Jones sets school year goals
New superintendent lists improved communication as a top priority for district
GREENWICH — After meeting with district officials and principals and listening to past Board of Education meetings, new superintendent Toni Jones has resolved to improve communications in the Greenwich Public Schools — with school board members, parents and the rest of the community.
Jones, who officially started July 1, spent one week in Greenwich this spring and has been studying up on the town since she was hired in January.
She presented her goals for the upcoming school year to school board members on Monday night at her first public meeting as superintendent.
One of her top priorities will be proactive communication with the Greenwich community, particularly around academic results and personalized learning — one way that the district refers to the learning made possible through the iPads and Chromebooks issued to each student.
“Since I’ve started my visits, this keeps coming up: We’re more reactive, we’re not proactive enough,” Jones told the board.
Part of her effort will involve training a new communications director since Kim Eves departed that job for Greenwich Country Day School. Eves, who spent the last 20 years in the position for the public schools, will be working to promote the private school’s new upper school, which opens this fall.
Jones said she and the board must decide how to effectively communicate what is happening in the district. In particular, parents need more information about personalized learning and how students are using technology in the classroom, she said.
“What does ‘making learning personal’ mean? Does it need technology? How do we think about messaging to community?” Jones asked. “Personalized learning has been around a while. Does it seem like it’s attached more to technology than to learning?”
Over the past year, parents have asked the school board and the district repeatedly to look into how much time students spend on electronic devices in classes. They have requested screentime caps, guidelines and more data, as well as a digital wellness policy that addresses issues related to digital device use, including worsening posture.
Jones also aims to improve communication between her office and the school board, and in particular, making certain that board members are wellinformed before meetings so that there are few surprises.
“When you get to the table, it doesn’t mean that you all agree, but you have a good understanding of what these opinions are based on,” she said.
The process of building communications with board members will start over after the fall election to fill four seats, she said. A fifth seat may also be open: Meghan Olsson, a Democrat, is moving out of the district but has yet to tender her resignation.
Another goal will be implementing program reviews, including the recommendations from the Blum Shapiro audit of how the district manages its capital projects, she said.
Blum Shapiro found that documentation of projects is limited from start to finish, many tasks are not monitored or tracked, financial analysis does not occur regularly, district employees receive little to no formal training in the software used to track projects, the department is too small to manage the capital and staff turnover erases institutional knowledge of ongoing projects.
Board secretary Barbara O’Neill was pleased with Jones’ inclusion of the report in her goals, in part because she considered the Blum Shapiro audit a “highlight” that will help the school board.
But board member Peter Sherr said the program review Jones suggested was not specific enough, citing that it should include a review of special education.
This fall, the Board of Education will receive the results of a review of the special education department conducted by the University of Connecticut. But another review, which could have cost $300,000, was cut from the budget during the last cycle.
The board members almost universally commended Jones’ goals.
“We have never had such rapid response from an incoming leader, and it’s absolutely fantastic, because it gives us a running start,” board vice chairwoman Jennifer Dayton said.