Staff, parents rally to support media aides
Schools may cut all 11 jobs
GREENWICH — Valued and needed. Parents and staff have used these two words to describe the 11 media assistants in the Greenwich Public Schools who could lose their jobs to budget cuts.
The possibility of losing these 11 positions ignited a letter-writing campaign to the Board of Education, with a halfdozen staff and parents voicing their support for the work done by the women.
The letters detail long job descriptions for the media assistants, who check books in and out, create posters that encourage reading, recom
mend books, run inventories and manage the online book catalog. They manage purchase orders and patron records and assist with assemblies, concerts and Field Day. They also organize materials for groups and events, including Read Across America, Greenwich Reads Together and guest speakers. They help manage the technology inventory and the many calendars that maximize the use of the space and materials in the school media centers.
During the time of distance learning, the assistants have organized and published lists of online resources for teachers and students and troubleshooted electronic devices and issues via email. They have dropped off books in students’ home mailboxes for reading challenges.
But that is just the basic job description — many go above and beyond. North Mianus School media assistant Sue Belmonte built a bobsled track to celebrae the Winter Olympics, made a zipline, facilitates the donation of 200 new books every year for the Birthday Book Club and has hosted more than 1,500 guest readers, said
Amy Coupe, the media specialist at NMS.
“MAs are a crucial support in the running of our library media centers, some of our most valuable resources and apparently, our best kept secret,” Coupe said.
Glenville School’s media specialist Jacqueline Carlin also voiced support for her assistant, Andrea Casson Vaz.
“Andrea is an integral part of our life at Glenville School; we depend on her as our go-to person whenever something is needed,” Carlin said.
Joanna Young, a parent to children in North Street School and Central Middle School, told the school board that media assistants are vital to “helping our children make good reading choices and to instill a love of reading and learning.”
Young described her two children as passionate readers and said that as a parent, she has relied heavily on North Street’s assistant to make recommendations and fuel that passion.
“While we have wonderful town libraries, they lack the size and breadth of a school’s age-appropriate selections, and the specific knowledge of a school librarian,” she said.
Looking for budget cuts
Administrators are examining the media assistant jobs as well as other certified and noncertified positions to find budget savings.
The move spurred educators to defend the assistant workers and some in town governance to call out union leadership for not offering up their wage increases for 2020-21 as the school district looks to keep its budget flat from this year to next year.
During the town budget process, the Board of Estimate and Taxation zeroed out the $3 million budget increase the district requested for the 2020-21 school year because of the coronavirus crisis. District administrators also warned the school board of an impending $1.5 million shortage for special education costs, meaning that administrators are looking to cut $4.5 million from their original budget request.
“They’re painful cuts,” school board Vice Chair Kathleen Stowe said at last week’s Board of Education meeting. “I think it’s important for the community to hear what we’re considering . ... We have to hope for the best but plan for the worst.”
Greenwich residents and school staff are closely watching the budget debate. More than 60 people attended a recent budget committee meeting, and another is slated to occur at 3 p.m. June 2, said Stowe, who is also the chair of the budget committee.
Cost of salary increases
Contractual salary increases account for a large majority of the $3 million in increases. Rather than cutting lowlevel positions entirely, board member Peter Sherr said administrative overhead should be trimmed.
He also voiced annoyance with the union leadership representing school principals, calling out the president of the Greenwich Organization of School Administrators, a principal, and her husband, who is also a principal.
“We need to go where the money is — in the higher order positions,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to go after the assistants that are lowercost employees.”
Superintendent Toni Jones defended the principals, saying “they should not have to apologize for having a professional salary in a professional environment.”
The organization that represents administrators is aware of the budget issues and, historically it has worked closely with the school board to find solutions, said Angela
Schmidt, principal of North Mianus, a leader of GOSA and one of the two principals Sherr mentioned.
“The BOE member who shared comments is not on the negotiations committee so he is unaware of what conversation transpired,” she said. “His portrayal was not an accurate reflection of GOSA's discussion. The comments regarding personal income at a public board meeting felt divisive at a time when we hope to be working together.”
The GOSA Executive Board ensures that all members voices are heard during decision-making and members are confident they have done so, Schmidt said.
In response this week, Sherr said Board Chair Peter Bernstein and labor attorney Tom Mooney briefed school board members about the discussions with union leaders. They explained that GOSA and other unions have declined to address budget gaps and have offered no solutions, Sherr said.
“We can’t afford business-as-usual approaches while there are 40 million people out of work and our economy has collapsed,” he said. “Union leadership knows well that taking raises will result in some of their colleagues losing their livelihood without the prospect of finding another job.”
The school board cannot allow teachers or any other staff to be added to the rolls of the unemployed without openly discussing the hard and inconvenient facts facing them, he said.
“Otherwise, we are not putting our children and all GPS employees first,” Sherr said.