Battle escalates between Greenwich Public School superintendent and Finance Board Chair
- Guy
- May 26
- 2 min read
A public email message campaign by Greenwich Public School Superintendent Toni Jones, intended to stoke anger against the town finance board (BET), is getting under the skin of the BET Chair. Keep in mind that the BET is a fiscal board of elected volunteers tasked with representing all taxpayers in reviewing and approving the town-wide budget. Superintendent Jones is salaried employee of the town public education system, representing about half of the town's overall budget. How fortunate for Superintendent Jones that, while Republicans were absent, the Democrats on the Board of Education rushed to extend Jones' contract another three years. That's job security. Story here.
Using her bully pulpit, last Friday May 16 and May 23, Jones sent these community-wide messages below. Her email accused the BET of failing to support the "basic operational needs" of the school district. Scary for public school parents? Yes. Inaccurate? Mostly. Inappropriate? Absolutely.
Harry Fisher, Chair of the BET, finally had enough. He shot back in a letter here saying that the hard truth is that the public schools are not suffering from a lack of dollars but from how each of those $240 million plus dollars
are spent. Enrollment has declined in the Greenwich public schools, yet staff has increased. Teacher absenteeism is twice the state average. The school system is top heavy with administrative assistants and inflated hiring salaries.
Between the Lines: The fact is that the BET did not shrink the public school budget. It just reduced the growth of an already robust request of 5.1% to a still-generous 3% increase. Much ado about nothing (except perhaps the upcoming BET election when Democrats are maneuvering to take control).