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Parents, teachers and students urge board to protect counselors, media assistants and ALP amid FY26 cuts
Summary
Hundreds of speakers and dozens of students addressed the Board of Education, urging alternatives to staff cuts and calling attention to the value of counselors, media assistants, library staff, the second-grade advanced learning program (ALP), and other student-facing services.
Dozens of speakers — including teachers, union representatives, parents and students — used the public-comment portion of the Greenwich Board of Education meeting to press the board to spare student-facing positions and programs from FY26 budget cuts.
Union leaders and school administrators recommended alternatives to proposed cuts to counselors, learning facilitators, media assistants and other staff. The Greenwich Education Association (GEA) and the Greenwich Organization of School Administrators (GOSA) urged the board to eliminate nonessential external spending, reduce costly travel and tuition lines, and reassess device-purchase plans for early elementary grades. GOSA cited a comparison of 2023–24 actuals ($361,884) and a proposed 2025–26 professional-development/tuition budget ($584,000) and suggested reverting to actuals to save more than $222,000.
Speakers described the concrete role of house-based staff and media assistants: library/media staff and assistants run daily operations, support research instruction, help manage graduation requirements and provide a consistent, frontline adult presence for students. Karen Ball, a library media specialist, said GHS averages “800 student visits every day” to the media center and warned that cutting support staff would shrink supervision and instruction time.
Several students and parents also spoke on specialized programs. A five‑year‑old kindergarten student, Sebastian Hess, asked the board to protect second‑grade ALP services; GOSA suggested modest reductions to some enrichment offerings only after considering instructional impacts. Parents and special‑education advocates said morning help and extra time are critical, particularly for students with learning disabilities; one special‑education student told the board that earlier start times would reduce morning help options and disadvantage already vulnerable students.
Numerous speakers criticized the timing and process of last week’s staffing notifications; several said layoff notices were sent with little advance consultation. Media assistants and other staff asked for clearer, more consultative decision processes and said their roles cannot be replaced by volunteers.
Board members acknowledged the breadth of public concern while noting the board must balance a significant operating deficit. The meeting produced several decisions — including removing the GHS house-restructuring proposal from this year’s cuts and adopting a start-time and reduction package — and the board authorized the superintendent to identify specified additional non‑FTE reductions. Speakers and board members agreed the community must continue to work together to find less disruptive savings.
