Greenwich Republican Leadership: MIA

 

Greenwich Board of Education 

As you may be aware, Greenwich Democrats appointed a fake republican, Jennifer Behette, to the Board of Education in a last-minute coup.  The Democrats did this knowing Ms. Behette would vote with the Democrats for every dime they want to spend. But if you thought that was brazen, there’s much more.  More recently Democrats out maneuvered the “Republicans” giving over $50 million dollars to their union friends.

To make matters worse, this teacher’s union contract was negotiated so poorly that it cannot be contested by the Town Legislature, the “RTM,” because the Board of Education never submitted any counter proposals at all!

Once the Democrats took over the Board of Education with their Coup you might imagine that the Republicans would vote “no” on everything after the Coup, as a form of protest, even if they agreed with the item at hand.  Nothing of the sort. As a result, the Democrat Coup is successful even though it was ruled illegal by the Freedom of Information Commission.  Now, even the outrageous contract which the Town didn’t even negotiate by submitting a counter-bid is likely to stand, because all the Republicans voted in favor of this boondoggle.

Bottom line: the Republicans currently running the BOE have over the past six years:

1. Signed off on $90 million in increases amounting to a 34% raise per teacher.
2. Failed to prevent the Coup / Failed to negotiate in advance for a replacement for a departing Republican BOE member.
3. Failed to notice / account for the fact that teacher headcount increased while enrollment decreased by 600.
4. Failed to control school construction costs which increased by over $180 million driven by Democrat demands for solar and extra classrooms despite the declining enrollment.
5. Failed to take any steps to undo potential damage from the Democrat BOE Coup.

You might ask “who’s minding the store?” The answer would be NOT the current Greenwich Republican leadership whose claim to fame is cutting $4 million from a $600 million budget, while signing off on huge pay increases and a construction spree.

Before we dig deeper you should know that Greenwich has a teacher morale problem which is seen in the fact that Greenwich has one of the highest absentee rates among teachers in the state.  This is not due to pay because Greenwich teachers are paid at least 15% more than the next highest paying town, New Canaan.  So, the problem must be management.  Thankfully, Greenwich Republicans signed an extension for the current Superintendent who created the morale problem--though you could argue they would have only given her a one-year contract extension instead of two, but that's still an extension.

And, the recent budget shortfall will no doubt be made worse by that $50 million contract which translates to an increase of an average of $18,000 per teacher PER YEAR.  Nice if you can get it, especially given that a two Greenwich Teacher household is now in the 95th income percentile in the state.

Meanwhile, school enrollment has declined and there are 600 fewer students enrolled  in 2025 than in the 2018-19 school year.  Despite this DROP in enrollment we have MORE TEACHERS according to the Town Budget documents.  Yes, really.  The Budget documents show 863.1 Teachers in  2018-19 (p175) and 872.7 for  2025-26 (p155!

MIA Responsible Republicans

In Greenwich, we don’t yet have a Zorhan Mamdani, and both parties run as “fiscally responsible.” So where are the “fiscally responsible” of either party?  Democrats keep shouting about how Greenwich is under spending and they want to borrow ever more, and both Democrats and Republicans voted in favor of the $90 million in increased spending, not to mention our giant middle school / solar farm.  Both parties seem terrified of the GEA Teachers Union and their lapdogs at the PTA, and both somehow missed the ever-ballooning headcount.  So what’s the difference?

All this seems at least negligent.  The Republicans had the opportunity to contain costs and even revisit certain contracts, if only they had voted “no” once the Democrats illegal Coup took effect.  But you won’t find any such foresight among the Current Republican Leaders, who didn’t even have the foresight to negotiate in advance with the Democrats over who would replace the outgoing Republican Board member.

While the Democrat Board Coup was illegal and shameful, the Republican leadership’s lack of planning is just plain stupid.

So, in the upcoming election you have a choice.  Deceitful and needless spending or stupid and needless spending.  Choose wisely.