March 11, 2021

Yesterday, Wednesday, March 10th, the Board of Education hosted a Groundbreaking ceremony for Cardinal Stadium. Board Member and Cardinal Stadium Committee Member Joe Kelly shared remarks, as well as GHS PTA Co-President Stephanie Cowie, GHS Director of Athletics Gus Lindine, and First Selectman Fred Camillo.

GHS Student-athletes were joined by members of the Greenwich community for this small, socially distanced event. We look forward to the new Cardinal Stadium!

Greenwich High School’s Math Team recently won their 12th consecutive Fairfield County Math League (FCML) title. In addition, seniors Sam Florin and Iris Shi, and sophomore Stephanie Chang were all named as individual high-scorers during the final competition.

Going into the final match, Greenwich led by 25 points, over New Canaan High School and Brunswick School, who was an additional six points behind. Led by four perfect scores from Sam Florin, Iris Shi, Stephanie Chang and the Team Round, GHS won the match, 107 to 100, over Brunswick, followed by New Canaan with 95 points. After tallying all of the points from the ongoing series of competitions, the GHS Cardinals won the title by 37 points, 589 to 552, over New Canaan High School, with Brunswick School finishing in third with 551 points.

GHS Math Teacher and Math Team Advisor Mr. Gordon Jones shared, “After losing to Ridgefield by one point on the last question of their last match in 2008, our Math Cards have conquered the toughest math league in the state of Connecticut for 12 consecutive years. It is a testament to all of the fantastic students and team leaders over that time.” He continued, “I would like to thank Sam Florin and Iris Shi for being two of the finest Captains this Advisor has ever had. It was a joy to work with them in this unusual year. Also, thanks to Taner Karakas for taking over the reins as Math Team Advisor next year. He has the dedication and passion needed to keep the Math Cards on top.”

Read their full press release.

GPS is proud of the progress we have made from the results of the Devising Seminar with educational consultants, Key2Ed, especially given that staff are working within the confines of a global pandemic. As a reminder, a few of the areas being addressed are highlighted below:

PPT Meetings

• More Consistency for PPT Meeting Process: The first area highlight was the PPT meeting process, and the need for more consistency across the district PK-12+. To address this, the PPS Director made a short video which went out to all of her special education staff. The video reinforced the procedures that all staff are meant to follow for the meeting process. Her team also produced a hand out which went to all staff, which outlines the PPT meeting process expectations.
• New Survey: To reinforce consistency, starting January 14th a follow up survey gets issued to the parents to ask if the process has been followed. In June, the survey results will be evaluated to see if parents are getting the appropriate calls and having input to the IEP in the way that the training video and document have communicated with staff.

IEP Implementation

• Staffing model adjustments: For the first time in 15 years, GPS did not use one component of the staffing model called Project Evolve. Additionally, while conducting their review of the special education supports and services in Greenwich Public Schools, the Public Consulting Group members have observed classroom instruction, evaluated IEPs, administered surveys and conducted focus groups to gain more information to include in the final report and to form the basis for their recommendations expected in the spring.
• Monthly Reporting: The Chief PPS Officer provides the Superintendent and Chief Human Resources Officer with a monthly report of caseloads for all special education and related service staff in each school so that caseloads for staffing are reviewed regularly and are monitored across the district for consistency.

Staff and Parent Educational Training and Additional Communication

• Newsletter Creation and Distribution: A districtwide parent newsletter was started this past October and is issued every two weeks. The newsletter provides parents with workshop invitations, seminar invitations, staff introductions and shares general updates about special education services. Here are a few samples of the newsletter: First Newsletter (Oct. 2020); January 20, 2021 Newsletter; Most Recent Newsletter (March 1, 2021). There has been feedback from families that the newsletters are helpful and informative.
• Parent Support Group: Special education staff have offered a variety of virtual parent education support groups and information sessions including a narrated introduction to the format of the IEP. Two sessions were made available to parents for live questions and answers. A more in-depth review of the IEP is being developed and will be rolled out in the spring.

• Staff Training: Staff were trained last spring in the Facilitate IEP Meeting approach to PPTs.

• Future Training: The Chief PPS Officer and Superintendent most recently held a conference call with the CSDE to learn about a new training program for IEP implementation and development. It was recommended that we wait to start that training until the Fall of 2021 as the training is intensive and is best approached by looking at the full year.

New Advisory Group

• SEAC: A new advisory group, the Special Education Advisory Council, was formed and the bylaws were worked on over the summer and the Council officially kicked off in the Fall. This is another way to bring families, staff and community members together and hear their input on strengths and challenges.

Response to Intervention

• New Protocols: In addition to the work outlined above, we have also been working with our Response to Intervention consultant who has completed an analysis of our process across all of our K-12 schools. New protocols are being developed with a team to provide consistency across the district for interventions, which was also discussed as part of the Key 2 Ed committee work.

The Greenwich High School Music Department invites you to get a glimpse into the great opportunities for students who pursue music at the high school. Whether choral, orchestral, jazz band or otherwise, there are plenty of opportunities for students to find, explore and share their musical passions.

Greenwich Alliance for Education’s 2021-2022 Reaching Out Grants Application is open and seeking proposals from GPS educators and community organizations who educate GPS youth.

Grant projects should “change up” the educational experience to raise student achievement and be supported by a dedicated “grant champion.” Previous grants include the "Unbound Innovations Grant" at Western Middle School. Funds from the grant have helped these middle school students explore using Virtual Reality (VR) technology (pictured below).

Deadline to submit is March 26, 2021. Applications and details about the grant program are available through the Greenwich Alliance for Education.