critical to putting this disgusting event behind us I thank Dr Jones for taking on yet another difficult but important and want to convey my trust in this board's judgment which have been reasonably earned over the last few years please don't let politics sway your judgment and creep further into and around our schools it's hurting everyone including our teachers and kids let's just do the right thing well everyone wants their agenda first at the
060expense of others please stay focused and keep moving forward doing the opposite hurts our schools our kids and our town we are only going to get there with steady leadership thank you very much Lola o'hagen followed by Amanda Dombrowski is Lorelei here is she online nice thank you I don't see her online do you Lorelei ohagan you don't see her here okay no that's okay we will skip her um Amanda Dombrowski followed by David Lancaster so you see either online sorry Amanda Dombrowski um I'm looking um I don't how about um David Lancaster thank you that's is that David yeah okay if we see the other two pop up we can come back but thank you go ahead David yep thank you very much thank you very much um my name is Dave Lancaster I'm
061a member of the RTM but tonight I'm speaking solely as a private citizen I have lived in Greenwich all my life and attended Greenwich schools Greenwich schools have always enjoyed an excellent reputation unfortunately this is rapidly changing a growing number of parents are getting wise to unauthorized curricula agenda-based content and the lack of transparency and gaslighting from school leadership combine this with dropping academic scores the highest cost per student in the state and parents are increasingly unhappy the project Veritas video validated what many parents in this town have been saying about indoctrination in our schools with an added revelation of bigotry and its hiring processes not only is discrimination in hiring a crime but guess what add this to more bad press about investigations and lawsuits and Greenwich residents are embarrassed and fed up with
062the school what their schools are being portrayed in the news it's time for the be to deal with the situation by doing the following number one enforce existing town and state laws regarding hiring number two approve all curriculum as required by your own be policy number three develop a culture of transparency great schools have nothing to hide or expunge all expunge all agendas from the schools no matter how clever or their subtlety is and their camouflage including scl five get back to basics of Reading Writing and arithmetic so our children can get the academic education they deserve this is not a Democrat nor a republican issue the demand for accountability is growing and is coming from an increasingly broader range of political viewpoints a poll this month in the New York Times from Siena College
063revealed that 70 percent of its respondents opposed the inclusion of agendas in Illinois elementary education and a solid majority oppose it in middle school and it was equally divided among parties these issues are not going to disappear by labeling people who speak out against us as Fringe or by hiding the truth and hoping the problems will go away true academic learning is almost entirely a result of great teachers which we have of all ages and backgrounds and a substantive curriculum devoid of all agendas I know politicians especially some in my own party like to avoid these cultural issues and stick to economics but if these cultural issues are not addressed now they will only get 30 seconds to the point where repairing Town school and Boe reputation reputations may not be possible and the economic
064life of its citizens will be negatively impacted this is the time for real leadership and courage do what's right for both Greenwich students in the town fix this mess finally or step aside and let someone else do it thank you thank you very much next up Katie you followed by Kathleen Brady Katie you and then Kathleen Brady Gareth Katie yep there you are okay and then Kathleen Brady foreign just a little bit of a heads up it's sometimes hard to hear in the back when the names are being read so I'm sorry for being late I actually didn't hear that okay good evening members of the board Dr Jones and others tonight I would like to address the consideration of security monitors at the elementary and middle school level while I'm frankly glad to see
065the passage of funding to address security at our schools I am concerned about the two companies that are currently under consideration as security monitors in our schools I would like to draw attention to the fact that at least one of the security companies only requires that security monitors have the equivalent of a GED in order to be a security monitor as a long-standing parent in this District I recall when there were questions about adding sros at the high school while I generally have found them to be a positive addition to the overall security at the high school I feel that it is a mistake to not consider the significant differences between high school students and elementary and middle school kids I'm sure that any teacher here today will tell you that elementary school kids can
066be impulsive sometimes a bit overactive overactive and boisterous teachers at elementary schools understand that in many ways this is their first time learning about important behaviors norms and protocols and I'm sure that Middle School teachers will add to that the natural changes that occur with middle school kids behaviorally hormonally I'll leave it at that add to the fact that our teachers have received training to understand the needs of all students including those with IEPs and behavior plans and as Educators they are coming from a place of wanting to educate and engage with their kids should we assume that this will be exactly the same starting point for monitors and can we assume that this will be the case if there isn't adequate training and a baseline educational level in summary I would like there to
