It seems like only yesterday that our compromised Democrat-led Board of Education was crying bloody murder because the BET would only increase its budget by $8 million for next year, rather than the budget-busting $12 million it demanded as a bare-minimum necessity. Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones took the controversial step of utilizing her weekly GPS communication with families to criticize the difficult work done by the volunteers on the BET. She wrote:
“Last evening, the Board of Education made the decision to change the start time for Greenwich High School for the 2025-2026 school year, but it was not an easy decision. […] Adjusting the start time for GHS, and a minimal change for elementary and middle schools, saves the district $1,957,842 to offset the reductions required by the BET budget that did not support basic operational needs which meet contractually required salaries, utility costs, and transportation.” (emphasis added)
But even as the town divided over the acrimonious budget negotiations, parents and educators agonized over program cuts, and the BOE voted to alter school start times, additional funds were available the entire time: GPS ended the school year with a $2.5 million surplus.
BOE Democrats quietly tucked the extra money away — as they are now allowed to do under 2024's revised Connecticut General Statutes (§10-248a), rather than return it to the town as they always used to do.
Were they negotiating in bad faith the whole time, knowing they were sitting on millions more that they would be able to keep for next year? Why would they do such a thing?
Sadly, the answer appears to be raw politics. During last spring's budget negotiations, Republican BET leadership had offered $2 million more to the BOE for next year's budget — a total of a $10 million increase — and BOE Democrats refused to accept it. They already knew they were sitting on an extra $2.5 million and preferred to lambaste BET Republicans for "underfunding" our public schools.
But wait — it gets worse.
After the budget was finalized, the Republican-led BET offered to appropriate $1.9 million for next year so school start times wouldn't have to change. But BOE Democrats won't accept the funds.
Specifically, Greenwich's Town Charter requires that an interim appropriation can only be made for a specific purpose (Article 2, Section 30(b)) — in this case, the funds must be earmarked for the explicit purpose of restoring high school start times. But whenever a motion is made to accept the funds, a BOE Democrat alters the language to make the funds available “at the discretion of the BOE” — knowing full well that's not going to fly.
Even Superintendent Jones is urging board Democrats to stop blocking the funds. On Tuesday, she sent an email to all BOE members that included a note from the town attorney, reminding them that any interim appropriation must have a defined, specific purpose — such as restoring high school start times.
Will BOE Democrats keep blocking the funds as the window of opportunity to sign next year's bus contract slips away?
Don't believe the Democrats' political hype: They're the ones blocking funding that would keep school start times consistent in the '25-'26 school year. It's hard to understand why they'd do this to our kids unless they wanted to use the resulting upheaval as political fodder for the upcoming BOE elections.
