Lincoln's Log

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Greenwich High School needs a headmaster who is smart and very creative. After so many years of just plodding along, why bother with a long and expensive search when the best candidate is so obvious?
I can’t imagine a better headmaster than the new “interim” headmaster announced Monday. If anyone can negotiate the interests of all the various constituencies of GHS – from demanding parents to an entrenched faculty – it’s Chris Winters.

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He gets my vote because of the way he helped bring Mandarin Chinese into the high school language curriculum four years ago. The course became an instant success, with more student demand than anyone expected. I remember the indifference that greeted my inquiry about offering Chinese when I asked the then foreign language department head a couple of years earlier. She proceeded to list all the reasons why it would be oh so difficult to offer Chinese at GHS. I pointed out that nearly 1.5 billion people in the world speak Chinese while fewer than 100 million speak French, but she was unmoved. It wasn’t until Chris Winters became its sponsor that Mandarin Chinese became a reality at GHS – one of the few curricula breakthroughs at a very bureaucratic institution.
Chris has the academic chops – Middlebury undergrad, Columbia Teachers College degrees and more – and speaks Spanish fluently. He taught ESL for many years, so he has a better grasp than most of the needs of the Spanish-speaking population, the fastest growing segment at GHS.
But his best quality is the easy gait with which he negotiates the hallways of GHS, as well as his comfort with the diverse student body, his political acumen and his ability to manage over-wrought parents. He is also a GHS grad himself. How good is all that?
This guy is blue chip. I only fear for the word “interim” in his title. I hope the new superintendent and the school board get out of his way and let him stretch a little. He could be the headmaster for many, many years to come and a superintendent in training.

What’s with the YMCA remodeling? Is the blue tarp permanent (and it’s tattering)? Did Christo make a stop here without telling us?

Who’s mowing the lawn? This is one of the most trafficked corners in town – Indian Field and East Putnam.

The hideous orange Jersey barriers in front of the high school are a constant reminder of the fallacy that “temporary” solutions are indeed temporary. They don’t call ‘em “Jersey” barriers for no reason. Let’s get rid of them.

Guilty as charged. Newspaper boxes in front of Glory Days diner are as ugly as they get. Greenwich resident Peter Malkin has convinced the town to adopt multi-media boxes such as the ones in NYC that cleans up the collection of ugly boxes. Greenwich Time is supportive and grateful to Peter’s initiative.

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The Shell station across from Whole Foods at the corner of Sherwood and East Putnam came in with a whopping price of $3.25 for a gallon of 93 octane this morning, while a mile away at the rotary in Port Chester you could get a gallon of premium for $2.91.

After nine years the clock on Sound Beach Avenue across the street from CVS in Old Greenwich has to be repaired. There are actually two clocks. The works on both sides are being over-hauled. The clock is expected to be functioning again in one month, according to the Old Greenwich Business Association.