067be consideration of this while I understand The Importance of Being fiscally prudent I think it is just as important that our district partners with the company that understands and is familiar working with a wide range of kids I hate to mention this but as we've seen with our recent issues occurring with our new cost savings with the bus Partners sometimes you get what you pay for thank you for your time thank you very much next up Kathleen Brady followed by George chiropa members of the board and Dr Jones my name is Kathy Brady I'm here today as a GPS parent to thank the board and Dr Jones for the dedication and commitment the first time I met Dr Jones was early Entertainer when she came to the first church in Old Greenwich to listen and
068address parent concerns regarding special education the meeting went on for hours as various parents talk of their concerns while everyone was seated Dr Jones stood for the duration in heels and a suit I might add taking notes and listening to all I don't recall any other administrator reaching out to the community in this manner I tell the story because I believe that this is a small example of the work that Dr Jones has done to understand and serve the school district and most importantly the children what I have seen is a superintendent who operates with Integrity race and a can-do attitude she has been the superintendent for three years during which she has successfully navigated a pandemic opening the schools and providing badly needed in-person education I don't think I need to remind people that
069other districts adjacent to ours were not successful in this endeavor she runs the school district with 15 schools 8 600 students and thousands thousands of employees prior to her arrival we had over 13 superintendents in over 20 years each time progress was made a superintendent would leave and we would start again needless to say the constant turnover was not productive to long-term planning and she has been a strong and stabilizing Force the current investigation regarding the Cos Cob vice principal is obviously necessary and important and we used to say it was shocking I want to thank the board for their service and asked the board members to let the investigation play out have all the answers get all the facts don't shoot first and ask questions later now is the time to show support for
070the whole of the student body for Dr Jones and Dr Cabella as well to operate in the best interest of all not just the noisiest thank you thanks very much next up George chalupa followed by Cara Mendelssohn is George here I don't see him online no is that you George no no you're just a kid trying to leave okay um so I see Cara Mendelson online so let's go to let's call her up then sorry and then nerlin Pearson after that Miss Mendelson you uh can unmute and speak please good evening Board of Education my name is Karen mendelsohn and I have four kids in Greenwich Public Schools two are going to try one at Eastern and one at North Miami my husband and I also grew up in Greenwich and attended public schools here
071I am a PTA president and I'm speaking tonight as an individual I am here to express my total gratitude for our schools and the work their teachers administrators and coaches do every day it's impressive my kids are learning amazing things in a supportive and challenging environment they love going to school that's all I can ask for thank you to Tony for your leadership thank you to our administrators and thank you to our teachers thank you Cara next up nerlin Pearson followed by Jennifer koutai is nurlin here or is she online let me look one second um I thought I thought I saw her here but no Merlin Pearson no okay then going next Jennifer koutai followed by Jill Overlander raise your hand if you're online I'm looking for a shoe or Jennifer could die hi
072I'm here go ahead Jennifer um sorry I was on mute um my name is Jennifer koutai and I'm one of the parents who has spent the last five years speaking at Board of Education meetings on the subject of special education as a result of my outspokenness my children were retaliated against and there were many false statements made about myself my husband and my children I am also one of the parents who signed a 10-4b complaint I spoke at almost every bet meeting and I was one of many who lobbied hard for an outside independent evaluation on the practices of special education across Greenwich Public Schools and we were successful in our quest for both an outside audit independent and more importantly for systemic change but the one constant was that we stayed at the table
073with Dr Jones we may have been on opposite sides but like any good negotiation you must be at the table with leadership to effectuate change I'm here tonight to say that if you judge simply by our actions and the progress we have made in special education in this district and look at the Rogue Personnel who are no longer here you will see that being at the table with Dr Jones is Paramount to positive change parents who are here tonight speaking out against Dr Jones ask yourselves if you have ever considered sitting down privately at the table with our superintendent of schools if you haven't I would suggest that you reconsider your position and yes I'm a republican too thank you very much next up Jill Oberlander followed by Carl Higby I think Jill is online
074hi can you hear me okay yes go ahead Madam chair Dr Jones and members of the board my name is Jill Oberlander and I'm here to ask you to stay focused on the health and safety of Greenwich students and to reject the ill-founded request to place the superintendent and Deputy superintendent on leave first I want to thank all of you and most particularly the teachers staff and administrators including Dr Jones and Dr carabio for your efforts and dedication over the past two years to keep Greenwich schools open for in-person learning these are most challenging times in the work of school staff is saving lives as we now know from data in addition to our own experiences and observations as parents pandemic school closures and distance learning erased several years of learning the isolation resulting from
075stay-at-home orders and social distancing delayed critical emotional development for many children these factors exacerbated the already recognized teenage Mental Health crisis CDC studies conclude the teen emergency room visits for self-harm and eating disorders increased since before the pandemic these data points should concern all of us schools are the front line defense for children's mental health CDC Studies have found that being connected at school defined as the sense of being cared for supported and belonging and an important effect on Teen Mental Health recent data indicates that youth with connections to teachers and peers were less likely to report feelings of sadness hopelessness and thoughts of suicide the youth surveyed the CDC found that a majority did not feel connected at school gbs's strategic plan materials on tonight's agenda highlights the need to increase the percentage of
076students who report feeling school connectedness and its own data suggests that 20-22 percentages are below Target I'm a parent and a support giving parents a voice in their child's educational experience through Local School Board elections and respectful advocacy on school decisions it is critical that we as a community counter personal attacks on teachers and administrators in the name of Parental decision making these attacks undermine efforts to create a positive environment for student learning and emotional health with potentially disastrous results to our children who need support finally I want to State clearly State my support for a welcoming seconds unlawful discrimination and hiring cannot be tolerated I thank you for investigating hiring practice and providing necessary training similarly the politicization of education and mean-spirited singling out of vulnerable students due to their gender identity or selection
077of reading material is inconsistent with inclusivity I know you are very thoughtful about these issues and realize the importance your response will have to the health and safety of students time thank you very much next up Carl Higby followed by Dan Quigley all right so here we are again um I never got that survey by the way I certainly wouldn't give you any Straight A's on that one but I'd like to point out that the vocal few because we outnumbered the people who were I don't know what they were for or we can't tell what they were for but we outnumbered You by a factor of five okay so I'd also like to commend Tony Jones that you have messed up so royally that you have deemed the town necessary to send a dozen cop
078cars and 20 cops to a board of ed meeting great job okay I'd like to remind everybody here that she makes the same salary in total comp as the President of the United States four hundred thousand dollars okay look everybody here loves teachers on both sides of this argument the problem is not with the teachers for me I've written four books most people didn't know I could read but every single one of those books every single one of them attributes some lesson in my life to a teacher in the Greenwich public school system because they were awesome the administration is not now we talk about all these things that were against what we're against is approach you know the problem is is there is no or there's no top cover of this and every time
079it is it's oh it's a it's a it's a mishap it's an oversight because this is what we stand for here we're not some Fringe group we're not domestic terrorists we're parents I have two soon to be three kids in this public school system we want appropriate education Reading Writing arithmetic teach my kid how to put a astronaut on the moon maybe even teach them how to do laundry we used to do that we don't do that anymore teachers we want them free from discrimination if you're discriminated against as a teacher it is not a safe environment for you how can our kids have a safe environment if that's not the case we have the highest paid teachers in in the state we should expect the highest test results in the state I think that's
080fair what are we against we're against things like you know content that our kids are being taught that is so bad that when we print out the content on signs you don't allow us to bring it into this Auditorium am I crazy we don't want open discrimination against religious groups in there like this guy you had from Costco who somehow got a shout out as a great administrator before that all right we don't want our second graders shown erections in schools I mean that should have been a no-brainer but you know a teacher tried to erase mothers and fathers they would oh it's important grown-ups say are you kidding me this is such garbage I I'm so fed up with this stuff and the fact that we have to come here and be all pissed
081off with signs and 100 seconds sure um you know like we just don't want the over sectionalization of our children we're against critical race Theory we're against all this other stuff teach my kids reading writing and arithmetic you got to get rid of these turds because they're not helping the solution again everybody here supports our teachers on both sides we don't support the administration you no longer get the benefit of the doubt you now have to prove to us that you're doing right by our kids thank you next up Dan Quigley followed by Our Last speaker Erin Chang I think Dan is online thank you can you hear me Dan yeah can you hear me go ahead please get started great um thank you chairwoman Stowe Board of Ed members Dr Jones people in the
082audience uh not often I get the honor of following Carl Higby up but uh tonight I got to do that so that's great um I just wanted to say words of support for the Board of Ed members you guys have an extremely difficult task you do not get paid for what you do you put in countless hours into the well-being health and safety and good education of our children and for it you get a lot of flack and not many many thank yous and much appreciated so first off I want to thank you for your work you do for Dr Jones um Dr Jones and I have had disagreements in the past on on issues but I have always said that of all the things a superintendent could have done the last two years in
083any town in America getting our kids back to school as quickly and effectively and efficiently as she did is something that will be forever indebted to her for I have a third grader he has done really well at Julian Curtis and we applaud your efforts in getting our kids back to school during an unprecedented pandemic as for the latest issue with the video and the recording of Mr Boland there's not one person I've met Republican Democrat liberal conservative who applauds what he said nobody does it's across political boundaries it was repugnant it was not something that our school system stands for it was not something that is indicative of how our administrators should behave and my anticipation is once an investigation is done this will be discovered to be not an endemic situation but something
084that is particularly related to one person I do not believe that his words are representative of the administrators teachers and superintendent or assistant superintendent at all and I think the means by which that information was procured has to be factored into the discussion I believe there should be an investigation there will be an investigation and upon that full investigation being completed there is no reason to consider punishing anyone until an investigation is done education has been politicized throughout our country this is a national movement this is not a local movement this has been called for over a year ago to get this done if you want to change and take your country back you go through your school boards so this is something we have to get used to in our society but I just
085want to reiterate Dr Jones I think you've done a good job continue doing it continue pushing forward Board of Ed members do what you were elected to do get our kids educated well keep them safe and keep them in good hands Godspeed thank you next up Aaron Chang is Erin here oh sorry Mr Higgins back online she okay we just skipped her while we're waiting for Aaron put Lorelei on and then Aaron will be our last speaker from the list great thanks for giving me an opportunity hi everyone I'm Lorelei o'hagen and thank you to the Board of Ed and everyone is in the room I had a feel-good story that I wanted to share at the end I'm a parent of a kindergartner and I just wanted to make it very you know bring
086the story to everyone that's in the room after all of the efforts that have gone on from parents involved in the special ed community and teachers and everyone who was involved in really hearing the issues that people were having with a special ed program over time and really demanding change I am now the beneficiary at Costco School of the first co-teaching model for kindergartner and I just wanted to express my gratitude for everyone in the community really understanding that we have so far to go in terms of really understanding and delivering the special ed services that we really deserve and there are a lot of steps that we need to take but right now I have a kindergartner who has ADHD because my older son has ADHD as well and he is really doing well
087in this class it's going to be such an amazing opportunity for us to understand how can we deliver the kind of services that we want filtering and screening for things like dyslexia which my older son has who's in fourth grade and we're going to really be able to catch some of these things and address them early on I am so thrilled to be in this program it's a pilot and I wanted to thank everybody in this room and give everybody a pat on the back for really saying what can we do how can we take evidence-based solutions from other places who's doing it really well and how can we Implement that and put that into our program so I am so pleased I'm saying thank you for that I also did just want to mention
088briefly in terms of the Discrimination discussions that are going on I wanted us to be taking a look at some of the issues that we have discrimination is real and it's an issue that we are facing and I would like to say let's take an opportunity to learn from this moment and say we actually have a discrimination problem in our community in fact there was a board of ed discussion some of you who are in this room right now who were not wanting to vote on Title IX and that was an issue of discrimination against trans people so I want us to be able to say yes discrimination is a problem and we need to do a better job about it right the other issue is that we have 88 schools that are not ADA
089Compliant that's an issue of discrimination we also have segregated schools that don't meet the standards 30 seconds of our community for diversity we also don't have an Administration and a teaching staff overall that reflect the diversity of our community so we do have work to do so let's not be distracted by this one issue of these very loud squeaky voices complaining about sort of a made-up problem time and let's actually do very much please don't be disrespectful thank you Karen is taking the clock Karen can handle the time thank you very much the last speaker is Erin Chang is Erin Chang here okay well then that concludes our public comment we um just no that's an hour as well everyone if you sign up so now we um I just want to let you know
090we are going to only ask for a motion in a moment to go into executive session I don't know how long that'll be it's about Safety and Security we're meeting with the chief of police it's obviously very important you're welcome to stay you're welcome to go home and tune back in when we start uh when we come back we'll be addressing uh committee reports which includes the superintendent's report I suspect during that time we will talk about things like start of school buses and the investigation um but I did want to let you know that we now have I need a motion to go into executive session so move can I have a second Karen all right awesome show of hands to go on Executive session that passes eight zero thank you